Click to viewDespite the fact that Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced no new products at the company's glorified press conference yesterday, the crowd's cheers were as blustery as they ever are at Apple events. But Newsweek's Dan Lyons, who must have bored enough by what was being said on stage to be paying so much more attention to the darkened audience, says he knows the reason why: Much of the crowd was clapping so loud because they were paid to.

I’m still trying to figure out why they held an actual event today instead of just putting out a press release. As a fellow filthy hack commented to me after the big show, “Can you imagine if Sony did this?” Nevertheless, there was much cheering and shouting and clapping and whooping, even though much of it came from Apple employees who had been instructed to remove their green event T-shirts so they’d look like regular members of the public. I’m not making that up. Friends, it’s true — Apple brings along its own employees and has them cheer like mad for their own products.