No, I'm not going to read his article and drive his traffic up.
What stories did Gruber break this year? What exclusives? None! He has no special access at Apple, he has no insiders who give him the scoops, he's no different from any other armchair blogger.
In truth, John Gruber is an Apple PR stenographer. The sad thing is, he probably doesn't even know it, because he's so drunk on the kool-aid.
Is Gruber's goal to break sweet stories or deliver exclusives?
Two days after a story breaks no one cares anymore about the breaking of it. But a smart and thoughtful editorialist is likely writing pieces that hold value for years.
Certainly not everything Gruber writes is gold or even worth reading, but he is trusted for his opinions and insight, not for how early or accurately he gives you some "inside scoop" (even if he occasionally trumpets his playing of that game).
Okay yapcguy, I'm interested in who you think exceeds Gruber's quality, insight, and consistency in terms of watching Apple?
The list is pretty short - maybe Philip Elmer DeWitt, Benedict Evans, Ben Thompson and Horace Dediu - but none of them bring the deep and consistent product insight - they are more focussed on broader reporting, strategic assessments, or disruption/market theory.
Gruber, to the best of my knowledge, is the only writer that consistently tracks all the major apple developments with the quality of writing that he brings to the table.
Yes, he's a partisan, (Siracusa's term for him) - and writes for his audience, but his words are reasonably measured, and always have a reasonably rational basis.
I wouldn't continue following him if that weren't the case - I've dropped dozens of other Apple observers over the year, but Gruber is still on top of his game.
Perhaps not in the same area, but I would nominate Anand Shimpi from anandtech.com. He writes in depth review of Apple hardware (currently writing a Mac Pro review), and offers fairly deep insight into both the hardware and what the product offers as a whole.
Gruber might do it better; I admit that I don't read any of his posts, not being much of an Apple watcher. I have a slightly negative opinion of him based solely on comments, on HN and elsewhere, that appear on submissions of his articles. They seem to indicate that he has a pair of horse blinders on when it comes to Apple. For people who don't already think what they offer is the best, I can see why it is grating. I would have to read his articles for some time to form an actual opinion, but as it stands I'll stick with Anand, as he covers, in depth, other entrants as well as Apple.
Comments
No, I'm not going to read his article and drive his traffic up.
What stories did Gruber break this year? What exclusives? None! He has no special access at Apple, he has no insiders who give him the scoops, he's no different from any other armchair blogger.
In truth, John Gruber is an Apple PR stenographer. The sad thing is, he probably doesn't even know it, because he's so drunk on the kool-aid.
Is Gruber's goal to break sweet stories or deliver exclusives?
Two days after a story breaks no one cares anymore about the breaking of it. But a smart and thoughtful editorialist is likely writing pieces that hold value for years.
Certainly not everything Gruber writes is gold or even worth reading, but he is trusted for his opinions and insight, not for how early or accurately he gives you some "inside scoop" (even if he occasionally trumpets his playing of that game).
Okay yapcguy, I'm interested in who you think exceeds Gruber's quality, insight, and consistency in terms of watching Apple?
The list is pretty short - maybe Philip Elmer DeWitt, Benedict Evans, Ben Thompson and Horace Dediu - but none of them bring the deep and consistent product insight - they are more focussed on broader reporting, strategic assessments, or disruption/market theory.
Gruber, to the best of my knowledge, is the only writer that consistently tracks all the major apple developments with the quality of writing that he brings to the table.
Yes, he's a partisan, (Siracusa's term for him) - and writes for his audience, but his words are reasonably measured, and always have a reasonably rational basis.
I wouldn't continue following him if that weren't the case - I've dropped dozens of other Apple observers over the year, but Gruber is still on top of his game.
Perhaps not in the same area, but I would nominate Anand Shimpi from anandtech.com. He writes in depth review of Apple hardware (currently writing a Mac Pro review), and offers fairly deep insight into both the hardware and what the product offers as a whole.
Gruber might do it better; I admit that I don't read any of his posts, not being much of an Apple watcher. I have a slightly negative opinion of him based solely on comments, on HN and elsewhere, that appear on submissions of his articles. They seem to indicate that he has a pair of horse blinders on when it comes to Apple. For people who don't already think what they offer is the best, I can see why it is grating. I would have to read his articles for some time to form an actual opinion, but as it stands I'll stick with Anand, as he covers, in depth, other entrants as well as Apple.
Anand is excellent, but he looks at things and writes from a completely different perspective. They are not comparable in my opinion.
Save your rage. The parent was referring to the article Gruber is critiquing, not Gruber's article.