Hacker News Reader

Comment by safog | Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

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-emp...

"I consider these keyboards the worst products in Apple history." https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/03/27/strn-kyboard

"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_...

"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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

You mean like in 2007 when he called the “sweet solution” of web apps for iOS a “shit sandwich”?

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).

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

Or in recent years, as recently as the current year, where you can find Gruber frequently criticizing Apple products, software, services, and design.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com