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After 22 Years, Walt Mossberg Writes Final WSJ Column

Posted by timothy on from the end-of-year-starts-now dept.

McGruber writes "Walt Mossberg, principal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, has written his last column after 22 years of reviewing consumer technology products for the newspaper. His final column discusses the dozen personal-technology products that were most influential over the past two decades."

7 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This list is missing something... by mosb1000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    handheld GPS has changed the way we drive, walk and find restaurants.

    That's listed under "iPhone."

  2. I used to have respect for the WSJ and Walt ... by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How could anyone take this paper seriously after a posting like that? The guy is supposed to know what he's doing and look at this list he's come up with?

    5/12 of the products are from Apple. I'm surprised he didn't include polo necked sweaters and jogging shoes in the list :) Apple doesn't understand Software Libre at all. They're just a commercial firm trying to circle the wagons against competition and use IP to control the market for digital goods. Apple is turning technology into appliances and the WSJ are just a mouthpiece for marketing propaganda. You'd think that for his last article, the WSJ would let Walt write it himself, but no.. the marketing dollars from Apple are just too tempting.

    Richard Stallman must be turning in his grave.

    1. Re:I used to have respect for the WSJ and Walt ... by harperska · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, Apple may be a bit over-represented. (MacBook Air? Sure its form factor sparked a slew of of copycats known as 'ultrabooks', but it didn't exactly change the UX or how the general public used computers) But to use 'software libre' as the reason why they shouldn't be in this list at all is just stupid. For all that FOSS has done, it has been almost nonexistent as far as influence in general personal computing, largely because FOSS for the most part has still not figured out how to make UX not suck. And that is what this list is about - those products that have caused a watershed in how the general public does computing.

  3. Re:Doom by DSElliot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would argue Wolfenstein 3D before Doom. The Apple Newton is important because it introduced the concept of a handheld. The industry learned from Apple. Without Newton's handwriting recognition failure, Jeff Hawkins would not have invented Graffiti, which was a "simpler" way of entering data into a handheld through a stylus. Graffiti worked until the Treo and Blackberry keyboards came along, followed by Apple's adaptive touchscreen.

  4. Re:A tragic waste... by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why did the NYT let a report called 'Walt Mossberg' write newb-level electronics reviews, rather than pushing him in the direction of being a hard hitting, hard drinking, crime-beat reporter with a tolerance for risk and a taste for vigilante justice?

    It seems like such a waste...

    Only in comics, man, only in the comics. Real world reporters on crime-beat tend to blame society now, it's the PC thing to do.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Re:Just say "Apple" by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, but what were its competitors doing that changed the User Experience for the better?

    Screwing up so bad they made Apple look amazingly good.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  6. Re:Top product: You by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He has Google, FaceBook and Twitter on his list. In those three cases the product is You.

    He should have had Alta Vista, USENET NEWS and IRC.

    These successors have only made scads of money off ideas from real pioneers.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar