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Has Steve Jobs Lost His Magic?
TimAbdulla writes to mention a Wired article wondering if Steve Jobs has lost his magic? The keynote yesterday, author Leander Kahney says, was the most uninspiring he's yet seen out of the usually charismatic man. Accompanied by other folks from within the company, Kahney wonders what lackluster showings like this will mean for the company after Jobs steps down. From the article: "Looking very thin, almost gaunt, Jobs used the 90-minute presentation to introduce a new desktop Mac and preview the next version of Apple's operating system, code-named Leopard. The sneak preview of Leopard was underwhelming. For what seemed an interminable time, Jobs and Co. showed off one yawn after another. There's no way I can get excited about virtual desktops or a new service that turns highlighted text into a 'to do' item. Oooo."
I want an iPhone! Gimme gimme gimme gimme now!!!!!
I guess useful features just aren't as sexy as a New Brushed Metal Look, or a Genie Effect.
maybe it's a recurrence of illness?
Didn't he have surgery for a tumor?
about new stuff ? new technology ?
Are there really people whose heartbeat rises when some new tech is introduced ? Wasnt that a thing that is of the long-gone 70s-80s now ? Dont we just use something if we find it useful and dont use, if we dont, and thats that ?
Read radical news here
Don't I read this exact same article following every one of Steve Jobs' keynote speeches?
Has he "lost the magic" or is it just impossible for any man or any company to live up to the incredible hype the technology media puts on Apple and Jobs?
didn't/doesn't Jobs have a health issue he's dealing with? that could explain his appearance.
it's too bad he didn't have a flying mokey to release for the gawkers wanting a mac-gasm. guess we'll just have to live with a reliable, stable system.
I dont really care if the keynote was or was not impressive. I sat at my computer last night looking at the sneak preview of leopard and to be honest, it looks really cool. Its about time they have multiple desktops- and finally the chance to use remote desktop without paying $300 for the program. MSN has been doing that for a long time.
Doesn't this follow his trend for last quarter century? When he has to prove something to the board or other people in the company he can pull off some impressive stuff. Once he is crowned king of the company, his performance slips. He's done this with apple how many times? And there is a chain of other companies he has also done it with. I'm guessing the next cool stuff he does will be with Disney since he sill has to prove himself there.
One of the hardest working Companies in the computer industry, trying to make your experience genuinely better, and some people still aren't impressed. Go wait with baited breath about what Dell is doing if you're that underwhelmed. The lines aren't nearly as long!
God is real unless declared integer.
Wired is boring and annoying and has been for years... I wouldn't worry about Apple, I don't own a Mac and just reading the keynote feed over the Internet got me excited so I guess the author is just jaded.
The company can't come out with an awesome new toy every 3-6 months. Steve and Co. just had nothing to talk about, and anyways it's the WWDC. It's for developers and there were tons of new developer centric stuff Obj-C 2.0, XCode 3.0, a preview of Leopard (which I think the big things are still be held close to their chest, don't want to promise stuff like Vista and just have it trimmed every month). Wait til near Christmas, because you know there will be a new iPod or something for the masses to drool over.
Consider the recasting of things like the Darwin/kernel source back to something similar to OSS, the virtualization bits, easier to use Leopard, and so on.
Jobs isn't the techno leader in the industry, just like Gates isn't (he's the best follower).
The innovation that comes from Apple happens in fits and spurts, mostly to augment the fall buying season. I think there's more up their sleeves.
And so, a yawner from Jobs is insignificant.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Maybe you aren't excited by virtual desktops. I have them at home on my Linux desktops, and at work where I have to use Windows I miss them.
If you use Windows or a Mac and you are using some utility to get virtual desktops, what do you use and how well does it work?
Mac addicts need to remember that as their obession continues to go mainstream it's going to loose some of that "cool" in exchange for some of that "dependable, useful, ruggeded, trustworthy" crap.
-GiH
I think we can all agree we don't want either.
Having played catch up, its no so easy to impress any more.
Virtual Desktops? Unix and Windows have had those for years.
etc.
Finally, maybe, just maybe people will wake up and realise that Apples are just computers and not
magically better because they are not Microsoft.
Cheers,
Ian
He merely lost his black turtleneck and a sock. It is expected he will have found both when he gets his laundry back from the cleaners.
Well, O.K., this year's Keynote was not as spectacular as it used to be, but then again, it's just a business presentation!
The Wired article reads like it's a review for a theatre play or a movie screening. In my opinion, if you're the CEO of an multinational computer company and people are talking about your latest presentation this way, you definitely haven't lost your magic.
Hey, did you ever see a MS presentation? It's usually just a bunch of "gee, what else did you copy this time?" yawns.
Quite frankly, why must every presentation of Apple be a revelation, while it's quite ok that the rest of the industry shows us what we already knew and loved from free systems? I'm the last person to jump onto the Apple hype (I refuse to buy any of the pricy designer stuff that does essentially what my low cost and just as good stuff does), but I don't consider it fair to expect Apple to reinvent the wheel and make everyone go "ohhhh" in awe while it's quite acceptable that competitors do bland presentations routinely and it's ok.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I remember when 8.6 came out. He toted it as a "Whole New Macintosh!" when, to most users, it just meant that, when you viewed the contents of a folder, the rows alternated colors for easier reading.
I'd rather be underwhelmed and content, than overwhelmed, just to fall farther down.
Maybe it was kinda dull to the author because it was a developers conference. From TFA, the author didn't understand the applause on speed improvements and the technical under-the-hood wizardry. As a developer, you get why that was important and you get excited about it. I guess its the difference between being a journalist and being an engineer/computer scientist. We actually get excited about the geeky things.
Granted, keynotes are a major showplace for Steve Jobs, and he puts a lot of work into them, sometimes that work doesn't come off, or he's just not feeling well. (Or the products are boring, no matter what he says about them). That doesn't mean the magic is gone, it just means that it's on vacation, having a drink with a little umbrella in it.
I wondered if Jobs, who was treated for cancer last year, was sick. Was he sharing presentation duties to save energy? When I saw Jobs introducing the iPod Hi-Fi at Apple's headquarters in late February, about five months ago, it looked to me like he was tiring quickly and was glad to get it over.
Gosh, I wonder if his fight with cancer has anything to do with him feeling sick.
Way to ignore pertinent facts to make a story.
Who?
I know this has been asked many times before, but at what point did the opinion of dumbarses on blogs become "news"?
(Yeah, I know there's a lot of technical wizardry under the hood, but that's for the geeks).
What part of "developer's conference" did you not understand, dickhead?
Apple's head of marketing, Phil Schiller, is the most relaxed of the bunch and has his own cuddly charm.
Hey, I'm as infected by Shillermania as the next Machead, but cuddly?
The whole article reads like a MySpace posting by a 14 year old girl disappointed by the first experience with her latest 40 year old beau.
Maybe we're reaching a plateau of innovation in the desktop computer world... what more could they possibly do to the OS/hardware while keeping costs down and appealing to the typical user?
Maybe they're just saving the cool stuff for Christmas...
By the summary, I can't tell if the author was unimpressed by the 'new features', or if he was simply unimpressed with Steve's delivery of it. As far as the 'features', this is all old shit that's been around for ages- why would one expect to be excited about it. You can't blame Steve for boring stuff, can you?
And for Steve? He's getting old. He's possibly sick. Or maybe he's just not as excited about this stuff as usual.
Oh well. Since I don't own a Mac, I guess I'll never 'get it', right?
do() || do_not();
The reaction to "time machine" was pretty good - the crowds seem to really like that, and it was fun how it was presented. No, there wasn't the biggest of announcements, but overall it was pretty good. I think the key point is that OS X is pretty mature and doesn't really need "that" much doing to it.
-- oldthinkers unbellyfeel ingsoc
Maybe there's more behind Steve's choice to put other people on stage than just lack of news. Whoever Jobs successor will be, he will certainly need to be charismatic. And what better way to see that, than to leave the stage to the candidates.
diegoT
Can the man not have a bad day without it being a cosmic event?
Jobs has lost his magic because the media and rumor mills can't seem to stop themselves from building up imaginary hype?? I am so sick of hearing about an iPhone. It's a dumb idea and it's never going to happen. Get over it already.
WWDC is for developers, not end users, so anyone with a brain should have known not to expect more than what we got -- espcially after the Hi-fi announcement earlier this year. That should have been a big wakeup call to everyone to tone down the speculation.
If anything, I applaud Apple for not feeding into the hype. Maybe Apple does have some killer gadgets coming out, but WWDC is not the proper forum for it.
I think the person writing the article has never been inside a product development team where you have to worry about what your competitor learns about your VALUABLE CREATIVE future products!
If you had your Big Gates competitor near ready to put out his first major OS release (in 5 years) & it is due to launch within 6 months, and you are describing the "Next Hottee"at Monday Aug 7 @ 10am, you can bet Billy would have a new software team on any key feature he wanted to add to Vista, by Tuesday, August 8, 2006 at 8 AM at the latest.
I fully respect Jobs skills at manipulating the PR to make Apple work. He has done it arguably better than anyone else over the last 7 years or so, in spite of so many voluble critics, and shown them all wrong.
And "gaunt". You really want Gates to look like the balloon who just retired from Exxon? Give us a break here. Carrying around extra weight is a NEGATIVE.
One year from now, the truth will be known.
Granted, the system as a whole looks slick, and Jobs said he was keeping some new features "top secret" to stop Microsoft from copying them.
Any one of these super top secret features will be copied into a Linux distribution within hours, if it's any good. Microsoft can just as easily do the same.
So saying it's being kept "top secret" is just insulting the audience's intelligence.
there is no more magic in the world for me...
(http://secretdiaryofstevejobs.blogspot.com/)
--
Carnage Blender : Meet interesting people. Kill them.
Don't forget that he's still leaving the best features top secret!!! The most sexy feature of the 10 he presented was IMHO Time Machine
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large groups
"That's right, Diane. Moreover, reports say the amount of water Jobs convreted into wine was down almost 35% this year from last!"
Jeeze, over the last six years under Jobs, Apple sextuples it's share price, exceeds Dell in market cap, takes over the MP3 market, practically invents and dominates the music download market, doubles the Mac's market share, successfully transitions first from OS 9 to OS X, then from PowerPC to Intel, the last several months ahead of schedule. What the hell do you people want?
Christ, Jobs could announce that from now on every single Mac would ship with a free Natalie Portman clone, and you people would be complaining that it was a disappiontment because the rumors sites said it would ship with two free Natalie Portman clones, each holding ice creame sundaes!
Crow T. Trollbot
his lieutenants are awful. bring back guy kawasaki!
I predict the price of Apples will drop when the new version of Newton comes out...
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Reading through TFA, I was reminded of similar ones, 20 years ago (mid to late '80s), when the Macintosh was out, but not performing really well, there were still being versions of the Apple ][ being produced and nothing exciting on the horizon.
It will be interesting to see if the complete cycle repeats with a stock slump, Steve being canned, looks around for the next big thing and brings it with him back to Apple for another triumphant return. If this is what's going to happen, then you should start buying up Apple stock in 2-3 years.
Of course, he's had cancer recently and maybe there's nothing this round for him to get excited about.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
We're not going to get an iPod introduction event every year folks. Apple doesn't have to be so exciting, just more than microsoft, which isn't saying much. That way they can maintain the alleged 4% (probably lower) market share they have.
" We don't need to find the weapons of mass destruction we just need to want to find them, that's the way it works!
Etc... etc... Etc... Same thing with the PowerBook, the Cube, the switch to Intel, ad nauseam. I wish these people could stop writing that FUD, already! Apple will disappear when it will disappear, in the meantime, its financial position looks excellent.
I personally think Macintosh, and Ipods, and Mac OS X are very sexy beasts. They are much too expensive for my taste, they run expensive proprietary software, and everything Apple does is way too costly for me, but Gosh, aren't they sexy.
The fact is, Apple has survived. Every single "Apple is dying" has been proved wrong time and time again. They have top-notch engineers and designers and they will keep on making great products for the time being. Sure, the last WWDC may have been unexciting, but guess what? Even great companies won't release great (hardware) products every six or eight months. These things take time.
And dissing Steve Jobs for looking thin is simply disgusting. The guy recently survived cancer, for (bleep) sake! Give him a break: he is not going to look plump after chimio or whatever he had to do to overcome cancer! Sheeesh. Tech Journalists sound more and more like bottom feeder, these days.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Jobs has done a remarkable job reinventing Apple and giving them some traction. Industry shows where you go and bring the dog and pony in are sometimes entertaining and sometimes boring as hell. That goes for the presenter too. If he had an off day, meh. If it becomes a trend, then maybe he should see a doctor if he has a physical ailment or hire a dog and pony handler to do most of the shows if he is sick of them.
The gadgets, everyone in the industry has shown crap of all kinds whether for PC, Mac or others. A lot of it is just the equivalent of shiny beads without much real world use. It takes time for good ideas to turn into hard product. If you want something like an iPhone, fine. But there is no point in bringing such a thing to market until it is uniquely positioned in someway. Ditto for a lot of junk you see at those shows. Keep making promises about stuff that never sees the light of day or is useless on second look and people stop paying attention to you. Apple is doing well at present. Their next move has to have strategic value to the company as a whole and not just to entertain a fan base. At times such maneuvers are boring to watch.
Give the guy a break.
Nobody attending WWDC thought so. Leopard has lots of cool features that beat even previous stuff like Expose and Dashboard in the dust. Time machine in particular looks like star trek computers. Apple completed a complete platform migration in less than a year, Objective C is getting garbage collection and properties.
Looks like the article's author doesn't care about anything besides iPods, but there is more to technology than just small gadgets.
RIP Reality Distortion Field.
It's weird - the rest of the industry moved to the commodity model 10 years ago, yet Jobs still grabs attention like it's 1985.
I mean, do people flood web sites to read a live blog of Windows developer key notes?
Clear, Dark Skies
Jobs has always been passionate about Apple and the good things that come from it. Seeing as how Apple has been in the sights fo the SEC (as have many companies for the same thing lately) I can see how he'd take personally the issue of the company he started being targeted for something like this. It was / is his baby, and I can't image not letting something like this not having some adverse effect on your health.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
I wish MS could "bore" me like this...
"The keynote yesterday, author Leander Kahney says, was the most uninspiring he's yet seen out of the usually charismatic man."
The keynote could have just been, "I'm rich bitch!" for all Steve cares. What do you want him to do, entertain you?
You can't pull off the unexpected and sensational every 6 months. It's a developer conference! The entire thing was aimed at software developers, showing them new software and hardware tools they will soon have, as well as a new operating system revision. The i-pod was a FLUKE, kids. You can't expect sensational magical new wonders every 6 months, especially from a software company that, really, hasn't been releasing anything "new" but has been just steadily refining existing ideas. Hell, even the ipod wasn't exactly ground-breaking. MP3 players and online services existed before its release. ipod only made it big because of how well it was implemented and how slick Apple's marketing department can be.
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
This "dumbarse" with a blog has been writing professionally, full-time, about the Mac for over ten years. I sat a few cubicles away from him at MacWEEK when he was a news reporter and I was a reviews editor, waaay back in 1996. He went on to his current job at Wired (where he's maintained the Apple beat) and has written two excellent books about Apple.
So, umm, no.
Tom Geller
One thing i wish Mr. Jobs would do is credit the prior-art. A thank-you to virtual desktops would have been nice, followed by the wiz-bang of zooming out to see all 4 (I haven't seen THAT done before).
What I really want to see is the ability to run two displays on the computer, but each with a separate log-in and separate key/mouse set. We could then claim our lab had 20 seats even though we only had 10 computers, each with 2 displays, 2 chairs, 2 keyboards, 2 mice. When the lab is sitting mostly empty (most of the time) each user would have 2 displays.
Tadd
.. Blub falls right in the middle of the abstractness continuum. -- Paul Graham
Please tell me I'm not the only one who's thoroughly dissapoined in no new iPod?
BTW, I'm not arguing with your assessment of the article, which I didn't read, but with your ignorant slam on a knowledgeable, dedicated, insightful professional.
Tom Geller
So what's his excuse for this whiny bitch of an article?
Steve Jobs is a reverse-Sampson, the more hair he gets the less charismatic he is. For the common good, shave it off Steve!
Monstar L
Everything reaches a point of diminishing returns. Truly, how much of this new stuff is necessary in an OS? Maybe Jobs seems lackluster because he has lackluster material to work with. You can only shine a turd so much. No, OSX is not a turd, but that is not what he is shining. He is shining the delta between the Leopard and versions. Perhaps he is just tired from fighting the EU. Maychance he just has the flu. I still think its point of diminishing returns. OSes and desktops are suffering from SUV-itus. Why do computers continue to get faster and OSes and software in general fail to get any more efficient? Why do kernels continue to grow? Why is every innovation in power directed towards making the vehicle larger instead of more efficient? SUV-itus.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Maybe the problem isn't Job's presentation at all but Kahney's interpretation of it. Maybe his life is just lacking that certain spark. Bad relationship? Drugs not working any more? Maybe it is going to take some new iColored something to get Kahney up again because, darnit, life is just so ... bleak.
... I'm going to cry, and I'm sure you are too. Let's just try to keep it together for Leander's sake. It's always hard to see somebody lose their Mac-live verve for life. Send positive energy now ....
Okay time to stop
Virtual Desktops? Unix and Windows have had those for years.
I'm sure some wiseguy can convince himself and the zealot crowd that MacOS 1.0 had virtual desktops. Pretty much like they think Desk Accessories is the grandfather of Dashboard (Which in fact was a way to get around the lack of multitasking).
I have been waiting for 9 months to replace my desktop Mac. I was pretty ecited about the new desktop. It is what I wanted to hear more than anythign else they speculated about.
Looks like I can get the top of the line Quad Mac Pro for just $16,256 (plus tax). That includeds the MODEM people (I always insist on frugality and have no concievable use for expensive 'high speed' internet).
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Personally, I wouldn't mind a "new Mac desktop" with Leopard on it. I don't have a problem with companies that constantly improve their products. If they want to "knock our socks off", they can figure out a way to cut prices by 40%. Now that would truly be magic.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The keynote content was lackluster, which isn't Jobs's fault. The article author is trying to incite controversy by extending OS X Tiger's lameness to a dulling of Jobs. Calling the legendary Jobs "boring" is much more pressworthy, especially among the devout Apple crowd. In short, it's Wired flamebait.
I don't care if he's the love child of Jesus Christ and Mohammed. It was a whiny bitch of an article, and his bringing Jobs' cancer into it was poor taste.
Dedicated? To what? Tech industry reportage? Wow. Color *me* admonished.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the whole PC market as Bill Gates and perhaps Steve Jobs step aside. Which company better able to continue/thrive without the guy who's name is practically synonymous with the company? Apple had a pretty rough go of it when Jobs left the first time. We have no data to predict how Microsoft will react when Gates is no longer involved. Of course Sun is now McNealy-less, but it's probably too soon to tell what affect that is having. The other guy who keeps coming to mind is Larry Ellison at Oracle. There was an article in Forbes awhile back that was talking about the fact that there is no replacement for Larry being groomed.
We complain alot around these boards about "faceless corporations", which is ironic given that, at least today, we *have* a face we readily associate with each of these companies. A few years from now they may all truly be faceless.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
The event is called the Apple World Wide Developers Conference.
Steve Jobs talked about the new version of the OS and new high end boxes. These are the products that will most directly impact the lives and work of those who develop software for Apple systems. This conference has never been about targetting consumers. It's all about things that matter to developers.
The next version of the iPod, the next revision of the iMac and laptops, as well as any other devices Apple has up its sleeve (iPhone, Tivo-esque Mac Mini settop box, tablet, etc.) are all consumer focused items. Anything Apple wants to release to consumers will be released a little closer to the holiday season, making it harder for imitators to be able to produce knockoffs in time for Christmas. Anyone who thought they'd see an iPhone, new iPod, or any other strictly consumer-centric item at WWDC has put their desire for new gadgets ahead of Apple's desire to maximize its profits. That said, stay tuned for a product announcement sometime before October with Apple's slate of holiday season offerings.
-JMP
Uhm. May I also point out that this was a release at WWDC. The big items were the new Intel Mac Pro and XServe as well as an update on functional changes in the OS and the new animation app. The platform and operational information is geared for developers. The iPod crowd could stand to get an attention span a little wider that the Nano here. Honestly get over the hype, learn to use your Mac to create something, it might provide some perspective.
Apple needs to be more than "the Cult of Steve". Having Phil Schiller and other members of the management team participate in keynotes is a good step in Apple's maturity. For years after the return of Steve Jobs' return to Apple, it really did need a strong charismatic leader. As the company and its products mature, it is necessary for the public (including investors and analysts) to see that there is more to the company than just one individual. IMO, Mr. Jobs is very smart to get his management team out in front of the public now.
I'm just thankful that Apple doesn't have anyone on their management team like Steve "Monkey Boy" Ballmer. I would feel far more comfortable in the Apple managment team leadership in Steve Jobs' absence than I do with MS.
Reference the Spice Girls?? what the hell?!
It's still more inspiring than Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!
Until they reach that level I think they're OK at developer conferences.
------- Code to try when you're bored: qsort( 0, UINT_MAX, sizeof( int* ), IntCompare );
I'm not even going to read TFA.
Leander Kahney's career as a "journalist" focuses exclusively on fellating Steve Jobs.
His last column was titled "Why I Love Apple." A month ago he filled an entire column with slang "inspired by" the ipod. Earlier this year he wrote going to the Apple Store was like going on Hajj to Mecca. In a column where he made excuses for Apple using sweatshop workers to assemble ipods, he wrote the "situation is too murky for a rush to judgment on Apple's ethics here."
This column is no different. He admits he usually screams like a little girls whenever Jobs gets on stage, but was disappointed this time around because Jobs allowed other Apple execs to share the spotlight.
Why is this newsworthy, and why is it linked on Slashdot?
Maybe it is finally time for Apple's products to speak for themselves without the big show that was necessary when Apple was behind the speed curve and floundering. First the consumer models and laptops caught up with the rest of the computer world, in speed, now the workstations and servers will too, all of them at competitive prices. Steve doesn't have to hype a new silver wind tunnel that's embarrassingly slow and expensive.
Since there is no new box to throw the MacPro into, it just looks a lot like the old G5 Mac. What's sexy there? What sets Macs apart from other personal computers is the OS. Is it better to give promises and produce vaporware or to hold some goodies close and announce them at shipping time? Let's see, Apple has: competitive computers, award winning designs, a modern OS that actually ships, a growing market share, a huge lead in the personal music player business, solid profits. Did I miss anything?
Yeah, I enjoy a good show as well as the next guy, but there isn't the need to see the star hit a home run evey time up to bat. Leopard may not be as exciting as a new iPod but we're still seeing solid innovation. Wall Street doesn't seem happy with the fact that Apple showed a bigger profit and more growth than anybody else in the industry last quarter and probably will this quarter too. This whining is just silly.
Come on. The dust hasn't even settled from the super-popular Ipod, and we're back to this.
Every few years Jobs stuns the world with some innovative and effectively produced piece of computer technology, and every few years later he gets sneered at for not coming up with the next brilliant invention in time for the holiday shopping season. His own company fired him, for goodness sake! --Which he says was one of the best things which could have happened to him, because it freed up his time and allowed him to enter one of the most creative periods of his life.
Creativity is not a slave to industrial schedules. It's the other way around. Industry exists because of creativity. If Steve Jobs decides to come up with brilliant new birdhouse designs for the rest of his days, I'll still have more respect for him than the person who wonders if he's "Lost his magic" because he happens to be a sleepy human for ninety whole minutes at some conference.
-FL
This guy's just trying to make hay over Apple being in the middle of a lull in their product cycle (though they have plenty of exiting things to talk about) - and perhaps, Steve Jobs showing *gasp* signs of aging, or even his bout with prostate cancer. Then again, I think he'd perk right up if he'd just eat a thick juicy steak or two.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
"When wild, over-the-top applause broke out for speed gains in new servers, the reporter sitting next to me burst out laughing."
What the hell? You are making fun of your core audience? Are you reporting for "Wired" or "Town & Country"?
Jobs may be "thin almost gaunt" because he had *cancer*. Leander Kahney apparently wanted to see a Steve Jobs monkey dance, Keith Richards shooting up on stage, and a new iPod with a laser pointer. What a stupid whiney blog.
Pretty sure the credentials gave it away: 'This "dumbarse" with a blog has been writing professionally, full-time, about the Mac for over ten years. I sat a few cubicles away from him at MacWEEK when he was a news reporter and I was a reviews editor, waaay back in 1996.'
/. Thank you, editors. How about covering the bitchin nerd stuff, like GC for Obj-C, the "opensource" stuff (http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/collaboration ), etc.
So... covered the mac when it was about as interesting as dirt. The 2 books are "The Cult of the Mac" and "The Cult of the iPod". I'm thinking that I have better things to do than read whatever this person is writing.
The reason this is "news" is because it will start a flamewar on
(June)
(July)
(last entries)
The Mac Pro comes in at around $1000 cheaper than the equivalent Dell.
Being published means nothing if his current writing is bad.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Steve was treated for this type of cancer a couple of years back. It is almost always fatal, however. I suspect he's not far from deaths door, although that's just speculation on my part. There should be an announcement soon, though, if true.
If you post it, they will read.
...nor, for that matter, has Apple...
- lot homerun. If I had the bux, I'd be on one of those like twang on a Telecaster.
- product pace for very long. Apple's doing pretty good financially, so wait and see - more stuff will come out pretty soon.
Steve is aging and his body isn't cooperating very much since his cancer (an observation, not an insider-fact). I wish him the best of luck and hope his life goes well.
Apple's been on a hard roll with introductions for quite a while. Sometimes one needs to work on infrastructure, core code, cleanup, and/or system components that aren't glamorous. If periodic infrastructure and other maintenance is not done, the product(s) suffer(s).
WWDC is a dev conference. Lots of dev stuff was introduced and improved. Pretty much on target for what the conference was about.
Personally, I think the new Mac Pro is an out-of-the-ballpark-and-out-of-the-entire-parking
I think the coverage of the newest feline Mac OSX release is pretty neat. I'm really looking forward to user-friendly file revisions.
No company can maintain a wow-whizz-bang-pop-smash-hit-cool-on-nearly-every
A Passionate Independent Musician
I wasn't there. I didn't watch the keynote. I know nothing about the presentation. I don't have a Mac or even an iPod.
However, I did mosey over to the Apple website yesterday to look at the new stuff. The new Pro desktops look like a nice new iteration of what's become a workstation line. Will they enable developers and media-content people to work more quickly and efficiently? Yup. That's all they really need to do. Are the new servers keeping pace on price, performance and management features? Yup. So far, no problem.
And the new OS X features? Looking over the short screencasts on the website, lots of that stuff sounds mighty nice. Time Machine is pretty darned revolutionary: an API and systemwide user interface for user-friendly browsing of data snapshots over time from within any application! Spaces looks like an extremely well thought out expansion on the virtual-desktop concept, with all sorts of visual cues and clever UI bits that will make it useful for people without photographic memories. If the Core Animation APIs are any good, they'll make developers mighty happy. The visual dashborad widget creator opens up widget creation to pretty much everybody. What is there even remotely like it in the Windows world? Even the mail client's editor component leapfrogs everything else out there and will probably sell a lot of consumer Macs the same way iMovie, iPhoto and Garageband have.
Much of it makes Vista look dated enough that Apple shouldn't have a problem keeping up its market share.
I don't know if it was or wasn't a good idea to hold back on new leopard features. All I know is that Microsoft is having enough trouble getting their own ideas into vista.
--- Don't ever trust a woman until she's dead- B.B. King
Rumor sites can be a serious Apple enemy. But they in no way match the power to damage Apple that's provided by... Apple. Including Apple's failure to battle rumor sites by releasing better info, rather than shutting down publishers.
--
make install -not war
There's always a loud contingent that complains that Apple didn't blow them away with the latest Keynote. I remember well all the snickering after the iPod was announced. But a year or two later people are using the stuff and it's become a part of their lives like it always needed to be there. How many people rolled their eyes as Steve demoed iTunes or iPhoto the first time... just another music player and photo manager. Whoop-dee-doo. But they're the only way I feel like managing either type of media now. Or how many saw Time Machine yesterday and said "yay... I already have tar and cron". This is the common reaction, but what's missing is an understanding that the details matter. Details matter a lot. Ask anyone who's used both Gnome and OSX for a year each. Ask anyone who's used both DOS and bash for a year each. This is what Apple is good at; getting the details right. Of course they misstep, and who knows which of the features announced yesterday will turn out to become must-haves (certainly not HTML email!) ... but few companies have made such a business out of subtle yet important improvements. It's not really the gee-whiz that keeps them alive in my opinion, it's the "oh, this is how it should always be done" factor.
Cheers.
Steve stumbled a bit, that's true.
And the lineup of stuff to announce wasn't mindblowing.
So yeah, I would say yesterday was a bit disappointing.
But I don't think it means Steve's lost his touch or something. Give him a chance to wow you next time.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Production is off pace for Apple. In their Mad Rush to move everything to Intel, including their OS (For production). A lot of resources were diverted to Redevelop their product line. Noramlly these changes are paced out much more slowly so you can get a Big thing every keynote. PowerBook/MacBook Pro, iBook/MacBook, MacMini, iMac, PowerMac/MacPro, XServe. Then a bunch of Ipod updates and a Major OS once a year/Year in a half. This normally happends in a 3 year cycle. With about 3 New OS happening (at each WWCD) and a new iPOD at MacWorld, Mixed with some new software from Apple and 3rd party companies...
But 2006 Was a 2/3 of a year of Major Macs upgrades. That is a lot of work, and there was no supprise about it. Leapord needed to be set aside and the Demo is of a beta version that is not to be released for almost a year, they say it is Top Secrete, but in truth it is probably not at Keynote Presentation level yet. Most the application teams have been working to make all their apps Universal Binary. Not much time for massive exterior case redesign, new software, or Highly inovative stuff that can make the keynote great.
I bet Apple is extreamly greatful that Long^H^H^H^HVista has been delayed so many times, It gave Apple a change to do a Major undertaking, and still come out ahead of Microsoft. With rumor sites giving more and more hype on what can come up with next, people are expecting apple to come up with the impossible. Heck I still want my holographic display iMac.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Hmmm... Looks like he has better chances than most:
_ Pancreatic_Cancer_is_Very_Rare.html?print
http://atlas.kpix.com/news/local/2004/08/02/Jobs'
If you post it, they will read.
As long as the Sorting Hat still says he's CEO, that's the way it's gonna be.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
I thought exactly the same thing yesterday when I watched the WWDC webcast. Steve Jobs looked, in my estimation, terrible. I'm pretty sure he's grown out his beard to hide how thin his face looks. And, it's also true that he didn't seem to have his usual blend of piss and organic vinegar that he generally shows off at these things.
(I do think I know where Steve's weight went, though: into Phil Schiller! That guy should take a page from the Steve Jobs cookbook. Man!)
But I thought that there were some great features in the Leopard preview they showed off. For example, Time Machine looks simply astounding. Maybe the sci-fi effects are a little over the top, but being able to look for a lost file by browsing through past versions of the folder in which it's contained is really cool.
I'm also really jazzed about the Web Clip service in Safari. I can think of lots of times when that would be handy. And, I will say that I really enjoyed the comparisons between a Windows Vista desktop and a Mac OS X Tiger desktop. Microsoft even stole the "lickable" aqua sphere!
It's entirely possible that Steve might be trying to take a step back from these keynotes. And it's also entirely possible that this was a sort of "test" for these three guys to see which one would have the ability to do these presentations in the future if Steve can't. However, the company itself is still the same as ever. Lines like, "Redmond, start your photocopiers" and "Mac OS X Leopard: Introducing Vista 2.0" are classic.
Let's also not forget that the new Mac Pro is pretty astounding: four cores, standard! And, let's also not forget that Steve did say that the best new features of Leopard are, as the slide said, "Top Secret". I think Apple really felt like they got burned by Microsoft when they copied, feature for feature, everything that was new and exciting about Tiger for Vista. My guess is that, since Leopard is slated for Spring, Apple wants Microsoft to release Vista, which is truly lackluster, and then release Leopard in rapid succession. Those, "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" ads might take on a whole new antagonistic dimension! For example:
(Cue cutesy music)
PC: I'm a PC
Mac: And I'm a Mac. Hear me roar.
PC: I can search every file on your hard drive instantly.
Mac: I've been doing that for two years now! And, I can search network servers, other Macs, and even tell you that the remote is lost between the second and third cushion on the couch. Take that!
PC: Well, I've got transparent windows!
Mac: Oh yeah, well MY windows are so transparent you can't even see them! Our computers don't even come with displays anymore. I just read your mind and do exactly what you were thinking. Kapow!
PC: Touche
Mac: See, you finally understand what that word means. And why? Because I teach you new words while you're sleeping. Ha!
(Cut to picture of new Mac Book, now without a display!)
If it's not one thing it's your mother.
... that Roz Ho wasn't there! God, I can't stand her voice, or what she says. And it has nothing to do with the fact that she works for MS. It's just her. Given her lack of presenting skills, I've been constantly amazed for years that Steve allows her on the stage.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Some stuff is being kept under wraps for now, lest it be "innovated" by Microsoft and appear in Vista.
Remember years back when Aqua was demoed, and not long after that XP suddenly had that ugly Fisher-Price GUI in response?
I honestly think that at this point feature-theft by Microsoft isn't that big of a threat. They've proven too inept to even get Vista out with the feature set they've got currently, much less suddenly bolt on something else to it to better compete with Leopard.
I just wish they would have demoed some of the new stuff in Leopard Server. I've been begging them for years to put together something that can replace Exchange (at least for the SMB market), and it seems like the iCal server fits the bill quite nicely, in concert with improvements to the other services that already exist in Tiger Server.
~Philly
I don't think it's Steve Jobs per se, but the fact is, and it's not limited to Apple or Microsoft, but innovation is clearly slowing down. Virtual desktops are a great addition to OSX, but as (many) others have pointed out, Unix has had it for years and you can get similar functionality from other products. Time Machine is a great idea, as is the VMS versioned file system.
It's come down to new takes on old ideas; everything that has been toted as a new feature in OSX (and Vista) can be found in some other product or OS. While OSX's great strength is its Unix roots, Unix itself has been around literally my entire life. Not much innovation there.
I'm not saying Unix isn't an awesome OS, its longevity is a testiment to this fact, but complacency has certainly set in across the research spectrum, AFAIK; where are the truly groundbreaking ideas in interfaces, storage, etc.? Why has nothing that has been put forth been greeted with anything more than a ho-hum? Can we not find something better than the desktop metaphor to organize everything by? Is there nothing better?
New ideas seems to be a well on the verge of running dry and no one cares enough to notice. Until somebody comes along with some truly ground-breaking stuff, I see Microsoft's and Apple's OS offerings getting thinner and thinner from version to version; just not enough meat to hang on the old bones.
And while I'm ranting, Linux provides the *perfect* platform for people to go nuts on...it's completely open, anyone can use it and work with it...no one has an excuse not to use it for developing the next great leap in computer technology. The banquet is all set, but who is coming to dinner? Why do we have these pointless KDE-vs-Gnome, Reiser4-vs-everybody, distro-vs-distro holy wars?
As a developer I'm excited by a number of Leopard features.
As a photographer, I'm even more impressed by the MacPros.
I don't know where the article author thought the presentation was uninspiring, it was very inspiring for the people it was aimed at.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Wow, that's great for him. Except that he's a journalist, not a software developer. As such, he wasn't in a position to appreciate the things that were presented during the Keynote. I know that journalists get intimidated when presented with things they can't understand or distill into small, 3- to 4-word sound bytes, but that's no reason to shoot the messenger. This conference is not about the average user. It was about the developers. Sometimes those interests coincide, like when the Intel transition was announced. Sometimes they don't. The press need to get it through their heads that Steve Jobs isn't going to introduce a new iPod every time he gets on stage.
I don't know about losing his "magic", but he definitely lost his mind years ago.
"Pirates of Silicon Valley" made him look like a complete freak, and yet they went easy on him. The guy is nuts and always has been.
To get a story this wrong, this guy must have been asleep (or perhaps hoping for job at the NY Times or Reuters). The OS X--10.5 presentation began by telling us that some features were being kept "top secret," so Microsoft wouldn't have time to work them into Vista. That's the reason the feature set had, with the exception of Time Machine, nothing to get a glitz-obsessed journalist excited. Virtual desktops are quite handy, but they've been around so long, including them in the OS tells Microsoft nothing. And it happens to be the feature I wanted most to see in 10.5, implemented just the way I wanted--as application-based screens.
He also doesn't understand that details such as turning "highlighted text into a 'to do' item" is just the sort of small incremental improvements that increase productivity where it matters. The key reason many of us don't create enough to dos is the hassle of switching our one-and-only to do application and typing something. We think we'll remember it and don't. And note that this feature creates a system-wide to-do list that any application can use, not just Apple products. Calendars, organizers, outliners, and widgets can all draw on and change a common pool of to-dos.
In short, there's more to improvement and progress than toy-like glitz and dazzle.
--Michael W. Perry, Untangling Tolkien
Probably his brother Bill Gates has sent his minions in time to steal it.
....
Muhahahahahahahahaha.....
Muhahahahahahahahahahaha........
If you turn on desktop sharing in OS X today, you can use any VNC client to connect to and control that desktop.
However I have to say that combining it with iChat is awesome as it really takes ad-hoc tech support for family members to the next level. I plan to buy iSight cameras for each of my family and myself just so I can more easily demonstrate things to them without traveling. I don't use iChat at all today but that's the feature that drew me in.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
hmm. speaking of steve's apperance, didnt he get operated for a cancer a year ago?
oh but i forget, steve is a god... he HAS to be in the best of shape every time. he cannot be sick. he cannot fail, let alone get mixed up in a presentation. That would be a sacrilege.
It's got DTrace and garbage collection motherfuckers! I soiled my pants twice, and I already knew about the gc. DTrace!
ipods what.
To make statements questioning Job's 'magic?
/.ers are more than familiar with the cyclic nature of development. Of course there are points where no groundbreaking tech is being put out. MS is somewhat at that point right now, waiting to finish up vista. I definitely wouldn't claim that MS was fading away because of this.
So he hasn't shown any groundbreaking new gadgets at a developer conference. Look at Apples growth in the last five years. 'Nuff said. I'm sure a majority of
I'll believe in corporations having personhood when Texas executes one... - advocate_one
The author's main point, I gather, isn't that the product offerings were underwhelming. His point is that Steve usually has an uncanny ability to spin Apple's products, whatever they are, into something more. (And he's not complaining. It's *fun* to pretend for a few moments that Spotlight really will Change My Life.) With Phil Schiller, et al, doing much of the presenting, the usual "spell" was broken.
I agree. Phil is not Steve. When Steve talks, you think you're partaking of something visionary. When Phil talks, you realize that you're being fed a line the marketing people put on the teleprompter. The problem Apple faces is that Steve won't be around forever.
I predict the price of Apples will drop when the new version of Newton comes out...
I doubt it, revelations like that just don't fall from trees.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Sounds like Jobs rode the H train to the conference. Get ready for an even more euphoric screen saver in the next OS.
HI, MY NAME IS ISAAC.
Did he ever have any? Much like his MS counterpart, Jobs has spent most of his life profiting off of other people's ideas, starting with Woz. You have to start with magic to lose any.
Xray in Xcode 3.0 for Leopard looks interesting though. http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/xcode.html .. Has some features of Solaris DTrace, with some fancy GUI to do graphs and organize your data samples.
It was WWDC after all, what do you expect. the D is for Developer.
I don't know why Leopard added a bunch of Dashboard stuff (like safari as a widget, and a widget builder). I totally don't use Dashboard and it eats a lot of memory.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I do not understand why he put those other three managers on stage at all. The first was especially bad; the guy was stumbling over his words and appeared to be clueless about the subject matter. All were patently uninteresting and stiff. The keynote usually features great new developments, but it is also about image and is supposed to be entertaining. Jobs is good at delivering all that. Is he having another bout with cancer?
Join Tor today!
arstechnica has been riddled with those folks over the years, the bottom line is that once you start using OS X and Apple stuff, it's really hard to say a lot bad about them. Now that they are on intel hardware, there isn't the constant x86 vs. PPC pissing contests.
It's just a different world where everything pretty much just works and you can spend your time on the real work, not the IT work before you get to do work.
"The company can't come out with an awesome new toy every 3-6 months"
/. is making type in "cruddy" to post this)
We don't want magic, we simply want a portable that isn't overpriced, overheating, and underwhelming.
Say what you want about Dell, they managed to get a Duo 2 machine out right away. Apple can't figure out how to put the proper amount of thermal paste on a CPU.
So. What awesome new toy have they come out with within the past 3-6 months anyway?
(how appropriate that
He equated Apple fanboism to Spice Girl worship.
Being published means nothing if his current writing is bad.
Hey, Stephen King is still raking in the green. Read one of his lately? ;-) Man, that Dark Tower fizzled. :(
Clear indication someone doesn't know design:
"It took you that long just to do that? Thats simple."
---------
They didn't show their best stuff because MS would copy them, if you did not notice they made sure to point that out to you
Many refinements were quite good-- virtual desktops is not new, but their way is the best UI for virtual desktops I have ever seen. Not every idea was mind blowing, but their UI design and cost (bundled free) can't be beat.
Time machine is the best version control UI I've seen. my mother could use that.
Jobs is phasing himself out of the limelight a bit more all the time making it so when he does go its not as much of a shock to the fans.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Steve's finally delegating.
Apple's showing the developers what matters to them.
Run for your lives!
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Apple just went through a major change in hardware by switching to Intel. This probably took a lot of man hours to verify everything worked perfect. The same man hours that would have previously been used to think of and develop new and inovative OSX features. So is anyone complaining? Maybe Steve's "magic" comes when there is a whole bunch of new things he's excited about, but this time around other things were important just not exciting.
I say, shut the hell up. You can run Windows on your Mac now. No one can ever diss your Mac again. The only person that can make fun of a Mac is someone with a better Mac.
"Macs suck, they can't run games!!"
"Really? It runs Windows, why can't it run games?"
ender-iii
I heard he has AIDS. All those years of illicit drug use, and what not.
----- I have bad karma for a reason! -----
If anyone remembers the CherryOS fiasco of two years back when that weird Albanian in Hawaii stole the PearPC source and claimed it as his own "80% native ppc speed" clone, the same Leander Kahney wrote one of the biggest bullshit articles I've ever read, claiming that he felt it was the real thing (even though it didn't even get past the boot screen), and that Apple should start worrying about its hardware sales. I wrote to the guy and flamed his butt off for being such a bullshitter. The guy wrote back telling me that I was just being typical of Mac zealots. Fast forward to the present and lo and behold, we have the same brain dead idiot making the same negative "Apple's dying" (but please read my crap anyway) statements like "but that's for the geeks" at a DEVELOPER conference!
The guy is simply a more effeminate version of Dvorak. It's one of those minor trendy things amongst pseudo intellectuals (Boing Boing's rant on Apple because Apple hadn't released the sources to the x86 XNU kernel yet, for instance) to be mildly critical of Apple, YET STILL SPEND GOD KNOWS HOW MUCH TO GO AND WATCH A PRODUCT INTRODUCTION SPEECH! Apple must laugh itself to tears at morons like this who pay large amounts of cash to them for the privilege of being trendily critical of Apple.
Make no mistake, Apple is no saviour and there are many things that I personally prefer in Linux and Windows (Linux for its openess and configurability and Windows for its GUI responsiveness), but acting like a clueless consumer at a developer conference only makes you look dumber than you are, or, in this case, exactly as dumb as you are.
He was treated for that and appeared to recover. He supposed had one of the less common varieties that did not spread too easily and could be removed in an operation. The most common variety has a low survival rate.
Apple announced several very cool features yesterday, almost all things I have third-party apps for, and yet retooled them into new things of beauty.
The virtual desktops seem easier to use, with greater functionality. Spotlight has now replaced quicksilver for a couple more tasks. The widget creators look fun. And time machine is a blessing, that might actually convince my neighbor that backups are easy, and worthwhile (instead of calling me after his hard drive dies)
And I do not doubt that come spring, Apple will release Leopard with even more great features. This might be the cream at the top, or not. But its not all. (even the mention of Spotlight being faster perked my interest...
All I wish is that they will move it back to Boston... And speaking of Boston, the WWDC did NOT have a Jobs keynote. Nor any expectation for a "Great" announcement. That has traditionally been saved for the spring. What we get in the late summer is great developer workshops, companies showing their wares, and being able to mingle with fellow Apple users. (As well as locating every Newton user, and comparing hacks)
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
I've read several of the pop-biographies. The last one called the "Second Coming" was about the recapture of Apple after being exiled to NeXT & Pixar by the board. Plus his revived the Mac line and had the iPod hit.
He had three major hits, more that more entrepeneurs can manage. These include the Apple II, Mac/Laser printer combo, and the iPod. Plus more than three stinkers along the way. Perhaps Gates may be entitled to five hits- PC-BASIC, industry-wide DOS, Windows, Office, and possibly the Xbox (jury not in). [ It often takes MicroSOft the 3rd or 4th version to be useful. ] Plus lots of duds too. I can recall a large number of hardware and software companies who had one great hit and could never invent a second one.
The "third coming" could be something melding multi-media, tying together iPods, Pixar and Disney. That is if Steve lives long enough.
"This "dumbarse" with a blog has been writing professionally, full-time, about the Mac for over ten years. I sat a few cubicles away from him at MacWEEK when he was a news reporter and I was a reviews editor, waaay back in 1996. He went on to his current job at Wired (where he's maintained the Apple beat) and has written two excellent books about Apple."
Okay, you've countered the subject line of his post; and I'm not particularly happy with the juvenile insults and name-calling found in the parent (de rigueur for Slashdot unfortunately). But the points raised are totally valid. How did a professional tech beat writer totally miss the whole point of a developer's conference?
#DeleteChrome
I can't believe the fanbois are blaming others. Apple is all about hype and at the WWDC is failed to live up the usual gimmics of years past. If Apple does come out with the next "latest and greatest" then they are toast. No wonder the fanbois have their panties in a twist.
Don't be silly. Ballmer threw the chair because he took exception to it: therefore, Class.throw() "throws" an exception. Get it?
C'mon, people, this is basic stuff.
Who is Steve Jobs?
Perhaps Steve has lost his MoJo, or is simply also bored with the current products.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
This would be part of my strategy. For the last couple of years, Jobs has been announcing amazing new developments at every public address. The expectations build. The rumor mills churn. The stocks inflate.
Then one of two things happens. Either the announcement is completely beyond what anyone expected, and stocks boom, or the announcement simply meets expectations...and the stocks plummet.
Jobs needs huge, unexpected extravaganzas to keep things booming, but he doesn't have enough of them for every conference. So what does he do? He gradually lowers our expectations by announcing mundane but arguably important developments. The iPod HiFi. The updated Mac Mini. The Intel Mac Pro. Enhancements in Leopard.
Then, when our guard is down... BAM! Out comes the iPhone, or the touchless iPod, or the iWatchEverythingFromMyCouch media center. The impact will be greater when we're no longer expecting it.
I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.
-RenderHead
>>Basically, I think the Wired article is doing a Dvorak, and inciting Mac users to go to the site. It's much ado about nothing.
/. tradition, I didn't bother to read the article and instead immediately jumped to a prior-held conclusion based on emotion. I sure showed them who's boss!
Not me! In proud
You would too if you have recently battled Pancreatic Cancer.
He was talking with developers, not the general public at the WWDC. His products were more of interest to developers than the unwashed masses. Will Suzie homemaker want to shell out 24 hundred for the Mac Pro, or would she rather have an iMac? This conference wasn't for her or her market.
I find the announced features of Leopard interesting. I know many more will be announced when the product is released next year. There's no use telling the world all the new bells and whistles of Leopard. We want MS to wait until 10.5 is released. We don't want them to try to copy something before it is released. I'm sure it will be included in the much anticipated 2012 release of Vista. (barring any last minute glitches)
photosMy Photostream
You got so 0wned Quiet_Desperation - what's your excuse for being such a whiny bitch yourself?
Personally what EVERYONE missed is that Apple pulled off the fastest platform switch EVER. Less then ONE YEAR after the announcement, other then repaired machines or refurbs, all new equipment coming from Apple are now running on the Intel platform.
Can you say "microkernel"?
Avie Tevanian: He who laughs last laughs best.
OK, just because he's thinner instead of being a sweating greaseball shouting "Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!" does not mean _Developers_ did not find the Keynote inspiring. Time Machine alone looks awesome.
My explanation for Steve's sub-par performance can be found on my blog. To sum up? This is just the first sign that Apple's legal troubles (re: the frelled-up stock options) are much worse than they've been letting on.
--
Spaces = Windows XP Desktop Manager Powertoy (free download from microsoft.com), Virtual Desktops X11
Time Machine = Windows Volume Shadow Copy (comes with Windows XP & 2003 server)
iCal & Mail improvements = Microsoft Outlook (has had Notes, Stationary & ToDo lists for ages)
I also thought it was funny how they boasted that a MacPro with a 7300GT video card was $1000 dollars cheaper than a "similarly configured Dell" that had a Quadro video card in it. That Quadro is a $1600 upgrade in the MacPro - that's a total of $600 more than the Dell. Why didn't they just do an Apple to apples (pun intended) comparison in the first place & just admit that you are going to be paying an extra $600 dollars for a beautiful case & operating system, instead of trying to compare the two like used car salesman would (by lying & making false comparisons).
Steve Jobs is loaded and just sold off Pixar. Maybe he has nothing left to prove like Bill Gates. I wonder if he will resign from Apple and devote his life to a charitable foundation.
I have to say, after seeing the keynote address online that I was pretty disappointed too. But Apple has gone from being a quirky little company no-one is worrying about to a major player in the consumer market. Microsoft's decision to create a rival to iPod is not so much a decision to get into a market they would like to be in as a strategic decision to spread thin Apple's resources. Like IBM's entry into photocopiers to keep Xerox out of the PC market, and Dell's entry into the printer market to worry HP and stop them using their profitable printer division subsidizing cheap PC's to gain market share. Apple has now got the attention of some of the world's biggest and most muscular companies and they're worried about how fast Apple could threaten their existing businesses. Apple now has to be doubly innovative to maintain their growth, and to keep on the offensive. There's a large part of me that would like - and thinks it possible - that Apple could be the major player in the next few years. I know I'd prefer them to Microsoft.
Offtopic or Funny?
Developers-developers-developers-developers!
(Score:-1, Offtopic)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 08, @11:27AM (#15866398)
Re:It's all about the developers.
(Score:4, Funny)
by Junior J. Junior III (192702) on Tuesday August 08, @01:30PM (#15867835)
Developers Developers Developers Developers
I've been hearing questions like this about Jobs for more years than I care to count.
Please move along. There is nothing here to read.
AKA Resolution Scaling
- to-expect-in-leopard.html
There is another post on the frost page complaining about Windows (but this really affects all O/S) having such high resolution fonts appear too small. I've messed with this in OS X 10.4 via a dev kit (Quartz allows you to turn it on partially). It's quite nice when Viewer and other apps aren't crashing.
http://dustin.waterfallsw.com/2006/05/one-feature
It's sad that Dvorak has been verbed. It's sadder still that I understood it as I read it.
bah.
This man has done enough. He sees that his company is making enough money. What is the reason to impress the people that are already marveling over Apple. OS upgrades are boring to me (except Vista in the way that they take away our rights ::DRM!!!::). Seriously folks this story is bogus...
If the results greatly benefits the Apple fanboys point, it is a fair comparison.
If the results don't benefit the Apple fanboys point, they will go to all sorts of lengths to argue why you can't compare a Dell to an Apple, and will except no substitutes(i.e. DVD, software, etc).
Can we just ignore this guy?
Kahney is the Troll who wrote The Cult of the Mac, a whole book doing nothing else but trying to pull a Dvorak on Mac users. He wrote a series of article for Wired, trying to paint Mac users as insane, ignorant cultists who value image over quality.
Nothing he said has ever contained anything of value to anyone. Let's just stop feeding this Troll.
Hes lost his mind.. Killed off the newton, then swtiched to intel.. the man is mad.. totally mad!
( hey its a joke.. sort of )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Umm, hello? McFly? Perhaps you missed the part where The Steve explained that they are still keeping the best stuff under wraps, ostensibly to thwart Microsoft's effort to copy yet another Mac-first feature (but probably more likely because they aren't ready for prime time yet). Remember, Tiger is still in development, with a release date still way in the future (I believe spring '07 was mentioned in the keynote.
:)
Besides, I for one found what they did show pretty damn compelling, especially Time Machine and Core Animation. Time Machine alone is worth the price of admission - I have long been wanting a system-wide sort of "undo" (they call it backup, but in many ways, it s really more like a system-wide "undo") for many years, and if the Time Machine demo is any indication, it looks like my wait is over. Apple implemented it in the usual elegant, beautiful way that we've come to expect from them.
And, I don't know about you, but personally I think it's refreshing that Steve decided to invite others to the party. It makes more sense for the hardware and software heads to present the new MacPro's and OS X, respectively. Besides, we finally get to see Phil, Bertrand, and co. live and in person, rather than by iChat AV
Yomigaeru Aiyan Geek!!!
As a former NeXT and current Apple developer, I go to WWDC for DEVELOPER stuff, not a bunch of announcements aimed at consumers and others who purchase Apple products. MacWorld is for the masses, WWDC is for the elite, commando-coders and tech heads. And me, a lowely code jockey who happens to have drank the Kool-ade® that is the ADC terms and conditions.
- Ubique, Tom Termini www.bluedog.net - WebObjects / J2EE SOA / iPhone solutions for knowledge workers
Actually, Apple's announcements this time seemed more interesting than they have at other such events: changes to Objective C, more open source (including xnu for Intel), significant changes to desktop applications, the long-awaited Intel desktop machines, etc. Maybe the poster should be looking for substance instead of style.
I covered tech conferences for 3 years as the editor of a small newsletter and never paid an entrance fee. There's no way the Apple beat writer for Wired paid to get into the WWDC. He was comped as a member of the press and there was probably even a press-only lounge with WiFi, computers, printers, coffee, drinks and food. Smart conference organizers pamper the press because there's no better advertisement than good PR.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Was the writer even at the same conference? As a Mac devotee and app builder I had a huge grin on my face for the entire presentation. The crowd was very happy.
I'm all for Apple's innovation; they more or less single-handedly revolutionized (not to mention legitimized) the mp3 player with iPod and iTunes. I love to see the new hardware and software innovations that they make, but I hope that their lack of truly innovative products this year means one thing: that they'll focus on quality, not novelty. No more iPods that scratch when you look at them the wrong way, no more overheating laptops, no more iPods with no way for the end user to replace the battery. I love innovation, but I want my products to 'just work,' not 'just work for a month.'
The Macintosh still can't do that!
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I can't handle those PPC bashing Intel fanboy comments. Even if he is boss of Apple and got my money for quad G5, anyone claiming a computer 4x and 5x faster than they sold just 2 days ago deserves to get ignored.
I mean there is a sentence saying "Up to 5x faster" used for a SERVER product. If you believe it somehow, some guys as IBM must investigate what really made those G5 Xserve 5x slower.
I am happy Apple could come up with something that is faster than Quad G5 but I can't see them as a serious company anymore.
If I was given moderator rights and Steve Jobs posted something claiming Dell is 4x faster than Apple with another nickname, I would moderate him "-1 troll" just 2 years ago.
No, my mind didn't change. I just gave up reading Apple.com site as a Mac owner and check sites like http://www.power.org/ to watch how the processor he bitches about performing.
I am saying again. Based on my local, quick and dirty benchmarks: Quad Xeon is slightly faster than Quad G5. Lets say 30%. Of course it has better memory and Xeon is a nice WORKSTATION CPU which is in use for years. Why making people mad by using "5x faster" crap? Is it part of Intel deal? I have never seen a professional workstation or a server dubbed "5x faster" in my life. It is completely non serious.
No reason to make their own customers nuts since they started point people to sites like http://www.tyan.com/ for companies doing those Xeon monsters for years. Call my system 5x slow yes? There you go.
Where will the madness end? F15 to turn monitor brightness up, F14 to turn the brightness down, [I use F13 for external DVD drive, Shifted to Snapz activate], F12 for Expose (and heck, hold it to eject the CD/DVD tray), F11 to see my desktop, F10 to see current application windows, F9 to see all windows, and [I use MousePose because I can ;]. I've even been known to use a non-Apple keyboard and use F1 for Mute, F2 to turn the sound down, and F3 to turn it up.
I haven't had the pleasure to watch the video yet, but NOW they're adding Virtual Desktops AND a Time Machine !? Where are those supposed to go on the keyboard? F7 and F6? I've only got 12 function keys [on my keyboard], for you know, FUNCTIONS. Oh wait...
At least on the plus side I'm sure I'll be able to customize these new fangled options as I so desire like most anything else and "it will just work". Very different than my 'experience' has been with XP at work...
I wonder if this new Time Machine will allow me to navigate back to $0.99/gal gas days???
You guys are hilarious.
Just face it, the article was right. Jobs poked fun at Microsoft for ripping off everyone elses' ideas, then did exactly this himself. Their TV adverts poke fun at Windows security problems, then we get 26 security holes in OS X. Microsoft execs involved in shady business practices get hammered. Same thing happens with Apple? Well, we all make mistakes, eh? As always from the Slashdot crowd, we get vilification for Microsoft and apologetics for Apple.
"Don't listen to the nasty man, Steve... here, have some more of our money"
Once they removed Steve Jobs' vampire leech he clearly lost the Wamphyri passion and mind warping mentalist powers he's known for - instead he is now an empty husk of what was. I saw it coming.. Stake him and bind him in silver chains- then off to the fire pit! >:)
One day soon, Steve Jobs is going to step down. So who will do the presentations? Frankly, up to now, apart from Jobs, they've been ineptly handled for such a billion-dollar company. Apple needs to put a handful of attractive, snappy presenters on contracts and train them up, solely to present. Because these shows are critical. Getting dumpy mumblers from the ranks on stage (however brilliant they be at their work) is the WRONG approach.
WWDC keynotes often seem to be about what Apple's been developing. For example, check out last year's keynote:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc05/
Lots of talk about iPod and iTunes.
This year, Apple brought balance by talking more about what's relevant to developers themselves. I for one was actually quite excited to see some work going into developing an impressive built-in backup system for OS X users.
I use Jobs for having sex, and he gave me alto-numerous help in that. I won't accept any retorts moved to Jobs' direction!
I have to say, I thought that Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall's presentations were quite interesting. It seems to me that Apple is moving very gradually towards a new kind of GUI, perhaps the oft-mentioned Piles. I think that Core Animation is key to this vision. While there is practically no chance of seeing piles appear in Leopard, I would fancy Apple'd chances of developing it in time for 10.6 or perhaps even OSXI. This would be a huge undertaking and one which would require users to adjust their habits . Seeing a greater degree of graphical fluidity in the way the OS performs its tasks is the best way to encourage users to embrace this change. I thought Steve Jobs did fine. As many of you have already mentioned, this is a developer conference. The effort that Apple puts in to these events is proportional to the size of the target audience. Accordingly, people shouldn't get too hung up or antsy if he fails to announce an iPhone or upgraded iPod. Wait until the pre-Holiday season for that. Similarly, expect more wizz-bang "end-user"-type features in Leopard to be announced at Macworld in January.
That should be Chair.Throw.Vector(window)
...would be to ask why people think he ever had it in the first place.
Apple have always been one of my primary pet hates where computers are concerned. I had to contend with their machines during both primary and secondary school. There was nothing particularly dislikable about the IIe for it's time...in terms of the BASIC language it came with it was reminiscent of the C64 I had at home. However, the Mac Classic's interface was strange, undiscoverable, and generally annoying. I can also remember it being particularly unstable...the bomb icon was a regular companion.
My uncle also had a Mac Classic, and I used to occasionally play games on it when I went to his house...that was after he got rid of his earlier C64, and I can remember thinking that using the C64 had been an infinitely more desirable experience, both in terms of the games, and the general interface. The selection of games for the Mac was severely limited, they were generally in monochrome, and I had to navigate the horrible UI first in order to get to them.
Then in 1994, after having used an Amiga for four years, I was faced with the choice of either buying a Mac or a 486. After researching the subject somewhat and discovering that a) I hardly knew of anyone who was selling Macs, that b) the hardware was twice the price, and c) I'd be paying double the money for a much smaller software base, (as well as the interface which I had grown to so passionately despise) there wasn't really any contest. I've been PC based ever since, and haven't looked back.
If I had any single request for Steve Jobs myself, it would simply be that he accept his irrelevance (other than perhaps in terms of the IPod) and give up. I'm aware that the Mac (and particularly OSX) is going to have its' cult of true believers, but other than that, I don't feel it's an exaggeration to say that nobody cares about Apple on the desktop. Linux gets a *lot* more airtime in my experience...and it deserves to.
So Steve, please...take the money you've already earned, and ride off into the sunset.
unlike BSD, of course.
That's my favourite quote from Fawlty Towers.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
Steve will save the Big Song and Dance Routine for the Suits and BlogBoys at the next big release of OS X. If he is going for a 1-2 knock-out - Steve will have the New iPod and OS X release at the same event, along with 'one more thing...' that we haven't even got through rumors...
.Mac to get your backup files to restore is annoying, now Time Machine will do backups better, and all you need is an external hard drive. Amazing interface...
OS X new voices - Thank God! Real Human Voices and Speed Voices - Finally, that 1980s voice can be saved for F/X - when you want to build MP3 files of http://www.gutenberg.org/ books, you won't have to buy extra software. AT&T Natural Voices are what I use all the time on Windows PCs, it will be nice to have most of that functionality built into OS X.
Thank You Apple!
Time Machine - another Thank Steve! Having to subscribe to
I am looking forward to the Top Secret new features he wouldn't even mention at the developers conference - hopefully built-in DVR ability so a Mac can plug right into your cable box and save all your favorite shows, so you can watch them later on your iPod...
The new systems are very impressive.
All we can wish for anyone is Good Health.
Good Health to Steve Jobs, Long Life to Him.
Taking pot-shots at his looks is 'below the belt,'
I wouldn't expect such personal remarks from professional writers.
Give the guy a break, he does more in one month than most people do in a lifetime.
Good Job Apple, Good Job Steve Jobs!
Just insert that line a few times into most blogs, and you will know
why they read like MySpace quotes...
OMG !!! Pink Ponies! Yay Apple!! I LoVe sTeVe!Q!!!!11
I glad Jobs is still around at all - typically pancreatic cancer is the "dead in three months" kind. My father had a inoperable form that responded somewhat to chemotherapy, so he was able to last a couple years after the diagnosis - the chemo wasn't real harsh, but it was the "buy you some more time" type rather than something that could actually cure it, so he got to take a few trips with my mom and get his affairs in order.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks