Following the brief Apple Event last week where Steve Jobs rolled out new iMacs, iLife and iWork, the entire executive committee took a rare press conference. Though the attendant press peppered Steve and co. with good questions, one stood out for its ineptitude. Bob Keefe of Cox Newspapers, asked Apple why Macs don’t carry the “Intel Inside” stickers. No, really.

Steve, of course, replied that Apple likes its own stickers better, which is the best possible answer, given the circumstances. MacWorld has the full audio of the question and the half-laughed response to Keefe. It’s definitely worth it just for the reception of Steve’s answer.

And now we’ve seen where Keefe was going with his line of questioning. He wrote a trend story, published yesterday, that tried to link Apple’s disinterest in Intel Inside to an overall decline in the program. Which, to be frank, is really reaching. Especially since one of his pieces of evidence is that AMD chips are popular now and that Dell and HP have ad campaigns that aren’t solely focused on the use of Intel chips. Not to mention that Dell and HP are both moving in a strategic design direction that emphasizes their brands, not those of their suppliers.

Still, it does say something about how far outside the realm of typical business reporters Apple’s strategies are that people still might not understand the whole notion of a nice, clean design after all this time. And really, the question is barely different from asking, “Why isn’t the battery on the iPhone user-replaceable?” or “Why can’t I get third-party MagSafe power adapters?” Quite simply, Apple thinks it’s better this way. More attractive, maybe easier, and certainly more controlled. Apple loves it’s partners. But let’s face it — this is all about Apple and always has been.

No outside stickers need apply.

Via MacUser

Sorry for the inactivity over the last week, everyone. A lot of traveling for work, coupled with a massive layover in Kentucky, has kept me from blogging. I’ve got  a lot in the works, including an overview (and gentle mockery) of the first-ever issue of MacWorld from February 1984, featuring a profile of Mac fan Bill Gates (yes, I’m serious).

For now, though, enjoy some of the top stories from the week’s absence:

The new iMac — totally disassembled. [Kodawarisan]
First Review of iWork Numbers [MacWorld]
Woz Funds HotSwap.com [Reuters]
Apple Files New Patent For Multitouch on Laptops [Gizmodo]
What’s Behind Apple’s iWork? [BusinessWeek]
Guy Creates Fake iPhone From Scratch (But Leaves Out YouTube Icon) [Gizmodo]
iPhone Video-Conferencing With Mirrors [MacDaddyWorld]

The “leaked” pics of a new iMac making the rounds are clearly a Photoshop fake made from images of Apple’s Cinema Displays taken from Apple’s website. See below.
The color also screams fake.

A new iMac is rumored to be introduced by Steve Jobs at a special event at Apple HQ on Tuesday — and everyone is hoping for a redesign. But Apple’s consumer machines do not come with metallic finishes. That’s reserved for the “pro” level machines. If the iMac has a new case, it will be made of plastic and will come in black, white or maybe other fruity colors.

The Fake:

From Apple’s website:

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Caution: What you don’t know about this post could cause your children to develop psychic powers and revive the dead — with stolen iPods! Also: Alarmism in television news magazines: Are you safe? More importantly, is your cat?

Everyone must watch or read the transcript of Dateline NBC‘s howlingly funny special “\to catch_an i-Jacker” (I swear I didn’t make up any of the odd formatting in the above title, which, um…reminds me of a certain Daily Show segment…). Apparently, the investigative crew was shocked — SHOCKED! — to learn that iPods occasionally get stolen. And worse, sometimes other things get stolen, too!

In Los Angeles, robberies of iPods and other gadgets shot up 34 percent last year.

To make sure iPods don’t kill your children, please click through, and don’t stop until the part where the reporters use a sexual predator tactic in order to catch a thief. No, seriously. You have to see this.

Visual comparison of rumored new iMac keyboard to existing iMac keyboard. [Gizmodo]

Hackers release proof-of-concept “Hello World” application for iPhone [TUAW]

USB Hard Drives Now Work with AppleTV — But Not Well [AppleTV Hacks]

iPhone Making Calls on Australian Carrier [MacNN]

Minor GUI improvements in latest Leopard Builds [ThinkSecret]

Shut Down Dell and Give the Money Back to Shareholders [ZDNet]

Columnist John Dvorak at an Apple Store. Pic by Steve Rhodes.

Columnist John Dvorak, who is perhaps the most hated pundit by Mac users because of his constant (and quote deliberate) Mac bashing, is now a Mac user himself — and he likes it.

In his latest PC Magazine Column, Dvorak confesses that he has been using an iMac at work for a couple of months, and it’s “not half bad.” After heaping on more weak praise, he says he has no plans to buy a Mac for personal use at home, but he increasingly finds himslef recommending the Mac to friends and neighbors who ask him what to buy! He writes:

“I can see why the Mac is gaining market share, because the rationale for using one is simple. Do you want to deal with the agony of antivirus, firewall, antispyware, and other touchy software subsystems, many of which do not work well? Or do you want to boot Microsoft Word and write a document and be done with it?

As someone who does recommend gear to people, I have to think to myself, “Should I recommend something that will come back to haunt me, or recommend a Mac with its higher price but lower hassle factor?” The answer is simple. I hate the idea of having to do customer service for people who cannot keep their systems clean, and that’s most people.”

This YouTube compilation was first posted to MacRumors as the interface we might see on a forthcoming OS X iPod. To be honest, the graphics look right, but something here isn’t right. Specifically, the aspect ratio. All of the clips are in 4:3, horizontally oriented, exactly like the existing video iPod. If Apple does roll out a new iPod with an iPhone-like interface, it should get a nice rectangular screen in place for widescreen movies. In fact, it should just look like an iPhone, but with some distinguishing design features.

I wouldn’t be shocked if this clip is legit. I also wouldn’t be stunned to learn it’s a fake.

Via DAPReview

San Francisco’s Chinatown provides a wealth of cheap goods. While shopping for ridiculous San Francisco mementos for a friend who’s moving away, I spotted this display of clearly fake MANNDigital Mp3 players that mimic exactly the look, size and even packaging of Apple’s clippable iPod shuffles.

I could easily see the casual shopper getting confused here, but a few distinctions stand out to me: 1) The volume and skip track buttons have switched places. 2) This device comes in a few colors Apple shuffles don’t, including black. 3) These have a dedicated mini-USB port, instead of Apple’s remarkable headphone/power/USB port.

All told, an excellent knock-off, and one worthy of a cease & desist letter. So get ’em while they’re hot.

Photo by Seth Dillingham

The Sitening blog claims to have unearthed the identity of Fake Steve Jobs — it’s veteran Mac columnist Andy Ihnatko — but the evidence is flimsy at best.

The “proof” is that FSJ’s computer has an IP address in Boston — and Ihnatko lives in Beantown. Ergo sum.

The Sitening blog obtained FSJ’s IP address by sending him a special URL in email. When FSJ visited the special URL, it revealed his IP address: 68.160.21.224, which comes from the Boston area.

But I’m skeptical. Andy’s a humorous writer, but the styles are different. And FSJ is obviously a reporter or editor with a Silicon Valley business publication — Forbes or Fortune, or such like — not a specialist Mac writer. The subject matter on FSJ’s blog ranges too far from Apple — he’s obsessed with Sun and Google as he is with Steve Jobs.

When Wired News first contacted FSJ earlier this year to set up a sponsorship deal, my colleague Kevin Poulsen, the ace hacker, used the headers of FSJ’s emails to track him to a hotel in New York, then a public park or cafe in New York (he was probably using free WiFi), and finally suburban Boston.

We assumed Fake Steve was traveling that day. Maybe he took a business trip to New York to his home in Boston. But who knows? Maybe he works in Boston, or that’s where his girlfriend lives?

The only one who knows FSJ’s identity for sure is my boss, Wired News EIC Evan Hansen, who’s keeping mum.

It’s late July. Do you know who Fake Steve is yet? According to buzz on the web today, a new top candidate has emerged as the fake iCEO, and this one’s actually plausible.

Some clever dudes at Sitening created a tracker link to a fairly lame iPhone haiku, trusting that Fake Steve would take the bait. He did, and they traced it to a Boston IP address. That points to Andy Ihnatko so far as the Sitening guys are concerned (and most of the rest of the commenters). It’s also consistent with previous accusations, including one from Fake Steve Ballmer.

What’s my take? Well, it makes sense, if nothing else. I can’t think of many people I would call “Macintosh Humorists,” but Andy is one of them. His old MacWorld columns were a hoot, and I learned many key phrases from him, including “web that smut!”

On the other hand, I don’t actually ever want to know who Fake Steve is – his anonymity makes him powerful, and even leaves open the possibility it’s actually Real Steve (it’s the perfect cover!). Unfortunately, we probably will know, and soon, and the fun will be gone.

This all makes me think of Mac the Knife, the weekly rumor columnist for MacWeek back in the day. No one ever copped to penning the column, which was the best in the business at its time. There’s a prevailing rumor that former editor Matthew Rothenberg was MtK, but it’s never really been proven. And that’s powerful. We’re in a different era now, but it makes me nostalgic for a time when the silent crusader could remain silent.

But Andy, if it’s you? You’ve been doing a great job. Keep up the good work – or get John Mackey to do it for you.

Via Apple 2.0.