So in my post banned state, I’ve started to wistfully think back to some of the highlights of my time as a commenter on the Guardian Tech Site.
Here are a few highlights, please feel free to add your own in the comments:
1. I’ll start with this post, which (a familiar theme for regular readers of Boot Up) was on the topic of the lack of coverage for Samsung’s (at the time, newly launched) Galaxy S3:
http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/16604566
Response to modelportfolio2003, 13 June 2012 1:55pm
While we are waiting for a Samsung S III review…
To be honest I’m not really bothered about waiting for it. There’s enough else out there (almost universally positive, apart from the body design aspect which seems to divide opinion) that you can get a pretty comprehensive idea of what it’s like and whether it suits you as a buyer.
I think people are more interested in seeing whether or not Charles is going to do a hatchet job on it, relentlessly comparing it to cherry picked elements of the iphone experience with which he’s most familiar.
If the review comes out even remotely favourably it will be a major accomplishment for the phone in the Guardian. It’s a bit like the old feminist quote
“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”
but instead:
“Whatever [insert non-apple tech company name here – in this instance Samsung] do they must do twice as well as Apple to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult”
Which seemed to rattle somebody’s cage:
Response to beardyweirdy666, 13 June 2012 2:23pm
“I think people are more interested in seeing whether or not Charles is going to do a hatchet job on it”
My agenda is to find out what the user experience is like, and report on it. Basically, you’re saying that my honestly-held and informed-by-experience opinions will be picked apart by people with an agenda, which is to assign an agenda to what gets written, and critique everything in that light – ignoring the fact that they’re being mendaciously stupid.
People like that are literally beneath contempt: I don’t find it worth even bothering to be contemptuous of them. I just ignore them. You seem to be classifying yourself into that group, so we won’t be interacting again, but do have a great rest of your life. You might use a moment of it to find my Nexus S review. Don’t let it overturn your world view too much. I’m sure you’ll be able to integrate it into your various idees fixes in time.
Nice way to talk to customers dontcha think?
2. Then there was the Apple Maps palava:
This review famously contained the phrase:
The news in May that Google was sidelined as the provider of maps for the iPhone (in any phone that runs iOS 6, to be released later on Wednesday 19 September) caused a fair amount of hand-wringing and worry. Would it be as good? Or would it just use some in-between rubbish?
Don’t worry – it’s very good.
Then the huge number of problems and flaws emerged and were pointed out, and it was suggested that the review be amended to reflect that. Instead we were treated to this, rather strange and overly defensive post:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2012/dec/14/apple-maps-good-or-not
To which I replied:
On Friday afternoon I left a comment saying well done to Charles for acknowledging his mistake and explaining how it had arisen.
This follows an earlier exchange where I’d urged him to write a footnote to his original review, highlighting the issues that came to light after the launch, and revising of his conclusions a as a consequence.
It’s possible I’m even one of the people being characterized as a Nelson
Muntze in this piece (I would hope not, but my expectations of this section of the paper have been tested a lot recently, and it would no longer surprise me.)On further reading I’ll admit I’m rather disappointed by Charles reaction and account.
I believe it’s unnecessarily defensive and seems overly concerned with those who, like myself, have questioned and criticised the original review and the lack of a subsequent to the infamous issues arising.
I don’t blame Charles for his original liking of the maps. I recognise that there are limits to the amount of testing one busy individual can carry out (Apple on the otherhand should clearly have conducted hfar better real world testing, but that’s by-the-by). However, the proclamation was so unequivocal, so confident on its assertion, that it went beyond a personal opinion. Once the issues came to light (very quickly afterwards) I do not see why out wasn’t obvious, almost automatic, to annotate the review and revise the conclusion.
‘Mistakes’ such as the “Don’t worry..” proclamation will always happen, and I’m sure every adult has at some point experienced an equivalent (if less public) situation at some point in their professional lives . However, how we respond to such an event is a measure of our character, and a willingness to admit to our mistakes both promptly and sincerely, perhaps even with some self deprecating humour, is the most disarming and honest response you make.
Whilst I respect the fact that Charles has eventually written a response to his critics here, it is not remotely prompt, nor does it really demonstrate an acknowledgment or attempt at understanding what the critics have complained about, instead choosing to lambast those who have been critical and broadly maintain a stance that the review remains valid.. This gives me little confidence that the same sort of situation might not recur, and if it did that the responses would be very similar.
3. Then there was the recent proclamation about how the Guardian Tech section choose to spend their limited resources:
Lollygagging (one of the elder statesmen of the Guardian Tech comments) asked this fairly innocuous and sensible sounding question as the Guardian went into lathers on a bland story about Apple reaching a milestone in App sales:
Google IO is about to start. Does this tech section not indulge in speculation any more? I don’t think any articles have mentioned it.
I wonder if the same will be true when Apple’s WWDC comes around?
This brought out the surprising (and quite frankly blatantly untrue!) response:
@lollygagging –
“Does this tech section not indulge in speculation any more?”
We prefer to focus our resources on news, rather than feverish guesses. We’ll have coverage of Google I/O later today, plus other events that are actually happening, rather than “speculation” – you can find plenty of the latter elsewhere, I’m sure.
I wonder whether he really believes that himself?
It seems so, as even when I pointed out plenty of evidence to the contrary, he remained uncontrite:
@CharlesArthur –
Your sentiment is admirable.
Unfortunately it’s not entirely consistent with reality:
– Odds shorten that next Apple product will be cheaper iPhone
– Could Apple buy Intel?
– iTunes is 10 years old today. Was it the best idea Apple ever had?
– Does Apple have anything left up its sleeve?
– Boot Up: Apple iWatch hints
– Can Apple do it again with the iWatch?
– Could iWatch be the next Apple TV?
– Will Apple’s plans for an iWatch herald a new era of wearable tech?
– Tim Cook hints at ‘new’ iPhone format and talks of rapid growth
– What might Apple’s iWatch look like? – in pictures
– Apple watch: has its time come?
– Should Apple launch a cheap iPhone?
– iPhone 5 features: crowdsourcing the specifications
– iPhone 5 release date rumours mount
– iPhone 5 expected to launch in September with new connector
– iPhone 5 demand leads to ‘huge’ increase in air freight costs
– iPhone 5 sales could see Apple boosting US economy, says JP Morgan economist
– iPad Touch? How Senseg’s haptic system gives touchscreens texture
– iPhone 5 poll: are you wiser than the crowd?
– Next iPhone reportedly in production – and may have different charging system
– iPhone 5 ‘to launch in September’
– Apple ‘iPhone 5’ expected in September
– iOS 6: what to expect – and not to expect from Apple’s WWDC 2012
– Google and Apple to go head to head over ‘smart’ TVs
– Next up for Apple, it’s iTV – the television that will respond when you shout at it
– Apple TV: the rumours evaluated
– Apple netbook rumours persist
– Apple tablet rumours send blogosphere into frenzyDo I need to go on? (there are plenty more available)
5. And then there’s the recent iPhone splurge. Look here, and be amazed at just how many stories (many of them remarkably similar to each other) can be written about the launch of an upgraded version of a phone. Starting from around 9th September.
6. Oh and I nearly forgot this gem. The history of the smartphone. Which as everybody knows started in 2007. What? Yes that’s right. No smartphones existed before the iPhone. If you thought you’d owned one for years beforehand, then you’re deluded. Read the comments for an amusingly desperate attempt by the author to qualify the criteria, which predictably fails.
beardyweirdy666 
Beautiful work.
What would it take to get Charles to read this blog I wonder?
I think someone would need to take that chip from his shoulder before he’d even consider taking any of it one board. Which is a shame – it’s what makes us better people.
Not one of your key posts, but worth remembering yout Guardian Pick from 22nd August:
“This might be the case in Asia, but it’s hard to imagine large numbers of western users walking around with 6in phones.”
I disagree. Big phones seem huge when you first change, but they quickly become normal. Everybody I know with a Note or Note 2 said they worried about the size before they got one bit now wonder what they were concerned about.
Each time I’ve changed my phone in recent years I’ve gone to a bigger screen and i don’t think i could go back very easily. I used to have a HTC Desire which at the time felt huge itself, yet I was helping a workmate sort something out on his the other day and it felt stupidly small and cramped.
I’m not saying that the 6″ phone will necessarily become the dominant form, but I think ‘phablets’ will continue to grow share, especially as bigger screen phones (like the S4 etc) have already been normalised.
My first up post the next morning fell foul of the mods:
Classy links you’ve served up today Charles. Classy.
And I’d like to offer belated congratulations to beardyweirdy666 for yesterday’s Guardian ‘pick’. Well deserved.
which really mystified a lot of people.
Charles normally prefers to pick his own comments over those of his readers of course. I suspect he’s the only Guardian journalist who does. Not classy.