Fake Steve Jobs outed at last
Updated on 06 August 2007
One of the biggest mysteries on the internet has been solved - the secret author of one of the web' most talked-about blogs has been revealed.
In just 14 months, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs had become required reading among the tech community.
Purporting to be the online diary of Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs, it made cruel fun of Apple, its iPod and iPhone products, the music industry and the US tech industry in general.
It's tagline was 'Dude, I invented the friggin iPhone. Have you heard of it?'
Numerous people had been accused of writing the blog, including Steve Jobs himself.
It was a New York Times reporter, Brad Stone, who unmasked the real face of Fake Steve Jobs, as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at the business magazine Forbes.
In a final post, entitled 'Damn, I am so busted, yo' Fake Steve signed off with an attack on his discoverer.
"Now you've ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder. Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina."
The Secret Diary - an extract
'Apple faithful, here in our darkest hour I know what you're thinking: What's next for FSJ [Fake Steve Job]? Well, I'm taking a few days off to sit in a lake and do some yoga and meditation and non-thinking. Then I'm coming back next week, badder than ever, with a new sponsor -- my homeboys at Forbes.com. Turns out they've been reading FSJ and liking it too. Who knew?
Meanwhile if anyone can think of a cool way to use the name "Brad Stone" (all or part) as a verb, let me know. '
However, the fun is not all over - the blog will continue to run on the Forbes.com website.
The genre of the anonymous blog has spawned several big hits over the years, notably the diary of a London call girl, Belle du Jour - which has spawned two books - but the identity of Belle herself has never been discovered.
The Fake Steve Jobs blog brought new life to the genre, inspiring many imitators - though none has achieved the same impact as the original.
