Wednesday September 9, 07:05 PM
Apple's Jobs in first appearance since medical leave
By Rob Gloster
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL - news) co-founder Steve Jobs received a standing ovation here on Wednesday as he made his first public appearance since returning to work in June after almost six months on medical leave.
The 54-year-old Apple chief executive, the visionary behind the Macintosh computer, the iPod and the iPhone, was warmly greeted by a packed auditorium as he appeared on stage to kick off an Apple media event.
"I'm very happy to be here today with you all," said Jobs, who was wearing his trademark long-sleeved black shirt, jeans and sneakers and did not appear noticeably thinner than during his last public appearance in October 2008.
"About five months ago I had a liver transplant," he said. "So I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs.
"I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to be organ donors," said Jobs, who underwent an operation for pancreatic cancer five years ago and whose health is the subject of constant scrutiny and speculation.
Apple did not announce prior to Jobs' appearance that he would attend the event at a San Francisco theater and Silicon Valley technology blogs have been buzzing for days with rumors over whether or not he would show up.
During his 15-minute appearance on stage, Jobs unveiled details of iTunes 9, the latest version of its online music store, and the availability of ringtones for the iPhone.
He said iTunes 9 would include a feature called "Genius" which finds other songs for a user based on their music selections.
"It's like a great DJ or a great radio station," he said.
Jobs also said the redesigned iTunes store would feature iTunes LPs with liner notes, photos and other background information like on record albums of the past.
"Some of us are old enough here that we actually bought LPs," he joked. "It was great. You not only got great music, but you got great photography and great liner notes."
Jobs said Apple would be introducing 30,000 ringtones for sale through the iPhone store at 1.29 dollars each.
He also said Apple had sold 30 million iPhones.
"During the last year one of the reasons for that has been the remarkable App Store," Jobs said, adding that more than 1.8 billion applications had been downloaded so far.
Just hours before the event, Apple cut the prices of its iPod Touch, Nano and Classic models including slashing the price of the 32 gigabyte iPod Touch to 279 dollars from 399 dollars.
Apple is notoriously secretive about revealing its plans and there had been much speculation ahead of the event over what the Cupertino, California-based company planned to announce.
Rumors had centered on whether the music of The Beatles would finally be available on iTunes but there was no such announcement nearly an hour into Apple's presentation.
The speculation was fueled by the release on Wednesday of a digitally remastered catalog of the music of the "Fab Four" and the videogame "The Beatles: Rock Band," which is expected to be a smash hit worldwide.
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