.| UrbanNerd |.

The Age: Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and humanitarian rocker Bono went on a shopping spree in Chicago to promote a new line of clothing, accessories and gadgets, including a special-edition iPod, that will raise money to fight AIDS in Africa.

Dozens of “(Product) Red” items will go on sale in the coming weeks by Gap, Apple Computer, Motorola, Converse and Emporio Armani.

Portions of the product sales will go to The Global Fund, an organisation that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Apple will contribute $US10from the sale of each new red-coloured iPod nano. The model, priced the same as its $US199 cousins, goes on sale Friday.

With Apple’s iPod alone, The Global Fund stands to raise millions of dollars. During the holiday quarter in 2005, Apple sold 14 million iPods. The iPod maker also plans to donate some proceeds from a $US25 iTunes Red gift card to the organisation.

“I love the fact that Bono is trying to do something about this problem,” Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs said in a phone interview. “I’ve never been to Africa, but you don’t have to go there to know there are a lot of people dying of AIDS there. In a small way, this is something we could do about it.”