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"It was probably an off-hand comment, but it speaks volumes about where John's current psyche is. He said: iPhone critics have seldom let facts get in their wa

"It was probably an off-hand comment, but it speaks volumes about where John's current psyche is. He said: iPhone critics have seldom let facts get in their way." That line actually bothered me too, but for me it was triggered by John's recent decision to start attacking Android for somehow using private APIs on the sly because he couldn't be bothered to A. understand the basic architecture of Android (those pesky facts; things that anybody who'd spent 20 minutes skimming the intro to the Android SDK could tell you) and B. the fact that he almost willfully ignores that Android is architected differently than the iPhone, and that things that would be system-level calls on the iPhone are handled at the application level via public system calls, even for Google's own applications. This just happens to be something I can put my finger on; like the article's author, there's just been something about his tone recently that's been kind of off-putting to me. He seems quicker to jump at things simply for the sake of snark over correctness, which is a little bothersome for somebody who has a reputation for being a stickler for detail. It sucks because he's somebody that in the past I saw as being able to trust to get a take on things that was at least fair, even if I disagreed with him. Lately I find myself rolling my eyes at his posts often as not.

ubernostrum 16y ago
I guess I take it a bit differently -- the stuff he's usually responding to is from "respected industry commentators" like Rob Enderle or Paul Thurrott and, well, the record kinda speaks for itself. Mainstream coverage tends to pretty consistently publish a lot of things which are flat-out not true (e.g., the oft-repeated claim that iPods can only play music purchased from the iTunes store). And, for better or worse, that's what Gruber is typically harping on.
- mtts 16y ago
  I'm under the impression that the amount of writing about other tech writers on Daring Fireball has increased during the last few months at the expense of writing about, well, tech. Which makes the site less pleasant to read for me. And in a sense it's "jumping the shark" - having run out of ideas, the John Gruber show is starting to fill episodes with unlikely, contrived subplots that have nothing to do with the original premise of the show, which was to write, in depth, about Apple products.
  - smackfu 16y ago
    There's a lot of zeal in making fun of other people. He's become a bit of a bully.
  - ubernostrum 16y ago
    I don't agree that there's been an abnormal increase recently; any time Apple launches something major, there's always a followup period in which Gruber does a bunch of his "claim chowder" or similar posts. Similarly, there's usually a short burst of them around quarterly-filing dates, going after market commentators. And, true to form, he's been doing a lot of that lately with iPad coverage, and those posts will probably start tailing off soon.

ubernostrum 16y ago

I guess I take it a bit differently -- the stuff he's usually responding to is from "respected industry commentators" like Rob Enderle or Paul Thurrott and, well, the record kinda speaks for itself. Mainstream coverage tends to pretty consistently publish a lot of things which are flat-out not true (e.g., the oft-repeated claim that iPods can only play music purchased from the iTunes store). And, for better or worse, that's what Gruber is typically harping on.

mtts 16y ago
I'm under the impression that the amount of writing about other tech writers on Daring Fireball has increased during the last few months at the expense of writing about, well, tech. Which makes the site less pleasant to read for me. And in a sense it's "jumping the shark" - having run out of ideas, the John Gruber show is starting to fill episodes with unlikely, contrived subplots that have nothing to do with the original premise of the show, which was to write, in depth, about Apple products.
- smackfu 16y ago
  There's a lot of zeal in making fun of other people. He's become a bit of a bully.
- ubernostrum 16y ago
  I don't agree that there's been an abnormal increase recently; any time Apple launches something major, there's always a followup period in which Gruber does a bunch of his "claim chowder" or similar posts. Similarly, there's usually a short burst of them around quarterly-filing dates, going after market commentators. And, true to form, he's been doing a lot of that lately with iPad coverage, and those posts will probably start tailing off soon.