Horseshit - MG responds to Topolsky's rant | Hacker News Reader

Horseshit - MG responds to Topolsky's rant

parislemon.com

21 pointsrealize17 comments

You can agree or disagree with Siegler as much as you want, you can like or dislike his clear bias towards Apple, but geez, Siegler doesn't seem to be able to defend himself.

Against the accusation that Siegler is part of a "class warfare", the only thing he has left to say is that the Nexus is actually more expensive, which was not the point of Topolovsky since he was criticizing the notion of condescending behavior against Android (re: they just dont see the polish).

Also he quotes a long argument with the Mercedes vs. Honda analogy and the only thing he has to say is:

"Okay Josh, I read my words out loud. They still sound pretty good to me as an (albeit simplistic) comparison. Your entire post, on the other hand, makes you sound like a fool.

Moving on."

Nothing. No defense.

Siegler, no one accuses you of having an opinion. But of unfair treatment.

I think the important piece of quote is this one (the words Siegler is supposed to read out loud):

"It's probably hard for a Mercedes owner to describe to a Honda owner how attention to detail makes their driving experience better."

If Siegler doesn't think his analogy of Mercedes vs Honda to Android vs. iOS is not some kind of "class warfare", then why doesn't he tell us what his analogy should tell us. And i think Topolovsky is pretty dead on:

"More insultingly, it suggests that as a person who is not part of whatever elite group MG believes exists, you couldn't even really understand why the Mercedes is superior."

I'll go one better than that. If Siegler thinks I should read him for his opinions, then I don't have to read him anymore. I know his opinion on the iPad 3 already. I know his opinion on the iPhone 5 already.

I suppose the answer is obvious -- there's a large market for firing up the base. Sorry, but that's not what I'm in the market for.

Where I come from we buy our phones not from a carrier but from a retailer and we are not forced into a payment plan that makes the phones look cheaper than they are. So an iPhone 4S costs from $830 and up, a Galaxy Nexus costs from $770. Both phones are pretty expensive but the iPhone is still the most expensive one. Those figures might be off in the states of course.

Yes, when I read this argument I thought: "You must be fucking kidding". Just because some companies offer cheaper initial subsidised phones it doesn't mean that the phone itself is cheaper. And it's not. At retail, most iOS products are $100 or $200 more expensive then their comparable Android equivalents (not talking about $99 tablets, of course, but I wouldn't consider them equivalent).

When I saw the initial Transformer Prime price I thought that it actually was incredibly cheap compared to the initial price iPad 2, especially considering that it comes with a dock and still is cheaper. At this rate I might be able to afford one when the prices drop.

>Against the accusation that Siegler is part of a "class warfare", the only thing he has left to say is that the Nexus is actually more expensive, which was not the point of Topolovsky since he was criticizing the notion of condescending behavior against Android.

Isn't class warfare based on the issue of economics? If Topolsky felt it was more about some superficial superiority of some Apple bloggers then he should've chosen his words better and not used such an inflammatory term.

>Siegler, no one accuses you of having an opinion. But of unfair treatment.

Siegler's article is entitled 'An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Galaxy Nexus'. I don't know how you can't be prepared for what may come.

The oddity is that Topolsky took one line in the review (which is mostly positive) to get extremely angry over. Certainly there is a bias against Google in a lot of Siegler's articles but I honestly don't see it here.

I am not terribly familiar with with this MG author but he comes across as a self-righteous egotistical bigot.

His quote:

"I don’t know about you, but when I read my favorite technology writers, I want an opinion. Is the iPhone 4S the best smartphone, or is it the Galaxy Nexus? I need to buy one, I can’t buy both. Topolsky never gives us that. Instead, he pussyfoots around it. One is great at some things, the other is great at others. Barf.

Fucking pick one. I bet that even now he won’t."

I must be getting old but I thought the job of a journalist/columnist was to give a fair unbiased assessment in their review. No MG, I don't need you to pick one over the other. I have a brain and can reach my own conclusion, thank you very much. I don't need you to tell me what to spend $200-$300 of my own hard-earned money.

He seems to forget his job (I assume he has a job). What we need from journalists/columnists is a balanced honest review with pros and cons, that's all.

I cant help but think that there are a lot of other personal grudges at play here instead of just an honest discussion about iPhone 4S vs Galaxy Nexus

Well there are now, but you have to admit that Josh started it. Seems like a good time to bring up other things that have been on your mind...

couple teenage girls

I reread Josh's response and other than his use of language in his title, he seemed mostly respectful and not angry. I think MG might have missed the point with the analogy since he mentioned that the nexus was more expensive.

But really, android vs ios is the new emacs vs vim.

What your reading is really representative of MG's and Josh's respective writing styles. MG is opinionated and polarizing. Josh is informative and (tries really hard to be) objective.

That's one way to interpret it. You could also see it as MG being decisive and Joshua constantly waffling and attempting fake objectivity.

A great example would be the review scores for the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S. Really? They just both happen to deserve an 8.6? What a coincidence.

I can definitely appreciate that viewpoint. I think I fall somewhere inbetween. Josh's writing style can strike me as mushy or even cowardly at times.

For the record I wasn't espousing that viewpoint, just providing a counterexample. Personally, I have a very similar opinion as you on Josh. I do find MG and Gruber a little haughty on occasion but I read their blogs regularly and appreciate their ability to articulate many points I've attempted to argue all over the net.

The issue I take with this little exchange is it feels like a very defensive move from Josh, perhaps with reason. I have to be honest, from the moment I tried a Galaxy Nexus at my local Best Buy I lost a little respect for his reviewing skills.

His description of the UI lag being virtually non existent in 4.0 is just flat out not true. Homescreen transitions have the exact same lag that was present on Honeycomb tablets and it's arguably worse than 2.3 IMO. They've done little or nothing to improve touch response. The massive screen and plastic body are matters of opinion, but the quality of the Android OS is still lacking.

I think calling out opinions as "horseshit" and taking the people's stance is a fairly childish move when those being called out are saying something reasonable, which is that Josh basically gave a pass to some still present downsides to Android and therefore there is more to say on the topic of the Galaxy Nexus from the perspective of those that choose to stick with iOS.

This is why I like MG's writing. He says what he thinks. I'm a fan of Josh too, but I must admit I do get a sense of fake balance from his writing.

I'm not that familiar with MG's writing, but based on this he seems to need the world to be black and white. It's not black and white and I don't have a lot of respect for that sort of thinking.

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