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."

Translation

[jayhawk88]

I want an iPhone! Gimme gimme gimme gimme now!!!!!

It's obvious

[teamhasnoi]

Steve isn't going to waste exciting things on Developers for pete's sake - he's saving the insta-boner stuff for the Consumers. Excite Developers too much and you end up with a music video of a sweaty fat guy, or Kai's Power Tools.

I think we can all agree we don't want either.

Re:I dont get why should we get 'excited'

[fohat]

You must be new here?

Re:Wow! Not *THE* Leander Kahney!

[DuncanE]

Man.. despite being totally correct you are gonna get modded six feet under, but I think I have a new fav slashdot quote ;-)

"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."

Re:WTF???

[Quiet_Desperation]

Nobody attending WWDC thought so.

What?! You mean the unamed female reporter sitting next to Leander who wouldn't know Monty Python humor if it built a condominium in her arse cannot be considered a reliable barometer? The deuce you say!

hold up, did you just...

[westcoast philly]

Reference the Spice Girls?? what the hell?!

Apple losts it pace.

[jellomizer]

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.

You mean, iLlness.

[chocolatetrumpet]

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Re:"Last Time, Jobs Walked on 6 Feet of Water!"

[Phat_Tony]

ice creame sundaes

I know nobody likes grammar nazi's, but you misspelled "hot grits."

Re:It's all about the developers.

[Dionysos Taltos]

I think the author is comparing Jobs to Balmer. Afterall, why can't Steve get fat, sweat, and scream "developers, developers, developers" to liven things up and remove the spector of death that the "gaunt" and "uninspiring" Steve Jobs is creating?

;)

Re:It's all about the developers.

[Junior J. Junior III]

Developers Developers Developers Developers

Woooo!!

I love this company!

</sweat>

Chair.Throw()

Re:It's all about the developers.

[rkrabath]

Your chair can throw its self?

throw(chair);

Re:Poor Apple.

[Frac]

And for the extra $1000, I'll deal with the wires, thankyouverymuch.

Really? You'll pay an extra $1000 for a Dell [dealnews.com], AND deal with the messy wires?

You must be a pretty smart guy.

Re:Translation

[Panaflex]

Ohh, come now.. haven't you ever heard of iSue?

*smirk*

Jeez...

[jpellino]

Steve's finally delegating.
Apple's showing the developers what matters to them.
Run for your lives!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

RTFA?

[JonTurner]

>>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.

Not me! In proud /. 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!

Re:I dont get why should we get 'excited'

[TheGreek]

If you have your XP home CD, you should be able to install it, howerer. Run X:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP.msi where X:\ refers to your CD-ROM drive-letter.

Excellent. That's a lot simpler and more intuitive than Apple's solution.

Thank you.