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Marco Arment was the original developer behind Tumblr, the original developer behind Instapaper (i.e. the first big "read it later" service on mobile), is currently the developer for the Overcast podcast app and service, but is probably most well-known in Apple tech circles these days as a blogger and podcaster (he hosts a few podcasts, the biggest one being the Accidental Tech Podcast with John Siracusa and Casey Liss).

As for why you should care? You shouldn't. Mind you, I read his blog and regularly listen to his podcasts, so I'd lump myself in as a fan of the things he has to say (which isn't to say that I agree with them, just that I like hearing them). I was fine with Slashdot covering his blog entry last year when he railed against the quality of software that Apple was putting out, because even though he later regretted having made that post, it still did an excellent job at coalescing and reflecting a broader sense of dissatisfaction among Apple users at the time. But his random thoughts on the shape of the iPhone X? Even I don't think that warrants Slashdot coverage. It was something I enjoyed reading yesterday, but it doesn't warrant reposting here.

Marco loves drama. He'll say or do something "controversial", a ton of tech sites will run with it, he gets all the attention and then two days late he expresses regret for saying or doing whatever he said or did. A recent example is here, with backpeddle here.

Peace is no different. Drama for two days followed by backpeddle.

The stupid thing is that the whole "issue" he had could have easily been solved with a pre-loaded whitelist of advertisers. He could have even called it "Acceptance Ads".

But then that wouldn't have generated quite as much drama and attention would it?

Marco loves drama. He'll say or do something "controversial", a ton of tech sites will run with it, he gets all the attention and then two days late he expresses regret for saying or doing whatever he said or did. A recent example is here, with backpeddle here.

Peace is no different. Drama for two days followed by backpeddle.

The stupid thing is that the whole "issue" he had could have easily been solved with a pre-loaded whitelist of advertisers. He could have even called it "Acceptance Ads".

But then that wouldn't have generated quite as much drama and attention would it?

Indeed. I listen to Accidental Tech Podcast that Marco Arment puts on with John Siracusa and Casey Liss, and after that article of his went viral, he talked a bit about it. He pointed out that none of the opinions he shared in the blog post were ones he had been keeping to himself. Quite the contrary, he had been sharing them in public, recorded formats for quite some time (i.e. the podcast, Twitter, etc.), so he wasn't expecting them to grow out of proportion like they did.

What he realized was different this time, was that his blog has a much wider audience than his Twitter or the podcast he's on, and his blog's words don't come with the context and tone that his Twitter conversations and podcasting remarks do. As such, people read into his words what they wanted to hear. He also pointed out that, to be fair, he left plenty of room in what he said for people to read in whatever meaning they wanted, and that that was a problem entirely of his own making.

He later posted an update to the original blog post, indicating that he wished he could take it back, not because what he what he said was untrue, but rather because it was stated poorly and in such a way that it allowed his words to be twisted by people who were looking to twist his words to suit their narrative.

All of which is to say, there are plenty of people in the Apple community who are openly critical of the company and its products, and they seem to be getting treated just fine by the company. Hell, John Siracusa established himself via his blog and podcast called Hypercritical (plus his ridiculously detailed reviews for each version of OS X that he posts over at Ars), in which he eviscerates anything and everything, particularly the things he uses on a regular basis. He continues to get invited to Apple events. Marco wasn't shut out when his rant went viral. He continues to get special treatment from Apple since he's a big name in the community.

And Casey Liss...well, who the hell is he anyway?

Indeed. I listen to Accidental Tech Podcast that Marco Arment puts on with John Siracusa and Casey Liss, and after that article of his went viral, he talked a bit about it. He pointed out that none of the opinions he shared in the blog post were ones he had been keeping to himself. Quite the contrary, he had been sharing them in public, recorded formats for quite some time (i.e. the podcast, Twitter, etc.), so he wasn't expecting them to grow out of proportion like they did.

What he realized was different this time, was that his blog has a much wider audience than his Twitter or the podcast he's on, and his blog's words don't come with the context and tone that his Twitter conversations and podcasting remarks do. As such, people read into his words what they wanted to hear. He also pointed out that, to be fair, he left plenty of room in what he said for people to read in whatever meaning they wanted, and that that was a problem entirely of his own making.

He later posted an update to the original blog post, indicating that he wished he could take it back, not because what he what he said was untrue, but rather because it was stated poorly and in such a way that it allowed his words to be twisted by people who were looking to twist his words to suit their narrative.

All of which is to say, there are plenty of people in the Apple community who are openly critical of the company and its products, and they seem to be getting treated just fine by the company. Hell, John Siracusa established himself via his blog and podcast called Hypercritical (plus his ridiculously detailed reviews for each version of OS X that he posts over at Ars), in which he eviscerates anything and everything, particularly the things he uses on a regular basis. He continues to get invited to Apple events. Marco wasn't shut out when his rant went viral. He continues to get special treatment from Apple since he's a big name in the community.

And Casey Liss...well, who the hell is he anyway?

Ergo Pro now shipping -- no expense spared to make it the best...

• http://matias.ca/ergopro/pc

Reviewed here...

• http://www.marco.org/2015/02/26/matis-ergo-pro-review

I really like the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic. Marco Arment has a nice review from 2013. He recently compared it to a Matias Ergo Pro.

Note that I'm a Mac user (yeah LOL Apple, I know right?) but with the right freeware, you're able to map, for example, the Caps Lock key to Escape. I used to work on an awesome Sun keyboard that had the escape key right there, for vi and all that good stuff.

I really like the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic. Marco Arment has a nice review from 2013. He recently compared it to a Matias Ergo Pro.

Note that I'm a Mac user (yeah LOL Apple, I know right?) but with the right freeware, you're able to map, for example, the Caps Lock key to Escape. I used to work on an awesome Sun keyboard that had the escape key right there, for vi and all that good stuff.

Even most of those getting an iMac really want a real tower (such as a Mac Pro) but are stuck with the iMac because they can't afford it.

This isn't true. Marco Arment for example bought a Mac Pro, then traded it in a year later to get an iMac. Clearly he could afford the Pac Pro, but the year later iMac offered a better display, without compromising the speed.
http://www.marco.org/2014/10/1...

I think “nosedive” is what I regret most. It suggests that Apple is quickly and suddenly falling to an imminent doom, while I intended to express a more gradual progression causing long-term reputation damage.

Absofuckinglutely no surpise.

Marco Arment followed up his post with another after, talking about how much he regretted the first post. http://www.marco.org/2015/01/0.... He says: "This morning, my words were everywhere, chopped up and twisted by sensational opportunists to fuel the tired “Apple is doomed!” narrative with my name on them. (Or Tumblr’s name, which was even worse.) Business Insider started the party, as usual, but it spread like wildfire from there. Huffington Post. Wall Street Journal. CNN. Heise. Even a televised CNBC discussion segment." Both are worth a read. He does have valid points about the bugginess of Apple's software, but still makes the case that it's better than the competition. About the post, he says, he woke to "an unstoppable nightmare of embarrassment and guilt. Most people, myself included, aren’t accustomed to that level of scrutiny. Those who are usually have PR training, editors, and handlers to protect them from publishing flippant blog posts before they go to bed."

> There is a good possibility that the new iMacs can also be used as a monitor as well.

Likely not. The old Mac had a totally typical display. But now it's 5k, and...

Thunderbolt at 10 Gbit/s wasn't fast enough to drive 4K, which needs about 16 Gbit/s. Thunderbolt 2 at 20 Gbit/s can drive 4K, but not 5120Ã--2880, which needs 28 Gbit/s.1 The only promising standard on the horizon is DisplayPort 1.3 at 32 Gbit/s, but that spec is being finalized later in 2014, which means we're probably still years away from anything supporting it.

Marco Arment, January 2014

Wikipedia now says "DisplayPort version 1.3 was released on September 15, 2014." So yeah, no way is this iMac is supporting input based on a month-old spec.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

Belkin. They were the guys whose routers a few years back were found to be injecting advertizing into the customer's HTTP traffic every few hours. (cite)

Ick.

Joulies don't work.

Have you seen the Uselss mug? That doesn't come from nowhere.

The current theory (as mentioned by Marco Arment) is that it may be from AllClear ID's iOS app, given that AllClear officially joined the NCFTA in the second week of March. Since the leaked file's name had NCFTA in it, it's pretty clear that it came from the NCFTA, and it would make sense that AllClear would have started providing some data prior to when they actually announced they had joined, so that may explain (but certainly not justify) why someone had something like that on their desktop on the week of the attack.

If AllClear is indeed the source, that would be some rather delightful irony, given that they would be directly responsible for causing more damage to their customers than they will ever likely prevent.

Also, if AllClear sounds familiar, it may be because they were the the company providing a year of free identity theft protection to Sony customers after the hacks last year that compromised millions of PSN accounts.

They're just realizing this now? A walled garden controlled by one single company that gives you zero control whatsoever might maybe have some undesirable results? Did they think Apple wasn't in complete control when they bought their iOS device or something?

Who said anything about iOS here? Hint: the answer is not "Marco Arment", give that TFA is titled "The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance" (emphasis mine). You did read TFA before commenting, right? (If you trusted the /. summary and didn't RTFA, the phrase that comes to mind is "you must be new here"; summaries don't always do TFA justice, hence "RTFA".)

And I doubt the customers will care either. If Walmart stops selling HTC televisions, do people just quit walmart? No they buy whatever brand is available. Same with the Apple Store; people will just buy what they can. So I disagree with the comments below: http://www.marco.org/2012/07/26/not-just-geeks

BTW instapaper's "read later" doesn't work in Opera.
Would be nice if he fixed that.

QUOTE: "My argument was more nuanced: many previously-acceptable apps have been effectively kicked out of the App Store because theyâ(TM)re incompatible with the current implementation of sandboxing, and this hurts the customers of those apps enough that they will lose confidence in buying nontrivial software from the Store in the future. For this reason, I, as a customer, have lost confidence. Furthermore, the increasing number of good, useful apps not permitted in the App Store will prevent it from becoming ubiquitous, therefore harming Apple's presumed long-term goals."

hilarious

The Marco.org Review of John Siracusa’s Review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
http://www.marco.org/2012/07/25/siracusa-mountain-lion-review-review

"Battery Life

At medium brightness, my iPad (3rd-generation) battery fell from 73% to 56% while I read the review on it.

Additionally, my Retina 15” MacBook Pro was sitting open on my lap so I could take notes for this review-review. While reading on the iPad, the MacBook Pro’s battery fell from 99% to 86%.

These numbers are strong, especially on the Mac side. Power management has come a long way since Siracusa’s Mac OS X 10.0 review, and I’m cautiously optimistic for the battery-life improvements while reading Siracusa’s future review of 10.9."

We pirate digital goods because we're pretty sure can get away with it.

There's also a pretty high convenience factor. I have an old friend from college who used to pirate mp3s. Once Amazon started making available mp3s of nearly every album, he started buying them. It was easier to do that than to find them on various file-sharing networks, especially considering the fake files that are out there, slow uploaders, etc.

Same kind of thing with movies and TV shows, only this time with iTunes. One click and he has the media. No mussing with torrents, no gnutella, no corrupted rar files, and no going to the store.

This doesn't mean that the piracy was okay. However, piracy is a fact of life. Some content makers have figured this out and adapted, and they're probably doing better than they would have had they failed to adapt. Right versus pragmatic is a pretty good explanation of it.

If you actually care about the environment more than you hate Apple, you'd realize that Apple is more green in terms of how it makes (AND recycles) its products than any other major electronics manufacturer. Environmental groups just like to eviscerate Apple for PR, even though it's one of the most transparent and aggressive on protecting the environment and green tech.

The funniest thing? In a few years we'll see every other vendor following Apple's lead, as they always do.

It's not just freemium that attracts jerks. Free in general does.

Marco Arment, the developer of Instapaper, talks about his development process and business decisions relatively regularly, and I recall one of his posts regarding his decision to drop the free version of his app. If you scroll down to the "Undesirable customers" heading, you'll see some of his talk about the sorts of stuff he noticed as a trend between the free and paid versions of his app.

Though he doesn't out-and-out say it this way, his point is basically that people attracted to free are cheapskates who tend to have unreasonable demands and a sense of entitlement. I'm inclined to agree as well. Having people pay even a buck or two makes them much more invested and filters out a lot of the riffraff who you'd rather not be dealing with.

So, it's not just in games where you get undesirable types with a free-product business model.

Doesn't deserve the downvotes.

Android is a nightmare for (game) developers. So many wildly varying specs, some missing major features (no FPU, no multi-touch!)

iOS has been a lot nicer, with only 3 screen resolutions to support, and all devices with FPUs, multi-touch, and PowerVR GPUs. But the new iPad is a big change, with it's huge resolution, making universal apps less practical.

True !

There are a few statistics in the wild that explain the situation further.
Chitika Labs iPad stats
Marco.org iOS stats
Chitika Insights Android Stats

Till now, the devs only had to worry about iDevice + iOS-Version. Now, they also have to worry about iDevice-Version + iOS-Version. The market fragmentation argument claimed by Apple as a benefit against Android has just started getting nullified.

As Apple starts penetrating further into price-sensitive and high volume markets like India where there is no concept of contract lock-in, fragmentation may become more prominent. People tend to hold on to "working" devices for longer and device upgrades are not as frequent. There is no operator subsidy to encourage a device upgrade.

So, in summary, yes. Fragmentation "may" hit Apple and it cant be written off as only some Android specific problem now.

check these reveiew. http://www.marco.org/2011/06/03/nook-simple-touch-review http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/11/2458956/kindle-2011-review ... im not saying difference is heavy but nook is slightly better off than kindle touch.

Might I suggest you read them and the comment thread here, then rethink what you said? The article and summary don't discuss the 15 minute window that JoeMerchant was claiming was being exploited at all. This story is about the fact that freemium games are grossing well due to in-app purchases, but makes no references to exploits or the like. The thing we were discussing (before AC and you interjected) was a perceived issue that existed prior to iOS 4.3 (specifically, that after a password was entered, there was a 15 minute period before they'd be prompted again). iOS 4.3 added the setting to remedy that issue.

Now, if you want to suggest that freemium games are grossing well because loads of iOS users are using a pre-4.3 version of the firmware, I'd point out that numbers from three months ago indicate you'd be overstating their potential impact. If you want to suggest that, despite their small numbers, many of them are entering their password and then making inadvertent in-app purchases in the 15 minutes that follow, I'd point out how unlikely that is, given that in-app purchases are rather jarring in how they remove you from the app with pop-up notifications to let you know that you WILL be charged. And if you still want to suggest that there are so many stupid users entering their passwords regularly while running old firmware and disregarding warnings, then I'd say we have nothing further to discuss. :P

- Is there some sort of policy on these blogs that prevents them from mentioning their competition?

Yes.

http://www.marco.org/2011/09/16/some-other-tablets-you-may-have-seen

Pretty good actually. It's the software and general user experience that sets these devices apart.

I know, Apple is suing Samsung over the Galaxy Tab - but you can't tell me that Apple is fearing Android in the tablet space.

Joel Spolsky had a Joel on Software post pertinent to this subject back in 2002, except then it was applied to understanding just why numerous large companies were jumping on the open source bandwagon. (Hint: it's not due to a sudden shift to a Stallman-esque viewpoint.) Joel talks a bit of economics, lays out the details, and provides a number of examples, like the one below.

Headline: IBM Spends Millions to Develop Open Source Software.

Myth: They're doing this because Lou Gerstner read the GNU Manifesto and decided he doesn't actually like capitalism.

Reality: They're doing this because IBM is becoming an IT consulting company. IT consulting is a complement of enterprise software. Thus IBM needs to commoditize enterprise software, and the best way to do this is by supporting open source. Lo and behold, their consulting division is winning big with this strategy.

Seen in this context, these providers are rapidly commoditizing an entire marketplace as a complement to increase the demand for their products and services.

Closely related reading: This timely post on Facebook's Open Computing Project.

P.S.: I certainly don't think that Joel's ideas capture the whole of the open source movement, but it's one valuable perspective. At minimum, there's also big wins for many parties, whether individuals or companies, who can cooperate to share the burden of a cost center (such as an operating system, a web server, etc.)

So was I. But this is something I don't quite get. The iPhone was innovation there's no doubt about it. But the iPad... it's the same thing, bigger, with a feature removed. I have used the iPad several times and the overriding thought is always: there's nothing this thing does that my phone doesn't and it's too big to fit in my pocket... and if I have my backpack why wouldn't I just carry a laptop?

It's really not just the same thing, bigger, with a feature removed (if it were, the iPad wouldn't have UI elements like UIPopover that iPhone/iPod Touch doesn't have), but I'm clearly not going to be able to convince you otherwise. But even if the iPad had no unique UI elements, its larger display still would make it more useful for certain tasks than an iPhone--just like I'd rather write code on a 24" display (preferably two) than a 13" display.

Like you, I consume almost all of my news via RSS (using Reeder and Instapaper on both iPhone and iPad and Google reader on desktops/laptops). If I'm on the couch, in bed, or, yes, even in the restroom, the iPad is the perfect form factor to read through my feeds and mail (and even reply to the occasional mail) and watch video. It's large enough that I can generally see an entire article without scrolling, and a laptop isn't nearly as comfortable to use in those places. Plus, unlike a laptop, I can actually use it all day on a single charge without plugging it in. This alone is huge.

Since then he's stopped reading it, and the iPad now rarely seems to come out of the drawer. Yet Apple is praised for innovating a new market out of nothing.

Probably because that's what they did.

I can see this being useful in future years.

or having you genitals felt up. Seriously that's their policy. They think if they subject everybody to public humiliation that people will opt for private humiliation instead.

Before they get to the ball touching look and sound eager for that moment, and when they get there pretend you're loving it. Close your eyes and imagine a sexy thing in uniform giving you that patdown and try very hard to get a bonner then I bet the TSA agent will be embarrassed and will not want to do it again. And if they get that alot maybe they will request a change in policy

or having you genitals felt up. Seriously that's their policy. They think if they subject everybody to public humiliation that people will opt for private humiliation instead.

Personally, I'll go for the public. If they're going to be obnoxious, authoritarian jerks, they should be forced to do it where everybody can see them. I'll act like I'm gay and I enjoy it. I will act like I think they're gay, and they enjoy it. I will turn the humiliation tables around and ask them if they like feeling people's balls and vaginas up in public, if it turns them on.

If enough people take my stance on it, they will quit this garbage in a hurry.

Yeah, all you scaredy cat cowards people who think that somehow this will come back on me and make my life miserable. You know what, up yours. It's people like you that've gotten us where we are, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. For once in your life, show a little backbone and self-respect.

As Marco Arment puts it, you've now progressed to "grownup computing". Why is this a surprise, or bad?
http://articles.marco.org/145
http://www.marco.org/1246041841

We're not teenagers anymore, we don't have hours of spare time every day to tinker and muck around with things.

As Marco Arment puts it, you've now progressed to "grownup computing". Why is this a surprise, or bad?
http://articles.marco.org/145
http://www.marco.org/1246041841

We're not teenagers anymore, we don't have hours of spare time every day to tinker and muck around with things.

> Microsoft is anything but late to this party.

I think he meant Microsoft is late to the "doing it right" party. MS will probable push something like this, where the mouse is visible until it's totally done booting. Great work like always, guys.

You can always spot the Apple-haters in the crowd because they always ignore #3: Apple really does make great stuff that a lot of people like. They sweat the details, they care about design, and if it takes 2 or 5 or 10 years to make a fantastic product, they'll put in the effort and not release some piece of crap early just to have something in the market.

• The original iPod (2001) had a unique scroll wheel that let you move quickly through thousands of entries, compared to the buttons (1 page at a time) or side-mounted scroll wheels (a few entries at a time) used on other products.
• The iPhone totally changed the face (literally) of the smartphone industry.
• The modern Tablet PC market was born in 2001 and limped along for year, then the iPad came out and shook things up and now, over six months later, there are still no really substantial competitors.

APPLE COULD NOT SURVIVE THIS LONG on marketing alone if their products were absolute crap. The fact that they make really great stuff is why users (and developers) are willing to put up with their other shortcomings. (And they do, indeed, have some shortcomings--you'll get no argument from me there.) THAT is why they can get away with this behavior. It's not just marketing and fanboys.

The funniest comments (to me) are where Apple is compared to being the "new Microsoft".

You mean like where Apple-released software has access to APIs and features that no other iPhone/iPad developers have, in a manner eerily reminiscent of Microsoft's undocumented APIs?

Yeah, they're clearly nothing alike.

And again idiots trying to do something different and worse than the standard UI is reason for rejecting the app. iPhone scrolls by swiping, that's how all apps should scroll.

Why? It's imprecise because it doesn't always advance by the same amount. It's also too much work to use repeatedly when going through a long text.

I'll ignore the rest and say only that I stand by my original points blaming confusion about the UI. I will note that other developers blame the "rate on delete" mechanism that skews the reviews:

http://www.marco.org/66440065

The sad problem is that this is really the only efficient way to collect bug reports.