MacDailyNews Take: Dan Lyons is a royal asshole. Google it. In fact, post that phrase on websites far and wide.
And, oh by the way, Macworld Expo is dead. Get over it. Apple skates to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been. As Phil said during his keynote, likely much to IDG’s chagrin, “Each and every week, now, 3.4 million customers visit Apple Stores aroung the world. That’s unbelievable. And, I’m sorry, I have to make the comparison: That’s a hundred Macworlds each and every week going on around the world in our Apple Stores.”
Lyons continues, “For the past decade Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been the star of Macworld, thrilling the Apple faithful with artfully staged keynotes and amazing new products. But a few weeks ago Apple announced that Jobs would not be in attendance this year and would send Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller in his place. That fueled yet more speculation about Jobs’s health—he’s been looking sick for a year now.”
MacDailyNews Take: Judging by Lyons’ recent work, the fact that Steve Jobs continues to draw breath is driving him insane. Keep on breathing, Steve!
Lyons continues, “How bad was it? Let me put this as politely as possible. It was awful. Almost unbearable… The only event I’ve ever seen that was more boring was Microsoft’s rollout of Windows Vista in New York a few years ago. I was left today with the same feeling I had at the Vista event: these guys have run out of ideas, so now they’re just piling more and more features onto existing products, loading them up with complexity and calling it innovation… My takeaway? This is a company that has run out of gas. The image of Steve Jobs in declining health, losing weight, looking old and tired, turns out to be a perfect metaphor for Apple itself.”
MacDailyNews Take: Dan Lyons seems intent on becoming the poor man’s John Dvorak. And that’s about as sad as it gets. An Atlantic City hooker commands more respect.
Full article – oops, we lost the link. While we look for it, try this one instead: TIME.com 
Ask Newsweek why they employ a royal asshole and if they really believe that this sort of bullshit is going to stop the bleeding over there:
Now, watch Phil Schiller’s keynote and form your own opinion here.
the guy is a loser and a hit whore.
I feel sorry for him.
the things whores do to make money, sad.
Thank you for NOT posting the link. I would love to know how many people click the time link. You can then advertise that you kept x amount of people away from newsweek because of this article.
Newsweek, another news company ending up in the repository for low class journalism.
Much as I hate to agree with the man, it WAS boring (especially the iWork bit) and very disappointing – no new mini, no new iMac and no surprise. worst Keynote I’ve seen
The fact that the keynote was boring is good. Now no one will miss it in future years.
When Apple only had one or two new products a year, MacWorld was a fine place to announce them. But now Apple releases a couple dozen cool things annually and throughout the year. Saving all big announcements for MacWorld every January simply no longer makes sense.
The MacWorld keynotes served their purpose. Now it is time to move on. BTW, don’t trip over Mr. Lyons as you leave, but feel free to spit on him.
I haven’t watched the keynote yet, but there weren’t any announcements that I read about that had a WOW factor. It’s not surprising either. But there will be a WOW moment this year. That’s a guarantee.
Apple has said for a couple of years now that it is moving away from the major shows and making product announcements as they are ready. Why would a lack of whiz-bang product announcements come as a surprise?
The way analysts have hammered Apple after Macworld events, even if Apple introduces the items they expect, is unreal. I don’t think they even know that Macworld is not organized and put on by Apple.
Hmm… they announce major — sometimes game changing — products on a regular basis and then don’t announce something spectacular and suddenly Apple’s completely out of ideas?
Has everyone forgotten the “announcement” during the fourth quarter financial call where Apple said they were working on a new product line and it would take about a year from then to complete and would cost significant R&D;? I guess that can’t really exist since they re completely out of ideas.
Everyone screamed and the stock took a significant hit because of that announcement. Too bad since that idea and product can’t exist according to the know-it-all Dan Lyons.
He REALLY needs to stick to satire.
As a journalist… even on Apple which he should know… he’s pathetic.
I mean, my gawd, the obsession with the perfect battery. It is SO Steve Jobs is alive ALIVE and in charge.
And MacWorld keynotes virtually always disappoint. You can’t release an iphone every year… you do it once and improve improve improve. And remember SJ is “most proud” of the things they don’t release.
This is quintessential Apple–the REAL Apple–for the past decade. DL is comparing it to the myth of Apple. Remember that the “ipod hifi” was once an important keynote item [apologies in advance if I misremember and it wasn’t at a MW keynote].
And we need the guys in Cupertino working on iPhone OS 3.0… and longer battery life without compromises… not going off in a different direction so DL has something to write about.
The idea that Apple wanted out of MW because the expectations of an iphone like announcement every January is impossible to meet–I think that idea has been vindicated.
Making nice with the music industry so no more DRM is really important. Hardly fills a keynote though. Innovation is hard to schedule.
The lameness and cluelessness of DL on Apple is painful because FS was so wonderful.
Reality: DL is out of gas and has nothing interesting to sell. And he’s not Dvorak… he’s the next Mary Jo Foley.
Personally, I thought the keynote was great. It gave Phil a perfect opportunity to present iLife 09, iWork 09 and the 17″ MacBook Pro.
I mean, what do people want from Apple’s presentations? Clowns? Fireworks? Glass cubes… ?
Additionally, I think the new trend to give Apple engineers their 15 minutes of fame is a fascinating touch; what other company pays that much attention to the dimensions of a battery, or the structure of a notebook’s shell, for starters?
All in all, Phil did a good job and I’m satisfied with how it turned out. I’m definitely getting iLife and iWork, too!
Perfect example of why Apple needs to stop doing Macworlds. People’s expectations from this trade show have gotten insane. Who can possibly keep up with it? If Apple’s product cycles dont match up with macworld, we have crazy tech columnists proclaiming their impending doom.
The more of this I see the more I absolutly agree with Apple’s decision to stop doing Macworld keynotes… if people want “WOW” announcements from Apple, they they have to let Apple do them on it’s own timetable, not IDG’s.
no tablet or netbook killer unfortunately equals no WOW factor.
Even SJ would have been seen to be flogging a dead horse today.
Hey, even a Mac Mini upgrade or a HDMI port update to it would have been interesting. A 17″ version of a 15″ product is hardly going to raise the roof ( or the share price tomorrow).
love it. steve jobs’ keynotes always are followed by stock drops; there seems to be a disappointment factor. no matter how many great products apple announces, the market says not enough. so phil does a decent keynote (hey he’s not steve ok?), and what do you know – the stock drops; just as if steve himself gave it.
and despite the complaints – drm-free itunes, and a great refresh of the 17″, and nice new features in ilife and iwork – is a very decent macworld product roll-out. jeez
and now we’ll get new stuff announced all year long, when it’s ready, and the apple machine will grow through the recession, leaving competitors in the dust and with fat profits that allow the r&d;to create more great products.
i’m a happy camper. and long in apple.
Why are so many commentators falsely claiming that there was “nothing interesting” at today’s Macworld? Is it just because they’ve built up all these ridiculously unrealistic expectations that they can’t appreciate reality?
Soon we will see Snow Leopard. New iPhones will come. We just got the two greatest notebooks every created a short while ago. The iPod touch is taking off along with the Apps Store. Perspective is important here.
The horses are at the second furlong and this guy it pointing at the starting gate to say it is empty!
Idiocy seems to be the mantra of “writers” as of late.
Alright usually I do not comment but this is enough. Bottom line, no one will EVER be pleased with the Keynotes at Macworld or WWDC. Apple could come out with a flying car that drove anywhere you wanted just by thinking it and people still wouldn’t be happy. Even when the iPhone came out it was something like price or why didn’t upgrade this or that. When 3G came out people STILL complained about stupid little stuff like copy and paste. Apple is victim of their own success. The MacHeads expects EVERYTHING, and the critics fish for hits like this guy.
So you didn’t get a iMac, Mini, or Pro. Boohoo. Who is to say these won’t be updated within the next month or two. Apple clearly wants to go by their own schedule, that is one of the reasons they aren’t doing this anymore. They take this chance to point our their effort in engineering. Everything else is a simple product announcement. The Pro doesn’t need much updating, its already miles ahead. The iMac wasn’t update TOO long ago so stop making it seem like you haven’t seen a new iMac in years. As far as the Mini, it is their budget computer, the lowest priority, they are not going to put cutting edge into it because it wouldn’t be cheap then! Like I said, because it didn’t come out today doesn’t mean it isn’t coming out, you guys will just have to speculate more for a month or two. So you should be happy, you still have something to do.
Why no Snow Cat? My guess is they are playing the cards closer to the chest. So they can hopefully, hopefully, hopefully pleasantly surprise you and devastate their competition.
Bottom line, stop b*tching. The just updated a slew of software with really useful stuff. Needed? No. But useful, depending on who you are. DRM free music, which people have been complaining for forever, and Apple needed to keep fighting with Amazon. Then there is the MBP, which is all I really wanted. They delivered. The most perfect computer ever while keeping it essentially they same price it was at (unless you want 8GB!). The only thing I wish they did was have a 500GB HDD, which I am sure they will get the next time they update after Snow Cat comes out. I CAN WAIT. Please people, STOP THE WHINING!!!
Amelio did better.
I’m glad they’re taking their time with Snow Leopard. Rushing Leopard out the door was a bad idea.
I think they may stage an event in a few months where they roll out Snow Leopard plus a refresh to their entire desktop line that complements SL. It’ll really be significant, even though not as flashy as a whole new product (like a netbook-type item). It’ll put more distance between the Mac and the PC world, which will pay off big-time in the long run.
The guy sounds like a tool and a hit whore. But MDN looks just as bad by resorting to their usual name calling and then refusing to put up a link to the article because someone dares criticize Apple.
Yo
MDN
Yeowza
Jump in THAT guy’s shit with BOTH feet
GRRRRRRR
You’re in excellent form on this one
Keep it up
Love it
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BC
EvilRonin,
We’re still looking for that link. As soon as we find it…
In the meantime, lighten up, Francis.
Is this guy still bitter that people like Fake Steve Jobs better than him? Did he watch the same keynote as I did? There weren’t dancing girls, but there were several solid updates announced, most of which people have been begging for.
I guess the people who found the iWork stuff boring don’t use iWork. I use Pages and Numbers, and more than once while Phil was talking I thought “oh, cool” or “finally”.
The iLife stuff, on the other hand, didn’t interest me, but parts of it still looked cool.
But this fool, may be correct. Nothing special came out of this macworld event from apple. Software upgrades, Big Deal, Itunes new features, (Boring)..
Fact is that Apple is getting so big and so recognized that the yearly high expectation Macworld cult convention simply isn’t nearly as important as the millions that are walking into their stores each day learning about and buying their products. It’s just preaching to a small choir when a new huge world choir is being discovered. I would bet a small percentage of people walking into an Apple Store barely even know what Macworld is. It is simply small potatoes now and less important.
For me, I would rather see two things..one is Apple making everybody at CES drool and weep…second….Apple giving live H264 streams from directly form their new campus to the world…when they feel like, not every January. That would be cool.