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Nevermarkyesterday at 8:45 PM18 repliesview on HN

John Ternus, and his co-presenters, still presented with the now institutionalized Apple-voice: obviously-rehearsed, emotionally-flat, robo-replay.

They spent their time practicing to recite, instead of talk, to people.

So hard to sit through.

I had assumed that was a genuine, if not inspiring, reflection of Cook's controlled non-spontaneous personality. Relative to Steve's emotionally-rich casual-coded excited-to-share delivery.


Replies

montaggyesterday at 9:59 PM

One big difference from Steve: it isn't the Steve show anymore. The people showing this stuff off are the people who lead the the teams that work on these things.

It's so much cooler to me to see the people closer to the work talking about it rather than just Steve Jobs, as amazing as he was to watch. I'll take slightly stilted any day of the week as a tradeoff.

Ternus did introduce a new rhetorical thing, though. He framed some of the guiding principles during the opening and throughout as ideas originating from himself, not Apple. Cook rarely said "I" in relation to a claim, other than "I'm so proud of" X, Y, Z. That's a bit more product guy, a bit more Opinionated. I am hoping for more of that.

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tiffanyhyesterday at 9:01 PM

People under estimate how hard it is to talk naturally in front of a camera.

There’s a reason why acting as a profession exists.

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pupppetyesterday at 9:05 PM

Don’t forget about how they desperately try to figure out what to do with their hands.

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SllXyesterday at 9:32 PM

I do hope John Ternus & his team change it up, but I wasn’t expecting it from this event. He’s only been CEO for 9 days & this was probably shot before then.

pwthorntonyesterday at 10:05 PM

There is no matching Steve, but I would like to see Apple try at least one live event again a year. Covid is what brought around the super rehearsed video presentation, and it fit Cook well, but are the days of live keynotes really done?

notatoadyesterday at 11:36 PM

It’s been a while since I watched an Apple presentation, but I caught a bit of this one. And I spent the whole time trying to figure out who it was for - the presenters didn’t seem to express any genuine excitement about the products, and it didn’t convey any useful information that couldn’t be better shared by just posting the slides.

The only thing I can see is that it generates some clips for the presenters to share on their LinkedIn pages. I assume there is prestige in being selected as a presenter, and the rest of the show serves its purpose simply by existing.

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starkytoday at 6:24 AM

The entire presentation fell into the uncanny valley for me. Not only was the presentation flat, but the appearance of the video just felt off for the entire presentation. At one point I was questioning if they were going for something that looked like an AI generated video.

paxysyesterday at 10:15 PM

Apple needs to bring back live keynotes instead of this overproduced TV show.

snowwrestleryesterday at 9:54 PM

> Relative to Steve's emotionally-rich casual-coded excited-to-share delivery.

Example 1,494,298 of “most people aren’t Steve Jobs.” Can’t believe we are still doing this comparison. In a few weeks it will be 15 years old.

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sajithdilshanyesterday at 9:12 PM

That’s something I noticed as well. It was very subtle, but my brain was telling me that something was off and the way people spoke was very artificial.

mvkelyesterday at 9:59 PM

apple needs to rethink so much more fundamentally. Ternus talks identically to Tim Cook. Indistinguishable. It’s like when Jobs left, Apple became a reflection of the superficial touchstones that Jobs left behind, rather than the CEO defining what the culture is, and evolving it.

ardit33yesterday at 9:01 PM

Give him 6 months... usually it takes a bit to change things around (including marketing / pr presentations).

But, he has been part of Apple for too long, and probably has internalized that style.

Hope he brings good change though...

dogscatstreesyesterday at 9:15 PM

Craig F with his constant foot-shuffling...

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browningstreetyesterday at 10:02 PM

Brand is brand. CEO is not brand.

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FireBeyondyesterday at 10:10 PM

I loved the disclaimer at the end of the iPhone Pro model that felt distinctly non-Apple and more akin to a drug commercial, "Usage of heavier models may be limited. Subscribers to certain iCloud+ plans will likely receive higher usage quotas. Now here's Sri to talk about electronics!"

websapyesterday at 11:25 PM

Steve Jobs built sand castles at Apple, these guys are building Kings Landing.

gxsyesterday at 9:21 PM

People are insufferable with the amount of criticism

Like no one is above reproach and def everyone is open to criticism, it to open a thread with 1200 comments and see this as the first comment was super annoying

So much stuff to discuss and we are focusing on some presenters tone? jfc

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ddlsmurfyesterday at 10:18 PM

a very neurotypical response