Stop the presses: Apple waved an olive branch
If you ever wanted a demonstration of Apple’s out-sized power over the Internet chattering classes, you need look no further than the front page of Techmeme, the premier site for catching up on the hottest tech news of the day.
On Wednesday morning, Apple (AAPL) announced on its developers Web site that it was dropping the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that prevented iPhone programmers from talking about their applications.
By midafternoon, the announcement was the subject of more than three dozen published articles, with headlines ranging from the lyrical (”Ding Dong, the iPhone NDA’s dead“), to the joyful (”iPhone NDA dropped, developers rejoice“) to the psychoanalytical (”Apple begins to learn from NDA paranoia“) — all gathered by Techmeme’s automated news-picking software and neatly arrayed at the very top of its news feed.
The magnitude of the response was matched only by the narrowness of the issue at stake.
Before they were allowed to write programs for the iPhone, developers had to agree not to talk about Apple’s software development kit or the work they did with it — not to the press, not in trade journals, not even among themselves. A few thousand programmers were affected, including some who had contracted to write books that could not, under Apple’s strict rules, be published.
Yes, the free flow of information was impeded. Yes, software development progressed more slowly than it might have if programming tips and techniques could have been shared. Yes, the episode contributed to the rancor that characterized Apple’s relationship with much of the third-party software community. (see, for example, here)
But did it require that every tech writer with a blog or access to a printing press weigh in on the development?
And was it the most important thing to be writing about on Wednesday, Oct. 1, in the middle of an economic meltdown and a presidential election, with banks failing and a $700 billion bail-out package hanging in the balance?
In the world of high-tech journalism, apparently it was.
What is really sad is the blurring of the line between personal opinion and what is considered news or jounalism. There seems to be an awful lot of whining and spewing of ungrounded facts on the net these days and it seems that judgment of what is newsworthy has more to do with the mob has to say, whether it’s based on truth or not. And unfortunately a lot of people in our culture equate mob speak to the truth. It doesnt help that journists play along since it results in more hits… i.e. More clout and more advertising $$. I think this playground needs a monitor.
APPLE totally has the right and power to control and select softwares create by third parties developers that use in iPhone and iPhone 3G.
The word “pedantic” comes to mind . . . gotta love those lil’ developers . . .
Well, I hate to teach you journalism, but a guy doing reviews about only about Apple doesn’t write about the stock market, the stock market guy does. So of course in the world of high-tech journalism, the high-tech journalists are going to write about tech.
And as to the everyone blogger weighing in on it. Well people write about something that has meaning to them. Also, that’s what it takes to have an affect.
God I wish google would remove you tool bloggers from the real news.
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
“I think this playground needs a monitor.”
That seems a fairly popular sentiment across society, but I’m not convinced it is right.
After all, this playground DOES HAVE a monitor. The editor. He says “get more hits”. “Sell more entertainment, call it news.”
And so, we have this style of blog.
And, for precisely the same reasons, this style of market.
If the rescue package doesn’t work, then where is America?
Well, the people who caused the crash will be compensated, and the crash will still happen. So everyone who caused it and profited by it will be insured and compensated by all those who suffer from it.
I think that a rescue package has got to have really clear terms and outcomes that are fair: If the taxpayer pays for a rescue and it doesn’t work, the everyone who voted for it gets sent to the electric chair for treason.