Wired editor Leander Kahney went up against Forbes editor Dan Lyons's Fake Steve Jobs character in a three-round mano-a-mano debate about Apple. Lyons completely wipes the floor with Kahney. Did Wired ever think this would be a fair fight? This utterly unlevel playing field shows why we're glad we were wrong about Leander Kahney being Fake Steve. This short excerpt really sums it up:
Alltop is Guy Kawasaki's latest project: a news aggregator which shows the titles of the last few posts from a number of different blogs in various categories including Politics, Sports, Fashion and the very aptly named Egos. The top of the Egos section includes feeds from inflated-head, Internet-famous writers like Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington, Dave Winer, Jason Calacanis, and, of course, Guy Kawasaki. In other words, it's an overblown blogroll, if a well-designed one. Nice work, Guy! We asked Fake Steve Jobs what he thought about being included in the Egos list: "I'm not sure what this site is all about, but I'm deeply honored to be included. Guy Kawasaki is a personal hero." Guy, be warned: You do not have a lock on the ego-inflation market.
Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf has upgraded Apple to "Strong Buy" in a research note, basing his optimism "chiefly on the prospect that the current migration of Windows users to the Mac platform is likely to accelerate over the next several years." His target for the stock is $235, nearly $100 above today's closing price of $139. We wonder if Charlie's feelings were enhanced by sitting next to Forbes editor Dan Lyons, the Fake Steve Jobs blog rogue, at the Macworld keynote? Wolf told us he was a big fan of Fake Steve Jobs — so are we, Charlie.
I took this picture of Valleywag cub reporter Jordan Golson because I think the kid has potential. But Jordan, watch and learn: See the guy typing away behind you? Forbes senior editor Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs. And the man with the early migraine? PC World editor in chief Harry McCracken. Look at them: Work, work, work. With the dual exception of Engadget and Gizmodo, the Web 2.0 kids fell way behind the old guard in reporting this morning. Oh, and whoever decided Valleywag would report the whole thing via Twitter? You win the prize. Go back and read Uncov until you know the difference between "scale" and "fail."
Poor Ars Technica and Gizmodo. The gadget sites invited San Francisco's thirsty class over for some pre-Macworld booze at Harlot in SoMa last night, and the assembled crowd drank the hosted bar dry in 35 minutes flat. I ran into a host of familiar faces there, including a certain Farker who goes by the unforgettable login of "catbutt." So unforgettable that I called him ... well, something else instead. And no, I'm not throwing David Ulevitch the shocker — just a gesture that looks a lot like it. Fake Steve Jobs blogger Dan Lyons, making his Macworld debut, drew a tight bubble of fans around him everywhere he went.
Folks, please stop emailing us that either (a) Valleywag is afraid to run the story that Apple is trying to shut down Fake Steve Jobs, or (b) Fake Steve author Dan Lyons is perpetrating a hoax to — I love this — to get onto Techmeme. Let me spell it out for you: LYONS IS KIDDING! He's trying — and failing — to illustrate that the legal settlement between Apple and Think Secret is a bad thing. Two reasons: (1) It's corporate thuggery from Apple, which once compared itself to friggin' Gandhi in an ad. (2) By shutting down and probably taking a payout, Think Secret's publisher has done himself a favor, but set a bad example. How much should Apple pay Valleywag to shut up? Ok, don't answer that, but you get my point.
The trick to running a gossip blog is to reject most of the rumors you get. Otherwise, no one believes anything. You quickly learn to spot the gullible chatter, the obvious attempts to plant a story, the too good to be true. Well, usually. We blew it big three times this year by trying too hard for the scoops.
Ziff-Davis senior editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is a publicist's dream. As documented a dozen times here and here and just now here by Fake Steve Jobs blogger (and sharp-minded Forbes editor) Dan Lyons, Vaughan-Nichols copies large swatches of press releases from Novell and other tech vendors into his articles on eWeek's Linux-Watch site. You might think this amounts to blatant plagiarism and copyright infringement, but you'd be wrong.
So, I updated my Macs to the new Leopard operating system, then synced my calendars with Apple's .Mac online service. You can see the results. Fake Steve Jobs has actually acknowledged there are bugs, which makes me wonder if Leopard hasn't Time Machined me into some alternate universe. iCal is cool — my stupid Vista PC can only find one of my brother's birthdays next week. Piece of junk. My new calendar makes total sense to anyone with a basic grasp of string theory.
Using advanced statistical methodology, egoblogger Robert Scoble has once again proven that no one reads Valleywag. Granted, it takes the pressure off. El Scobleator reports that Fake Steve Jobs's audience "clicks at 20x the rate that Valleywag's does." You could read this as a backhanded refutation of our crossover into the 100,000-plus pageviews per day club. Fake Steve draws 30,000 to 40,000 dailies, according to FSJ blogger Dan Lyons. Scoble could be saying that our 100K stats page is a lie. We prefer to take him at face value: It's not enough that we report about him. Robert Scoble needs you to click through to his site, time and time again, with all the love in your heart.
The British media may be knocking Apple's iPhone, but British cartoonists Charles Peattie & Russell Taylor understand the true significance of the computer maker's shiny mobile phone. Fake Steve Jobs links to a comic strip by the duo that perfectly captures the ethos of the iPhone ... and Fake Steve. Yes, it is elitist, that's the point. The complete cartoon after the jump.
Since I first noticed that Fake Bono had taken over Fake Steve Jobs's blog, I've been wondering who Fake Bono really is. We had a number of guesses: Dan Lyons was taking on a second alter ego; Bono himself was writing; Marc Bodnick, cofounder of Elevation Partners, where Bono is a partner, was taking a turn; and Bono-wannabe Valleywag contributor Paul Boutin. After carefully reviewing the Bono posts, we're ready to reveal the identity of Fake Bono.
Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs has garnered critical praise from the New York-based media. It's not Huck Finn, but it's a good read — better-written and deeper-thinking than the blog from which it sprang. So of course the Valley's local hacks hate it. Last week it was the SF Weekly. Now, CNET actively dis-recommends the book as a holiday gift. "Fake Steve's influence failed to reach very far outside Silicon Valley, and so the novelized version of the blog has a narrow potential audience indeed," claims the unsigned review (cough yellowbelly cough), in a clear break from reality. "Additionally, three CNET News.com reporters who read Options agreed that the book just isn't that good."
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, Forbes editor Dan Lyons's Fake Steve Jobs blog was taken over by Fake Bono. As the story goes, Bono was spending Thanksgiving at Jobs's house and found El Jobso had left himself logged into Blogger. He got drunk with Googlers, flew on Marissa Mayer's jet to meet the Pope in Uganda, introduced the U2 Edition iPhone, and wouldn't shut up about his RED campaign. Really, who is this guy? Send guesses my way. After the jump, an apology of sorts from Fake Bono to Fake Steve.
One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte set himself up for Saturday's takedown by the Wall Street Journal. As my good friend Fake Steve Jobs author Dan Lyons explains in detail, the Journal article is a classic backstab: (1) Negroponte pitches Journal a big story that evil Intel and Microsoft are undermining his world-saving mission. (2) Journal gets Negroponte to talk and talk and talk while they interview potential customers around the world. (3) Journal runs story that Negroponte is a well-meaning idiot when it comes to making and selling PCs, rather than just having big brainstorms about them. Intel and Microsoft can and will implement St. Nick's idea better than he's done himself. As Fake Steve says, boo friggin hoo. Did I mention Fake Steve and I are friends?
