SAN FRANCISCO  Frustrated owners of Apple's iPhone get some relief this weekend: A new software update promises to fix many customer issues. The update — available Friday — will improve battery life and help solve dropped calls and software performance, Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs said at a media event here Tuesday. COLUMN: Apple polishes up its new line of iPods, Baig finds "This is a big update," Jobs told USA TODAY in an interview later. "I think people will be really happy. All these bugs have been fixed." Apple staged the event to shine a light on new iPods. The line of music and video players has been refreshed, in part using "accelerometer" motion sensor technology first introduced on the iPhone. The new Nano iPods ($149 and $199), the pint-size version of the bigger iPod, use a shake technique to advance to the next song. And the iPod Touch, similar to the iPhone, minus the phone, is being repositioned primarily as a gaming device. New Apple advertisements promote it as "the funnest iPod ever." Apple has sold about 7 million revamped iPhones since July. Along with that new iPhone, Apple launched the online "App Store," where third-party vendors sell or give away software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Calling it "mind-blowing," Jobs said more than 100 million applications have been downloaded to date. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said iPod sales had slowed down, compared with other Apple products. Unit sales were up 12% in the latest quarter, vs. 40% for computers. "The iPod isn't a major growth story anymore," he said. "The moves today (are) what Apple needed to keep some momentum going." Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner, said Apple now has "its best iPod lineup ever. There are no holes; they've got every corner covered." TV shows in iTunes are now also available in high definition. Standard definition shows sell for $1.99; high definition for $2.99. And NBC, which left the iTunes store in a dispute about pricing, has returned. "NBC and Apple are both mature companies, and we had some disagreements, and now they're back with us," Jobs said. "The customers … wanted us to act like adults, so we did." Jobs opened his remarks by poking fun at critics who said he looked so thin at the last Apple event that he was clearly ill. He smiled under a slide that said, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." In the USA TODAY interview, he said the furor "put me in a small distinguished club … with Mark Twain, and Alfred Nobel. (Nobel's) obituary was published (while he was alive), and it's what caused him to create the Nobel Prize. We meet every other Thursday and talk about it." Nobel died in 1895. Wall Street reacted negatively to the health speculation, since Jobs is so closely identified with Apple. "It's weird," Jobs said. "If I do the Macworld keynotes, which I love to do, everybody says Apple is me. If I don't do them, people say I must be in the hospital." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more