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Comment by arrrg | Hacker News Reader

Why the hate, dude? Can you point out anything that is actually wrong with the piece?

I could quote specific claims from the piece but it's just too annoying to enumerate all the breathless reasons he gives why this is yet another Apple product that makes everything that came before it trivial and irrelevant.

I'm fed up with this kind of PR masquerading as tech journalism. He's not a journalist. He's part of Apple's third-party marketing arm and he gets compensated for writing this kind of trash with exclusive meetings etc. at Apple.

So you can’t. Noted.

You don't even read what he writes, right?

I started reading him in the mid-2010's but his utter lack of objectivity lost him a place in my RSS aggregator long ago.

If I want to read perceptive analysis of Apple products I prefer to read real, objective journalists like John Siracusa.

You are welcome to your opinion, but on your suggestion I just went and looked at John Siracusa's blog and for this entire year we have: 1: a discussion about various ways you can read his Mountain Lion Review. 2: How to cook pasta. 3: summer movies. 4: summary of 2011. That's it.

He writes also on Ars. In 2012, he has posted a single article, his review of Mountain Lion.

Might I ask, and I am being completely sincere, what DO you read regularly for "perceptive analysis of apple products" that goes beyond once a year OS reviews?

To be honest, since I work all day writing iOS apps on a Macbook and have numerous iSquare devices I'm mostly content to form my own opinions.

John Siracusa has weekly podcast on 5by5 network, Hypercritical[1]. That's where most of his "perceptive analysis of apple products" come from.

[1] http://5by5.tv/hypercritical

So would you be willing to go back to 9 pin dot matrix for print? That's kind of Grubers point. Printer scaled from 144 dpi to 1200 dpi quickly, while displays stagnated at 72-100 for a ver long time. We're finally seeing movement on that front, and eventually it will be really hard to go back to the blocky pixelated 100-130 dpi screens. I know I can't.

How many of these blogger/journalists have broken real stories? Future of Mac Pro anybody? Sure, they like to name drop and whisper about 'informed sources' but the truth is they have nothing of substance to report. Everything is gossip, speculation, or parroting of press releases.

I don't think Gruber would ever claim that he's a journalist. Nor that he's in the business to break stories.

He brings a certain wit, and skill at writing, to observe all things Apple. His article are traditionally read by those who love the platform - it's unclear to me why people who aren't enthusiasts for the Apple platform would read his blog - as that is the audience his articles are targeted at.

Back when he started 10 years ago, he was writing about the Apple-the-underdog, and there was a certain quixotic element to his articles. Nowadays, with Apple being the 2-ton beast that it is, that sense of rooting for the challenger has gone, and with it a bit of the ideological purity that comes with being a member of the downtrodden class.

I for one, appreciated the longer essay that he wrote on the MacBook Pro. I think his essays are his greatest strength, wish he did more of them.

  Nor that he's in the business to break stories.

Indeed. I think this write is what it seems to be his review of rMBP. So he waited more than one month and half before delivering his take on the new laptop. Hardly seeking to break stories.

I would agree. He's essentially writing opinion pieces and preaching to the choir. Nothing wrong with that and his audience enjoy his work regardless of objectivity.

I think any half-decent tech blogger or journalist should be fighting for court room seats in San Jose right now. That's where the story is.

200+ DPI displays actually do make everything that came before trivial and irrelevant. So take that point and put it in your pocket and let's all move on.

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