3 ms·

Gruber is an amazing writer. Blows away the other reviews.

cracell 14y ago
Gruber is a great writer but a terrible reviewer. His recent writing completely lacks any balance. It's obvious that he loves Apple and doesn't give a fair review. I don't have any issue with people liking Apple products but I don't understand why Hacker News upvotes his one-sided blog posts so highly.
- nizmow 14y ago
  He's biased, but he DOES cater to his audience (who are also potentially biased). I was really curious to hear what he thought about the enlarged screen, for example, because I suspect his views and opinions closely align with my own.
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  Exactly. His writing is way too sweet on Apple. I ordered the new iPhone and when I got to the end at the part where I'm supposed to buy it just because it says "iPhone" on the back, I was nearing the point of gagging. The rationalizing of why they would switch from 3.5" to 4" when they always make the right choices was particularly a low point for me, also. I guess I knew what I was getting myself into when I clicked the link, though. And shockingly, downvotes for calling a spade a spade.
  - glhaynes 14y ago
    From the linked article: There’s a reason why, just as with all five of its predecessors, it just says “iPhone” on the back. An awfully awkward sentence in a muddled closing, but in context he's not saying it's worth buying just because it says "iPhone". He's saying that they all have just said "iPhone" rather than additionally having the model number.
ghshephard 14y ago
Well, to be fair, Gruber is writing a love story here, not really an unbiased review. So, no, he doesn't blow away the other reviews, (As an unbiased review, Mossberg's is pretty good) but, for us lovers of all things Apple, his is the review we look for to give us that dopamine rush of reinforced sense of self worth from using Apple products. I've been hitting refresh every five minutes on daringfireball since 7:00. Note - I think his is the most well written of all the writeups so far. He put a lot of effort into this essay. I wish he did more like these, though I realize it must take a lot out of him. He also demonstrates a bit of useful insight/balance here, that you wouldn't expect from what should be a purely apple-biased review, e.g. from the section on displays "Apple has a lead here, which is interesting, because they buy these displays from companies like LG."
- untog 14y ago
  his is the review we look for to give us that dopamine rush of reinforced sense of self worth from using Apple products. [...] I've been hitting refresh every five minutes on daringfireball since 7:00. Just so that we're clear- I'm not reading The Onion right now?
  - ghshephard 14y ago
    DaringFireball is my Fox News. I recognize it for what it is.
  - cooldeal 14y ago
    This is not the Onion either, though it's easy to be mistaken. http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/bbc-loving-apple-looks-like-a-religion-to-an-mri-scan/ http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/bbc-loving-apple-looks-like-a...
  - josteink 14y ago
    It may seem Onionesqsue, but The Gruber-worshipping part of the Apple-sphere really suffers problems this deep.
ajross 14y ago
This isn't "reviewing", it's spin. There's not much to talk about with this review, and Gruber's talent is for making the boring stuff sound great. So he talks about the color gamut of the display. He fills space with nice-sounding pablum like (yes, this is a direct quote): "Apple boasts during last week’s event that they now measure the precision of the iPhone 5 assembly in microns. A micron is one-millionth of a meter." And he does this repeatedly through a long, winding, elegant post. That doesn't tell you if it's a better phone than the 4S (or the GSIII, or whatever). All it does is give you a good reason to want it more than the 4S.
- guelo 14y ago
  I thought his light critiques in this piece might be a sign that he's trying to gain some cred back.
  - ek 14y ago
    Trying, certainly, but Gruber's criticisms always seem to be of the "if I don't put at least one critical thing in this review, they'll know for certain that I'm a fanboy!" flavor. He spends paragraphs spinning "the device has a bigger screen" into something negative, for example.
josteink 14y ago
> Gruber is an amazing writer. Blows away the other reviews. I think you miswrote "shill".

Gruber is a great writer but a terrible reviewer. His recent writing completely lacks any balance. It's obvious that he loves Apple and doesn't give a fair review. I don't have any issue with people liking Apple products but I don't understand why Hacker News upvotes his one-sided blog posts so highly.

nizmow 14y ago
He's biased, but he DOES cater to his audience (who are also potentially biased). I was really curious to hear what he thought about the enlarged screen, for example, because I suspect his views and opinions closely align with my own.
prophetjohn 14y ago
Exactly. His writing is way too sweet on Apple. I ordered the new iPhone and when I got to the end at the part where I'm supposed to buy it just because it says "iPhone" on the back, I was nearing the point of gagging. The rationalizing of why they would switch from 3.5" to 4" when they always make the right choices was particularly a low point for me, also. I guess I knew what I was getting myself into when I clicked the link, though. And shockingly, downvotes for calling a spade a spade.
- glhaynes 14y ago
  From the linked article: There’s a reason why, just as with all five of its predecessors, it just says “iPhone” on the back. An awfully awkward sentence in a muddled closing, but in context he's not saying it's worth buying just because it says "iPhone". He's saying that they all have just said "iPhone" rather than additionally having the model number.

ghshephard 14y ago

Well, to be fair, Gruber is writing a love story here, not really an unbiased review. So, no, he doesn't blow away the other reviews, (As an unbiased review, Mossberg's is pretty good) but, for us lovers of all things Apple, his is the review we look for to give us that dopamine rush of reinforced sense of self worth from using Apple products. I've been hitting refresh every five minutes on daringfireball since 7:00. Note - I think his is the most well written of all the writeups so far. He put a lot of effort into this essay. I wish he did more like these, though I realize it must take a lot out of him. He also demonstrates a bit of useful insight/balance here, that you wouldn't expect from what should be a purely apple-biased review, e.g. from the section on displays "Apple has a lead here, which is interesting, because they buy these displays from companies like LG."

untog 14y ago
his is the review we look for to give us that dopamine rush of reinforced sense of self worth from using Apple products. [...] I've been hitting refresh every five minutes on daringfireball since 7:00. Just so that we're clear- I'm not reading The Onion right now?
- ghshephard 14y ago
  DaringFireball is my Fox News. I recognize it for what it is.
- cooldeal 14y ago
  This is not the Onion either, though it's easy to be mistaken. http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/bbc-loving-apple-looks-like-a-religion-to-an-mri-scan/ http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/bbc-loving-apple-looks-like-a...
- josteink 14y ago
  It may seem Onionesqsue, but The Gruber-worshipping part of the Apple-sphere really suffers problems this deep.

ajross 14y ago

This isn't "reviewing", it's spin. There's not much to talk about with this review, and Gruber's talent is for making the boring stuff sound great. So he talks about the color gamut of the display. He fills space with nice-sounding pablum like (yes, this is a direct quote): "Apple boasts during last week’s event that they now measure the precision of the iPhone 5 assembly in microns. A micron is one-millionth of a meter." And he does this repeatedly through a long, winding, elegant post. That doesn't tell you if it's a better phone than the 4S (or the GSIII, or whatever). All it does is give you a good reason to want it more than the 4S.

guelo 14y ago
I thought his light critiques in this piece might be a sign that he's trying to gain some cred back.
- ek 14y ago
  Trying, certainly, but Gruber's criticisms always seem to be of the "if I don't put at least one critical thing in this review, they'll know for certain that I'm a fanboy!" flavor. He spends paragraphs spinning "the device has a bigger screen" into something negative, for example.

josteink 14y ago

> Gruber is an amazing writer. Blows away the other reviews. I think you miswrote "shill".