RUSH: Something unprecedented happened this week. Apple Incorporated, announced a software upgrade from their current Lion to what they’re calling Mountain Lion. It caught everybody by surprise. Nobody knew, there was not one leak. This is unprecedented. Apple did something else that they have not done for a long time. Normally what Apple does when they have a big announcement like this is they schedule a presentation at a large auditorium of anywhere from 500 to 2,000 people and they invite developers and journalists and all kinds of people in, and they get a keynote address with slide show presentation, videos, and actual live demos of whatever it is.
This time they gave journalists, a select few print journalists, access to their new software for a full week before announcing it, and not one of them leaked it. Not one of them leaked it. That’s unprecedented. There are always leaks about what’s next in terms of big things for Apple. What’s interesting about this is they did not give the IT guy at the New York Times a copy of the new software to play with. They gave it to everybody else, but they did not give it to the New York Times. And I, of course, El Rushbo, am not surprised.
Here’s what happened. If you recall, some of you don’t know, don’t use Apple stuff, but the moment the iPhone hit, back in 2007, virtually every website screen shot depicting a screen shot of the iPhone and then the iPad or even a computer used the New York Times. Steve Jobs, in his biography done by Walter Isaacson, expressed an affinity for the New York Times. He said, “They don’t quite know what they’re doing here with their digital launch, and I want to help ’em.” Jobs said he wanted to help the New York Times get it right ’cause it’s the New York Times, it’s important. There was a very friendly, almost symbiotic relationship between Apple and the New York Times.
Then within the last two months the New York Times started doing hit pieces on Apple’s manufacturing process in China. Big hit pieces. Steve Jobs had passed away, whatever link there was between the Times and Jobs therefore gone, and they started doing hit pieces and Apple was ripped for unfair labor practices, slave labor, child labor. It was vicious. And I, at the time, recognized it for what it was. It was an attack on capitalism. It was to benefit Obama. How’s it benefit Obama? Well, because, here you have the most successful American company, their market cap now is larger than ExxonMobil. Their stock price is alternately north and south of $500 a share. They just can’t right now do anything wrong. And so they become the subject of a giant hit piece, the nation’s largest and most successful capitalist enterprise, while Obama’s on a warpath to blame capitalism for everything that’s wrong.
So guess what the New York Times did, big hit pieces on Apple and what’s wrong with the way Apple does things, and look at these poor people in China who are being taken advantage of and committing suicide and all of this. And I said at the time, “I wonder how Apple now feels about their buddies at the New York Times?” Well, now, we know. They just said (raspberry) to the New York Times. Left them out of their brand-new way of doing things. The guy at the Wall Street Journal got the new software, bloggers got the new software.
The New York Times guy is David Pogue, and he’s been pretty much favorable to Apple stuff when he’s reviewed it. So Apple, they realized what was going on. The biggest Apple scoop — in fact, the two latest Apple scoops have gone to the Wall Street Journal, the dreaded Rupert Murdoch, who Steve Jobs is quoted as saying, “I hate Fox News” in that Isaacson book, and he told Murdoch, “This country is no longer divided between liberal and conservative. You’re missing it, Rupert.” I forget what he said the divisions are, but they’re not liberal or conservative. And he made a joke that he had to hide the knives when he invited Murdoch to his house ’cause his wife really hated Murdoch and really hated Fox.
Now Apple, the last two big scoops have gone to the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch. One scoop was the meeting coming up, their next big presentation on March 7th, which is for the iPad 3, which apparently is gonna be unbelievable. It’s gonna have a higher screen resolution than a 27-inch 1080p flat screen TV. (interruption) Huh? Yeah. OMG. The iPad 3 is gonna have a higher resolution than a 27-inch 1080p flat screen. And it probably is gonna have 4G connectivity in it for AT&T and Verizon and whoever else has it. They haven’t confirmed 4G LTE, they just confirmed the March 7th meeting and the new software, Mountain Lion.
The rumor is they’re testing an eight-inch iPad, but nothing about coming out with one. Anyway, this Mountain Lion, the new operating system, I’ve been playing with it. It basically is the iPad on your computer now. They’ve brought over a lot of applications and software and procedures from the iPad to the Mac, including something called mirroring. You are going to be able, with an Apple TV box at 99 bucks, you’re gonna be able to project on a 14-foot TV or a 27-inch TV, as long as Apple TV’s connected to it, your Mac screen, whatever’s on your Mac screen, audio, video, will be on your TV. You can do that now from your iPad but you’re gonna be able to do it from your Mac, which — hello free TV episodes.
It’s gonna change presentations in boardrooms. It’s gonna be overwhelmingly revolutionary. I’ve been playing with it. It is astounding. This new operating system, and it’s kind of frustrating because they’re not gonna release it till the summer, late summer, but the developers have their copy of it. Anyway, the New York Times was left totally out of this for the first time ever, and they are upset about it. In fact, the Washington Post did a story on it, gleefully. The Washington Post had one of the happiest stories I’ve ever seen about how the Apple people left the New York Times out of all of their new big stuff.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Steve Jobs’ exact words from Walter Isaacson to Rupert Murdoch, Jobs told Rupert Murdoch Fox News was a destructive force in our society. And today Apple is giving the Wall Street Journal, i.e., Rupert Murdoch, first dibs on whatever new they are doing. I just love it. I just do. The New York Times does these hit pieces, what do they think is gonna happen? Do they think, “Oh, no, we gotta get back in the New York Times’ good graces.” It doesn’t work that way.