Is Steve Jobs really Big Brother?

I've ripped these visuals off from a column in the current issue of Forbes entitled "Big Brother." (I spent way too much time on Friday scanning Jobs' big speech earlier this month looking to recreate it myself, but to no avail.) Anyway, the two pictures—one, of course, of the classic Apple spot "1984"—make for a great juxtaposition, and illustrate the point that there's something increasingly cult-like and scary about Apple. Written by Daniel Lyons (aka fake Steve), the column says "... the flip side of Apple's success is that Apple has started to seem scary. Jobs' ambitions go way beyond making computers and gadgets. He's the most powerful figure in the music business and is maneuvering toward dominance in the movie and TV business as well." You can read the whole column here (free registration required). Of course, I've gone on the record as saying that I thought all those people who had to buy the iPhone the nanosecond it came out (and pay too much for it) reminded me of that 1985 Apple spot, "Lemmings."