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This was a weirdly subdued review by Gruber, it even brings up areas where competitors have been doing something for a while without going through the normal Gr

by bane 9y ago

This was a weirdly subdued review by Gruber, it even brings up areas where competitors have been doing something for a while without going through the normal Gruberian mental gymnastics to justify it. He even brings up Apple's inexplicable need to have a 16 GB base model until this year without trying to justify it. Gruber often gets himself in trouble by omission as much as by the circus-show of what he writes. But there's very little of that here. This reads like an honest review. My tl;dr of it is "It's a solid year over year update from the 7." note Not to worry, his previous articles will send the critically thinking reader down the road to infuration just like one might expect...I was afraid Gruber was losing his edge.

Eridrus 9y ago
All of the phones Apple released are boring, so it's kind of not surprising that people aren't worked up about it. At least to people who watch gadgets. The Mi Mix was a revelation, the iPhone X is just what people expected before all the leaks, with the exception of FaceID, which got leaked. Still, every time I see someone writing about Apple design, it seems like it's great when Apple does it - its even better than last year's model! - but it's always bad when competitors were. I'm still completely jealous of iPhone battery life though.
- currysausage 9y ago
  > the iPhone X is just what people expected But that's the point of iPhones nowadays, isn't it? Shipping features only when they feel ready (e.g. I guess this [1] won't be possible with Face ID). I switched from Android to iOS when I decided that I want a boring (but elegant) smartphone that bothers me as little as possible. > Apple design, it seems like it's great when Apple does it What many of their customers value, I think, is that Apple tends to get the big picture and the details right quite often. The big picture: When I buy an Apple phone, I can be quite sure not to see this on the default lockscreen: [2]. The details: [3]. You don't have to appreciate this level of detail, but some people do. That being said, not even Gruber claims that recent iPhones are "perfect" design-wise. [4] Just more detail-oriented than most competitors. > I'm still completely jealous of iPhone battery life though. Bought an iPhone 7 ½ year ago. I don't think battery life is anything to be jealous about. I hear good things about the Plus models though. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-facial-recognition-tricked-with-a-photo-2017-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-facial-... [2] https://twitter.com/dcseifert/status/905104470429851648 https://twitter.com/dcseifert/status/905104470429851648 [3] https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/larger/public/field/image/2015/04/galaxy-s6-bottom-alignment.jpg https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/larger/pu... [4] https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_and_observations#fn1-2017-09-14 https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_a... (Footnote 1)
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    > I want a boring (but elegant) smartphone that bothers me as little as possible. Exactly this. It's why I run OSX instead of Linux on the desktop - I'm old and I resent having to catherd my gadgets. If I have to tweak anything, it generally goes in the bin.
    - zeveb 9y ago
      The thing is, macOS is objectively worse than Linux in certain respects, e.g. the UI's placement of window close next to other window controls (oddly, the old Macintosh OS did this correctly) or shipping the less-featureful BSD userland rather than the GNU userland, or shipping an old & outdated bash. But I enjoy making my tools work better. I don't compile my kernel anymore, I don't build my own computers, but I do enjoy making my environment work better, faster, simpler and more powerfully.
      - jsjohnst 9y ago
        > shipping the less-featureful BSD userland rather than the GNU userland, or shipping an old & outdated bash. You think that's an intentional choice Apple made? If you spent even a moment looking into it you'd realize the GNU user land has a license that purposely roadblocks companies like Apple from using it. I'm not saying Apple or GNU is to blame, they have different philosophies with their own benefits and drawbacks, but to pretend it's only one side's fault is a bit naive.
        zeveb 9y ago
        > You think that's an intentional choice Apple made? Yes, because they do ship some GPL software (and provide the source code for it); they choose not to ship more, and they choose not to give their customers the source code to the software they purchase. I don't know if Apple could make money selling hardware with open source software, but I do believe that morally it should.
        jsjohnst 9y ago
- philjohn 9y ago
  How much of that is down to leaks though - every apple product over the last few years has had serious leaks well before launch (touch bar on the new MBP and pretty much the entirety of the Iphone X feature set), whereas the Mi Mix didn't.
elicash 9y ago
> He even brings up Apple's inexplicable need to have a 16 GB base model until this year without trying to justify it. He's been ranting about that for years. Here's his review of the iPhone 6 three years ago: > But I don’t understand why the entry level storage tier remained at a meager 16 GB. That seems downright punitive given how big panoramic photos and slo-mo HD videos are, and it sticks out like a sore thumb when you look at the three storage tiers together... That’s just wrong. This is the single-most disappointing aspect of the new phones.
aetherson 9y ago
Yeah, Gruber has been surprisingly tolerable this cycle. Don't get me wrong, he's always had substantive criticisms of Apple products, it's just that the substantive criticisms have always been sandwiched between gigantic layers of over-the-top absurd fanboyism. This review reads like it's a basically positive review from an Apple fan. Which is, I guess, by Gruber's standards, the most negative review possible.
_pmf_ 9y ago
There are some turds that even Gruber will refuse to polish.

by bane 9y ago

Eridrus 9y ago

All of the phones Apple released are boring, so it's kind of not surprising that people aren't worked up about it. At least to people who watch gadgets. The Mi Mix was a revelation, the iPhone X is just what people expected before all the leaks, with the exception of FaceID, which got leaked. Still, every time I see someone writing about Apple design, it seems like it's great when Apple does it - its even better than last year's model! - but it's always bad when competitors were. I'm still completely jealous of iPhone battery life though.

currysausage 9y ago
> the iPhone X is just what people expected But that's the point of iPhones nowadays, isn't it? Shipping features only when they feel ready (e.g. I guess this [1] won't be possible with Face ID). I switched from Android to iOS when I decided that I want a boring (but elegant) smartphone that bothers me as little as possible. > Apple design, it seems like it's great when Apple does it What many of their customers value, I think, is that Apple tends to get the big picture and the details right quite often. The big picture: When I buy an Apple phone, I can be quite sure not to see this on the default lockscreen: [2]. The details: [3]. You don't have to appreciate this level of detail, but some people do. That being said, not even Gruber claims that recent iPhones are "perfect" design-wise. [4] Just more detail-oriented than most competitors. > I'm still completely jealous of iPhone battery life though. Bought an iPhone 7 ½ year ago. I don't think battery life is anything to be jealous about. I hear good things about the Plus models though. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-facial-recognition-tricked-with-a-photo-2017-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-facial-... [2] https://twitter.com/dcseifert/status/905104470429851648 https://twitter.com/dcseifert/status/905104470429851648 [3] https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/larger/public/field/image/2015/04/galaxy-s6-bottom-alignment.jpg https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/larger/pu... [4] https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_and_observations#fn1-2017-09-14 https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_a... (Footnote 1)
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > I want a boring (but elegant) smartphone that bothers me as little as possible. Exactly this. It's why I run OSX instead of Linux on the desktop - I'm old and I resent having to catherd my gadgets. If I have to tweak anything, it generally goes in the bin.
  - zeveb 9y ago
    The thing is, macOS is objectively worse than Linux in certain respects, e.g. the UI's placement of window close next to other window controls (oddly, the old Macintosh OS did this correctly) or shipping the less-featureful BSD userland rather than the GNU userland, or shipping an old & outdated bash. But I enjoy making my tools work better. I don't compile my kernel anymore, I don't build my own computers, but I do enjoy making my environment work better, faster, simpler and more powerfully.
    - jsjohnst 9y ago
      > shipping the less-featureful BSD userland rather than the GNU userland, or shipping an old & outdated bash. You think that's an intentional choice Apple made? If you spent even a moment looking into it you'd realize the GNU user land has a license that purposely roadblocks companies like Apple from using it. I'm not saying Apple or GNU is to blame, they have different philosophies with their own benefits and drawbacks, but to pretend it's only one side's fault is a bit naive.
      - zeveb 9y ago
        > You think that's an intentional choice Apple made? Yes, because they do ship some GPL software (and provide the source code for it); they choose not to ship more, and they choose not to give their customers the source code to the software they purchase. I don't know if Apple could make money selling hardware with open source software, but I do believe that morally it should.
        jsjohnst 9y ago
philjohn 9y ago
How much of that is down to leaks though - every apple product over the last few years has had serious leaks well before launch (touch bar on the new MBP and pretty much the entirety of the Iphone X feature set), whereas the Mi Mix didn't.

elicash 9y ago

> He even brings up Apple's inexplicable need to have a 16 GB base model until this year without trying to justify it. He's been ranting about that for years. Here's his review of the iPhone 6 three years ago: > But I don’t understand why the entry level storage tier remained at a meager 16 GB. That seems downright punitive given how big panoramic photos and slo-mo HD videos are, and it sticks out like a sore thumb when you look at the three storage tiers together... That’s just wrong. This is the single-most disappointing aspect of the new phones.

aetherson 9y ago

Yeah, Gruber has been surprisingly tolerable this cycle. Don't get me wrong, he's always had substantive criticisms of Apple products, it's just that the substantive criticisms have always been sandwiched between gigantic layers of over-the-top absurd fanboyism. This review reads like it's a basically positive review from an Apple fan. Which is, I guess, by Gruber's standards, the most negative review possible.

_pmf_ 9y ago

There are some turds that even Gruber will refuse to polish.