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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to the spotlight on Wednesday, unveiling an iPod equipped with a video camera in his first public appearance in nearly a year.
Jobs, who resumed work part-time in June after nearly six months of medical leave during which he received a liver transplant, got a standing ovation from a packed auditorium as he appeared on stage to kick off an Apple product event.
The 54-year-old Apple chief executive, the visionary behind the Macintosh computer, the iPod and the iPhone,
appeared gaunt but not dramatically more so than during his last public appearance in October 2008.
The notoriously private Jobs, who was wearing his trademark long-sleeved black shirt, jeans and sneakers, referred to his illness right off the bat.
"I'm vertical," he said. "I'm back at Apple, loving every day of it.
"I'm very happy to be here today with you all," he added. "About five months ago I had a liver transplant. 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 had been buzzing for days with rumors over whether or not he would show up.
Jobs' appearance was the highlight of the event, during which Apple unveiled updates to its online music store iTunes, the availability of ringtones for sale for the iPhone, and a video camera-equipped iPod.
Jobs said the iPod Nano, Apple's best-selling music player with more than 100 million units sold, would now include a video camera, an FM radio, a pedometer and a microphone and speaker.
"You can watch your video on the Nano or sync it back to your computer," he said. "With one click you can send it to YouTube. Pretty amazing to always have a video camera of that quality in your pocket, built right into your Nano."
Jobs said there would be two models -- an eight gigabyte version for 149 dollars and a 16 GB model for 179 dollars.
Jobs also praised the "Genius" feature on iTunes 9, 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.
He said the updated iTunes store would also 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.
Apple also announced it was cutting the prices on various iPod models with the price of an 8GB iPod Touch, for example, dropping to 199 dollars from 249 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.
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.
Apple shares were trading 1.02 percent lower at 171.17 dollars about half-an-hour ahead of the closing bell on Wall Street.
