Interesting feedback on my first Newsweek column, “One Bad Apple.” The column argues that Apple has become what Microsoft was 10 years ago — a Bigfoot to smaller companies, throwing its weight around and treating its ecosystem partners not very well. A hardcore Kool-Aid drinker inside Apple sniffs that, “Your column didn’t piss me off, just because I think you are wrong.” A Kool-Aid drinking fanboy writes that the article was so frigtarded that “at first when I read it I thought it must be written by someone who doesn’t know very much about Apple or technology.” Ryan Block of gdgt says I’m an idiot. (See, Ryan has a company with no vowels in its name. Ooooh.)

But then a Valley veteran who happens to be the developer of one of the most popular iPhone apps writes: “Awesome! As a newcomer to the Apple ecosystem, I couldn’t agree more!”

Food for thought.

Oh, and as the angry email rolls in, I’m reminded of something I wrote in July, called “The culture of enablers.” Though I think “cult” instead of “culture” might have been more appropriate.

From Yahoo. Check out the teaser below the headline. Yes, friends, even Paris Hilton, that super sophisticated computer user, has been duped by online tricksters. Who knew?

(Also: as much as I despise the head-in-the-sand print mentality of people like Roger Ebert — see previous item — I do often yearn for the good old days when hacks didn’t have to worry about things like tacking phrases like “Paris Hilton” onto news items just to drive page views.)

So Jay Mariotti, a sportswriter from the Chicago Sun-Times, quit and commented on the way out that newspapers are dead. Roger Ebert pens an open letter to the sportswriter in which he argues that newspapers are vibrant, wonderful institutions that just happen to be going through a bit of a tough time because of the weak economy, and ends by telling Mariotti, “Don’t let the door bang you on the ass.” Sure, this just confirms what we’ve already all known for years — that Ebert is a moron. (And yes, this all happened on Aug. 28, and I’m just writing about it now, sorry.) What really struck me, however, is the tone of Ebert’s letter. The anger, the bitterness, the utter denial. You’ll find lots of this in the print side of the media business these days. Lots of blustery declarations about how newspapers aren’t going away and wow we’re all doing so great and what’s wrong with the world and hurrumph harrumph. Craniorectal inversion, I believe the condition is called.

Sorry for the darkness lately. I was in NY this past week learning the ropes at Newsweek, and there are a lot of ropes to learn. Then I got home and wanted to spend a little time with my kids. But please, please keep sending along the pissed-off email and comments telling me how much I suck. Also, FWIW, my first column at Newsweek is now online. Title: “One Bad Apple.”

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There are some days when I really, really, really wish I were still writing Fake Steve, and friends, this is one of them. In case you haven’t heard, Bloomberg accidentally ran Steve Jobs’s obituary today, and then retracted it. Luckily, Gawker decided to humiliate Bloomberg by publishing the entire obit, including the list of people that Bloombots should call if/when Dear Leader actually does die, which I’m still not sure he ever will, because as far as I can recall from all that Greek and Latin I took in high school a man-god born of Zeus and mortal woman should be an immortal being, and furthermore, how would Apple PR handle it? I suppose for a while they could just stonewall by saying they weren’t here today to talk about Steve, they were here to talk about how excited everyone is about [FILL IN NAME OF NEW PRODUCT HERE] and maybe they could buy themselves a year or two during which the Apple faithful would continue to believe Steve was really alive despite having seen reports to the contrary on the news. But eventually people would start to notice that they hadn’t seen Steve around for a while, and they might even start to doubt Apple’s line about Steve missing Macworld because he was stuck in traffic. And then what happens? It makes me shiver to think about it. For this reason alone, this cannot happen. Steve Jobs cannot die.

Try telling that to the filthy hacks, however. Gawker goes out of its way to point out that “news organizations routinely prepare obituaries in advance,” but I still think Bloomberg’s gaffe is significant. Clearly they were refreshing Jobs’s obituary, and from this I would infer that perhaps their editors were, um, not so utterly convinced by Steve’s recent off-the-record conversation with Joe Nocera in the Times. Or maybe it was those very strong “Steve’s health is a personal issue. Steve’s health is a personal issue. Steve’s health is a personal issue” statements from Apple PR. Yeah. Those went a long way toward putting everyone at ease.

Guess what? Bloomberg ain’t the only ones who are getting antsy. Back when Steve appeared onstage looking like crap and the whole “Is he sick?” thing began, one of my fellow filthy hacks, a guy who works at a very top-drawer news organization, got the word from his editors back in New York to start writing the Jobs obit and make sure he had it banked and ready to go. I told him it was pointless because Steve was fine and this whole “thin” thing was an optical illusion. I even showed him the hundreds of emails and blog comments I’d received from readers who don’t know Steve and don’t even know anyone who knows anyone who knows Steve but who were nonetheless absolutely sure that Steve was fine and were just furious that the press was making such a big deal of it since the whole thing was so obviously a load of crap. Didn’t work. The hack still wrote the obit. Though, to his credit, he has so far managed not to publish it.

Great work, Bloomberg. You dopes.

Silicon Apartment speaks truth to power. See the full comic strip here.

Much love to the anonymous reader who spotted Woz at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco over the weekend — and quickly snapped a photo and sent it to me. Anyone know who the lady on the Segway might be?

See here. Microsoft plays evil practical joke on potential customers, then humiliates them with online video. Fantastic!

That’s what it says here, and even though it’s Fox News I’m still inclined to believe it, since it originally was reported by Reuters. Orange, the carrier for iPhone in Poland, is paying people to form lines outside stores and generate some hype. Woz apparently has leapt at the offer and is already on his way to Warsaw. Oh, and Karol Karol, the dude from the Kieslowski pictures (right) will be there. Hey, times are tough in the booming new Poland, and a gig’s a gig. Come to think of it, this whole thing sounds like a Kieslowski movie. In a time of unbridled capitalism, a fable about love and innocence: boy meets girl in the fake iPhone line in Warsaw, they fall in love, then learn, cruelly, that they’re actually brother and sister. They plot a joint suicide, but lack the courage to go through with their plan. She moves to Paris and becomes a famous actress. He moves to Krakow and opens a hair salon. Years later, unable to put aside her passion, his sister goes looking for him, and tracks him down in Krakow, but too late — he has married an eccentric waitress played by Audrey Tautou and started a family. They all go to the country and have a picnic.