In Media Res: ‘Could this be Steve Jobs’ last keynote?’

Steve Jobs' slim stage presence: Apple chief Steve Jobs appeared today at an annual software developers' conference in San Francisco to unveil the company's new operating system, Lion, and iCloud storage service. (Apple said iCloud would replace MobileMe, which Jobs derided as "not our finest hour.") But, as ABC News noted, his presence at the event--he was onstage for just three minutes--"dwarfed the announcement itself." Jobs, who has been on a self-imposed medical leave from Apple, looked "extremely thin" and lacked energy, according to several reports. A story posted by the San Francisco Chronicle was even more blunt, asking, "Could this be Steve Jobs' last keynote?"

"Jobs looks much skinnier than usual, and reports from the Apple World Wide Developer Conference are that he looks and sounds worse than he has in recent memory," Jonathan Chen wrote. "Given the fact that Apple was unusually transparent about this event and announced the products it is releasing ahead of time, it leads you to wonder whether this in fact is Jobs' farewell address to the media, investors, and the Apple community as a whole."

"We love you," shouted someone in the crowd, according to ABC.

Jobs answered: "I appreciate it very much." Read more here and here.

All things digital New Yorker: Speaking of Apple, the New Yorker has launched "The New Yorker Reader," an app that curates content from the magazine's archive for the iPad. The first collection, released today, is "The Digital Revolution," featuring 10 articles by the likes of Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik and including a 1958 "Talk of the Town" piece about a chess-playing I.B.M. computer. It also includes 19 cartoons from the New Yorker's archive, all digital-related. (Upcoming topics include baseball, golf, travel, and food, and will be released throughout the summer and fall, the New Yorker said.) The collections are available free to the magazine's digital subscribers, $2.99 each for non-subscribers.

The media hotbed of Montclair: The progressive suburban enclave of Montclair, N.J., is filled with media folk. Stephen Colbert is a resident. As are Jonathan Alter, Jim Axelrod and Eric Boehlert, to name a few more, in addition to various Columbia j-school professors and New York Times writers, including media columnist David Carr. Carr sat down with noted hyperlocal news portal Baristanet in advance of his appearance with Alter at tonight's screening of "Page One," Andrew Rossi's New York Times documentary, at the Montclair International Film Festival. During the interview, he clarified the "intervention" the Times media desk reportedly staged with outgoing executive editor Bill Keller over his much derided magazine columns.

"Let me be very very clear," said Carr. "I am never ever embarrassed about Bill Keller, a colleague and my boss. My argument to Bill Keller was not in the form of an intervention. An intervention makes it sound like we came up to his desk with lanterns and pitchforks. I sent him an email. One, I said, when your boss is doing your job it's never good for you, so I have an obvious stake in this, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But B, you pulled us across Death Valley, in business terms. ... Why do you want to add another leg to the stool by become [sic] the conscience of media?" You can read the rest here.