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I'm not sure what you mean. I understand it to be a review by a professional photographer - but one with an obvious bias towards Apple, as they have been a clie

I'm not sure what you mean. I understand it to be a review by a professional photographer - but one with an obvious bias towards Apple, as they have been a client of his, he uses their phone's cameras in his work, and he has a book about how to take pictures with their phones. But that does not make it an advertisement, as far as I know, he is not paid by Apple, nor did Apple provide the phone or control what he said.

leesalminen 7y ago
How did he get hands on a phone that hasn’t been released yet if Apple didn’t provide it?
- dgzl 7y ago
  Early test releases are not uncommon.
- scott_s 7y ago
  That's fair, it may be a provided phone. But then that puts him in a similar situation as any site that has a review for the phone now. You know his relationship with the phone itself and Apple. Consider his review with that perspective - but I still think it's a valid review.
  - extesy 7y ago
    And now if he doesn't write a glorious review then he won't be ever contacted by Apple again in the future. Really hard to trust objectivity of his review in these circumstances.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      The review by John Gruber of the Touch Bar based MacBook was critical of the feel of the keyboard - this was before the actual reliability problems came up. He along with everyone else was critical of the first Apple Watch. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/05/03/patel-apple-watch-slow https://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/05/03/patel-apple-wat... Seeing that he still not only gets review units every year, he gets the prime live interview every year after WWDC with top Apple executives, I don’t think he has been blacklisted. Not to mention that Marco Arment is often critical of Apple and got a review unit of the Mac Mini last year.
      - lern_too_spel 7y ago
        Those two bloggers will only criticize Apple products in comparison to other Apple products. They will never say a competitor's product is better even if most other reviewers say so.
        scarface74 7y ago
        John Gruber on Pixel’s Night Site Camera https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/10/25/night-sight https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/10/25/night-sight Gruber has stated repeatedly how much of an embarrassment that the MacBook keyboards have become but he famously still uses an old ADB Apple keyboard so he doesn’t have as much first hand experience as Marco who buys computers more frequently. They have both complained about Macs falling behind compared to what Microsoft is doing with the Surface line. Marco routinely criticizes the Apple Watch and compares it to the non smart watches he prefers. Gruber also prefers regular watches.
  - llampx 7y ago
    It is a completely ridiculous breathless review of a phone that matches a Pixel or Huawei from 1-2 years ago.
- ulfw 7y ago
  Of course Apple did provide the phone. it’s not in stores yet. And of course he gets ‘paid’. If not directly by Apple in dollars, but by Apple in exposure of his name and thus his business. He does this (great) PR piece pre-launch for Apple, we all learn his name, some will want him to be their photographer of choice and thus the cycle closes.
- madmulita 7y ago
  Maybe he found it in a bar?
- teilo 7y ago
  A lot of prominent bloggers and tech news sites, including John Gruber, The Verge, and many others, got advance devices to review. This is normal, and not unique to Apple. They also get Pixels and Galaxies in advance.
  - delfinom 7y ago
    Unfortunately, alot early reviewers have perverse incentive to give good reviews to continue receiving early units and getting that as revenue first.
    - jankyxenon 7y ago
      I think Apple has plenty of incentive not to yank reviewable units from people who've gotten them early in the past, when/if they get a bad review. Taints the whole point of doing reviews.
      - lern_too_spel 7y ago
        > Taints the whole point of doing reviews. It certainly does, which is why you can never trust an early review of an Apple product. https://www.cultofmac.com/255618/how-apples-blacklist-manipulates-the-press/ https://www.cultofmac.com/255618/how-apples-blacklist-manipu...
        dpark 7y ago
        Okay but there’s no concrete examples there. There’s a bunch of broad claims that Apple will blacklist journalists for X, Y, and Z but no names or evidence that it’s actually happening. I can believe that Apple might do this (especially since he also cites openly breaking rules by doing things like live-streaming when it’s been explicitly forbidden) but this article doesn’t convince me it’s happening or educate me on how much of a problem it really is.
        lern_too_spel 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

leesalminen 7y ago

How did he get hands on a phone that hasn’t been released yet if Apple didn’t provide it?

dgzl 7y ago
Early test releases are not uncommon.
scott_s 7y ago
That's fair, it may be a provided phone. But then that puts him in a similar situation as any site that has a review for the phone now. You know his relationship with the phone itself and Apple. Consider his review with that perspective - but I still think it's a valid review.
- extesy 7y ago
  And now if he doesn't write a glorious review then he won't be ever contacted by Apple again in the future. Really hard to trust objectivity of his review in these circumstances.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    The review by John Gruber of the Touch Bar based MacBook was critical of the feel of the keyboard - this was before the actual reliability problems came up. He along with everyone else was critical of the first Apple Watch. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/05/03/patel-apple-watch-slow https://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/05/03/patel-apple-wat... Seeing that he still not only gets review units every year, he gets the prime live interview every year after WWDC with top Apple executives, I don’t think he has been blacklisted. Not to mention that Marco Arment is often critical of Apple and got a review unit of the Mac Mini last year.
    - lern_too_spel 7y ago
      Those two bloggers will only criticize Apple products in comparison to other Apple products. They will never say a competitor's product is better even if most other reviewers say so.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        John Gruber on Pixel’s Night Site Camera https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/10/25/night-sight https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/10/25/night-sight Gruber has stated repeatedly how much of an embarrassment that the MacBook keyboards have become but he famously still uses an old ADB Apple keyboard so he doesn’t have as much first hand experience as Marco who buys computers more frequently. They have both complained about Macs falling behind compared to what Microsoft is doing with the Surface line. Marco routinely criticizes the Apple Watch and compares it to the non smart watches he prefers. Gruber also prefers regular watches.
- llampx 7y ago
  It is a completely ridiculous breathless review of a phone that matches a Pixel or Huawei from 1-2 years ago.
ulfw 7y ago
Of course Apple did provide the phone. it’s not in stores yet. And of course he gets ‘paid’. If not directly by Apple in dollars, but by Apple in exposure of his name and thus his business. He does this (great) PR piece pre-launch for Apple, we all learn his name, some will want him to be their photographer of choice and thus the cycle closes.
madmulita 7y ago
Maybe he found it in a bar?
teilo 7y ago
A lot of prominent bloggers and tech news sites, including John Gruber, The Verge, and many others, got advance devices to review. This is normal, and not unique to Apple. They also get Pixels and Galaxies in advance.
- delfinom 7y ago
  Unfortunately, alot early reviewers have perverse incentive to give good reviews to continue receiving early units and getting that as revenue first.
  - jankyxenon 7y ago
    I think Apple has plenty of incentive not to yank reviewable units from people who've gotten them early in the past, when/if they get a bad review. Taints the whole point of doing reviews.
    - lern_too_spel 7y ago
      > Taints the whole point of doing reviews. It certainly does, which is why you can never trust an early review of an Apple product. https://www.cultofmac.com/255618/how-apples-blacklist-manipulates-the-press/ https://www.cultofmac.com/255618/how-apples-blacklist-manipu...
      - dpark 7y ago
        Okay but there’s no concrete examples there. There’s a bunch of broad claims that Apple will blacklist journalists for X, Y, and Z but no names or evidence that it’s actually happening. I can believe that Apple might do this (especially since he also cites openly breaking rules by doing things like live-streaming when it’s been explicitly forbidden) but this article doesn’t convince me it’s happening or educate me on how much of a problem it really is.
        lern_too_spel 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]