How I Got the Google Voice/App Store Story Wrong

http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/google_voice_story_wrong

by barredo • 17 years ago

79 25 17 years ago

mcav• 17 years ago

That's the right way to address mistakes. Gruber could have said nothing of the error, or he could have turned on his source. Instead, he took the time to investigate the error. That's class. Journalists take note.

mwcremer2• 17 years ago

+1 for admitting screwed up, -10 for laying it off on his single source. Why didn't he second-source it, like real journalists do?

novum• 17 years ago

I can't imagine well-sourced rumors are all that commonplace about a company as secretive as Apple. Probably you have to go with what you're given on the rare occasions you get precious little anything at all.

yjsoon• 17 years ago

Not many real journalists have even one source as reliable as Gruber's has been.

Mark_B• 17 years ago

Is a leak like this something that a journalist could get a second source for?

chipmunkninja• 17 years ago

Daring Fireball has taken a huge credibility hit in my eyes in the last couple of weeks. It's been approaching TechCrunch-style speculation and histrionics.

Yes, he deserves points for for admitting he was wrong - it takes a big person to do that. Personally, however, I would have preferred to see the articles not written in the first place until things were a bit more clear.

Perhaps this is inevitable when your blog suddenly becomes a significant source of revenue?

calambrac2• 17 years ago

Suddenly? DF has been around for years, and it's been Gruber's only source of income since 2006. The irony of bitching about histrionics...

unalone• 17 years ago

Dude, he's a single guy writing a blog, and it's still a personal blog by most standards. That is, most of his posts are just him linking to things he thinks is cool, whether or not it's Mac-related. When he blogs about things sources have told him, it's still one guy saying "Hey, my friend told me this." He's very frequently right, but he's not an Apple employee and he has to rely on people.

Approaching TechCrunch-style speculation? Seriously? He wrote two small blurbs about this Apple/AT&T thing, and beyond that left it completely alone, except to admit when he was wrong. Meanwhile, the rest of his articles/links have been as good as they were since I started reading him two years ago.

stijnm• 17 years ago

Am I the only one thinking this is all rather convenient?

As any good PR team should do (and I know Apple's are excellent), after the big backlash they experienced over the GoogleVoice debacle, they are now slowly but surely turning it around.

OK, I am cynical, but using the old "you didn't understand my inflection" to win an argument is something I used against my sister - when I was 10.

youngian2• 17 years ago

Also, "according to both Apple’s and AT&T’s responses to the FCC inquiry, AT&T in fact played no role..."

So we're just taking their word for it? Did they provide any evidence that this was the case?

alain94040• 17 years ago

Companies don't lie to the FCC. They will carefully phrase their answers, but they can't be caught telling an actual lie.

So yes, we can take their word for it.

Just keep in mind that their statements will be crafted to maximize what you think they mean and minize what they really mean.

An example I digged up recently about a privacy policy: "Examples of how we use your data: [very reasonable usage]". Doesn't say that that they don't use your data for other purposes. You just got tricked by a lawyer.

In the Apple AT&T case, they clearly say that they didn't chat about the Google Voice app directly. But they also admit that AT&T is telling Apple that in general, apps that consume bandwidth are not to be approved, and any app that does phone while using AT&T's network is no-no. So technically, they may not have discussed the particulars of Google Voice, but Apple may feel like they are doing AT&T's bidding without having to actually talk...

mistermann• 17 years ago

Oh....so, the app isn't rejected...it just.....hasn't been approved. Ok, you've won back my trust apple!

gehant• 17 years ago

A great example (seemingly effortless on Gruber's part) of integrity & accountability in journalism. Thank you.

sil3ntmac• 17 years ago

Props to tptacek for his comment a few weeks ago, when discussing this exact issue: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=779099

He nailed it.

pistoriusp• 17 years ago

I don't see why so many people congratulate him on admitting that he made a mistake.

He got it wrong. He admitted it. Congratulations in order? No. It seems to me that it's a fairly natural way to do things that doesn't require a back pat, or are we really so arrogant?

gjm11• 17 years ago

Empirically, it seems that pundits who make mistakes rarely admit it. Therefore, admitting it is evidence that he's got more integrity than most. (Or, of course, different readers, or a different mental model of what his readers care about, or something, but whatever it is it seems to produce similar results to integrity.)

jcl• 17 years ago

Corollary: To increase the integrity of your site, all you have to do is make some mistakes, then retract them a few days later. :)

st3fan• 17 years ago

Sounds like he got a call from a lawyer.

paul9290• 17 years ago

Overall the letters sent to the FCC doesn't not explain why Apple removed other Google Voice 3rd party apps from the app store around this same time. They were approved and in the store to use in the Spring, but once all this Google Voice hoopla occurred they were removed?

Still fishy to me!

yhuiuyggb• 17 years ago

So ATT don't say which apps Apple approve. It's simply that app store managers have to guess which apps would annoy their only phone connection supplier

BRadmin• 17 years ago

Any chance this was Apple's way of disseminating misinformation to track down a leaker?

How I Got the Google Voice/App Store Story Wrong

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