"Fake Steve Jobs" lashes out at Apple

The man known as "Fake Steve Jobs" issued a sharp criticism of his real world counterpart Wednesday in San Francisco.

Newsweek columnist and industry satirist Dan Lyons slammed the company for its policies in dealing with both customers and developers in regards to its latest products.

During a keynote address at the SugarCRM 'Sugarcon' conference, Lyons said that the vertical integration Apple was developing as part of its iPad strategy was "worrisome".

Lyons, who rose to fame in the tech world for his portrayal of the Apple founder and chief executive in "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs," said that the company's policy of controlling not only the distribution of software through the App Store, but now advertising as well with iAds, was giving Apple complete control over what the user can see and do with the device.

"They call it this magical and revolutionary device, but my question is for whom?" Lyons said.

"People are rushing into this cage and they're not thinking about it, they're roaring into it."

The writer was particularly critical of the "walled garden" approach. He argued that through such policies as App Store screening, the exclusion of Flash and new restrictions on non-native programming languages the company was aiming to develop a new type of computer which could be completely controlled by Apple.

Lyons also lashed out at Jobs himself, accusing the Apple chief of creating the same big-brother culture that Apple itself targeted with the iconic "1984" ad and the launch of the first Macintosh machines.

"Microsoft in its worst 'Borg' days would never have done this," he said.

"The IBM System/360 wasn't as locked up as this. This is crazy."