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It is not Jon Gruber's job to shout from the rooftops when things go wrong with Apple products. No, it's not, but given the influence that his blog has, being

It is not Jon Gruber's job to shout from the rooftops when things go wrong with Apple products. No, it's not, but given the influence that his blog has, being widely read both inside and outside Apple, it's a real shame that he doesn't. It would be a wonderful thing if he held Apple to account more often.

tptacek 16y ago
This makes no sense to me. He practically started the blog to write glowing things about Apple. He has the influence has has because he is an extremely good writer; he's tight, pithy, is relentlessly creative, and has a unique voice; he's also very well-sourced, which sets up a virtuous cycle for him. He didn't get his donation as a line item grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and he doesn't owe us anything. I actually don't agree with the narrative that Gruber is a shill, but even if we stipulate that he is to avoid an unproductive argument: so what?
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  I've read Gruber for years, and it used to be a mix of "interesting stuff in the Apple world", "Kubrick/Baseball/BBedit/Applescript/typography nits" and "criticisms of Apple" (usually centred around lack of attention to detail, interface annoyances or not being faithful to the pre-OS X way of doing things). As an Apple owner and fan, I enjoyed reading those intelligent criticisms. Clearly this has changed, but lets not go rewriting history. The last line of his first blog post: "But if it’s the latter — that is, if pro users are giving the finger to Mac OS X — things could get ugly." I wonder why he felt more able to criticize them when they were "beleaguered" than now, when they're on top of the world. Possibly it's no more than being a crotchety OS 9 user thrust into the strange and uncomfortable world of early OS X. Some evidence of that here: http://daringfireball.net/2002/09/welcome_indeed http://daringfireball.net/2002/09/welcome_indeed On the other hand maybe he's checked his stats and found that trolling pays better. And just for fun here's some claim chowder from one of his early posts: "a vaporware Apple-branded mobile “iPhone” is getting a lot traction. Go ahead and read it, but remember that it’s all bullshit speculation at this point."
  - tptacek 16y ago
    He said that in 2002.
    - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
      That was a merely an amusing-in-hindsight observation, I even telegraphed it with the introduction of "just for fun". Maybe the tipsters were right and there was a skunkworks project working on the iPhone even then (Jobs says the iPhone grew out of iPad work that must have been going on for years before we saw the iPhone, never mind the iPad) or alternatively maybe Apple picked up the name for their product from the rumours. Either way I find it interesting, and it underscores the old adage that making predictions is a mug's game.

tptacek 16y ago

This makes no sense to me. He practically started the blog to write glowing things about Apple. He has the influence has has because he is an extremely good writer; he's tight, pithy, is relentlessly creative, and has a unique voice; he's also very well-sourced, which sets up a virtuous cycle for him. He didn't get his donation as a line item grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and he doesn't owe us anything. I actually don't agree with the narrative that Gruber is a shill, but even if we stipulate that he is to avoid an unproductive argument: so what?

ZeroGravitas 16y ago
I've read Gruber for years, and it used to be a mix of "interesting stuff in the Apple world", "Kubrick/Baseball/BBedit/Applescript/typography nits" and "criticisms of Apple" (usually centred around lack of attention to detail, interface annoyances or not being faithful to the pre-OS X way of doing things). As an Apple owner and fan, I enjoyed reading those intelligent criticisms. Clearly this has changed, but lets not go rewriting history. The last line of his first blog post: "But if it’s the latter — that is, if pro users are giving the finger to Mac OS X — things could get ugly." I wonder why he felt more able to criticize them when they were "beleaguered" than now, when they're on top of the world. Possibly it's no more than being a crotchety OS 9 user thrust into the strange and uncomfortable world of early OS X. Some evidence of that here: http://daringfireball.net/2002/09/welcome_indeed http://daringfireball.net/2002/09/welcome_indeed On the other hand maybe he's checked his stats and found that trolling pays better. And just for fun here's some claim chowder from one of his early posts: "a vaporware Apple-branded mobile “iPhone” is getting a lot traction. Go ahead and read it, but remember that it’s all bullshit speculation at this point."
- tptacek 16y ago
  He said that in 2002.
  - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
    That was a merely an amusing-in-hindsight observation, I even telegraphed it with the introduction of "just for fun". Maybe the tipsters were right and there was a skunkworks project working on the iPhone even then (Jobs says the iPhone grew out of iPad work that must have been going on for years before we saw the iPhone, never mind the iPad) or alternatively maybe Apple picked up the name for their product from the rumours. Either way I find it interesting, and it underscores the old adage that making predictions is a mug's game.