Has Steve Jobs Lost His Magic? 432
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."
Poor Apple. (Score:2, Insightful)
illness (Score:5, Insightful)
Didn't he have surgery for a tumor?
I dont get why should we get 'excited' (Score:3, Insightful)
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 ?
Speaking of thing to yawn at... (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
thin and gaunt (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Business as Ususal? (Score:3, Insightful)
People should be ashamed (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey, let's jump to conclusions (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought this was bussiness? (Score:2, Insightful)
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
Developer's Conference (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheers,
Ian
Lost his magic? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
They're just learning from the pros (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
MacOS 8.6 (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd rather be underwhelmed and content, than overwhelmed, just to fall farther down.
It's A Developers Conference (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow! Not *THE* Leander Kahney! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Which Is It? (Score:3, Insightful)
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?
Time Machine? (Score:3, Insightful)
Bad day? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Last Time, Jobs Walked on 6 Feet of Water!" (Score:5, Insightful)
"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
WTF??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like the article's author doesn't care about anything besides iPods, but there is more to technology than just small gadgets.
Re:Speaking of thing to yawn at... (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, to me, this sounds simply like this specific journalist drank too much of his own kool-aid, and is disappointed that Apple and Jobs don't live up to the hype that he probably created himself in earlier articles. And now he is frustrated, and vents his frustration in a meaningless articles. Kinda reminds me of how the Spice girls fell. First everyone loved them. Then, suddenly everyone hated them, even though their music really hadn't changed. I think the same thing might happen to Apple and Jobs if they make even minor missteps. Everyone will be so happy to make some new predictions that they'll be announcing the emperor's nakedness even before the emperor is on the street.
Personally, I'll just enjoy what Apple is doing so far. The iPod is great, and while I'd love the full-screen iPod if it ever comes to pass, I'm happy to wait for it. Same with a MacBook that doesn't burn and can play Spore.
I dunno' (Score:4, Insightful)
I wish MS could "bore" me like this...
Re:Business as Ususal? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen this with a number of companies. People start to believe that a temporary blip, like the introduction of the iPod and Apple's subsequent explosive growth in revenue, is forever. Then they get pissed when they find out it isn't, and blame it on obvious incompetence by management. Instead, the problem lies strictly with vastly exaggerated expectations. Remember the little blurb about past performance not predicting future performance? It's there for a reason.
Re:I know Leander K. and you, sir, are no Leander (Score:2, Insightful)
So what's his excuse for this whiny bitch of an article?
Re:Reflection of an Industry In General (Score:2, Insightful)
What's cool to a developer (new tools, under the hood improvements, etc,) isn't necessarily cool to users. Users get excited about things that make their experience faster, easier, and, yes - cool. Different kinda stuff...
This conference is for the guys that develop the cool stuff that make our computers useful.
Yes, Jobs & Co. is saving the cool stuff for Christmas - he noted, I understand, that a lot of cool stuff in 10.5 is being held under wraps to keep them away from the Redmond copiers.
I don't think we've hit any kind of plateau - things are just in development cycles that aren't being released yet. 10.5 is coming out spring 2007 - Vista is coming out maybe then, maybe not.
Besides, Vista is the version of the Windows OS that was supposed to come out with the Mac OS's earlier versions - kinda late, idn't it? But it's coming, even so, and in a form that, while it may be behind Leopard, it's still an advance for that OS, and a major one at that.
The Mac OS is going to be just such a major advance for the Apple world.
In both, there will be features that are new and innovative for the platform they're used on. That's progress, and it'll be exciting for the folks that care about the particular platforms involved. (and I understand that there are some features in Vista that Apple hasn't chosen to mimic - of course, Jobs isn't going to mention that...)
So, if we're on a plateau, it's just until the development cycle rolls around to release dates...
Re:Insecure Microsoft stab is hillarious (Score:3, Insightful)
if apple announced and demoed all of their super top secret features for leopard now, there would certainly be plenty of time for ms to get them in to vista if they're useful/flashy enough and thus apple would lose a little lead on microsoft. apple wants to be able to say "we're ahead of microsoft" and if a feature doesn't make it into the initial release of vista, it will usually be quite a while before it makes it in and this is exactly how apple needs to act if it wants to eat into microsoft's space.
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Poor Apple. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, in fact, when you look at what's come out of the WWDC, there are some good, solid improvements. Leopard sounds to me like it'll be a worthwhile upgrade, Xcode 3 sounds like it has some improvements that I, not being a developer, won't fully appreciate. And the Mac Pros came out, which is a pretty big deal. It means Apple has a full Intel line-up, and the MacPro looks to be a speed demon at a very competitive price.
And let's not forget that Apple just announced the Intel transition one year ago. The first Intel-based Macintoshes were releases a little over six months ago. Apple is a company in rapid transition and I'm sure it's a lot for them to deal with, and as their position solidifies, they shouldn't be making as many total-redesigns and huge changes all the time. OSX is becoming a more mature OS, and so the improvements should have fewer huge leaps and more incremental shifts. The should be continuing to fine-tune under the hood. The should be refining their UI instead of redesigning from scratch.
I just don't see that there's anything to complain about. They'll release some new hardware designs in the next year, most likely. I think that a phone and a media-center device may well be on the horizon-- now that they've finished the Intel transition and they're on-track to release the next version of the OS, I think their R&D may become more and more focussed on new devices and the next-big-thing after the iPod.
Re:Poor Apple. (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry Dell fans, your boxes with wires sticking out everywhere do not cut it and "software" Soundblaster emulators do not cut it either.
Wired is now anti-geek? (Score:1, Insightful)
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.
Re:Speaking of thing to yawn at... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
This is more proof that the rumor sites are Apple's worst enemy. They hype things up, even though Apple purposely keeps quiet.
The things that were demoed were demoed because they pertain to developers who will need to interface with the new APIs and test for compatibility with their existing apps. For example:
The only thing I can't think of pertaining to devs is iChat, but I'm sure there's a reason they demoed it now. Also, did anyone notice it wasn't using brushed metal anymore? Straight Aqua.
Re:I dont get why should we get 'excited' (Score:4, Insightful)
In otherwords, it's good for saving your "My Documents" folder after you've bothered to install it.
Re:Speaking of thing to yawn at... (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember, they are still sitting on features. (Score:4, Insightful)
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
Just going to get worse, I think (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
Re:Apple vs Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
It's in Apple's best interest for people to be "underwhelmed" with the 10 features shown, especially competitors like Microsoft. All the more of an impact when Apple fully reveals Leopard at MacWorld.
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:virtual desktops (Score:4, Insightful)
If Windows or OS X had the ability you can bet it would be a matter of checking a check box in a control panel. It's great that Linux has some exotic capabilities, but not everybody enjoys scouring a bazillion different mailing lists and web forum posts for obscure clues to exactly what to put into a text file to get something to work.
As long as Microsoft and Apple keep adding easy to use features there will be vast hordes of people willing to pay money for them. Those hordes won't care that Linux could have accomplished the same thing years earlier because those hordes wouldn't have spent the hours or weeks of research necessary to make Linux do those things. But they'll gladly pay Apple or Microsoft ~$100 because their time is more valuable than that.
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the "problem" is that some people are looking for the next significant advance that i s AMAZING. Well, the iPod itself wasn't that amazing when it came out. What is more amazing is people bought em. Every release form Apple is not going to be awe inspiring or even that exciting. 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. That is significant! Anyway, the new hardware kicks ass in my opinion. I probably will never have one.
Re:Speaking of thing to yawn at... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the main problem is that the Intel announcement last year was a huge announcement. However, being a developer's conference it was the most appropriate time, place and crowd to make that announcement since they're the ones that were really going to have to deal with the transition. That simple.
They're not going to top the Intel announcement any time soon for pure shock value. It just ain't happening. Not because Apple is out of cool stuff, but because changing architectures every year would be absolute madness and nothing short of that is gonna get people freaking out like the Intel switch.
However, since it was a developer's conference I was also hoping for them to bump the MacBook Pros up to Core 2 Duos. Virtual desktops make me happy though. (Woohoo!) And frankly, the longer they wait to announce the update to Core 2 Duo (within reason anyway) the longer I have before I shell out more money on something I really don't *need.*
Re:People should be ashamed (Score:2, Insightful)
Or, put another way... Murphy's Laws of Combat [nightstalkers.com], Rule 28:
Re:Poor Apple. (Score:1, Insightful)
Toolless chassis are a dime a dozen, and it isn't all that impressive coming from apple.
Re:Translation (Score:4, Insightful)
It'll be quite nice to use this as a tool to show and illustrate specification documents, builds of software, etc.
Yet, this will only be handy if Apple develops a Windows and a Tiger client. If it only works with other Leopard users... forget it.
Re:Just going to get worse, I think (Score:2, Insightful)
Hardcore techies (like most Slashdot readers) are the pioneers who thrash boldly into new territory, clearing away all the underbrush but not having the political skills to get an actual town going. Apple is the savvy town booster who recognizes the value of the local natural resources, then organizes the volunteer fire brigade and the library and arranges for a train station to arrive in town (after cleverly buying the soon-to-be-valuable land next to the station-to-be.) And Microsoft is the guy that arrives several generations later and builds the shopping mall.
Major Change (Score:2, Insightful)
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?"
Re:I know Leander K. and you, sir, are no Leander (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's all about the developers. (Score:2, Insightful)
As for your previous comments:
"Tablet PCs are very much a niche technology."
Exactly, and artists are part of that niche market. There are very few professions where tablet PCs are more useful to the task at hand.
"And most of the artist types already have an off-monitor tablet and know how to use it. And, you can definitely rotate them, and rotate your screen."
You're bizarre "artist types" fixation aside, I've got to question if you have ever even used a tablet. You can NOT rotate them in any usable manner, as soon as you do it breaks any sort of continuity between your hand and what you are drawing. Do you even understand what rotate means? If you think it means landscape vs portrait as the GP suggested, you're sadly mistaken. I hear Corel Photopaint (or is it Painter?) has a rotating canvas feature, but can't confirm this first hand. And even then it's not nearly as natural as drawing on a surface that you can rotate freely.
"And, you have the heavy-duty CPU for your high-end graphics card, and you can select the exact monitor you want (for color, contrast, etc.) at the resolution you want."
That still doesn't replace the usefulness of a tablet PC. Are you really so clueless as to think that no one whose livelihood depends on their art can afford a second machine, especially if it is a laptop? Get real, a tablet PC is like a heavy (though not that heavy anymore) sketchpad that you can take anywhere, has unlimited undo, doesn't require scanning to get the images on a computer, and doubles as a fully functional laptop.
"What kind of pressure gradient is available on Tablet PCs anyway? Can it detect stylus tilt? Does the stylus have fully scriptable buttons on it?"
I believe they're all 256 levels of pressure on the Wacom Tablet PCs, which is completely sufficient. I believe all of the recent ones detect tilt, though I don't know what level of sensitivity (probably not hard to fucking google it, you know), and if you mean the stylus has buttons that can be mapped to other features than left and right click or whatever, I think that depends on the tablet manufacturer. The pens tend to differ between makers, for instance the Gateway's (which are about the lowest end you can get) they sell at Best Buy don't even have an eraser.
The amount of buttons available when using the convertibles in tablet mode is a bit of a problem, as most don't have that many buttons exposed (and I hear are poorly placed for lefties sometimes) and I have yet to see one with a rocker switch like a Wacom tablet on the pen. But even my Wacom pen is lacking there, where's the middle mouse button? Additionally, if apple is such a great hardware maker and artists really are a core part of their user base, how come they haven't put out a tablet PC done right? I don't even like macs and I'd buy one if apple put out a good enough model, it's not like windows is my native platform either.
Maybe you should read a review [highend3d.com] of one sometime, or something. Or better yet, go find a retail location that has demos of them. Just make sure they're running software that can actually take advantage of the pressure and don't listen to the idiot sales kid if he tries to tell you they don't support pressure.
Re:Poor Apple. (Score:3, Insightful)