Apple.

Woke up to over 20 messages all essentially asking me the same thing. "So? Thoughts on Apple?"

I figured I can write a blog post, but there are already hundreds of blog posts out there about this topic, and I'm sure many more to follow, so why not just write my thoughts here?

Here is my response in, hold on, counting... Four words.

Apple's still got it.

Well, the truth is, I guess that depends on how you define "it".

If "it" is Innovation, then yes, Apple's still got it. If you want to do know whether Apple is still the best in the biz, then the answer is yes.

Are yesterday's announcements small iterations or huge leaps forward? The latter.

Really? An FDA-cleared built-in electrocardiogram? As far as I'm concerned, that breakthrough is the equivalent of a camera on a phone.

It is a new standard, a new level that the rest of the industry will spend the next few months and maybe years trying to copy.

Samsung will do it soon, but it won't be as good and once again, it is Apple setting the standard. So yes, the R word. Revolutionary.

Fall detection? Huge for the older generation, which by the way, interestingly enough, is who Apple seemed to be targeting in this keynote.

The phones. Do I want the XS Max? Yes, yes I do. Trying to put aside the fact that I always try to get the newest iPhone, some things about this new phone really pull me in.

The adjustable bokeh/dynamic aperture feature. Not sure if you noticed but I kinda love portrait shots. I use that feature every day on my iPhone X and on my Huawei P20 Pro. Sometimes the phone overdoes it and blurs out the back a bit too much. Now you can adjust that. Is apple the first to do this? No. Was Google the first search engine? Move on. First doesn't matter. Better matters.

Better screens. Better battery. Better cameras. Better performance. Just better phones. Significantly better phones.

My Apple watch is sitting in my drawer collecting dust. So is my Huawei watch. I don't wear a watch. Will this new version change that? Probably not. But I'm not sure I'm the target audience. At least not until I start taking fitness seriously. Then I'll want the series 4. It is beautiful. It is jam packed with tech. It is hands down the best smart watch on the market (Now I sound like I work for Apple. More on that in a second!). Which leads me to my next point.

If "it" is the Steve Jobs factor, the famous Apple Mojo, then I'm not sure Apple's still got it.

While they still excel at the videos they produce for these events and while no one can even come close to competing on their channel management, pricing, and sheer volume of manufacturing, something was missing for me in this keynote.

I have live tweeted pretty much every Apple keynote for the past several years, and I can guarantee you that there was never an Apple event in history in which Tim Cook or Steve Jobs, for that matter, said "The best iPhone/Apple Watch we ever made", "The most beautiful smartphone we ever created.", "The most advanced chip on any smartphone.", And all the other meaningless phrases they kept repeating in this event so many times. It was laughable. And to me, these empty phrases are a sign of fluff. These words signify to me that they have lost their mojo. No one buys this stuff, no one thinks you made a less advanced smartphone this year than last. And yet, they kept repeating those sentences. Over and over. And over.

So is Apple, the first trillion dollar company in history, still kicking butt where it matters? Yes. They are innovating, and that is all that matters.

Is the famous Steve Jobs hype effect still a thing? I'd say we're reaching the point that these keynotes are less exciting and more like a parody. A crowd of journalists that will applaud quite literally anything the middle aged white man will say on that stage.

"And we are announcing the A12 Bionic chip!" <Wild applause>

Um ok.

Bottom line, these keynotes are pure entertainment as far as I'm concerned. That doesn't matter though, because Apple still continues to make the most successful and influential mobile device (and smartwatch) on the planet and will probably do so for the foreseeable future. That's all that matters.