John Gruber about Papermaster and "That Damn Antenna"

http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/papermaster_damn_antenna

by barredo • 16 years ago

18 29 16 years ago

ergo983• 16 years ago

Gruber claims that Apple caught the antenna bug two years ago. Why then, after all of the reports, did Apple claim to be working tirelessly around the clock for some 22 days to find the issue? Secondly, it isn't "one spot": Touching the antenna anywhere attenuates and detunes it, which is why no other phone has an antenna in places that you touch. The whole bridging antennas thing is a red herring.

I fully expect an upcoming revision of the iPhone -- perhaps even the white version and then a Rev.B black version, to have a coating on the antenna.A simply layer of epoxy and it would still look groovy and would eliminate almost all of the issues. The downside is how that will wear over time, which I'm sure they're testing right now.

mlinsey• 16 years ago

Reading your comment on my iPhone 4 made me curious: after a few minutes of trying, I can't make the signal drop enough to lose bars by touching it anywhere besides the gap between antennas, which makes me lose two bars every time. Even if touching it anywhere should theoretically cause a problem, it's definitely much more pronounced when you bridge the gap.

tptacek3• 16 years ago

Agreeing and adding the data point that having band-aided the "death gap" on my antenna, I get significantly better reception on my i4 than I did on my 3G. I think the original commenter's point is a crock.

buster4• 16 years ago

It's so boring to read Grubers fan posts over and over again.. Why are they so popular on HN? They are usually full of subjective opinions on how great Apple is, nothing more.

robgough3• 16 years ago

I always presumed that's why the originating website appears in brackets next to a headline. So you can avoid reading sites you aren't interested in.

I'm surprised this so far has alluded you.

drivebyacct23• 16 years ago

No, I think he's asking a legitimate question. Who finds these enjoyable to read? iPhone fanboys that love being told what they want to hear? What other purpose does it serve to not only write about the antenna for the dozenth time, but to post it on HN yet again?

buster4• 16 years ago

But i didn't ask how i can avoid clicking those links.. i asked why they still are so popular and frequent to see on HN. I guess every blog post of Gruber is posted here (which in itself is fine), but every blog post of Gruber also gets enough votes to stay on the frontpage for a rather long time.

I've seen more interesting (and objective) posts that didn't even make it to the frontpage. Of course, "interesting" is rather subjective, but i guess you understand what i mean.

antidaily• 16 years ago

Agreed. He's become a whiney apologist. Every post is more infuriating. And I love Apple.

tvon• 16 years ago

I think he's gone downhill a bit since Jobs referenced his blog a few months back.

tptacek3• 16 years ago

(a) A significant chunk of HN'ers tend to agree with Gruber, (b) a significant chunk of HN'ers at least tend to learn things from Gruber posts (ie, the scuttlebutt that antenna-exec-guy was canned), (c) Gruber tends to be addressing issues that have captured the attention of HN, (d) Gruber captures the "quasi-official" "pro-Apple" side of those issues better than any other blog, and (e) Gruber's posts are extraordinarily well-written and people like reading them for that reason.

It's incredibly boring --- almost daft --- to complain that Gruber takes Apple's side in these posts. No shit, really, Gruber's pro-Apple, you say? Gruber has absolutely no incentive to be more fair to Apple's opponents than he is. He's not writing for HN; he's getting posted here by people who think he writes interesting stuff.

buster4• 16 years ago

I get that, but that's a shame. It's like stating that the Sun (the magazine) or the "Bild" (german magazine) are well written and respected journals because they are read by millions of people. I always hated how those magazines can be read by so many people.

Or to rephrase that: If it's news (it's Hacker NEWS, right?), the first and most important point is that the article is objective and neutral. Atleast for me. And that's why i don't like those links on the frontpage, just as i don't like the suns, the mirrors or the "bilds" frontpage.

Or to put it yet another way: daringfireball.net is the subjective opinion of a single person who seems to rephrase a lot of apples marketing talk. It's not journalism, it's not news, there is often no objective proof, no scientific proof, just the personal opinion of a single person. It doesn't belong on a page that has a certain quality. In a news magazine, i'd rate that as bad journalism, bad news. And again, this page is for news, i thought.

ergo983• 16 years ago

What has anyone ever learned from DaringFireball? The scuttlebutt speculation that is utterly meaningless is such an example? If that's "learning" then your bar is entirely too low.

DF caters to special interest pro-Apple-enthusiasts such as yourself. His posts gets disproportionately elevated because your small group has to up arrow every unsubstantiated, usually inaccurate thing he says, while everyone else is busy paying attention to a distributed set of submissions.

In any case, it's daft to complain that people complain about Gruber's obvious bias.

speby• 16 years ago

No kidding. I don't care that there is a significant portion of HN'ers that like him and agree with him. Maybe its more a problem with the HN community than with Gruber himself; a sign, perhaps, that the HN community has had its day.

I have recently tweeted about how boring and lame Gruber's posts are. I mean, kudos to the man for getting a huge following by typing out this constantly pro-AAPL drivel but it stinks when it pours over into communities I do tend to care about, or at least used to. And, when I point it out, as you have done, people here point fingers back at me defending the poor guy. Like he even needs to be defended, really?

pg• 16 years ago

Would you care to pick out something he said that you believe is false, and explain why?

CERTIORARI• 16 years ago

Truly, Apple has become the most boring tech company of today. Months and months of discussions about phones, antennas, internal policies, petty theft, and now business executives. It must be hard being an Apple blogger, and feigning excitement over such trivialities.

mgw• 16 years ago

Apple is about as boring as every other tech company when it comes to those issues. The big difference though is, that people talk about it when these things happen there. With every other company everyone just ignores it. That makes Apple one of the most (or the most) exciting tech company to many people.

benologist• 16 years ago

Are you kidding? Every time they spew out some rubbish they make another month's rent.

John Gruber about Papermaster and "That Damn Antenna"

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