Now pointlessly enhanced with AI
File this one on the “Stupidity Knows No Bound” file.
Cult of Mac (cached version, no direct link.)
7 things Steve Jobs would have hated about Apple today
Luke Dormehl (5:00 am PDT, Jan 7th)
Unless Cult of Mac’s Luke Dormehl performed a seance and spoke to the ghost of Steve Jobs, who passed away on October 5, 2011, only then this post would make any sense whatsoever.
No surprise from a “publication” that hires Mike Elgan.
From the Dorian Nakamoto Legal Defense Fund:
In March of 2014, Newsweek published an article falsely identifying Dorian Nakamoto as “The Face of Bitcoin.”
Newsweek must be held accountable for its reckless reporting. Please donate to Dorian Nakamoto’s Legal Defense Fund.
It is perplexing how Newsweek ever approved “The Face Behind Bitcoin” article by Leah McGrath Goodman.
We should not blindly believe anything published by major publications, be it Newsweek, WSJ, New York Times, etc. They too are playing in the game of page-views.
From Amazon.com Press Release (August 25, 2014):
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 25, 2014– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., the leading live video platform for gamers. In July, more than 55 million unique visitors viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on Twitch produced by more than 1 million broadcasters, including individual gamers, pro players, publishers, developers, media outlets, conventions and stadium-filling esports organizations.
According to TechCrunch, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for $970 Millions in cash.
From Twitch CEO, Emmet Shear’s letter:
Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.
Congratulations to Twitch on getting acquired.
Now, let’s get to the serious part of this news. Back in May, 2014 there were rumors of Google’s intent to buy Twitch. Remember that it is a rumor of an acquisition. On July 24, 2014, VentureBeat ran a story with headline: “Google’s $1B purchase of Twitch confirmed — joins YouTube for new video empire” – link to the Internet Archive version.
“Confirmed”
No other news site reported this, just VentureBeat. One would think that Google would leak this news to Kara Swisher than VentureBeat. I did not buy it at all.
Every time someone cited @VentureBeat, I rolled my eyes. That’s because Venture Beat is less reliable than Supermarket Tabloid.
For the next two weeks, many speculations abound. On August 6, 2014 I tweeted this:
Wonder why no one else is calling bullshit on @VentureBeat 2014-07-24 story about @Google’s $1 Billion purchase of @Twitch?
Confirmed???????
Comes August 25, 2014, it is apparent that VentureBeat is an example of bad journalism.
John Gruber on the Apple-Beats Deal:
That they’ve been so wrong thus far makes me disinclined to believe anything Billboard (or The Financial Times, or The Wall Street Journal, or anyone else who reported the deal as imminent back on May 8) reports about it now.
(Reminder: the links to The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal are behind paywall.)
Since the rumor (which is not an actual news) broke, a lot of pros and cons about the supposed deal were published. Almost all of them are laughable.
It is so irresponsible for these publications not to treat rumors as what they really are; just rumors.
I tried to find a highly cited news-piece published by Billboard in the recent years which turned out to be a total garbage. Anyone remembers what it was?
File this one under “poor journalism” or “pseudo-journalism”.
John Gruber was quick to revised his post at Daring Fireball as soon as he got the word from John Harper.
It started with a May 1, 2014 post on Secret.
Then came the revelation that it was a hoax:
This reminds me of the “Apple asymmetric screw” hoax.
Journalism is certainly far from being fine. The urges for “being the first to report” and “exclusivity” certainly to blame.
The New York Times Bits published an interview with the person who claimed to be responsible for the development of the first iPhone App, namely Mobile Safari.
John Gruber has a different take on it.
Judging by my inbox, an awful lot of coffee was spewed in Cupertino today upon reading Tolmasky’s self-aggrandizing description of his role in Mobile Safari’s creation. There’s a difference between “the developer responsible for the first version of mobile Safari” and “the developer who claims he was responsible for the first version of mobile Safari”.
UPDATE: Said one long-time trusted source: “He definitely was NOT the lead on the project and several other engineers made far more significant contributions.”
Personally I have been taking what news organization published with a grain or a boulder of salt.