[tapoxi]

I really miss, as a late 90's/early 2000's apple fan, seeing Steve come up and joke with the audience then just show off real products or features and why they're cool. They really sterilized this whole thing after he passed. It's as exciting as a Microsoft keynote now.

Just watch a normal presentation like Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3, it's not iPhone level earth shattering but he made it fun.

[evan_]

I remember one where there were technical issues so Steve just started telling stories about the old days with Woz... impossible to imagine that from ANY tech company today

[smallmancontrov]

Not to spoil the magic but the plan B dialog was somewhat rehearsed too. Award for the best recovery lines goes to James Dempsey and the "I Love (NS)View" song. "I, uh, forgot to mention up front that this song is a beta version. It's feature complete, mind you, but I won't have the words memorized until October..."

[evan_]

Probably but even the fact that they're rehearsing time-filling stories is a more human trait than the pre-recorded months in advance videos that are usually shown today.

[mrexroad]

lol, I have a few other memories of Steve for when there were technical issues during the keynote. WiFi congestion and dead digital camera still pop up in my memory every now and then.

[wpm]

"You guys are gonna have to stop making me blind or I'm gonna fall off the stage like Bob Dole"

- Steve Jobs, Macworld 1997 (telling photographers to stop hitting him with a camera flash every half second)

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

The curse of money. The more they have the safer they play it.

[hyperhello]

Someone with no money must survive with short term thinking: hunt and kill a wombat on the savanna or something. From there you work your way away from short term thinking; you might have enough to get through the week already, so the threat of starvation is more long term. Eventually with enough in the bank you have nearly no urgency; you could conceivably mishandle your bonds when they mature in twenty years or something. But with enough money, literally the only risk is short term thinking and immediacy. Bending over to pick up a penny is not going to even be considered.

If my ship ever really comes in and docks at the harbor I’m going to remember to keep my wallet full of cash, so I can stop and get that strawberry ice cream cone without worrying about the long term consequences, which are all I would have left.

[mrexroad]

> Curse of money

Sure, but I think it’s also b/c the target audience for these keynotes has shifted. Given their immense market cap, now there’s an increased fiduciary responsibility to control how presentation lands, such as earnings reports, which comes at the expense of the fun.

[whywhywhywhy]

It’s not money they started it during Covid and it stuck because presumably Cook likes the little movie making bits they had in it judging from other things like the Mother Earth skit he did.

Would be a welcome change it if the incoming CEO went back to live on stage imho

[merlindru]

Ironically that's often what ends up costing one the most, i feel like

[bensyverson]

Also—and this sounds like a small thing but it's really not—when Steve said something like "we have some really exciting updates for you today," he really truly believed it. I just went back and re-watched his appearances on WSJ D1, D2 and D3, and he was actually psyched about every little iTunes update.

[pndy]

It's not just Apple, Microsoft but whole corporate world, and hell - even open source projects use same sterilized safe language of "we're so excited" in communication with users, customers. That's the actual reality distortion field.

[DonHopkins]

He never let a little smoke distract from a good iRack demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcjLEwZqcQI

[nailer]

I want to celebrate your comment, and the energy around it, and I'm excited for the next generation of replies to build on this momentum.