iMore’s Rene Ritchie, linked by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber:
So, everyone who’d been criticizing Apple and iPhone design immediately called Google out for aping it?
Not so much.
Except, every Pixel review did call Google out for this.
Surely they drew the line at Google’s 2016 flagship missing optical image stabilization -not just in the regular-size, but in the Plus XL model as well – stereo speakers, and water resistance – things that were pointed to last year as indicators Apple was falling behind?
Turns out, not deal-breakers either.
Except, every Pixel review did call Google out for this. Here’s a quick cut/paste image job I did yesterday, highlighting how Pixel reviews did, in fact, call out Google and the Pixel for the things Ritchie claims they are not calling them out for.
It’s almost like the Pixel is being graded on a curve.
When you’re as deeply enveloped in the Apple bubble as people like Rene Ritchie and John Gruber, reality inside the bubble starts folding in on itself. You sit deep inside your bubble, and when you look outwards, the curves and bends of the bubble’s surface twist and turn reality outside of the bubble into ever more grotesque and malformed versions of it.
Ever since the unveiling of the Pixel up to and including the reviews published yesterday, everybody in the technology media has been pointing out the exact same things Ritchie claims are not being pointed out. The amount of mental gymnastics and selective perception one must undertake – one could call such exercises flat-out lies – to claim that the major technology media is “against Apple” or “grading [the Pixel] on a curve” is so humongous that I honestly didn’t think it was realistically and humanly possible.
And I say this as someone who once got a flood of really nasty and angry emails because OSNews had not yet separated the FreeBSD category and its icon from the generic BSD category, so FreeBSD and Dragonfly BSD people alike were furious at me for putting a Dragonfly BSD story in the generic BSD category because it had a FreeBSD icon. I’ve been around the block when it comes to the kind of reality-warping, deeply idiotic bullshit the technology world can conjure up over absolutely nothing.
When I was 17, I went on a trip to Rome, the most beautiful city in the world. As I stood atop the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, looking down upon the countless tourists swarming St. Peter’s Square, I realised how easy it would be to lose touch with the people down there if you spent most of your time up here.
The bubble is no different.
I think you’re missing the point. He’s saying that the people who criticised the iPhone for missing certain features are totally fine with those same features being missing from the Pixel. Merely mentioning the absence of a feature is not the same as trashing a phone because of it. Many of these reviewers are saying that the Pixel is great (and it seems to be), but the ones who have been vocal critics of the iPhone for not having these features look a bit biased and silly when all they do in their Pixel reviews is mention the missing features, but then go on to say that the Pixel is great nonetheless. They can’t have it both ways, and it’s entirely reasonable for Rene Ritchie to call them out on it. Put your handbag down.
Edited 2016-10-20 11:59 UTC
Yeah, no. This, too, is completely out of touch with reality.
The iPhone 7 (and earlier!) reviews from the very same sites call it the best phone on the market, and compare the Pixel TO the iPhone 7, because they consider the iPhone 7 (and earlier) the gold standard for mobile phones.
So no, the reality of the Pixel and iPhone reviews simply does not line up with the fairy tale world Ritchie et al. live in.
That’s just not true.
http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s7/23461…
http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-phones/google-nexus-2016-phone…
I don’t know what to tell someone who is presented with facts, and responds with insults rather than conceding they were wrong. It’s all very Trumpian.
You’re surprised an article titled “six reasons I’m excited about…” doesn’t contain reasons why the author is NOT excited about … ?
I’m not surprised at all. But it is an example of the kind of article that you claimed doesn’t exist. You wrote a whole article based on the belief that such articles don’t exist. In my humble opinion you should apologise to Rene Ritchie.
pmac,
Haha, I just have to laugh at the contexts in which “Trump” is starting to be used in this way. It could actually catch on: “being a Trump” may become synonymous with someone who blames everyone else for all his problems.
Example sentence: The man who lost the election is such a Trump.
I kinda agree with that. Leave Note 7 fires aside for a moment (hahaha) and Imagine Samsung releasing a flagship phone in 2016 without wireless charging, water resistance, expandable storage, and the Pixel’s bland design with pitiful display-to-body ratio.
Would they get away with it?
But the Pixel didn’t get away with it at all. All of these points were mentioned – often at length – in EVERY review.
And yet they’re all glowing reviews (best Android phone ever!). So those points are mentioned in the reviews, but don’t carry any weight in the final outcome. To me, that’s definitely getting away with it.
Of course we’ll never know but I very much doubt that would be the case if the Pixel wasn’t a Google phone.
Edited 2016-10-20 13:16 UTC
Key operator: Android. Did any of the big tech sites claim it was better than the iPhone?
Edited 2016-10-20 13:16 UTC
The jbauer’s comment was about theoretical Samsung flagship (Android), not about iPhone.
Edited 2016-10-20 19:12 UTC
Besides the point! This isn’t about comparing it to an iPhone. it is about how it’s flaws are minimised on the way to declaring it the best Android Phone ever.
Do you think Samsung could release the Pixel today and have it declared the best Android phone ever?
Without water resistance, OIS, stereo speakers etc?
No, because if it were a Samsung phone, it would not get updates, it would be slower, it would have terrible software, and it wouldn’t have the Google Assistant.
It’s like you people don’t seem to understand that just because the Pixel lacks features A, B, and C, doesn’t mean it can’t make up for it with features X, Y, and Z.
This isn’t rocket science.
Edited 2016-10-20 19:34 UTC
Terrible software… right. Until those features get into Google’s Android. Then they become awesome.
Kinda reminds me of Apple, alright. It’s never needed or good until they’re the ones doing it.
Touchwiz isn’t only visionary features, it also contains a shitload of bloatware that hampers the performance of the otherwise perfectly capable device. The focus was on that, not on the features that are incorporated into Android.
Having advanced features years in advance make up for the slightly impact on performance.
I’ve had a S6 for over one year, and despite what Google’s purists keep claiming, it hasn’t slowed down and I’ve never thought to myself “oh if only this phone was faster”.
I do wish Google had tackled the battery drain madness by now though.
If you notice absoluty no difference between your usage now and a stripped-bare installation with minimal apps, services, connectivity and access, then sure. But be honest, have you ever tried something like that?
On the other hand, hatred towards Touchwiz has quieted down for the last couple of years; it was highest during when the Galaxy S3 was new if I’m correct. Maybe that’s because Samsung had seen the light and started down a path of slight performance instead of massive bloat?
BS.
Pixel is slammed for all of the features it lacks and praised for all others. Just like iPhone has been for years, and these hypocrites know exactly how many free passes Apple got over the years.
Pixel is hardly the greatest piece of hardware… but then you factor in how bad most other software versions are.
It is also important to note, that Nexus line of phones was slammed for many poor features. So no – not all features that come to Google’s Android become great.
Gizmodo’s review just trashed Pixel and Google Assistant.
Key word? Operative word?
Iphone 7 didn’t get glowing reviews?
Yeah. That’s the point. Both are getting away with it when others wouldn’t because of the power of the brand.
Funny, since from all the articles I’ve read what I took away is every Android fan should buy the Pixel, that Pixel is the best Android phone up to now, and the Pixel might be the best choice for someone wanting to convert from iPhone. I don’t remember even one talking about Pixel being better than the iP7.
The media is totally rigged!
“…As I stood atop the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, looking down upon..”
;D
Saint Peter’s Bubble DO ACTUALLY exists. Missions where created long ago to mitigate that.
We can nit-pick examples from various reviews, but for whatever this IT professional and Android/Windows user’s experience and ‘anecdata’ are worth, Thom’s overarching point seems so obvious as to almost not need mentioning.
Android users and reviewers don’t seem to be drinking the cool-aid to the same extent as their Apple using peers.
I can’t comment on the youth, where I’m sure fanboyism is rampant on both sides. On a professional and personal level, I see how people from their 30s (like myself) to 60s interact with technology.
iPhone is more than technology to them. It is the thing that brought technology to them. Many times these are people who on a fundamental level do not understand ‘computing’.
They’ve been using computers when they had to since the 90s, but in the worst cases they will put a URL in the ‘search’ field when directed over the phone to go to a URL in IE, then read you back the Google search results verbatim, and with a tone of annoyance like they’re not the problem. The ones who are better than that are not much better, though they often think they are.
Now they can install programs, and download and listen to music, or watch videos, like many of their peers could since Napster. You’d never catch them on a laptop ten years ago, now they are one with the internet via their phones. There is something romantic about this. After all, this was always Apple’s raison d’etre, and they achieved it in a very real sense.
Then there is the dark side to it. It has become a status symbol, and for it’s users that is often it’s real raison d’etre, which can never be acknowledged. Between this and the aforementioned romantic attachment, the idea it is not ‘the best’ is unthinkable. Call it ‘myside bias’. It is pervasive, and at times it can manifest as ugly elitism.
I try to stay out of the flame wares, but I know enough to know that android has a ~5:1 market share advantage, due largely to the variety of price ranges it offers. I once mentioned that, including the caveat, to an older associate who is one of the non-technical people I referred to above. He’d had a few too many, and all he understood was ‘the IT guy is saying Apple is not the best.’ I saw him go from incredulous, to angry; with me, android, and (strangely) the surface pro.
His problem was really cognitive dissonance, resulting from biases he does not even know he has.
Ironically, he need not fret. iPhone really is the ‘best phone’ for him.
But where does he get this from? Nowhere? Is my anecdote an isolated incident? I think not.
This attitude is reflected in the media, and it is in no small part propagated by great Apple marketing and PR (some would say ‘Psy-Ops’).
Isn’t this obvious?
I think it’s based on the same irrationality as being a sports fan. For instance. I live outside NYC. I’m a Jets fan. Why don’t I switch teams? Because they’re the best, duh! Even when they are objectively not.
Ultimately, everyone’s biased. I’m also biased. Maybe my bias causes me to believe that overall this kind of user is more common on the apple side, but ultimately I think it has to do with the ethos of the company.
You can think of it as an spectrum. Put apple on one side, windows in the middle, and *nix on the other side.
Sure, simplicity is elegant, but it must incur a power penalty, because with great power comes great complexity. That doesn’t mean complex things are powerful, but it does mean powerful things are more complex than their less powerful conterparts.
It really depends on the individual person, and where they draw the line, because it really is reflected in the respective OSs.
My concern for apple is in the coming generation. Now that people are growing up with tablets, they are understanding how to interact with technology more fundamentally (in some ways, certainly not when it comes to servicing hardware). I think these people will prefer more flexibility and options to a more simple and controlled experience.
But apple will always have the best OS for certain people in the respect I’ve detailed above, and I’m sure many others, until one day something else comes around and it isn’t.
Well chewed. Thanks, FuriousGeorge
Thanks so much for clarifying why a 55 year old technical illiterate like myself, who began doing real-time, multitasking embedded system development in assembly language in 1980 and had an engineering career that spanned more than three decades, would gravitate to the iPhone. I guess that also applies to the iPhone wielding engineers and scientists I worked with when building, testing, and launching satellites and a space probe that’s doing science in the asterold belt.
It’s just nice to know that Apple makes products that even we can muddle through using.
Edited 2016-10-22 02:51 UTC
Haha, I agree so much with this.
It’s like some Android advocates simply cannot comprehend that many iPhone users are very technical indeed, but that the ability to customise and modify a mobile phone isn’t even remotely interesting for most of us.
I’ve been a professional developer for over 20 years now, but I’ve stopped building my own computers long ago and have also gone from c64 to Amiga to Windows, beOS and linux and am now using macOS and an iPhone. Probably only because they are status symbols and I’m technically illiterate. Right? 🙂
Or you’re a teenage girl. Or you’re a hipster. Or you are elderly and technically challenged. Or you’re an “iSheep.” Their list of contradictory insults just goes on and on.
“… On a professional and personal level, I see how people from their 30s (like myself)…”
FuriousGeorge was also being anecdotal, as We, Dreadrik. Also agreeing with Fxmawell’s and Your Scenario.
“When you’re as deeply enveloped in the Apple bubble as people like Rene Ritchie and John Gruber, reality inside the bubble starts folding in on itself. You sit deep inside your bubble, and when you look outwards, the curves and bends of the bubble’s surface twist and turn reality outside of the bubble into ever more grotesque and malformed versions of it.”
You earned your stripes with that one! 🙂
But easier to say that Pixel IS NOT Android. Than the other way. Heartily wishing Pixel progressively becomes a POLICY.