Jean-Louis Gassée (author of this piece on Mossberg) is one of my favorite commentators. He's just enough of an insider and yet also an oddball, which means he keeps it pretty real in an area that tends to be an echo chamber of fawning cultists.
From a technical pov Anand Lal Shimpi perhaps? He didn't kill it on the prose or suave approach, but on the technical detail and exactitude.
The CPU guy from Ars Technica was extremely good as well.
Agreed.
He is, but it seems silly to compare him to Walt Mossberg. They do very, very different kinds of tech journalism.
Agreed, he was excellent.
Brian Klug also. Both at Apple now.
Dan Gillmor did a lot of very astute writing (not necessarily just reporting, but also commentary) about many aspects of the scene in SV when he wrote for the San Jose Mercury-News. He didn't seem to care much for gossip or writing purely about personalities, and was more interested in cultural and legal effects of new technologies. I believe he's now occasionally writing for the Guardian, as well as teaching journalism at the university level.