Tech ThirstSo Twitter’s been under fire lately by a lot of bloggers. In particular, John Gruber, MG Seigler, Jim Darymple…well…basically every aggressive blogger you can think of. Now, a lot of these highly opinionated bloggers are Apple advocates through and through. In fact, from what I’m seeing daily, it’s only them. Maybe I’m not following the right people to get both sides of the story, but these guys are bashing Twitter like crazy.
For those that don’t know – Twitter is locking down their API and now requires “traditional” clients with large amounts of users to request access. In other words – they’re locking out a lot of the community that made them what it is today. Kind of a short version that misses a lot of points, but that’s the gist of it.
Contrary to popular belief – I don’t hate Apple, I hate how a lot of their advocates function and act in different situations. I mean, I don’t think Apple makes the best products by a long-shot. I’ve used a bunch of them extensively and it just doesn’t feel right. The only products that I highly endorse are their trackpads and the iPad for news reading and web browsing. What I don’t like is those extreme followers. Every cult-following has them, but Apple fans have this community of insanely brutal and aggressive voices that constantly bash on other companies.
Take this Twitter situation for example – we have some of them telling Twitter to drop dead, some saying Twitter’s lost it’s way, and others saying Twitter is evil. Why? A developer policy change to a free service? A developer policy change. Huh. You’d think Apple fans/developers would be used to that. How many times has Apple changed their policies and threw a bunch of developers out the door? Keep in mind that these developers actually pay Apple to make applications for them, not a free model like Twitter’s. If you aren’t catching it – that makes it way worse. People invested tons of money to be a part of that ecosystem and got cheated out of it because Apple decided to change it’s mind.
One big example is the banning of apps if they didn’t use Apple’s own 30-percent-taking in-app payment system. It’s okay to take 30%, but to force it on every developer after you’ve allowed otherwise in the past? Amazon damn-near got rid of their Kindle app. Tons of other developers pulled out as well because either the profit margins would be horrible or they’d have to overcharge users. I’m not saying Apple or Twitter are worse than each other – not at all. My point is that there should be an equal level of anger and discussion about these major changes.
Are these same bloggers angry about Apple’s developer policy changes, no matter how ruthless they may be? Nope. In fact, they create reasons as to why it makes sense. They’ll make post after post about why it makes sense to apply these new policies. But with Twitter – anger, hate, and numerous cruel words. And if this was the only time it could be slightly excusable. But it happens all the time. When else? I have a huge list of examples.
When Samsung allegedly copied iOS and it’s corresponding devices, Apple bloggers screamed out and said Samsung deserves nothing better than the courts. It didn’t matter that Samsung was bringing fantastic competition on the table – let the law books to take them down. They wanted to bring the law in for something they didn’t even totally understand. But when Apple allegedly price fixed – an illegal act – they blamed Amazon. They said Apple brought competition and such actions should be allowed. It didn’t matter that it forced users to pay more on every single marketplace – Apple was in the right. It didn’t matter if Apple was guilty or not – the law didn’t need to intervene. Amazon was wrong.
And remember that whole Samsung Galaxy Note thing? Geez.
Microsoft is taking a big risk with Windows 8 and is trying to create a brand new experience. They’re trying to combine what Apple is convinced should be in two form factors into one device so that consumers don’t have to have three different devices. Without even blinking they claim Microsoft is wrong and that Windows 8 is a complete failure. It’s not even out to market. Not to mention that it’s gotten lots of good reviews. And let’s bring up the fact that most users don’t want to spend money on three different devices when they can buy two devices and save tons of money. But Microsoft is wrong.
Any PC maker comes out with a new laptop and Apple bloggers call it out as a Macbook or Macbook Air copy. But when Apple steals great ideas from Android or Windows Phone they don’t even discuss it. In fact, they act like it never happened and move right along. In the vice versa case, umpteen blog posts with people making comparisons and showing how others constantly copy Apple.
Here’s another that I posted onto Google+ recently where Jim Darymple posts a link to a list of apps optimized for the Retina Macbook (a few of these lists also came out when the retina iPad came along too). If this same list was for apps optimized for a new Android phone, what do you think it would be about? Fragmentation.
RIM is currently going through some really hard times. They’re trying to bounce back with new products but it’s definitely a really rough patch. Whenever their new CEO tries to shine a bright light on the situation you’ll find an Apple blogger literally laughing at their situation. Some tell them to even shut down because it isn’t worth it. Yet they forget that Apple was in the exact same situation years back. Microsoft was forced to give Apple billions of dollars to continue to exist. This company is now worth more than Microsoft. Why can’t RIM bounce back the same way? Why is it that only Apple can pull such a thing off? Apple isn’t some Godly creature that came out of nowhere. They’re a company – a corporation – much like RIM and RIM has just as much of a chance of bouncing back.
And here’s a last one I posted a while back when ASUS gave out free GPS dongles because the Transformer Prime had faulty GPS.
Not all Apple-focused bloggers are like this, but there’s a huge community that is. Cut it out, grow up, and take the similar side to every issue. If you don’t want to talk about it, don’t, but don’t act one way when Apple does something and when other companies do the same. Cut the hypocrisy. I think your readers deserve it.
