Real Biography:

Newsweek Technology Editor Dan Lyons enthralled the worlds of business, media and Silicon Valley with his wildly popular, scathingly hilarious and insightful blog, The Secret Diary of Fake Steve Jobs, which drew as many as 1.5 million visitors each month — not bad for a one-man Web site with zero dollars spent on marketing or promotion. Writing in the voice of a character called “Fake Steve Jobs,” Lyons pioneered a vivid, entertaining new form of journalism. Think what might happen if Fast Company merged with The Onion, or if Hunter S. Thompson wrote for Businessweek, and you get the idea. Along the way Dan made lots of mistakes — some funny, some scary — and learned some important lessons about how to attract an online audience and keep them engaged. He also fell in love with new media, in particular with its ability to let everyone participate.

Dan has worked as a tech journalist for 25 years, including the decade he spent at Forbes before taking over the coveted spot of tech columnist at Newsweek in 2008. At Newsweek his coverage focuses on Apple (of course) as well as social media and mobile computing. He has penned cover stories on Apple’s iPad and Google’s Android operating system, as well as important features on Facebook and Twitter. Dan is also fascinated by artificial intelligence, robotics and the Singularity movement. He will be featured in an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary about the Singularity, and has appeared as a guest on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Bloomberg TV, Fox Business News and National Public Radio. Over the past 25 years Lyons has written for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired and many technology trade publications. In addition to his work as a journalist, Dan has published three works of fiction and dabbled in screenwriting for television.

Lyons’s latest book is Options:

The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a satire about Silicon Valley which was published in 2007 to critical acclaim. His previous books are Dog Days (a novel) and The Last Good Man (short stories). As a fiction writer Dan has been the recipient of both a prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship and the somewhat notorious Playboy College Fiction Prize. He also was named one of the “Fabulous 52″ in the 1996 Best Young American Novelists competition sponsored by Granta.

Lyons has spoken at corporate campuses and industry conferences and events, including the Web 2.0 Expo and Thinking Digital in Newcastle, England. He has taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Toledo. He holds a B.A. from Bradford College and an M.F.A. from University of Michigan.