technoslut

I'm not defending Apple in this situation. I don't care about this patent nonsense. It has replaced chess as the game of kings.

If you looked at my comments recently I question the motives behind Apple bloggers I read. I've criticized Apple for the money they keep offshore to avoid US taxes. I've even been criticized for saying that open source was the solution for Maps and no one company should have control over that future.

What you want me to say is that I agree with one philosophy. I don't.

You're not mad that Apple is suing. You're mad that Apple is winning some arguments.

What they've been winning is off of UI/UX. It's one thing to argue if software patents should even exist but you were not even arguing that. It's hard to tell what you're against other than Apple. You believe that Samsung is right for no apparent reason.

All I can tell you is that I don't care and I'm tired of these stories on HN being ranked so highly since it's about ideology and not how it affects the lives of anyone.

>And btw, your name certainly looks interesting =)

I thought it was appropriate. What is your point?

That's your opinion. I've read a post from Ben Brooks calling anyone who uses a stylus on an iPad an idiot. In that time frame, Marco bought a Cosmonaut stylus and enjoyed it. A month or two later, Brooks bought the same.

It didn't bother me that he was wrong. It bothered me that he called everyone an idiot for using a stylus on an iPad. This is the kind of person who will criticize sooner than give thought. I would not want to read what he has to offer or be around him for any length of time.

This is one of many posts of his site or his Twitter account.

This post is a rant of a fanboy which is why I downvoted it. It's one thing to prove your point but you didn't even do that. The BGR report is garbage as is most of their posts that doesn't involve Gellar's connections at RIM.

No one is claiming the idea of button-free phone; not even Apple. What you mention as the UI/UX experience is what Apple is mostly suing for. I don't claim for it to be right or wrong.

What defined the iPhone was not the hardware but software and that is what Apple is going after. Samsung is suing over FRAND patents which is something else entirely. Apple's not suing over Samsung over what they asked them to build.

This patent nonsense that exists on HN has really got to stop. It has affected very few except the claims by Lodsys. Do you really care about the brinksmanship that is conducted by two giants?

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...

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.

>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.

>I don't think Microsoft can reasonably compete with Apple in the hardware game. Apple's too good, and they have too much practice.

MS is good at hardware but the problem is margins and the lack of proper leadership. Apple has been building this manufacturing advantage for a decade and can get a cheaper price because of their high volumes of their orders. It doesn't hurt to have essentially created three new markets as well during that span.

>But I do think with the low price point of Windows 8, they realize that there is less and less money to be made in the consumer OS space, and more potential money to be made in servers and services.

I'd also add that Apple and Google are both splitting the PC market with tablets which means even far less future revenues from Windows.

I expect him to have certain biases but I don't find it unbearable like I do with Benjamin Brooks and Matt Gemmell where I always get a sense of anger, contempt and general negativity in their writing.

Playing devil's advocate, can MS and Apple deliver new features every year that would push someone to upgrade at a low price? With mobile devices being so young compared to the PC I can understand why there is an annual update. For the PC I'm not so sure.

Matt Gemmell has always insulted people and this is no difference. It's okay that Sparrow was acquired but his blog posts, along with Benjamin Brooks, is why I never pay attention to it. It may be intelligent but it's riddled with hate. Most times it is directed at the customer or theists.

He never places the blame on devs like Culture Code who promised Things sync but were quicker to release an iPad app to make more money.

What should be a relief to all is that this isn't permanent. There will come a point where wifi will defeat cellular in terms of technology. This is what Apple, Google and MS are all waiting for and why none of them have bought a telco. The future is based off of unlocked phones with dirt cheap data plans. Technically the iPod touch will become a phone at that time because the tech will become so cheap.

The difference with your car analogy is that the car doesn't stop working because other cars are adopting new technology or that the roads became worse. Quicksilver broke once Leopard was released.

I realize that many Quicksilver fans will be upset with my comments but I can't rely on something that was essentially broken for five years and count on it being something I can use a couple of hundred times everyday.

What happens the next time something gets broken after a major OS update? I can't wait for a few months to get it working again.

I'm not saying that open source software is lousy. I use it all the time. It's just that in certain situations you need the person there who created it.

I don't think any Quicksilver user was anything other than a power user.

Much of what is left of Quicksilver today is about fixing bugs and keeping it on life support which is why I used the term "fell apart" instead of "dead". This was an app that the developer stopped programming for in 2006 and the bug fixing didn't really start until last year. Th plug-ins to other apps are part of what made Quicksilver great and most still don't work and haven't been updated since that time.

I don't believe that changes the situation at all.

An example of this is Quicksilver on the Mac. It's considered to be one of the best Mac apps ever and the developer who made it, decided to open source it after he decided to take a job at Google. Quicksilver development fell apart afterwards.

My point is that people who used the app did so because of the talent of the developer. A community can't always make up for that hole.

And you've also proved why any dev can't make any money off of open source unless they have speaking engagements lined up.

Yahoo is one of those companies who has so many great properties that it will be easier than it seems to resurrect that company. They just needed a competent CEO.

I think Mayer is the right choice.

Many analysts believe that WP will see more success which is where it starts (with consumer interest). Many devs put up with Apple's flawed and constantly evolving policies because they believe there is financial success waiting on the other side which isn't entirely untrue.

Sometimes I think it's best for a developer to take a chance instead of playing it safe because it can bring a greater reward. They chose a platform they enjoyed and which they could get in on the ground floor. As they say, fortune favors the bold.

As an example, if The Omni Group decided to go to Windows instead of NeXTStep, there's a possibility that they would never be successful as they are now.

>I am two minds on the subject of nuclear power. But the "ain't so safe" side tends to win out because humans make mistakes.

I'm of two minds about this as well but I came to a different conclusion. In the case of Fukushima and Chernobyl I believe it was reduced to incompetence to save cost. I would hope that others have learned the lesson when dealing with nuclear energy because fossil fuels can be deadlier (generally more casualties) and more expensive.

You're pointing to an article that was very short and provided no detail.

I had to go through the HN thread to see that it's more complicated than what you make it out to be but I also read a story by John Paczkowski regarding this:

http://allthingsd.com/20120702/italy-accuses-apple-of-misrep...

I think you're trying to paint a picture from a certain perspective that doesn't contain the whole truth. I'm not saying that Apple isn't greedy as everyone else but I do believe your argument has flaws.

I did click on the link and did read the article though it lacked virtually any detail.

Of course Apple cares about money but they make their money by customers buying their hardware. They put their customers first because that is where they make their money.

As a counterpoint, Apple refuses to pay employees on commission because Jobs didn't want them upselling to consumers because there is a less chance of them being a returning customer.

It's the goal of every business to make money. It's how you go about it that tells the story.

>You're telling me Apple is unresponsive to support requests from their developer ecosystem? Really? GET OUT OF TOWN! I don't believe it.

This isn't something that is exclusive to Apple though this has always been an issue with them even regarding security issues with OS X.

>Despite all of the rightful moaning of iOS developers, for some reason they continue to flock to the Apple platform.

They develop for iOS because that is where the money is though this isn't the issue. It isn't as if the Android browser doesn't have its fair share of bugs.

>Apple will continue to treat their developers like second class citizens until there is a financial incentive to do otherwise.

You're right. Apple puts the interests of their customers first (not trying to be smug here). The developers come second. The only time you do hear complaints that go unanswered for devs it is usually only answered when there's a public (consumer) interest regarding it. A good example of this is Phil Schiller replying to customer's email about the Rogue Amoeba situation.

I'm certainly not defending Apple but this is a problem that has existed for as long as I've been interested in tech.

You miss the entire point about why the iPhone was revolutionary. Yes, there were other touchscreen devices (mostly capacitive and plastic). There were fundamental rethinking of the hardware internally which hadn't been done before. However, it was about the software. The software on the iPhone was leaps and bounds ahead of anything that existed. It made the experience fun, beautiful and intuitive which was not how smartphones were previously.

I don't know if Panic had any patents regarding this.

The patent system doesn't really benefit the small developer. I was listening to Build & Analyze and Marco Arment was asked if he would patent features of Instapaper and he essentially said that it is more pain than it's worth. They don't have time time and money required to enforce it.

It's fun to think about but it wouldn't change Facebook's model at all. The power of Facebook is based upon the number of users it has.

Being a fan of Google doesn't mean that you're disinterested in a competitor's product. I'm sure there were Apple forums that had a lot of comments (both positive and negative) regarding the events held by MS and Google.

>Why should a product judge whether its successful or not based on other product.

I think it's his intent to show that nobody outside of tech really cares about this.

>Google plus has some of the most tech savvy users and level of conversation is usually very high.

The 'tech savvy' users are everywhere. What it shows here is what everyone already knew: that much of Google+ consists of Google fans.

I'm eager to see when there is a #boycottGoogle or #boycottMotorola for the Xbox ban.