Filed under: Humor
Fake Steve calls shenanigans on Fortune mag item
Pity the editors of Fortune's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business list, who thought to include an item at #51 on this year's countdown calling out Apple's dumb move. The rainbow fruit was taken to task for a cease-and-desist letter sent to nine-year-old Shea O'Gorman, who was told in no uncertain terms to stop sending suggestions for improvements to the iPod Nano via a letter from Apple's legal team.Was this a dumb business moment? Undoubtedly. Did it take place in 2007? Uh, nope -- 2006. Fake Steve calls Fortune on the carpet (link headline NSFW) for the mixup, which is a little disingenuous considering who pays for the gas in his Gulfstream... but it's all in fun.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 12:31PM on 12-19-2007
Additionally, it's not a dumb move. If they ended up doing this there is an outside possibility they could be sued for "stealing" the idea. Obviously that wouldn't happen considering the kid is 9 years old, but irrelevant to the fact that it's a smart move. Nintendo does the same thing.
Reply
Cody Bromley said 12:55PM on 12-19-2007
this is about an item from '06
but i remember my iPod always having that feature for lyrics.
was this kid just retarded?
Reply
something said 12:58PM on 12-19-2007
@Mike
I disagree. I smart business move would be to have a more pleasantly tone letter sent from "Steve Jobs" saying that while they appreciate have you as a customer that unfortunately they cannot take ideas from the public. It didn't need to be so harsh.
Reply
Dom said 1:03PM on 12-19-2007
"link headline NSFW" ?
Are you kidding me? Seriously?
What kind of country are you living in where a single written word is considered not safe for work?
Reply
Michael Rose said 2:38PM on 12-19-2007
Yes, yes we are.
artifex said 2:42PM on 12-19-2007
The very fact that the URL contains the headline means some firewalls might trigger on the cussword in it, without ever having visited it, because it's embedded in this story. To avoid triggering this in the future, TUAW should use a link shortener.
AJ said 1:16PM on 12-19-2007
Um...He should have just emailed her back and told her she could already view lyrics on the iPod...would have been nicer.
(Right Click on song in iTunes, Get Info, Lyrics tab. Once you put the lyrics in sync the iPod, and hit the center button on 5 times when the song is playing. Voila, instant lyrics.)
Reply
benjamin said 2:11PM on 12-19-2007
Are Forbes and Fortune the same thing?
Reply
Michael Rose said 2:39PM on 12-19-2007
No. Fortune is a Time Inc. publication (owned, as is TUAW/Weblogs, by AOL Time Warner); Forbes is a different magazine. It's a little snarky of FSJ to go after Fortune when he gets paid by a competitor...
Brad Jasper said 10:08PM on 12-20-2007
Daniel Lyons who is the fake Steve Jobs is a senior editor at Forbes.
Pretty funny seeing him ripping on his own magazine.
Reply
Brad Jasper said 10:11PM on 12-20-2007
You can tell it's been a long day when you read Fortune as Forbes. My mistake :)