Steve Jobs is back. But better than ever?
At a San Francisco event unveiling a series of updates to Apple's music offerings, the company's iconic CEO took the stage to vigorous applause -- but he didn't stay in the spotlight long.
Instead, he let a host of other Apple executives unveil new features, from a new version of its iTunes Music Store to updates to its iPhone software to new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Apple also dropped the price on an entry-level iPod Touch to $199.
Along with the understated announcements came a soft-spoken Jobs, who returned towards the end of the event to unveil the sexiest part of today's program: The unveiling of new gadgets, as always the heart of a gathering of Apple idolators.
Jobs unveiled new iPod Shuffles and new iPod Nanos with built-in cameras, which he compared to Cisco's popular Flip handheld videocameras at $149. At the same price, the new Nano has twice the capacity at 8 GB of storage -- though some of that will go to holding one's music collection, something Jobs neglected to mention.
It's classic Jobsian bravado, if delivered with less force than in the past.
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"Steve’s voice seems a little bit softer than we remember, a little bit of a hoarse whisper, but all in all he seems able-bodied (if still skinny)," writes Jason Chen, editor of the gadget blog Gizmodo, on his site's liveblog.
Wednesday's event marks Jobs's first return to the stage since he took a six-month medical leave to undergo a liver transplant earlier this year. That procedure is believed to be related to aftereffects from the surgery Jobs underwent for pancreatic cancer in 2004. After that surgery, he took a month off work.
At the beginning of the event, Jobs addressed the transplant head-on, telling the crowd of journalists that he has "the liver of someone who died in a car crash" and urged listeners to sign up to become an organ donor.
Jobs's return inevitably overshadowed Apple's announcements, mostly a series of minor improvements to Apple's existing offerings.
Yet these incremental tweaks are what has let Apple stay at the top of the digital-music market for more than five years. Its iPod line still has three-fourths of the standalone MP3 player market.
That business has been eroded by music-playing smartphones. Apple's iPhone is a strong contender there, though its market share is still relatively small compared to other cell-phone brands.
The event closed with Norah Jones, a songstress beloved of old people. And even the bloggers left feeling a shade of Jobs's fatigue. Gizmodo's Chen complained, "My knee hurts like a mofo from sitting so long. I am officially an old man."
As is Jobs. And as is the iPod -- born nearly eight years ago, in another Jobs-led showcase in what seems like another era. But old's not that bad a thing to be.