The media has avoided these issues in the run-up to Tuesday’s product launches Apple’s iPad — the Air model is shown here — was once considered a threat to the laptop’s existence. It hasn’t quite turned out that way. We don’t have to shovel dirt on absolutely everything written about Apple’s upcoming product launch. After all, so much has been said that some of it is even bound to be right. But — and this might make you laugh — what has not been said? OK, wipe the coffee off your computer screen. Asking what hasn’t been said about an AppleAAPL,+0.38% product unveiling is a bit like asking what hasn’t been said about Beyonce. It seems metaphysically impossible that something — really, anything — could have been left unspoken. And yet there has. (Not about Beyonce, just Apple.) The financial media is an echo chamber without parallel, which means articles of faith are mass-produced, with story lines repeated ad infinitum. And that, in the end, leaves room for certain factors about Apple’s Tuesday release to have been, yes, overlooked. First, a quick note to the wisearses who bray in the comment section below: While I normally love nothing more than trolling your wit and wisdom (at least, all of it that is not written in crayon), let’s not bother playing a game of gotcha here. I understand that it is possible, or even probable, that some of these factors were mentioned by somebody, somewhere. The point is that even if mentioned on the odd occasion, the following Apple issues have been downplayed. Big time. Siri.In all the talk about better battery life and screen size, Siri has been the forgotten sister of the whole Apple familia. You remember Siri, right? She was the little lady who was going to help Apple compete with GoogleGOOG,+0.62%to rule the search world. Turned out, Siri was about as operational as a plantar wart. Pretty much no matter what you said to Siri, she spoke back at you in gibberish. Though it is highly doubtful that meaningful improvements were made to the lady who seems to exist in her own mystical energy field, we should at least peel our eyes to the possibility. IPad.In contemporary technology, you cannot mention the prospects of the iPhone without mentioning the currently fractured state of the iPad. Most media outlets are acting willfully naïve about the iPad. That should come as no surprise. Not too long ago, the media declared the iPad so ascendant that it was going to kill off the laptop — well, it has been running into a world of trouble lately. That trouble will probably help the iPhone. Think about it: In the third quarter, which the Cupertino company reported in July, iPad unit sales were down 9% from a year earlier (and down 19% from the previous three months) and well below expectations. IPad sales were, when robust, sucking the life from many technological gizmos, including the iPhone. Its demise can only help — and should be mentioned prominently. Wearable computer.Anyone who is calling the prospective release of Apple’s so-called iWatch a “wearable computer” — and many are — are only telling you a half-story. There is a difference between a wearable computer and a fitness band. A wearable computer is transformative. A fitness band is a plaything. Which way does this iWatch turn? That’s the key question that few are deigning to ask. Tim Cook.Tim Cook, Apple’s semi-embattled chief executive officer, has been mentioned aplenty, but often in the wrong context. MarketWatch, for example, ran an article with the headline: “Apple’s Tim Cook faces make-or-break week.” Fair enough, to a point. Apple is introducing the first truly new products of the Cook era. Long-term, it will, no doubt, shape Cook’s fate. But in the short-run, the headlines should mention that Cook is remarkably secure. Despite a recent dip, Apple’s stock has had a muscular year. Let’s face it: When a stock flexes that much muscle and the CEO was hand-picked by a dying Steve Jobs, he’s not going anywhere soon, even if Siri still stinks. And there you have it: Siri, the iPad, it-better-be-a-wearable-not-a-fitness-band and Tim-Cook-is-not-cooked. Now every last detail of the Apple product launch has been dotted. via marketwatch