Rumors of his demise got flipped off when Steve Jobs took the stage today at a media event to introduce a new $149 iPod that will challenge the video Flip cameras.

The iPod Nano could become a key business tool for creative pros and writers on the road. The device comes with a voice recording app, a built-in mic and a video camera. “We want to get in on this [Flip] market,” Jobs said after a standing ovation and more than 45 minutes of other product rollouts.

Jobs thanked the Apple community for its well wishes during his battle with liver disease that culminated in a transplant. “I’ve got the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash,” he said in opening remarks at the event, “and was generous enough to donate their organs. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity.” After urging the audience to become organ donors, Jobs said “I’m vertical, I’m back at Apple, and I’m loving every day of it.”

Mobile devices led the pack of announcements, although no new iPhone models made a debut. Apple put its new 3GS units into the market in June. Jobs said that 30 million of the phones have been sold since Apple introduced the game-changer about two years ago. But a near-cousin to the iPhone, the iPod Touch, got a nudge in Apple’s targeting that makes the Touch look like Apple’s answer to netbooks from PC makers. The Touch, however, received little in the way of improvements except a new $199 price point and more storage in larger models.

The Touch has become Apple’s stealth entry into the netbook arena by virtue of its size, Apple’s VP of Marketing Paul Schiller said. The media event flashed a shot of a Dell netbook hanging out of a back pocket as a poke at PC netbook solutions. The wi-fi features are key to making the Touch a $200 portable computer with a screen a little larger than a business card.

But you touch the Touch to deliver its goods, just like the iPhone, and most apps built for iPhone work on the Touch. Apple rolls out a 3.1 version of the software that drives the iPhone and Touch today, free as an iPhone upgrade and a $4.95 lift for Touch users who’ve bought the 3.0 release. Apple says accounting rules force it to charge Touch users for the updates, since those devices have no mandated data plan like iPhones.

A 64GB Touch costs $399, the price for just one-fourth of that storage 18 months ago. A 32GB model is $299 and the entry-level unit is 8GB at $199. More notable: the new iPod Nano, which includes a video camera, an FM radio and a pedometer in addition to the microphone. Recordings can be synced with iTunes or up to a YouTube account, although not through wi-fi.

Apple has segregated its recording features away from the Touch, giving full photo, audio and video to the iPhone and adding audio and video to the Nano. Meanwhile, the net connections of wi-fi aren’t available on the Nano. It’s a strategy that Apple hopes will push business toward the 4GB Nano, which is priced at $149.

Speculation before the event ran to rumors of a camera on the Touch. One guess proved correct, as Apple added album liner notes, videos and lyrics as options for buying music from the iTunes Store. A new iTunes 9 is available as a free download today, supporting better sync options for devices and the added album features, among other entertainment upgrades.