Saying Steve Jobs is tight-lipped is like saying the sky is blue. Rumors may fly in advance of Apple (AAPL) product launches, usually whipping up a frenzy that puts said product, real or imaginary, in quasi-religious terms. But you won't hear a peep from Cupertino until Jobs (or a proxy) takes the stage, standing in front of mammoth projection screens, to unveil the company's newest game-changer.

But it appears that Jobs, who turns 55 next week, may be mixing up his moves as he gets older. Apple's CEO has authorized Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time, to write his biography, according to The New York Times....

Isaacson, who's president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, has always concentrated his biographical efforts on the likes of Albert Einstein, Henry Kissinger, and Benjamin Franklin: giants of American political, historical, and scientific thought. But the Apple CEO is by far the youngest and most contemporary subject Isaacson has considered, and he presides over a technological and future-forward world, not one that reeks of history.