Apple, once renowned for its electrifying live keynote addresses that captivated audiences with Steve Jobs’ charismatic unveilings, has shifted to pre-recorded, highly polished video presentations for its major product launches, a change that began in earnest during the feckless COVID-19 lockdowns which only delayed rather than prevented COVID-19 spread. Even years after COVID restrictions were finally lifted, Apple has continued to favor these canned videos, as seen in events like WWDC 2025, sapping much of the excitement and spontaneity.
Vuk Zdinjak writes for TheStreet:
Watching WWDC 2025 felt like punishment.
In a world full of people with crippled attention spans from watching TikTok and YouTube shorts, Apple delivered an hour and a half of pure boredom.
I don’t have a problem watching long informative videos, but this one wasn’t that. Thank you, YouTube, for the video speed settings — a lifesaver.
Apple has veered off course due to pressure. Their new design language, Liquid Glass, isn’t original. Windows Aero was trendy in 2006. The Linux desktop environment KDE Plasma has featured numerous transparent/glass themes over the last 17 years.
Yes, Apple did it with more polish. But transparency and monochrome icons ruin accessibility. They are cool-looking only if you are a child. You don’t have time for distractions if you have work to do…
Apple used to have a slogan, “Think different.” Well, if the company thinks differently, it ain’t showing it.
MacDailyNews Take: As bad as Tim Cook is at live keynotes, it’d still be better to have him do them live, on stage, quickly introducing better presenters à la the canned videos, interjecting here and there, and closing with the usual “thank you for coming.”
Hopefully, Apple’s next CEO will possess at least some modicum of Steve Jobs’ charisma.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
Agreed.
enough with the canned videos already.
or do a hybrid.
have real life happen on stage, and go to videos to demonstrate particular things if they must, but keep the overall presentation anchored in real life.
The Apple Keynote is dead. Steve created a valuable format that’s become a tired rut. Plus, seeing the CEO dressed like a Biology teacher going to Walmart on a Saturday, doesn’t create any sparks…esp when delivery is with a seemingly forced passion. It seems past time for AAPL to forge into a new format where strengths can be maximized, or found….
Is the rainbow arch placement orchestrated, I ask with tongue in cheek? That’s part of the worn out story.
That is Ted Apple’s Altar of the Woke. Its just nasty.
I get that those live events were an enormous time suck for the company but it does just feel like a copout not to do it just because it’s hard. The act of presenting live shows you care. That’s how gifts should be presented – personally. Why build that beautiful Steve Jobs theatre if you aren’t going to honor his name
Yes, fan since 1984. Time to sell my stock!
I stopped watching 5-6 years ago as I just can’t stand the new format + it’s depressingly boring. The lack of an audience also kills the enthusiasm. Hearing an excited crowd gets viewers excited about products and IMO apple execs ought to experience that excitement as that’s when they know they did well something. It’s just a snoozer and it’s bleeding onto the products.
I guess I’m the contrarian. I really liked it and I learned a lot. The iPadOS improvements are fantastic. I like the liquid glass look. Much better than the flat look of iOS 7. The Vision Pro improvements looked good. I’ll have to go back for another demo. I could use that in my work. All- in-all I’d say it was a better than average keynote.
I attended many Steve Jobs keynotes. Yes, he was a great speaker. But I also recall a lot of disappointment. Remember the shower curtain iMacs?
While there may not be another Steve Jobs for another generation and even then not one with Jobs’ “reality distortion field”, Apple needs to find someone other than Tim Cook to lead these keynotes and product introductions and do it immediately. I’d be OK with Tim Cook opening everything on stage LIVE for 30 seconds or so then again LIVE on stage at the very end for 30 seconds or so to wrap things up, but other than that he needs to be absent. Many of the presenters during the WWDC keynote were just as bad as Tim Cook — some were even worse!
Watching the WWDC keynote was painful. I had it running on my second screen with the sound turned down (though not off) while I did work on my main screen. I could not have put up with the silly antics of some presenters if I had to watch it as my sole focus! I’d have closed that window and never looked back.
As others have said, the new interface coming this fall is not at all a radical replacement and for some it might be a negative. It is definitely NOT the new interface Steve Jobs introduced way back when that Jobs described as “lickable” by development engineers (a hyperbolic statement for sure, but pure Steve Jobs).
With the new interface across all devices as the premier element (or so it seemed to me) of the WWDC keynote, Apple has certainly become a company that is tweaking what they already have — and for no reason. This was not a Snow Leopard update where Apple changed the underpinnings to make a much more robust OS under the hood. It is window dressing.
Today’s Apple definitely is NOT the Apple I started using back in the late ’70s and have used constantly since.
Apparently, Apple is still locked down COVID-style. And, the blatant hyper wokeness is impossible to bear.