Steve Jobs is very much alive, but his obituary was inadvertently published by Bloomberg newswire, giving rise to numerous questions about the tycoon’s health. Given that, Jobs underwent, in 2004, surgery to have a pancreatic tumor removed, many are now wondering whether his recent massive weight loss and his haggard appearance at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco could be signs of his cancer reoccuring.

Moreover, The New York Times’ announcement that he had undergone, earlier this year, a surgical procedure and may suffer from digestive problems only adds up to the rumors that are currently circulating.

However, Apple repeatedly said that his health is good and dismissed any rumors. Nevertheless, the untimely release of Steve Jobs’ obituary should not be interpreted as a confirmation of his alleged health issues, since it is common practice for news organizations to write and update famous people’s obits in advance. For example, the aforementioned The New York Times has approximately 1,200 unpublished obituaries on file.

Bloomberg’s 2500 word document begins by crediting Jobs for helping to make personal computers easy to use, for having changed the way animated films are made (Jobs was CEO of Pixar Animation Studios) and for having refashioned the mobile phone.
It also included notes on people to be contacted for comments on Jobs’ death. Among others, the obit listed Steve Wozniak, Larry Ellison, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt.

The 17-page obituary of Jobs was immediately pulled from the news wire, but not before Gawker.com was able to save it and publish it. The obituary was replaced by statement saying: "An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted".

Meanwhile, according to some media reports, it seems like Apple is gearing up to held an event on September 9.

For the moment nothing is official, but Kevin Rose, site architect for Digg and co-founder of Pownce, predicted that on September 9 Apple will revamp its entire iPod line, with small design changes in Touch and a complete makeover for Nano.

A new version of iTunes, iTunes 8.0, is also expected to be announced. Rose described the new iPod Nano as way thinner and longer than the current version, with a larger screen.
It still remains unclear whether such an event will indeed take place; however, Apple is known to keep September as a special month for announcements. Last year in September, during an event called The Beat Goes On, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod Touch and a new iPod nano.