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Maggie Shiels

Reports of my death...

  • Maggie Shiels
  • 10 Sep 08, 09:37 GMT

That Apple guy Steve Jobs has a sense of humour and it was on display on a giant screen at the company's product launch for the new iPod and iTouch here in San Francisco.

The last time he stepped out in public a few months ago at the Apple Developers Forum he looked gaunt. That prompted a lot of speculation about whether or not he was seriously ill with a recurring bout of cancer. It especially got the money mavens worried because Mr Jobs is seen as such an integral part of the company.

Well at the 'Let's Rock' event, he opened his pitch to journalists and analysts with the message "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Steve JobsWhile he still looked skinny in his trademark jeans and black turtle neck, he was full of smiles and pumped up.

With that matter out of the way he said "Let's get onto the real topic of the day and talk about music".

And that's just what he proceeded to do for around an hour as he introduced the new generation iPods and iTouch to great fanfare from the audience.

Now forgive me for being cynical, but I did at one point wonder if they were a paid crowd because journalists never cheer and clap and I have never considered the analyst brigade to be the whooping and hollering kind. So just who was it making all that noise everytime Steve introduced the new features in the products or pulled out another figure about users and downloads?

While Mr Jobs described one product as 'the funnest iPod ever' his old mucker and fellow co-founder was not as razzed. He told me realistically Apple can't set the heather on fire everytime it comes out with something new.

"Some of our introductions are weaker than others and well we didn't really expect an awful lot," he said. However, he did point out that he wasn't disappointed with what came out.

"I was happy with things like longer battery life and thinness and I love the new iTunes and the genius bar. I had other ideas even beyond how they can improve it in the future but then all engineers do that."

Woz, who doesn't agree with looking for freebies, said he will be ordering his new iPod online. But first there was lunch to attend to with his wife and he told me "Tuesday is pea soup day at Marie Callendars".

And he would probably have had plenty to talk about over lunch besides the new Apple products because we were all treated to an impromptu gig by the singer Jack Johnson.

Jack JohnsonMr Jobs told us he was the number one selling male in iTunes history and had sold over 16million albums worldwide. The soft rock balladeer wandered on stage and sang a couple of his well known hits while also noting that the virtually all male rows of men immediately in front of him was not his usual audience.

"I'm used to seeing a line of 20-something girls right there," he joked...or lamented!

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    The "reports of my death..." slide wasn't so much aimed at reporters who said he looked gaunt, it was a reference to the accidental publishing of his obituary by Bloomberg.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)

  • Comment number 2.

    Yes Maggie, I agree with 1 'BurmaSauce', get your facts right!

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)

  • Comment number 3.

    It was a very underwhelming show. The blandness of Jack Johnson pretty much summed it up. A few incremental updates, some features that products should have launched with (I'm thinking of the 2.1 upgrade to the iPhone Touch to "fix lots of bugs") and some models of iPod nanos that just do more of the same.

    Things were clearly pretty desperate when iTunes 8.0 was heralded as anything to get excited about. The only significant change in this case was the inclusion of the 'Genius' feature to suggest music, which looks like a clone of one of last.fm's features. Can Apple do better what last.fm have done for ages?

    If this has been any other company this wouldn't have got the coverage it did.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)

  • Comment number 4.

    You might of mentioned that Itunes 8 does not work when you connect an Ipod via Vista 32 bit edition. This has caused enormous problems today. Everyone should be aware.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)

  • Comment number 5.

    Maggie, I'm disappointed by your article. As already pointed out, the primary reason for the "reports of my death" gag was the untimely publication of a Steve Jobs obituary. Additionally, while I appreciate that people use the term in conversation, there is no such product as the "iTouch". The iPod Touch was refreshed, yes. The iTouch still doesn't exist.
    As for the "paid crowd"... have you never seen tech launches before?? This one was muted for an Apple event, certainly nothing unusual about all that cheering. Nor is it just Apple...
    Not up to this blog's usual standards.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)

  • Comment number 6.

    iTunes 8 not working on Vista.... easy solution.... get a mac!

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)

  • Comment number 7.

    @ 6.



    If apple can't launch a product or service that isn't compatible with an operating sytem which has been out for sufficient time, it is a sorry state of afairs and is a poor reflection on Apple, not Microsoft

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)

  • Comment number 8.

    Please please please can so-called experts start using technologival items real names.

    It's not an iTouch, it's an iPod Touch!!

    It's the little things that hurt the most!

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)

  • Comment number 9.

    Blue_Blood1:

    Why shouldn't Apple concentrate on the release for their own OS first? It's natural for them to do so. Plus developing for OSX tends to be easier than for Windows.

    Microsoft have plenty of software that never gets an OSX release, and that's an OS that has been 'out for a sufficient time'. Mind you considering the quality of Office 2008 I'm quite glad about that.

    And yes, Macs are great. Glad you agree!

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)

  • Comment number 10.

    @Blue_Blood1

    Without going into the usual heated "debate" between a mac user (moi) and a pc enthusiast (what i used to be), Kadoogan summed up everything fairly concisely.

    I "converted" from PC just over a year ago, due to my work, but before hand i held a very typical view of Mac users (outrageous hippies that have a hate of Microsoft) but what i have found is those with the most "opinionated" views are often those that have never used one (for more than 5 minutes in PC world, or the apple store).

    Apple haven't released iTunes on "Software Update" yet (10th Sep AM), probably so that people could take it up at a more measurable rate, to squish any last remaining bugs within it.

    Instead of posting your issue here (which would get you no-where) wouldn't it be better to use Apple's feedback form within iTunes (File > Provide iTunes Feedback).

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)

  • Comment number 11.

    It wasn't the best keynote ever and certainly wasn't helped by people like Kevin Rose leaking details prior. But it was decent enough.

    Good to see Steve sounding better on stage. People seem to forget he's had a tough time with his cancer and subsequent major surgery. Cancer patients don't just recover overnight.

    Here's my view on the keynote:

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)

  • Comment number 12.

    Why shouldn't Apple concentrate on their own OS before Windows for iTunes? Possibly because about 80-90% of iPod owners own a Windows based PC, not a Mac.

    As for the keynote, the entire point was to show a fit and healthy Steve Jobs. The rest of the announcement was a huge "so what?".

    Mind you, I like the way Apple have adapted Pandora's targetted playlists though. It's a pretty cool idea.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)

  • Comment number 13.

    Mark_MWFC:

    Because Apple want to make their products available for the best OS first rather than the biggest seller. ;)

    Note the smiley. Yes, I know there are perfectly valid reasons for choosing Windows.

    I'd agree the keynote wasn't exactly thrilling from what I have read about it. Then again I'm not in the market for buying a new iPod so wasn't expecting to be thrilled.

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  • Comment number 14.

    Yawn

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 14)

  • Comment number 15.

    "Reports of my death .. " is a quote (Mark Twain, I think. It should be mentioned as Mr Jobs did not invent the phrase. I'm sure the blog writer knew this but many people may not.

    Complain about this comment (Comment number 15)

 

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