Apple and Rumors: A Less Than Perfect Relationship

Apple loves hype, or more specifically, Steve Jobs loves hype. He feeds on it, uses it, and mostly controls the hype that flows around Apple Computer.

But, sometimes the hype bites back. For weeks rumors fly and there are whispers of astounding products, amazing products. Even Scoble, noted blogger and Microsoft enthusiast, gets caught in it, leaving less than cryptic hints in an entry about Vista.
The rumors create a wave of feeling, a rising white-tipped wave that no product could ever hope to absorb. Minutes before Jobs' keynote on Monday, the IRC channels ready, MacRumors pushing posts directly from the floor, there was a feeling that Apple was about to announce "The Coolest Thing Ever."

And, then Jobs' ruined it by being the CEO of an outstanding company and announcing the new Mac Pro and previewing Leopard. Rather than being a superhero, Jobs was merely mortal, and Apple merely a computer company. And, there was the collective yawn.

Leander Kahney asked "Has Steve Jobs Lost His Magic" and wondered if Jobs' health was declining. And Scoble offering his mea culpa noted that Apple's announcment went "over like a lead balloon."

But, what was really expected? An iPhone? A new iPod? At a Developers conference? Really.

And, here it is, we get to see a glimpse of Leopard and rather than focusing on the maybe and on the cool things we did see, lots of people assume that its. And then we get into geek wankery about whether Apple was being mean to Microsoft because of some sharp pokes at Goliath, which is quickly followed by the official Who Copied Who Game. By the way, Paul Thurrott isn't the most unbiased source for Apple vs. Microsoft discussions considering he runs the Windows Super Site. And, he should know this discussion goes back to the beginning and coould include Xerox PARC. Yes, the discussion is that freaking geeky and irrelevant.

Apple did what they should have done at this year's WWDC, they showed the attendees some of the things Leopard could do, including very cool technologies like Core Animation, not to mention the full porting of the OS to 64-bit and the transition from PPC to Intel in 210 days.

While Microsoft's been screwing around with Longwait, sorry Vista, Apple has managed to radically change their OS's architecture to work on 64-bit Intel chips, while managing hurdles with Rosetta and Universal Binaries. And, they deserve praise for that not the collective yawn of a buch of jaded rumor-mongers.

The cool hardware and a new iPod are coming. Just not today.