Apple Chief's Health Shares Spotlight With New iPod

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs yesterday took the stage at an event in San Francisco to introduce the latest hardware and software in the company's music business. But first he had some unfinished business to attend to.

"Before we begin, I just wanted to mention this," Jobs said.

On the screen behind him, the first slide in his presentation read: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

While the consumer tech world is always eager to see Apple's latest enhancements, many were also keeping an eye on Jobs's physical appearance yesterday. Jobs's gaunt look at recent Apple events has caused some anxiety among Wall Street investors, as well as Mac fans. Recently, Bloomberg News accidentally posted an obituary of the executive, who is a survivor of pancreatic cancer. One tech news blog attending yesterday's event described him as "skinny but energetic."

"I think about half the audience was sitting there trying to calculate his body mass index," said Michael Gartenberg, a tech industry analyst with Jupitermedia. "I don't know; I thought he looked great."

As for the latest offerings from the company, including new versions of the iTunes software and a new iPod Nano music player, Gartenberg judged that Jobs and his company "set themselves up nicely for this holiday season."

The company has a new line of Nanos on the way, which Jobs touted as the slimmest ever. The new players will have motion-sensing technology built into its oval casing, with a screen image that adjusts appropriately when the device is held sideways. To shuffle songs, users will be able to give the device a shake. The new models come in eight colors and should be available in the next few days at $149 for the 8-gigabyte version and $199 for 16 gigabytes of storage.

According to Jobs, iTunes now offers more than 8.5 million songs, 125,000 podcasts, 30,000 TV shows, 2,600 movies and -- for owners of the iPhone and iPod Touch -- 3,000 software applications.

Jobs said that iPod and iPhone users have downloaded 100 million copies of the software applications in Apple's recently launched App Store, though he did not say how many of those were free and how many were purchased.

For iPod owners wanting to quickly throw together playlists, Jobs showed off a new feature in the upcoming iTunes 8 software called Genius. The feature uses listening patterns compiled anonymously from iPod and iTunes users to figure out what a user might want to hear. In Jobs's presentation, he used the feature -- while playing a Bob Dylan song -- to assemble a playlist on the fly with artists such as Joan Baez and Paul Simon.

For iPhone owners, there's a new version of the operating software that should result in fewer dropped calls, fewer software crashes and longer battery life. The update is scheduled to become available online Friday.

Jobs had a bit of news for the iTunes Store, as well: Shows from NBC are coming back. The network had pulled its shows off the online store after complaining that it wanted more control over how its offerings are priced.

An Apple spokesman finished the presentation by talking a bit about the iPhone as a game device, with a demonstration of a racing game, a soccer game and the iPhone version of a recently released game from the creator of The Sims, called Spore.

The presentation was not enough to wow Wall Street yesterday afternoon. Apple stock closed at $151.68, down $6.24, or about 4 percent.

But for some, the new features and Nanos were compelling enough to take their mind off Jobs's health.

Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, said that Jobs's thin appearance wasn't much on his mind yesterday. "He's a vegetarian. What can I tell you?" he said.