Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says Steve Jobs’ physical appearance at Let’s Rock — a widely-anticipated Apple special event scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. EDT in San Francisco — will reassure investors and boost the company’s share price.

In a note to clients Monday, Munster doesn’t claim to have any inside information about the health of Apple’s (AAPL) CEO, who had a cancerous tumor removed from his pancreas in 2004 (see “The trouble with Steve Jobs“). At his last public appearance in June (pictured right), Jobs looked surprisingly thin, setting off several rounds of speculation about what might have caused his weight loss (see here).

Rather, Munster’s belief that Jobs’ appearance Tuesday will be a “slight positive” for the stock is based on the assumption that Jobs would not be going on stage if he didn’t feel — and perhaps more important, look — well enough to reassure investors.

“We are confident that Steve Jobs will be presenting and we anticipate his appearance at the event to be viewed as a positive,” Munster wrote under the heading Steve Jobs’ Appearance Will Be Key. Apple has not confirmed that Jobs will speak Tuesday, although the Apple chief typically makes the new product announcements at big media events like Let’s Rock.

“While some investors are concerned that Jobs will not deliver the keynote,” wrote Munster, “we have reason to believe he will. Therefore, we believe his health has improved since the June event, which would be a positive for the stock.”

Munster goes on to outline his expectations for Tuesday’s event: a redesigned iPod touch and a new iPod nano along with price cuts and capacity changes for the shuffle and classic.

One “unlikely wildcard,” he adds, “could be updated AppleTV hardware features like live TV recording (DVR) or other digital living room accessories for the iTunes ecosystem (such as wireless speakers).”

For more speculation about Apple TV, see Tuning in to Apple TV 3.0

Source: Engadget.com

This must drive the folks at Apple absolutely bananas.

They labor to create an elegant new device, designed to entice the masses and restore a sense of childlike wonder. They try to stage manage every aspect of its unveiling. They leak copies to selected reviewers. They rent a hall and schedule a special event. They invite the analysts and the mainstream media. They book interviews with the TV networks.

But before they can enjoy their day in the sun, the rumor sites have done their best to spoil the party by publishing practically everything there is to know about the new gadget — including fuzzy photos of dubious provenance — except its retail price.

The latest Apple (AAPL) product to be subjected to this process: the so-called fourth-generation iPod nano, expected to arrive Sept. 9 at Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event.

Below the fold: the new iPod nano’s unauthorized unveiling, as revealed layer by layer in the rumorsphere. (Click on the photos to view them in their original context.)