Apple is still using the "reality-distortion theater" that Jobs conceived, but without the wizard who distorted the reality. The event was a hollow shell, a simulacrum of an Apple announcement.

Worst of all, the old Apple product announcement formula, which once conveyed an aura of supreme competence, just felt old this week.

I'm not criticizing Apple. It's still a great company, and it still makes great products. It's doing the best work it, or any other company, could do, I'm sure.

What I'm saying is that without its visionary dictator founder, Apple is quickly and quite inevitably becoming a more ordinary company.

On Oct. 5, we'll mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs. We're going to hear a lot of talk about Apple's visionary CEO and co-founder -- who he was, and what he meant to Apple and to the industry.