> Given his history with the company, I feel like with Gruber we never ever get the real deal.
You should try listening to his podcast(s). Just like pre-Functional-High-Ground-Marco, I find Gruber to be a lot more realistic and balanced when he is talking, not writing.
This is the same Marco Arment who just came out and wrote an essay basically saying the iPhone 6/6+ is poorly designed, and he's hoping Apple will stop with the "thinner, thinner, thinner but sucky experience for the user" design process?
Yep. I don't think he has been writing essays as these before his infamous blog post[1]. He has, however, been criticising Apple for a while (forever?) on podcasts. On a recent episode of ATP.fm, he even mentioned that the blog post did not come out of nowhere, but was simply a write-up of things that have been discussed on the podcast for a long time.
Yeah - I used to feel like Arment was in he bag for Apple (and I say this as a hardcore Mac guy, though I use Android phones), but these days I find myself respecting his take a lot more. Gruber...no. He is a very good writer who uses that skill effectively, but he's so far in the bag it's not even funny.
I think Arment has realized he really has nothing to lose, and everything to gain by just speaking the truth. A number of times he's been hosed by Apple sitting on an patch release for overcast, he's not invited to any events, and doesn't get embargoed gear. As a result, telling the truth improves his braaannnd (read that with a zombie like braiiiinnsss sound), with very little downside.
I wouldn't be surprised if we'll continue to see more honesty from Arment - I think he's realized that it only did Siracusa good. Gruber, who I love his reading, is in a tough position - he has to tow the company line in order to get the invites and gear from Apple, which are somewhat important to DF.
I agree with this. I've heard him give talks on a few occasions and found them far superior in content and delivery than his writing. Which is hard to believe because Gruber honestly is a very good writer.
You should try listening to his podcast(s). Just like pre-Functional-High-Ground-Marco, I find Gruber to be a lot more realistic and balanced when he is talking, not writing.