Hacker News Reader

Comment by technoslut | Hacker News Reader

>Sadly, he's utterly vapid and agenda-driven when talking about Android and Google

A big part of the element not being discussed is money. Less people who use Apple products probably means less page views for Daring Fireball. I don't think it was a coincidence that the focus of his enmity has turned from MS to Google since Android became a threat to Apple's most financially successful products.

The same goes for Marco. I expect him to have a bias towards Apple and developers because he makes his money off of Instapaper for iOS and he is a developer.

Gruber is a very talented writer but we all can be colored by how we get our paychecks. I will say that he amuses me which is rare among the blogging cynics.

View on HN

Or, it could just be that they both happen to like Apple products.

Gruber was writing snarkily in a pro-Apple manner for years before it was his source of income.

Marco has written pretty intelligent posts about his decision not to pursue an Android app on his own, that would be a very good read for any entrepreneur.

Gruber seems to take politics in the US relatively seriously. I've seen posts where he supported the protests on the 1% within the past few months yet he has never written one post on how Apple keeps well over half of their profits overseas to avoid US taxes and how Apple is lobbying for a tax holiday. However he will talk consistently about Apple's financial success. These are very serious issues which he has sidestepped.

I don't want to hold Apple's feet to the fire since they're not alone. Google, Apple, MS and a whole host of other companies are doing the same.

>Marco has written pretty intelligent posts about his decision not to pursue an Android app on his own, that would be a very good read for any entrepreneur.

I understand Marco's decision and I may be wrong about him. The problem for me is that everyone I know will rationalize their opinions and how they make money. I have a hard time believing that Marco is the exception to the rule after reading his blog for two years.

Please stop assuming that those of us who want to do something about the growing income inequality and shrinking middle class are also those who think the government should get money from its citizens.

It's possible to think that the evaporating middle class is a bad thing, without thinking that the solution is "more tax revenue and more government {operations, spending, regulation, etc}".

Whenever you think the answer is "get the government to help fix it", you do not fully understand the question.

Why don't we just all agree that John Siracusa should have a frequently updated blogging outlet so we could just read his stuff instead :)

to sibling poster: He has written about the New York Times reporting on Apple’s taxes. You can say that he’s just being an Apple apologist here, but it’s not as if he has ignored the topic:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/05/09/apple-taxes-98

That was about Apple paying taxes on what profits they bought into the US. I'm talking about the offshore tax havens where most of their money is kept.

I'm talking about this:

Google Joins Apple In Push For Tax Holiday

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-29/google-joins-apple-...

White House Unmoved By Apple’s Offshore Cash Problem

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/white-house-unm...

Does Apple actually keep money in off-shore tax-havens? They are legitimately making tons of cash everywhere in the world (the majority of their revenue and profit) and that money is stuck there and they can’t bring it to the US. It’s not like they moved the money out of the US to flee some tax, they just didn’t make it in the US but elsewhere.

It’s seems to me that this is the main driver here for Apple.

>I expect him to have a bias towards Apple and developers because he makes his money off of Instapaper for iOS and he is a developer.

He also has an Android app for Instapaper.

http://www.marco.org/2012/06/06/instapaper-for-android

It would be inaccurate to say "he has". Marco has stated on his podcast that he has had absolutely nothing to do with Instapaper for Android. If I recall correct he said it was an entirely-clean room implementation by Mobelux.

He didn't cut the code but he doesn't have nothing to do with it.

He wrote the code for the API the app uses and runs the servers (or hires someone to) that API runs on, plus it was developed in partnership and with his agreement so I'm guessing he was involved in the design.

I specifically mentioned Instapaper for Android, NOT the server-end. And your guess is wrong. As I stated, he mentioned on his podcast that he had nothing to do with the design and implementation of Instapaper for Android.

Did you even read my comment before clicking reply?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com