“Unless you were one of the poor reporters who had to yo-yo between Las Vegas and San Francisco this week, you may not have noticed a hidden message in all of the hoopla over the new Apple iPhone,” Michael S. Malone writes in a commentray for The Wall Street Journal.
Malone writes, “Apple Computer (make that Apple Inc. now) deliberately counterscheduled its annual MacWorld Expo — and its important new product announcement — directly against the Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s biggest consumer-electronics convention. Apple was sending a message that not only does it not inhabit the same universe as the rest of the consumer-electronics world (even Microsoft felt obliged to attend CES), but that its announcement would trump anything coming out of Vegas.”
MacDailyNews Note: “‘We’ve always had our event in the second week of January, beginning on Monday. They’re the ones who changed the date,’ said Mike Sponseller, a spokesman for IDG World Expo, operator of Macworld,” Dawn Kawamoto reported for CNET News on January 13, 2006. “CES, which usually kicks off around the second weekend in January, had to go with its 2007 dates because of its contract with the convention center in Las Vegas, noted Leah Arnold, a CES spokeswoman.” Full article here.
Malone continues, “And it did. The blogosphere lit up the moment Steve Jobs took the stage. On places like Fark.com, the usual fights broke out between the eternally moonstruck Macolytes (more cruelly, ‘Macsturbators’) and the increasingly jealous Apple-haters. CNN, as is usual with Apple, turned its news coverage into a day-long iPhone flack.”
Malone writes, “Mr. Jobs is the most paradoxical of creatures. On the one hand, though time and mortality have mellowed him, he remains something of a monster. If, like me, you grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, interviewed him in the early days of Apple, and even wrote a book about him and his company, there will always be things about him that are unforgivable — cruelties and manipulations (especially to Steve Wozniak), early crimes (illegal telephones, ironically), megalomania, and an unquenchable need to take credit from others (Do you know who led the original Mac team? Invented the iPod? Devised the new iPhone? I didn’t think so) — and that no achievement will ever erase.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh great, a Wall Street Journal commentator with an axe to grind.
Malone writes, “Yet there is no denying that Mr. Jobs is a business genius, the greatest marketer of our time, the most charismatic figure in electronics history. And he is the only really interesting person left in high tech, once the liveliest, most maverick corner of the industrial world. Sometimes, he seems like the only guy left in tech who’s having fun. Of course, there are also the products themselves. The iMac, the iPod and the new iPhone are, whatever the flaws, masterpieces of industrial design and enlightened human interfacing. They make competitors’ products — even when they’re better machines — seem plodding and prosaic. So even if Mr. Jobs shamelessly steals the limelight from his subordinates, we have seen, and hope never to see again, what Apple looks like without him.”
Malone writes, “This week, Mr. Jobs showed just what he can do when he’s in good health and sitting on a cool new product. There were great products at the CES, but after Tuesday no one noticed. The iPhone, which won’t be shipped until June, suffers from a number of classic Apple-under-Jobs weaknesses: not enough memory, probably not enough battery, a comparatively large (though wonderfully thin) case, a touch screen that will infuriate cell phone users and scratch up like the early iPods, and an unpopular distribution partner (Cingular). And the iPhone is stunningly expensive ($500 plus a two-year Cingular commitment).”
Malone writes, “But who cares? As Mr. Jobs said, the iPhone is going to revolutionize the phone. Not because it offers anything fundamentally new, but because it brilliantly ties together nearly all of the currently disparate portable consumer tech functions into a single exquisite package driven by a powerful and intuitive interface. But that’s only part of it. The iPhone will transform the market because unlike other tech mavericks who try to push the envelope, Mr. Jobs can introduce the iPhone, even in a clumsy, overpriced 1.0 version, and trust that the army of several million Apple true believers will rush out and buy.”
“For all his demons, thank God for him in this age of cookie-cutter CEOs. For a decade now (and for another decade at the beginning of the PC age) he has run the most enthralling and rewarding show in high tech. Let’s hope he gives us at least one decade more,” Malone writes
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whoops, scratch “Wall Street Journal commentator” stuff and make it “royal asshole with an axe to grind who writes schizo commentaries for which the normally-sane Wall Street Journal actually pays him and then, incredibly, publishes.” Note that Malone praises sporadically in order to grant himself license to demean with what he thinks is impunity. We moonstruck Macsturbators hereby revoke your license, Mr. Malone.
We won’t even bother asking why he describes the iPhone as “clumsy,” how he knows all about iPhone touchscreens, batteries, and memory without ever touching one, or why he can’t understand that people, sorry “Macsturbators,” buy Apple Macs and other Apple products simply because they are markedly better than the alternatives.
Only God knows what he thinks Steve Jobs did to him that caused such obvious and deep-seated emotional scars.
We can only surmise that Malone wants this cruel monstrous Jobs creature to continue manipulating his army of eternally moonstruck Macolytes for as long as possible, so he can continue working on his pathological hatred issues in public by staining the pages of The Wall Street Journal with his festering bullshit.
Let’s Google a bit, shall we? Here are some quotes by master prognosticator Michael S. Malone from his article “Apple R.I.P.” published by Forbes on October 5, 2000:
• Steve Jobs can’t run companies… Why is he a poor CEO? Because he’s mercurial, insufficiently engaged by the more boring (but crucial) operations like distribution and, ultimately, because he’s a pretty nasty piece of work.
• Apple is a small fish, and the pond is going dry… Now that Apple has upgraded its customer base it has no place to go. And to make matters worse, the rise of personal digital assistants, palmtops, embedded controllers, etc. promises in the next few years to render the PC industry into a backwater business filled with commodity products–hardly the place to be a pricey innovator.
• Cool people, Apple’s market, are already bored with the iMac. Thus, Jobs created an insatiable hunger for novelty that now even Apple, even with its splendid new cube, can’t satiate. In the process, he hastened the entire personal computer industry towards its end… having hastened the end of the desktop PC era, Steve Jobs has put Apple again in a precarious position. When the end does come, the big companies will have the necessary capital to transition into the multitude of new industries that will evolve out of the PC. The products of these new markets will be, thanks to Apple, stylish and beautiful. What an irony it will be if Apple, cranking out ever-less profitable commodity iMacs, its stock depressed, cannot afford to follow.
Malone’s crystal ball is as cracked as his head.
Contact info:
Wall Street Journal Comments and Feedback: newseditors@wsj.com
Michael S. Malone at Forbes: mmalone@forbes.com
Michael S. Malone at AOL: msmalone@aol.com
“Macsturbators”
That’s about as original as Smackintush and Crapple. So many idiots, so little Polonium.
sad
WSJ: Wall Street Jealousy?
“Do you know who led the original Mac team? Invented the iPod? Devised the new iPhone? I didn’t think so”
Hmmmm, do we know who at JVC invented the VCR?
Who at Sony invented the Walkman?
Who at Sony came up with HDV?
Who at Motorola created the RAZR?
Who at Commodore invented the C64?
Who at IBM created the PC Jr.?
Who at Adobe created Photoshop>
Sign that somebody didn’t do his homework: He thinks Apple schedules MacWorld Expo. I’m no Professional Journalist, but let me just try this. Maybe it’s really hard.
1. Going to http://www.macworldexpo.com.
2. Reading the copyright text on the web site.
3. Noticing that it says “(C) 2007 IDG WORLD EXPO CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED”
4. Thinking, “Hmmm, maybe IDG World Expo Corp is a subsidiary of Apple Inc.”
5. Clicking on the “IDG WORLD EXPO” button.
6. Noticing that IDG World Expo also hosts Linux conferences and Novell Whatever conferences.
7. Thinking, “Naw, that doesn’t sound like Apple Inc. Must be somebody else.”
It took 6 steps. None of them required a Degree in Professional Journalism.
MDN: clearly
Counterschedule?
MacWorld happens on the second Tuesday in January! CES is the trade show that seems to be a bit more flexible in its scheduling.
Did MDN actually read the article?!
This dude actually said some pretty good things about apple and the iPhone, and any criticisms of Apple are either already well known, or are just complaining that the Apple stuff is too good…doesnt really seem like a complaint to me.
Stop being so extreme MDN!
Michael S. (MELON-HEAD) Malone is a career Mac-basher. I noticed him way back in early ‘90s. He has a sad life bashing Mac and spreading bigotry. Decades later, Apple excelled to high status but Mike Melon-head Malone STILL writes for FOOD!!! Enough said!!! SAD LIFE!!!
WTF?
MacWorld was always scheduled on the second week in January. When there were 2 shows per year the second was usually second week in July.
This guy is a sad, pathetic, little man.
Not sure about the others, but after seeing the Photoshop splash screen, I DO know that Seetharaman Narrayanan had SOMETHING to do with Photoshop Development!
(ok… don’t troll me with the correct spelling of his name. Just saying that, it’s amazing what the human brain can pick up when it’s not even paying attention. Like, how, for , oh 6-7 years, I have seen the name Seetharaman Narrayanan, or whatever it is, about 2-3 times a day. .. well, maybe not since I switched to Mac, seeing as I don’t have to restart three times a day like in Windows.)
“Who at Adobe created Photoshop?”
Point well taken but it’s a shame people have no clue about the brothers Thomas Knoll and John Knoll who began development on Photoshop in 1987.
The Knoll brothers deserve recognition.
Would have been nice if he gave some examples… “– even when they’re better machines — “. he was referring to the competition. The iPhone price seems very competitive with it’s competition.. other ‘smart’ phones. Holy sheet, the FUD is already over the top,… in business and politics the truth gets lost in the spin cycle, pathetic.
At MDN, everyone who doesn’t love everyone and everything about Apple has an “axe to grind” and get virulent condemnation. What’s up with that? Do we all really have to love the Finder?
Seems a pretty fair article to me. He makes obvious his reasons for disliking Jobs (his book – ‘Infinite Loop’ – is very good on the first two decades of Apple). The last half of the piece is full of praise for the man and MDN gets all uptight about it? There’s a difference between supporting Apple and remaining willingly blinkered to their faults. If, as in this case, MDN wishes to go or the latter approach then it is the one guilty of producing “festering bullshit”.
8GB isn’t enough memory? What is wrong with these people? It’s certainly enough for a ton of music on my Nano.
Plus it has an SD slot on the top, so add 2 more gigs if you really need it.
Who invented photoshop? The credits roll every time I open the app. For a full list of credits that actually do roll, go to About Photoshop…
“They make competitors’ products — even when they’re better machines — seem plodding and prosaic.”
Notice he doesn’t mention anything that he thinks is better.
“The iPhone, which won’t be shipped until June, suffers from a number of classic Apple-under-Jobs weaknesses: not enough memory, probably not enough battery,…”
Hmm, he prints speculation as fact, and makes things up, how quaint. Lets check the competition, shall we. The BlackJack is the latest and greatest. It has only 64MB memory. It has only a 1.3 MP camera.
“Mr. Jobs can introduce the iPhone, even in a clumsy, overpriced 1.0 version”
Imagine that, he tosses a stone without explaining what ‘clumsy; means.
This guy is such a phony, and not even a good one. He is the classic phony that puts fake praise in with his insults to make it seem like he’s being kind.
OMG An article that isn’t trying to kiss Steve Jobs ass! We have to take him down. The guy is plain wrong about Macworld scheduling because Apple doesn’t pick it, but other than that he has good points. Steve is not the font from which all good Apple things spring. He’s a brilliant business leader and motivator, but there are lots of geniuses who have been at Apple who have done great things. Steve hasn’t done a good job of giving them all the credit they deserve. Steve has flaws. Accept that. It doesn’t mean he’s a terrible person or that the mac is a bad platform. It means he’s human. Get over it.
What does Fake Steve have to say about this?
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/01/sure-enough-hack-of-all-hacks-michael-s.html#links
Michael S. Malone gets it. I think.
WizeGuy: I’m with you. Was MDN reading the same article?
“This dude actually said some pretty good things about apple and the iPhone, and any criticisms of Apple are either already well known, or are just complaining that the Apple stuff is too good…doesnt really seem like a complaint to me.”
What he does is classic politically correct attacks. Mask an attack with a pseudo compliment. It’s like saying, He’s rude, obnoxious, but he’s trying to stop his compulsion to club baby seals”. Is the last one a compliment? No, not really, but people will think you’re being nice.
With all due disrespect, “Jay,” YOU GET OVER IT.
When Billy Boy Gates, Stevie Monkey Boy Ballmer, Michael Dull Dell, and CEO’s of that ilk begin to show 1/10th of the leadership, innovation, vision, and inspiration of this “flawed” person, we’ll take him down a notch. Count on it.
Until then, put your penis envy back in your pants and STFU. There must be plenty of websites that give a crap what you have to say.
BTW, Fake Steve has edited it to remove some of the vulgarity. The first version was way more harsh.
“OMG An article that isn’t trying to kiss Steve Jobs ass! We have to take him down”
No, we don’t need to take him down for disagreeing, we need to object to the dishonest reporting. Yes, he may make some good points, but a lot of what he says is speculation passed off as fact, which is dishonest. He also throws out negatives without explaining why he thinks that. For instance, he calls the iPhone clumsy, without explaining what’s clumsy about it.
In fact, he makes many comments on the iPhone, but doesn’t mention if he even got his hands on one. He knocks it for having too little memory, when it has far more memory than the competition.
Malone is just pissed because he can’t find anyone to squirt with his Zune.
Whoever wrote this needs thearpy.
And actually, Jobs isn’t a business genius, he’s a design genius, and that is what endears people to Apple products.
Hey guys relax!
Let’s all come out with Tshirts with something like ” I’m a proud and happy Macsturbator!!”
Jokes can hurt much more that serious word, beside that MDN did a great job finding that old article…
The majority of journalists these days are just prostitutes…
take it easy!
Malone’s quote slightly modified to make it accurate:
“Cool people, Apple’s market, are already bored with the [iMac] commodity PC. Thus, Jobs created an insatiable hunger for novelty that now even Apple…can’t satiate. In the process, he hastened the entire personal computer industry towards its end… having hastened the end of the desktop PC era, Steve Jobs has put [Apple] Dell again in a precarious position. When the end does come, [the big companies] Apple will have the necessary capital to transition into the multitude of new industries that will evolve out of the PC. The products of these new markets will be, thanks to Apple, stylish and beautiful. What [an irony] a relief it will be if [Apple] Dell, cranking out ever-less profitable commodity [iMacs] PCs, its stock depressed, cannot afford to follow.
Well, he’s got a point, doesn’t he?
I mean, don’t we all jerk off on our Macs?
I always rub my “little tone” when I watch Steve’s keynotes.
“Macsturbators” is funny.
That said, I thought it was CES that kept changing its schedule in order to take some of the shine from Macworld?
Can anybody post the last 7 or so years of dates for both CES and macworld??
I don’t Macsturbate. My mom said it would stunt my growth.
TT…no I don’t rub my little Tone. I rub my big BUSTER
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Before beating up on Mr. Malone, read the full article. MDN leaves out some significant points. Like: “More than one Silicon Valley leader privately muttered that for the sake of high tech and American competitiveness, it might be best if the feds just forgot all about the matter.” (of stock option irregularities) Seemed like a pretty good article to me.
I thought it was an article that was very complimentary to Apple products, and tho he obviously doesn’t love Steve Jobs, sounds like he admires him and is amazed by him. He wonders about the possible negatives of the iPhone. These are all things we all wonder about.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good article. Your extracts from other articles were very telling. Could Malone be coming around to our side?
To the idiots who think that since Malone wrote some nice things about Apple, Mac users, Jobs, etc., it’s just hunky-dory to call people blind followers and cruel monsters, MDN said it best:
Note that Malone praises sporadically in order to grant himself license to demean with what he thinks is impunity.
I’m a certifiedI-wanker
By the way,if you wanna know who created Adobe Photoshop, just read the splash screen when you launch the application. I like to see those names every time. It reminds me that a few dozen real people made that possible.
OSX doesn’t even, to my knowledge, have an easter egg where you can see who’s responsible.
Do we all really have to love the Finder?
I do, but I respect your right not to.
I wrote the following letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal. While I found Malone’s article at times amusing and entertaining, I was equally insulted by what he said about a Mac user, and more important, offended by his freedom to play fast and loose with the truth. Below is a copy of my letter:
Editor
Wall Street Journal
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to respond to aspects of an article by Michael S. Malone, “iGenius” that appeared on page A15 of today’s Wall Street Journal (Thursday, January 11, 2007). Malone is a colorful writer, but frankly, I found myself offended by some of what he said. I use a Macintosh and a PC in my daily work, but I found myself offended by his use of the term “Macsturbators” – not only is it derogatory but inappropriate for a publication of the stature of the Wall Street Journal.
As I read the article, I could see that Mr. Malone had his say regardless of his playing fast and loose with facts. He made accusations about Steve Jobs, the new Apple iPhone and the MacWorld event that veer sharply from the truth. For example, Mr. Malone accused the organizers of the MacWorld show of deliberately staging the event’s timing to conflict with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Not true. The MacWorld show has been held in the first or second week of January for as long as the show has been held. In point of fact, the CES show has shifted its dates closer to the start of the year, not the other way around. Further, Apple does not organize the MacWorld show. While the company is the centerpiece of the event, IDG, a large publishing, IT analyst research and event promotion company, not Apple is the owner and organizer of MacWorld.
If your editors had closely reviewed the details of Mr. Malone’s article and given it the scrutiny that it deserved, a number of his claims would have been edited and corrected. They were not. As a consumer, it’s insulting for me to see an authority figure such as a published journalist not doing basic fact checking before submitting his writing to his editors to review, and even more so when his editors fail to do their job of fact checking and editing out assertions and claims that have no basis of truth. When I can do research of my own and learn that a number of assertions from Mr. Malone were either inaccurate or flat out wrong, I lose confidence in the very credibility of your publication. I look to the Wall Street Journal for facts on which I can make investment decisions and better understand businesses. And while I found Mr. Malone’s article entertaining, I am as upset with you, the editor as I am with Mr. Malone not doing basic homework, much less taking liberties with facts in an effort to add more attitude and flair to his writing.
Is a “facts be damned, full speed ahead” attitude what we can expect as the new standard from the Wall Street Journal? I certainly hope not. The equity value of your publication is based on how your public perceives your credibility to report truthfully and objectively. While lively writing might be entertaining, if your writers lose sight of the truth and put their subjectivity and prejudices ahead of their responsibility to be objective, you will have done your readers and the subjects of your articles an incredible disservice.
Is it too much to ask for basic objectivity and fact checking? This should be your prime objective. It’s journalism 101.
Further, articles that play fast and loose with facts and are more filled with invective than reporting could be extremely damaging to a company like Apple, and have material impact on the company’s earnings. I live in fear of the potentially destructive power of the media to influence the public through persuasive yet dishonest and misleading articles. Never forget that truth must always be your objective. When this is lost, or even worse, when the goal of your writers is to undermine the truth with persuasion, rancor and subjective prejudice, you have crossed a dangerous threshold. It is the job of the editor to temper the passions of your reporters and commentators, so that truth is not the victim of their writing flair. You owe your public that much. If you do not, the very freedom of speech we are privileged to enjoy could be threatened.
I hope you will dwell on my words. And I hope that you will share these thoughts with Mr. Malone and others like him. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Whatever, he’s one that I’m sure was on themacobservers Apple’s dead list. Apple time and time again has proven ass holes like Malone totally wrong and the iPhone is no different. There are ten times as many stories telling the tale of WOW!, INCREDIBLE!, SPECTACULAR!, BRILLIANT!, in describing the iPhone.
He is a dying breed like Dell who thinks they are brilliant yet they are the dull boring types and there totally jealous of Steve and Apple Inc.
Smoltz, perhaps you would also like to comment on MDN’s approach to pulling out selected quotes from the article and using them as the basis for their response? Perhaps you can explain why quotes which highlight a different view – within the same article – are ignored. Perhaps you can also explain why MDN criticises Malone’s journalism in this story while not wishing to uphold those lofty ideals itself? Criticism of the media is required, but it has to be valid criticism otherwise it’s just fanboy whingeing. MDN (validly) pointed out some inaccuracies but then played the ball and not the man and that just makes it look like a thin-skinned insecure child.
A CES honcho said he moved his date to the 2nd Tuesday to give his exhibitors “breathing room” after the New Years holiday. Can’t the WSJ get C|Net on their ‘puters?
Actually, there are more than several accounts of how SPJ used to behave during his CEO 1.0 phase and none of them paint the guy in a particularly good light.
However, whilst he may still be “highly-strung” (according to the Time article that MDN referenced earlier in the week) and quite demanding, his demeanor during the Version 2.0 of his Apple career appears to be more collegiate and – since the brush with cancer – more willing to see life in its proper perspective.
For evidence of that change, you could – were it possible – look at any Stevenote over the last several years and witness SPJ requesting that the members of development teams present stand up so that they can receive their moment of adulation from the “congregation” (in ancient Rome, they would probably have arrived in chariots and someone whispering their ear – fortunately, San Francisco traffic makes the chariot thing a little impractical).
Also, his acknowledgement on the value of family support and what appeared to be near emotional exhaustion at the end of Tuesday appears to show that he is, quite simply, a man who probably wishes that his professional life didn’t take such a toll on his personal life.
I have a theory – based on my own experiences – that basically posits that each of us has a finite amount of creativity (or drive to create) before we simply burn out and the elegiac vibe I got from watching the end of the keynote was that SPJ realises that iPhone may well be the ultimate (or penultimate) “paradigm shift” of his professional career.
“Who at Adobe created Photoshop>”
Adope had nothing to do with its original development. Like many things in the PC world, it was bought from another smaller company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_PhotoShop
What a whack job this freak is.
Well grease me up and call me Susie! I love to macsterbate!
And actually, Jobs isn’t a business genius, he’s a design genius, and that is what endears people to Apple products.
Well, that’s an overestimation. Steve hires design geniuses. Actually, Apple HR hires design geniuses. The important thing is this: Steve has vision. That and he is CEO of a company capable and willing to execute that vision. That’s not to say Steve doesn’t have any input, it’s just that a project is started and designers design and Steve (or the project manager) makes the executive decision on which design to go with and maybe suggests some tweaks.
I think attribution of credit gets confused with team endeavors, like saying Michael Jordan won all those championships for the Bulls. It’s an oversimplification and the basic human nature of hero worship. Every team has a front man but the front man is not the team. Besides, every keynote I’ve watched where Apple releases some major new project, Steve has always given recognition to the team by having them stand in the crowd (even so far as asking everyone else to sit down in this last one) and encouraging a round of applause for them.
And honestly, I don’t think Steve is any CEO savant. I think he is very capable. His is what we should expect from the vast majority of CEOs.
I think I hurt myself macsterbating tonight. WHooooo…
first off-that wasn’t me at 8:31. I guess some kids got grounded from their Xbox and couldn’t be original.
Sounds to me like this reporter made a pass at Steve, who didn’t take the, uh,bait. Hell hath no fury like-oh, it’s a man?
“Finkle and Einhorn, Finkle and Einhorn! Wait! Finkle IS Einhorn!”
~ Ace Ventura
“Ampar and Unsquirted, Ampar and Unsquirted! Wait! Ampar IS ?Unsquirted!”
~ The MacDaddy-Oh!
Hey Malone, so you think I’m a Macsturbator? I’ll show you Macsturbator! Get over here you latex laden lackey and get down on your knees. I’ve got your facial right here!
What seems to annoy MDN is that the article states at length that Steve is one hellaciously huge asshole.
Has anyone ever checked to make sure that this isn’t something that Steve would happily agree is accurate?
Please. Someone. Stop me before I breathe ass again.
Anyone’s reputation as an “asshole” or any other negative label is always a value judgement. If they don’t act like you want them to, they’re bad in some way. Maybe in a universal sense, he is, but who here can really play God? Well, maybe Peterson, but that’s another story…
When someone has life goals beyond making it home in time to watch Entertainment Tonight or Survivor, the sort of politenesses and niceties that keep most people placated , thinking they’re ok because they’re just like everyone else, disappear. Steve has an existential mission. He has purpose. It’s more important to him than if he made you feel comfortable with the crap you find important. he’s not here to validate you, he’s here to get the job he wants to get done, done.
iPhone = lube. Really, it’s enough.
@ R
Word.
Well, MacDaddy_OH!
You’ve answere my riddle from a couple of days ago.
A riddle for waiting
Man is but a clown?
Perhaps at times
Although not always
Ready
?
After reading thru the replies, it is glaring obvious that several of our “posters” are simply one person using various names.
Tsk-tsk, you really are clueless.
I pity the poor fellow who is still driving a 1977 Gremlin in Manhattan’s financial district with all the moneyed wall street executives flashing their bling.
Must be tough.
Opps.
I forgot to mention that I was referring to of some the obviously anti-Apple, anti-Mac poster.
Fine, so Malone is clearly out of line, but this silly BS has been going on for over 20 years now, and it doesn’t really make any difference to Apple’s success….
On the other hand, MDN’s usual embarrassing two-year-old stamping-his-feet rant is just pathetic…
Grow up, and get over it.
Oh, and by the way, in early 2005, I switched to the Mac after 15 years of Windows use, and cannot even remotely imagine switching back…
My response:
I am writing in response to Michael S. Malone’s article, “iGenius,”
published on January 11, 2007. In short, I am offended.
I am an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal, OpinionJournal, and
SmartMoney, a subscriber to OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web and
Political Diary. Reading Malone’s piece has made me rethink whether I should financially support any opinion outlet that is willing to indulge such a vulgar style and needless crudity. His use of the term “Macsturbators” debases the Commentary page and insults Macintosh users; a screed of this caliber belongs to the depths of the blogosphere, not to a responsible newspaper of international repute.
Further, the piece itself is factually inaccurate. Apple did not, and,
in fact, could not change the date of the Macworld conference, for the simple reason that it does not host Macworld. While Apple is certainly the largest presence, IDG organizes the event, rendering the conspiratorial claim that Apple manipulated dates for maximum media attention false. Rather, CES, as has been publicly acknowledged, decided to change its dates this year.
Malone’s piece also contains tendentious and contradictory claims; he can somehow predict the failings of a device that hasn’t been released (e.g. user response to the interface and a screen that will easily scratch) and that he certainly hasn’t handled. He describes Cingular as an unpopular mobile service. What dictionary is he employing? Last I checked, Cingular is the most popular wireless service. How can the company be both unpopular and the most popular? More importantly, how could such an error-ridden, obscene piece be published in the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper I once held in high esteem?
I strongly urge the editors to publish an apology for their failure to
adequately scrutinize Mr. Malone’s work, as well as a clarification of the false claims made in his piece. Mr. Malone’s arguments are flawed, his style base, his tone vulgar, and his facts wrong. My expectations for the mainstream media have fallen in recent years, but I had thought the Journal might prove the exception to this decline.
Apparently, my hopes were misplaced.
Not sure how I ended up in this page, but i got some advice for you all. Your war of words is utterly pointless. Both sides of this ridiculous argument are defending this issue like there was actually something important going on.
I don´t see this many comments on other headlines.
From what i understand, this is a discussion between people that love a brand, and a journalist that doesn´t… it strikes me that a negative Steve Jobs opinion would infuriate some people to this degree. If so, anyone has the right to poke fun at you. Yes, you all sound ridiculous.
What, I ask you, has Steve Jobs done for the world? Does it warrant this shamefull brand loyalty/hate? Is technology some sort of religion that preaches to your wallet?
I am looking at the guy who wrote a full blown letter complaining at the editor (Ed Anger). He says he was amused by the article, but then writes the silliest ad longest rant I´ve ever seen on the internet! Is he in denial? Sir, do seek help.
What´s wrong with you people? Companies don´t love you, don´t take care of you… Don´t you think you could channel that sort of loyalty towards more important matters? Look around you.
This behaviour simply cannot help but put the brakes on innovation. Tech brand loyalty makes you a square, and maybe that´s Malone´s thinking.
Any shiny hardware that Apple releases is considered a revolution, and “thinking different”, yet it capitalizes on other people´s ideas and work, with a nice packaging, looks and marketing!
The word “revolution” is associated with the likes of Che Guevara, Ghandi, etc. Don´t expect me to agree that making a mobile phone constitutes a revolution, or even an mp3 player or a computer…
If you are thinking an answer, stop it right now. You are wrong, this discussion is wrong, and I won´t read/write more on this subject.
In short: you people need more face time with other people. I am geek, but I sure as hell ain´t a stupid geek. So, good luck with all your ranting, keep it up, I guess it works for you.
I wonder if you’re still here, paulie?
it’s Gandhi not Ghandi you moron!
Re MDN take – if you wonna smash him out of the court try to find something he wrote when he was a kid – I am sure there will be alot of stuff to make fun of him and to show how super smart MDN is:)
MWSF is booked way ahead of time. At least over a year. Note the exit banners that were already promoting next year’s MWSF.
Yet it is still possible Apple deliberately changed their agenda when they realised they could launch the iPhone at the same time as CES.
Paulie, f**k you. Also, I find it very difficult to say anythink about the article other than that Malone is a w****r.
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“Steve hasn’t done a good job of giving them all the credit they deserve.”
Oh yeah? How many other companies out there do you know the head of their Industrial Design group? hmm? Tell me? I’d like to know.
Paulie, i know you’ll come back to try and see how clever you are, but round here you’re out classed
Here in the UK we had a thing called the Industrial Revolution There is a second one going on right now and yet again the Brits are at the head of the design ;o)
Welcome back to the Social, Zune Tang.
(the one where people communicate with voice and text and email instead of squirts.)
Seriously, it just isn’t the same without ya.
=)
Malone, what rock did you craw out from under?
I don´t see this many comments on other headlines.
You must be new to MDN.
but then writes the silliest ad longest rant I´ve ever seen on the internet!
You must be new to teh internets.
Michael, Michael, you mean you didn’t put your big $$$ into AAPL? I did. Perhaps that is why my horizontal smile is almost as big as my vertical smile — rather large, BTW — and you spew the venom of envy from your twisted lips. Poor lad.
MW: bad, as in: Bad boy Michael, bad boy.
And I thought no one could get lower than Dvroak or Enderle…
That asshole deserves a Jackass of the Century from Daring Fireball.
Folks, we DO know who created the first Macintosh. All their names are engraved on the inside of the case of the first 128k Mac. What other company would do that? Malone would probably think that’s an example of Steve stealing the limelight since their names are etched on the inside rather than the outside.
Ed: Great letter.
Paulie: Articles from well respected financial publications have no need for accuracy in your world, do they? Allow me to embellish some facts about my company so you can make a modest investment. You wouldn’t care, right?
Do we all really have to love the Finder?
Yes.
From what i understand, this is a discussion between people that love a brand, and a journalist that doesn´t…
That’s a funny way of reading it… Mine was that he PURPOSELY lied.
He actually is just saying that although he believes Jobs is not a good person, he is a fantastic CEO. That is neither schizoprhenic nor unlikely. I am not in the business world, but I can tell you that therea are plenty of famous scientists that meet that same description – arrogant, maniplative, megalomaniac, taking undue credit, etc, but fantastic scientists. Personally, I do not really care whether Jobs is an asshole of a boss or a tyrant within Apple. Just does not affect my life.
However, on the iPhone front:
“he iPhone, which won’t be shipped until June, suffers from a number of classic Apple-under-Jobs weaknesses: not enough memory, probably not enough battery, a comparatively large (though wonderfully thin) case, a touch screen that will infuriate cell phone users and scratch up like the early iPods, and an unpopular distribution partner (Cingular). And the iPhone is stunningly expensive ($500 plus a two-year Cingular commitment).””
not enough memory: is he referring to the Flash storage? OK, I believe the iPhone does not have enough memory FOR AN iPOD. For a phone/PDA, it is gigantic.
probably not enough battery: the moment you trot out the word probably…
touch screen: uh, this is a “classic Apple-under-Jobs weakness…”? I also believe, since the sceen is so critical to the function, there is no way Apple has not been incredibly attentive to this issue. Also, I do not remember the early iPods having problems with scratches on the screen, though it is possible. Unless the nano is an early iPod.
distribution partner: what part of Apple history is the author referring to?
expense: I believe new versions of PDAs are in a similar price range before discounts.
This whole part of the commentary is stupid.
Hey Walt (Mossberg),
Go down the hallway and kick this guy’s ass!
Ultimately, all the written articles by these armchair quarterbacks (both fans and haters) will be forgotten. It’s the products themselves that will matter. Let’s look back two years from now and see how well the product did, and how well Apple developed it. What did all the articles and pundits say when the first iPod came out? I think the iPhone will do very well. The other companies who rested on the fact the the customers had no real option just saw the bar get a lot higher.
Macsturbator???
What I do with my Mac and the porn I have on it is my own damn business!
Wow, what a sad, sad d-head man Malone is…
Guys, continue macsturbating.
TowerTone: Please tell me you’re not wearning green Spandex with black question marks scattered all over.
Oops, sorry. That’s “wearing.”
<u>Photoshop Phun Phact</u>
From Wikipedia:
“Install files for Photoshop 1.0 completely fit on one 1.4MB floppy disk at the time.”
If all the words we say on this topic will not be remembered, then why waste your words telling us this? It’s like nihilistic art — what’s the point? You obviously felt your words matter, but it’s just everyone else’s that don’t? *rolling eyes*
“…So even if Mr. Jobs shamelessly steals the limelight from his subordinates, we have seen, and hope never to see again, what Apple looks like without him.”
“For all his demons, thank God for him in this age of cookie-cutter CEOs. For a decade now (and for another decade at the beginning of the PC age) he has run the most enthralling and rewarding show in high tech. Let’s hope he gives us at least one decade more,” Malone writes
He hates the guy so much he rues the day that Mr. Jobs ever leaves Apple. Some of you must be functionally illiterate (maybe blind from macsturbating) and only children. Remember having brothers and sisters? What’s a family if you can’t give each other $hit from time to time. Keeps people on their toes.
Peace
Oh yeah, almost forgot. There are people who are agitators, you know, like to get people all riled up over nothing. Seems to be a few at Mac Daily News : ) Not a problem if you don’t mind being manipulated.
Peace
Busting: Try reading my post again. I said the words of the armchair quarterbacks. You know, the ones who write the articles like the one this thread was started about. The point is (I will say it again, slower, just for you), is that these guys can say whatever they want, they can write whatever they want. The success of the product will be determined by the consumer. *rolling eyes*
Will I get harry palms from Macsturbating?
Paulie, paulie…tsk, tsk…I know what you need. Come to papa, darling.
Funny how the writer says that Steve Jobs takes credit for Apple’s creations, yet in every single keynote, SJ uses the term “we” when describing design decisions, and at the end of every major keynote I can remember since his return, Steve has asked the developers attending to stand up to be recognized and thanked for their hard work.
Michael S. Malone, you’ve been caught spreading LIES. Now lets see a retraction and apology if you please.
Jackass.
Cool, my mw was ‘nuclear’, as in the Macsturbators are going to go nuclear on Michael S. Malone’s ass, and I hope they don’t hold back!
To Mr. Malone:
“Some would say the WSJ occupies an important role in the world of news and reporting.
You recent diatribe about Steve Jobs, Apple, and the iPhone prove (unfortunately) that any one institution is only as good as it’s members.
One should not believe everything one reads on the WSJ. Thank you for reminding me of ‘the rule’.
Get your act together, or stop trying.”
UnSquirt
No, they are exclamation marks!
Paulie
Do you know the truth about Che Guevara? it is insulting to put his name next to Ghandi’s.
“WSJ hack: Steve Jobs is a limelight-stealing genius monster who controls an army of ‘Macsturbators’”
Whilst Bill Gates is a lame, nerdy geek-who-got-lucky who controls an army of IT administrators who will only recommend Microsoft Windows PC’s because it keeps them in a job.
Apple is really pissing the Windows zombies off, and I just love it.
Macsturbators! Hilarity! true though.
re: “Who at Adobe created Photoshop?”
Point well taken but it’s a shame people have no clue about the brothers Thomas Knoll and John Knoll who began development on Photoshop in 1987.
The Knoll brothers deserve recognition.
—-
INDEED!
And we all know what John Knoll did after leaving adobe dont we?
He’s now head of CGI at ILM and has worked on most of the starwars films, The Mummy etc etc – the list is endless.
Not bad for someone who help create the original photoshop app.
See here for John Knolls info… its an interesting read!
http://www.starwars.com/bio/johnknoll.html
Thanks for putting this up and uncover the real truth of that psycho guy! MacDailyNews, the more I read your news everyday, the more I want to marry you!
If that bloak had said Rasterbators, I would have sued.
“Do you know who led the original Mac team?”
Why, Yes. I know who developed my first Mac Plus, there signatures where on the inside of the case. I can’t think of any other commercial product that had something like that on it.
When I’m using my Mac, am I Macsturbating?
Will I grow hair on my fingertips?
Will God punish me?
i macsturbated to the Macworld keynote even though its not good for my Powerbook. i thought WSJ was a respectable publication…guess not.
@ Macsturbator
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. No. But your jock itch certainly will.
Evidence?
🙂
Come on guys we need hobbies do distract us from our ‘urges’ to macsturbate.
Read Paulie’s comment. See, right underneath, some wonderful person summed up the sort of responses he’d get – spelling mistakes and comments about people he chose. Except, down further, some other morons make hellishly awful mistakes, but because they’re sharing the same view as the word police, they’re not pulled up on it. Great – I love to argue someone’s point by not actually referring to the point but rather dissecting every little detail. I remember the last time I had people debate me like that – primary school.
P.S. surely there’s something else to get so fired up about? Something productive e.g. poverty or famine?
Please go get lives. I really wish I hadn’t stumbled on this page. I just wasted 10 minutes of my life reading utter rubbish.
ARRRRGH!
Come on ‘aaaaaaaargh’ MDN is our only escape from meaningful world issues and gives us a chance to laugh and sometimes take offence at what Steve’s (Jobs) few enemies say (they’ve obviously been deeply, emotionally scarred by something he said or did). My opinion…they have a severe case of mac-envy
When I look in the mirror in the morning I see me, and I smile. What does Michael S. Malone see?