Steve Jobs has been spending more time lately replying directly to user inquiries, and he's been sending quite a few messages using his iPad. Here's a summary of six recent questions that have gone public with answers from the Apple CEO himself. The first three were followed by the signature line, "Sent from my iPad."

1. Andrea wanted to know whether or not she could sync her collection of free ePub books to the iPad using iTunes. Steve replied, "Yep."

2. Robert asked if he would be able to get documents onto his iPad via iWork.com or iDisk. Steve answered, "Yes."

3. Julio asked an iPhone-related question, wondering if Mail on the iPhone would ever get a universal inbox for all email accounts like Mac OS X currently has. This could also apply to Mail on the iPad. Steve wrote, "Yep."

Steve Jobs is also knows to email users from his iPhone. The following messages were all sent from his iPhone with the signature, "Sent from my iPhone." Incidentally, according to email header information Jobs has yet to update his firmware from 3.1.2 to the latest version, 3.1.3.

4. Jezper wanted to know if the Wi-Fi only iPad would tether to his iPhone so the tablet could share the iPhone's data connection. Steve answered, "No."

5. A user from the UK asked whether or not the iPad would support Picasa's faces and albums in iTunes or if he would consider supporting the Picasa library format. Steve replied, "No, but iPhoto on the Mac has much better Faces and Places features."

6. One customer was curious if the iPad would be available at authorized Apple resellers. Steve explained, "Initially at Apple Retail and online stores and Best Buy."

We hope Mr. Jobs has enough time and interest to keep the emails coming. Short, direct answers straight from the source beat the rumor mill any day.