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New iPod to colour up your life
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces a new version of the iPod Nano during a special event on September 9
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday unveiled new iPod models and iTunes stores upgrades for the coming holiday season as he brushed aside reports about his health. Jobs kicked off a theatrical press event in downtown San Francisco by poking fun at persistent rumors about his health. He flashed a famous Mark Twain quote, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," on the screen as he stepped onstage. "Enough said; the real topic of today is music," Jobs began. The iconic Apple pitchman's medical condition has been the subject of considerable debate since he appeared gaunt at a conference in June. New products announced by Jobs include high-definition television shows available on Apple's online iTunes store and a slim new iPod Nano model that upgrades the technology while returning the gum stick shape people preferred. Jobs also showed off an upgraded iPod Touch model made slimmer than the original version and with a built-in speaker. The iPod lineup combines feature upgrades with price cuts of as much as 100 dollars on higher end models. IPod Touch models with 32 gigabytes of memory are priced at 399 dollars while a 16-gigabyte version will sell for 299 dollars and an eight-gigabyte Touch for 229 dollars. Jobs cited statistics showing iPods command nearly 74 percent of the MP3 market and said that more than a hundred million applications for iPhones and iPod Touch models have been downloaded since the "App Store" opened 60 days ago. He also addressed concerns about iPhone 3G performance problems by saying a free iPhone 2.1 update will be released on Friday to fix the troubles. "It's a big update," Jobs said of the iPhone software release. "It fixes a lot of bugs. You will get fewer call drops ... You are not going to get some of the crashes and other things that we've seen."
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