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It's hard to take Gruber seriously anymore. I haven't seen anyone with such an obvious bias for Apple and disdain for anything non-Apple so 99% of what he write

by safog 7y ago

It's hard to take Gruber seriously anymore. I haven't seen anyone with such an obvious bias for Apple and disdain for anything non-Apple so 99% of what he writes about Apple is going to be sunshine and butterflies. If you aren't going to say anything controversial, why bother even listening to you? I'll just watch Apple's PR videos and be happy.

Tomte 7y ago
He is a big Apple fanboy, but he does call out bad products and privacy mis-steps. Sometimes with pretty drastic words. Furthermore, despite your claim, he sometimes praises non-Apple hardware, even Microsoft's. Honestly, you seem even more biased against Apple to me than Gruber is biased pro Apple. I don't read his reviews to learn things I can learn from Anandtech or The Verge or any other "spec" review. I read his reviews because he captures nuances in feel that others don't, or if he doesn't, at least he links to others who have something interesting and non-obvious to say. Not here though, but generally.
enos_feedler 7y ago
For someone with obvious bias, he seems to think the old MacBook Air was bad. I would think someone with an obvious bias wouldn’t be very critical of Apple products at all. Can you point to the bias in this article?
- dkarl 7y ago
  Funny how Gruber can always come up with a list of meaningful shortcomings of an Apple product... when he's reviewing the successor and painting it as a giant step forward.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    He criticized the feel of the previous generation keyboards when he first had a review unit. This was before the reports came back of actually issues. He never owned a laptop of the previous generation to have any personal long term issues. He famously still uses an old Apple ADB keyboard.
nostromo 7y ago
He clearly prefer's the Apple ecosystem and general approach. There's nothing wrong with that. He does call out Apple when he disagrees with something they've done. As someone that also prefers the Apple approach but has frustrations with a lot of their decisions, I appreciate his analysis.
- whatshisface 7y ago
  You should switch to the Linux approach, where you are guaranteed to only ever be frustrated by your own decisions. ;)
Eric_WVGG 7y ago
dunno, maybe you haven't been reading? "This whole thing is an embarrassment for the richest company in the world." https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/02/17/apple-store-employee-bag-checks https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/02/17/apple-store-emp... "I consider these keyboards the worst products in Apple history." https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/03/27/strn-kyboard https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/03/27/strn-kyboard "iOS 13 Autocorrect Is Drunk" https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/ios_13_autocorrect_is_drunk https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/ios_13_autocorrect_is_dru... "The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment." https://daringfireball.net/2020/01/the_ipad_awkwardly_turns_10 https://daringfireball.net/2020/01/the_ipad_awkwardly_turns_... "Then I think about software. And that means thinking about MacOS 10.15 Catalina… Off the top of my head I’m hard pressed to think of anything in Catalina that’s an improvement over 10.14 Mojave, and I can think of a lot of things that are worse." https://daringfireball.net/2020/02/my_2019_apple_report_card https://daringfireball.net/2020/02/my_2019_apple_report_card
Rebelgecko 7y ago
I actually think he's escaped the Reality Distortion Field. If you read through his posts, there's actually a lot that are critical of Apple's recent missteps
- scarface74 7y ago
  You mean like in 2007 when he called the “sweet solution” of web apps for iOS a “shit sandwich”?
  - Rebelgecko 7y ago
    Yeah. He used to have relatively few takes like that (although I think historically he's been more willing to be critical of Apple's software than hardware).
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Besides the Mac keyboards, what was there to criticize about Apple hardware? He was never in the market for the trash can Mac Pro as a buyer or a reviewer. He never liked the Apple Watch before the 5th gen watch. He’s a big fan of analog watches. He buys the newest phones every year, but he doesn’t buy Macs or iPads that often. If you want to see Apple fans who often criticize Mac hardware and software, check out the Accidental Tech Podcast. Marco and John criticize Apple hardware and software all the time. Marco is famous for dropping money on Apple hardware
  - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    Or in recent years, as recently as the current year, where you can find Gruber frequently criticizing Apple products, software, services, and design.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
derefr 7y ago
Gruber isn't really an essayist. He's a diarist. His oeuvre is pretty useless if you just read one piece out of context. But it begins to be useful when you read a bunch of his stuff (preferably in order, as one would if they were following him over the years), and start compare-and-contrasting his takes on e.g. generation N of a product vs. generation N-1 of the same product; or between two different products released to solve the same problem in different ways at different times. There's a lot of detail to be found there, that you won't find in most takes.
- JohnBooty 7y ago
  My brother once told me he liked a certain music blog because even when he disagreed with the review conclusion and score, the writing was informative and insightful enough to let him make up his own mind. That's how I feel about Gruber. I probably agree with him 2/3 of the time, and 1/3 of the time I wonder if he's living on a different planet. But even in those 1/3 of cases, he does a good job of laying out the facts and the process by which he arrived at his conclusion. So for me, he's well worth reading even in those times.
throwaway55554 7y ago
Rene Ritchie is worse. I've seen Gruber call Apple to task a few times this past year, but Ritchie just continues to make excuses.
- fetus8 7y ago
  Ritchie often just reiterates what's on the press release, and then praises said products with little to no contextual input on how or why a product is great.
  - toasterlovin 7y ago
    FWIW, I think mostly your impression of Ritchie is a result of the format he writes in (high-traffic tech site). When he's on Gruber's podcast, he has pretty nuanced and thoughtful opinions on things. So much so that I'd say that he's easily one of the best regular guests.
    - fetus8 7y ago
      Interesting. I've listened to Gruber's podcast before, but don't think I've heard Ritchie on as a guest. I'll find an episode and dig in. I've watched Ritchie's Youtube channel on and off over the last few years, and he still gives me the same feeling as his written work.
bluedino 7y ago
I like "I don't know, maybe the option to add the touchbar?"

by safog 7y ago

Tomte 7y ago

He is a big Apple fanboy, but he does call out bad products and privacy mis-steps. Sometimes with pretty drastic words. Furthermore, despite your claim, he sometimes praises non-Apple hardware, even Microsoft's. Honestly, you seem even more biased against Apple to me than Gruber is biased pro Apple. I don't read his reviews to learn things I can learn from Anandtech or The Verge or any other "spec" review. I read his reviews because he captures nuances in feel that others don't, or if he doesn't, at least he links to others who have something interesting and non-obvious to say. Not here though, but generally.

enos_feedler 7y ago

For someone with obvious bias, he seems to think the old MacBook Air was bad. I would think someone with an obvious bias wouldn’t be very critical of Apple products at all. Can you point to the bias in this article?

dkarl 7y ago
Funny how Gruber can always come up with a list of meaningful shortcomings of an Apple product... when he's reviewing the successor and painting it as a giant step forward.
- scarface74 7y ago
  He criticized the feel of the previous generation keyboards when he first had a review unit. This was before the reports came back of actually issues. He never owned a laptop of the previous generation to have any personal long term issues. He famously still uses an old Apple ADB keyboard.

nostromo 7y ago

He clearly prefer's the Apple ecosystem and general approach. There's nothing wrong with that. He does call out Apple when he disagrees with something they've done. As someone that also prefers the Apple approach but has frustrations with a lot of their decisions, I appreciate his analysis.

whatshisface 7y ago
You should switch to the Linux approach, where you are guaranteed to only ever be frustrated by your own decisions. ;)

Eric_WVGG 7y ago

dunno, maybe you haven't been reading? "This whole thing is an embarrassment for the richest company in the world." https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/02/17/apple-store-employee-bag-checks https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/02/17/apple-store-emp... "I consider these keyboards the worst products in Apple history." https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/03/27/strn-kyboard https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/03/27/strn-kyboard "iOS 13 Autocorrect Is Drunk" https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/ios_13_autocorrect_is_drunk https://daringfireball.net/2019/09/ios_13_autocorrect_is_dru... "The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment." https://daringfireball.net/2020/01/the_ipad_awkwardly_turns_10 https://daringfireball.net/2020/01/the_ipad_awkwardly_turns_... "Then I think about software. And that means thinking about MacOS 10.15 Catalina… Off the top of my head I’m hard pressed to think of anything in Catalina that’s an improvement over 10.14 Mojave, and I can think of a lot of things that are worse." https://daringfireball.net/2020/02/my_2019_apple_report_card https://daringfireball.net/2020/02/my_2019_apple_report_card

Rebelgecko 7y ago

I actually think he's escaped the Reality Distortion Field. If you read through his posts, there's actually a lot that are critical of Apple's recent missteps

scarface74 7y ago
You mean like in 2007 when he called the “sweet solution” of web apps for iOS a “shit sandwich”?
- Rebelgecko 7y ago
  Yeah. He used to have relatively few takes like that (although I think historically he's been more willing to be critical of Apple's software than hardware).
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Besides the Mac keyboards, what was there to criticize about Apple hardware? He was never in the market for the trash can Mac Pro as a buyer or a reviewer. He never liked the Apple Watch before the 5th gen watch. He’s a big fan of analog watches. He buys the newest phones every year, but he doesn’t buy Macs or iPads that often. If you want to see Apple fans who often criticize Mac hardware and software, check out the Accidental Tech Podcast. Marco and John criticize Apple hardware and software all the time. Marco is famous for dropping money on Apple hardware
- chipotle_coyote 7y ago
  Or in recent years, as recently as the current year, where you can find Gruber frequently criticizing Apple products, software, services, and design.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

derefr 7y ago

Gruber isn't really an essayist. He's a diarist. His oeuvre is pretty useless if you just read one piece out of context. But it begins to be useful when you read a bunch of his stuff (preferably in order, as one would if they were following him over the years), and start compare-and-contrasting his takes on e.g. generation N of a product vs. generation N-1 of the same product; or between two different products released to solve the same problem in different ways at different times. There's a lot of detail to be found there, that you won't find in most takes.

JohnBooty 7y ago
My brother once told me he liked a certain music blog because even when he disagreed with the review conclusion and score, the writing was informative and insightful enough to let him make up his own mind. That's how I feel about Gruber. I probably agree with him 2/3 of the time, and 1/3 of the time I wonder if he's living on a different planet. But even in those 1/3 of cases, he does a good job of laying out the facts and the process by which he arrived at his conclusion. So for me, he's well worth reading even in those times.

throwaway55554 7y ago

Rene Ritchie is worse. I've seen Gruber call Apple to task a few times this past year, but Ritchie just continues to make excuses.

fetus8 7y ago
Ritchie often just reiterates what's on the press release, and then praises said products with little to no contextual input on how or why a product is great.
- toasterlovin 7y ago
  FWIW, I think mostly your impression of Ritchie is a result of the format he writes in (high-traffic tech site). When he's on Gruber's podcast, he has pretty nuanced and thoughtful opinions on things. So much so that I'd say that he's easily one of the best regular guests.
  - fetus8 7y ago
    Interesting. I've listened to Gruber's podcast before, but don't think I've heard Ritchie on as a guest. I'll find an episode and dig in. I've watched Ritchie's Youtube channel on and off over the last few years, and he still gives me the same feeling as his written work.

bluedino 7y ago

I like "I don't know, maybe the option to add the touchbar?"