After a prolonged absence from the public eye, a thin but energetic Steve Jobs reappeared on Wednesday at an Apple news conference and addressed his illness for the first time.

“I feel great. I probably need to gain about 30 pounds, but I feel really good,” said Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in an interview after the event. “I’m eating like crazy. A lot of ice cream.”

At the event, Apple introduced new iTunes software and a new line of iPod Nano music players with video cameras. But the product announcements were eclipsed by the return of Jobs five months after his liver transplant in Tennessee. Jobs suffered from complications from pancreatic cancer.

“I’m back at Apple and I’m loving every day of it,” he said on stage, after a standing ovation from the crowd, which included Apple employees and journalists gathered for the news conference.

The applause “was an endearing statement for someone who is clearly still recovering”, said Gerry Purdy, a wireless analyst at Frost & Sullivan who has covered the mobile computing industry for 20 years.

“I’m very happy to be here, and thank you all,” he said. “As some of you know, five months ago I had a liver transplant. I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity, so I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to be organ donors.”

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