Hypercritical
By 5by5
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Podcast Description
A weekly talk show ruminating on exactly what is wrong in the world of Apple and related technologies and businesses. Nothing is so perfect that it can't be complained about. Hosted by John Siracusa & Dan Benjamin.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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1 |
Hypercritical 70: Deja Vu | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss more optimistic prospects for a new Mac Pro, the latest round of iPhone 5 hardware rumors, and the intriguing possibilities for WWDC implied by the large number of sessions on the schedule that are labelled "To Be An | 6/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 |
Hypercritical 69: Sport of Kings | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk a bit more about patents and copyright, revisit the sources of lag in human/computer interactions, revise the probabilities of retina-display Macs, MacBook Pros without ethernet ports, any Mac Pros ever again, and the v | 5/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 |
Hypercritical 68: Patent Hands | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin, inevitably, revisit the topic of patents, attempting to address a wide array of listener feedback. For the hearty listeners that make it through the patent talk, there's a bonus discussion of the new MacBook Pro rumors, and | 5/18/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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4 |
Hypercritical 67: A Pill That Helps with Whatever | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the various ways that Apple takes money from transactions involving the App Store, lessons from gaming and gamers for the larger software world, why nothing is ever good enough when it comes to technology, the Instag | 5/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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5 |
Hypercritical 66: The Housewives of Siracusa County | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss meeting Apple employees at WWDC, the latest round of iPhone rumors, RubyMotion (a new product for writing iOS apps in Ruby), the distinction between producer, consumer, and performer in gaming and other arts, The Ki | 5/4/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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6 |
Hypercritical 65: Look Right into the Eyes of Your Sweetie | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the WWDC ticket sales kerfuffle and the potential future of the conference, then revisit the topic of gaming as a form of art with some uncommon characteristics. Finally, the new Gmail user interfaces goes under the | 4/27/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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7 |
Hypercritical 64: You Will Die Instantly! | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit software updates (paid or otherwise), then discuss various screen size possibilities for the next iPhone, the historical and ongoing dilution of the concept of a "gamer" (and Apple's role in that phenomenon), and the | 4/20/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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8 |
Hypercritical 63: Talking to the Bear | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about paid upgrades in the Mac App Store, how Apple is reshaping the software market (intentionally or otherwise), Readability's role as a middleman as compared to another prominent middleman, the App Store, and fi | 4/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9 |
Hypercritical 62: A Sack Containing Scum from a Pond | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin try to put the topic of car engine noises to bed, then discuss value of "enterprise" businesses, RIM's possible future as a services company, Readability's business model, and Wil Shipley's case for paid upgrades in the Mac | 4/6/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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10 |
Hypercritical 61: I Ran Out of Bombs Long Ago | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the display of large images on iOS devices, Apple's latest web standards proposal and "rogue" implementation in WebKit, RIM's new enterprise-centric strategy, and the popular new iOS game, Draw Something. | 3/30/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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11 |
Hypercritical 60: Reversing the Polarity | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the puzzling UI of iPhoto for IOS, the magnetic polarity of iPad Smart Covers and more. | 3/23/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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12 |
Hypercritical 59: Safari is Apple's Google | -- | 3/16/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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13 |
Hypercritical 58: No More Numbers For You / The Four Tuners | -- | 3/9/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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14 |
Hypercritical 57: Computational Skeuomorphism | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about file systems: the origins of Btrfs, how file systems might change in the new age of SSDs, the possibility of a Grand Unification of storage and memory subsystems, and why snapshots, clones, block-level diffs, | 3/2/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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15 |
Hypercritical 56: Belt and Suspenders | -- | 2/24/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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16 |
Hypercritical 55: Region of Pain | -- | 2/17/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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17 |
Hypercritical 54: Public Service Announcement | There's no Hypercritical this week, so we put together something special for you instead. | 2/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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18 |
Hypercritical 53: Brad Pitt Gets to Contribute | -- | 2/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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19 |
Hypercritical 52: Marked for Deletion | -- | 1/27/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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20 |
Hypercritical 51: Unjustified Confidence | -- | 1/20/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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21 |
Hypercritical 50: Maximum Deflection in All Directions | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit the world of console controllers, addressing the flood of listener feedback by expanding the discussion to include aftermarket and third-party controllers, and attempting to address the objections of PlayStation fans | 1/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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22 |
Hypercritical 49: Pinching the Harmonica | -- | 1/6/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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23 |
Hypercritical 48: Blue Ocean | -- | 12/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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24 |
Hypercritical 47: Brute Force Attack | -- | 12/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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25 |
Hypercritical 46: Not Entirely Nefarious | -- | 12/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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26 |
Hypercritical 45: Star Wars is Not a Blog Post | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on a host of topics: what ails Microsoft, the (slow, partial) democratization of corporate IT, the people vs. George Lucas, perpetual copyright, applications as art, Siri backlash, and the evils of Blu-ray. | 12/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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27 |
Hypercritical 44: A Little Bit More Sad | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about what ails Microsoft. What could the former titan of the technology world have done differently in the past two decades that would have prevented its decline? | 11/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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28 |
Hypercritical 43: The Scorpion and the Frog | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue their discussion of Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs, starting with listeners' reactions to the last episode, then (finally) talking about content from the book and the man himself. | 11/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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29 |
Hypercritical 42: The Wrong Guy | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs (Part 1). | 11/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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30 |
Hypercritical 41: The Homer | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin are joined by special guest Jeff Atwood, cofounder of the Stack Exchange Q&A network and creator of the popular programming blog codinghorror.com. John and Jeff try to rekindle the old Mac vs. PC flames and end up talking a | 11/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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31 |
Hypercritical 40: When The Hobby Light Goes Off | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss what it's going to take for Apple to field a television product that's finally something more than a "hobby." Attached box vs. full TV set, apps vs. channels vs. a la carte purchases, direct deals with content owner | 10/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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32 |
Hypercritical 39: Quasimodo Backpack | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about Siri in theory and in practice, and how iCloud is different than MobileMe, with its own set of problems. Plus more complaints about the Star Wars blu-rays, a clarification of the TiVo Premiere Elite's specs, | 10/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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33 |
Hypercritical 38: Virtually Spotless | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss TiVo Premiere Elite's potential to not be as horrible as the TiVo Premiere, the expectations for and reality of Siri, Google's new Dart programming language, and the iCloud launch. | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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34 |
Hypercritical 37: A Story of Triumph | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about the death of Steve Jobs: personal remembrances, the less-obvious lessons of his life, and the dangers of his deification. Also, misspeaking vs. failing to communicate, Star Wars blu-rays, and John's attempt to po | 10/7/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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35 |
Hypercritical 36: Wedge | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Amazon's new tablets, Amazon cloud services, and what making money by "selling the blades" implies about Amazon's ability to compete with Apple's approach of "selling the razors." Also, predictions for October's App | 9/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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36 |
Hypercritical 35: Wrestling an Alligator | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about the Netflix/Qwikster debacle and the big picture in the TV and movie industries, then continue their exploration of the Windows 8 Metro user interface. | 9/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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37 |
Hypercritical 34: Pride in Craftsmanship | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin mourn the continuing shameful stewardship of the cultural touchstone that is Star Wars, then dive into the Windows 8 Metro user interface and Microsoft's prospects for the future of its hybrid tablet/desktop operating system | 9/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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38 |
Hypercritical 33: Square Bracket Colon Smiley | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the origins and suitability of Markdown, including why John doesn't use it and why you might want to, and why the entire PC industry can't seem to create a laptop as nice as a MacBook Air but for less money. | 9/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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39 |
Hypercritical 32: The Next Big Move | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the future of Apple without Steve Jobs. What decisions defined the Jobs II Era, and can Apple continue to make such big moves without the big man at the top? | 8/31/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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40 |
Hypercritical 31: Strong Arguments for and Against | John Siracusa and Ryan Irelan discuss the future of the Mac Pro, what HP's exit from the PC business and Google's acquisition of Motorola mean for Microsoft, and whether or not Amazon should buy webOS. | 8/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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41 |
Hypercritical 30: Paths in the Grass | John Siracusa and Ryan Irelan follow up on the seemingly never-ending list of features in BBEdit and LaunchBar, take a side trip into the world of "haxies" and system extensions, and then—finally!—discuss Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) in Lion. | 8/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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42 |
Hypercritical 29: In Too Deep | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Lion’s quittin’ ways, people who choose to turn off Dock indicator lights, the merits of a "clean install" of Mac OS X, Mac application launchers, and BBEdit vs. TextMate vs. emacs vs. vi vs. sanity. | 8/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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43 |
Hypercritical 28: Trust, But Verify | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about Lion, following up on the animation and disk encryption topics from last week, then diving into sandboxing and the state of the file system. | 7/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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44 |
Hypercritical 27: Nakedly Optimistic | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss John's review of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Topics covered: autosave, scroll bars, scroll direction, graphical changes, animation, disk encryption, plus some details of the publication and error correction process. | 7/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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45 |
Hypercritical 26: White Smoke | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue to wait for the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. In the meantime, topics include Facebook's use of MySQL, some of the technology behind Google+, and new Mac hardware on the horizon. | 7/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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46 |
Hypercritical 25: Invisible Software | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about why webOS is slow, what's wrong with Apple's digital distribution mechanisms, why Google+ is a really big deal (for Google, anyway), and the hidden world of server-side software, | 7/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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47 |
Hypercritical 24: Sometimes It Hurts | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Mac speech recognition software, how webOS is or isn't like Mac OS X, Apple's $50 Thunderbolt cable, how Google+ is different from Facebook, and what John thinks Apple's really trying to do with Final Cut Pro X. | 7/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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48 |
Hypercritical 23: No Sentence Left Behind | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Apple's data center software, Pixar's weaknesses, lame Mac malware, obnoxious Twitter integration, and (one last time!) toasters, then talk about how and why John writes. | 6/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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49 |
Hypercritical 22: I Would Not Build Underground | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin decompress after WWDC, then discuss Apple's (apparent) iCloud data center strategy, comparing it to other successful online service companies: Amazon, Google, and Facebook. | 6/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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50 |
Hypercritical 21: Reading Playboy for the Articles | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about WWDC: iCloud, iOS 5, Lion, and yes, John's toaster, a gift from fellow 5by5 hosts Marco Arment and Merlin Mann (a.k.a. The Best Guys Ever). | 6/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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51 |
Hypercritical 20: I've Got Nothing | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss John's upcoming trip to WWDC, Twitter's strange gaps in functionality, and the sale of NetNewsWire to Black Pixel. | 6/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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52 |
Hypercritical 19: Don't Make Me Read | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk toasters again, then discuss John's first computer love, the classic Macintosh Finder. | 5/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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53 |
Hypercritical 18: Worse and More Diverse | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin put the TV technology and PHP topics to bed, then discuss what's wrong with Twitter and why toaster ovens are worse today than they were a few decades ago. | 5/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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54 |
Hypercritical 17: Intruding Gooseneck | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk some more about TV technology, elaborate on why, exactly, PHP is a bad programming language, and ponder the place of SSDs in the lives of computer users who are not independently wealthy. | 5/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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55 |
Hypercritical 16: The Soap Opera Effect | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin repent after two episodes on programming languages by discussing TV technology…after about 45 minutes of follow-up. | 5/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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56 |
Hypercritical 15: The Bridges of Siracusa County | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue their discussion of high-level programming languages, now focusing on why all popular languages suck in some way, then transition into a hard look at Perl. | 4/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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57 |
Hypercritical 14: A Dark Age of Objective-C | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Apple's GUI history, complain about TiVo some more, then explore the possibility of another Copland-like crisis looming in Apple's future. | 4/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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58 |
Hypercritical 13: The Tortoise and the Hare | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Pixar, Facebook's open datacenter initiative, Star Wars, and, finally, Apple’s philosophy and practice of UI consistency over the years. | 4/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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59 |
Hypercritical 12: Nothing Is So Perfect | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin turn a critical eye towards last week's episode, then try to pick the single biggest challenge facing three different wildly successful companies: Google, Facebook, and yes…Pixar. | 4/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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60 |
Hypercritical 11: I Am the Steve Jobs of This Sandwich | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Apple's iLife island and Google's operational secret weapons, then talk about the nature of criticism, online and offline. | 3/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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61 |
Hypercritical 10: Like Giving a Machine Gun to a Baby | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin are briefly amused by iPhone 5 rumors, then dive head first into a ruthless analysis of Apple's online services, past and present. | 3/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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62 |
Hypercritical 9: No iLife is an Island | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin further opine on the iPad 2 and the Apple Strategy Tax, then discuss iLife's anachronistic media management capabilities. | 3/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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63 |
Hypercritical 8: A Cautionary Tale | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin vow never to talk about physics again, then discuss the new iPad and, finally, how Apple has set itself up for a Microsoft-like dark age. | 3/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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64 |
Hypercritical 7: ThunderCats | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about the big Apple news: new MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt i/o and the first developer preview release of Mac OS X Lion. | 2/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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65 |
Hypercritical 6: Frivolous Things | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin reveal the many prosaic reasons for not owning an iPhone, then veer off on several non-tech tangents and never fully recover. | 2/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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66 |
Hypercritical 5: Slippery Little Pill | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Apple’s hardware blind spots: keyboards, dock connector, iPod/iPhone cases, laptop designs, and more. | 2/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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67 |
Hypercritical 4: iOS vs. The World | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Mac OS X Lion and TV devices, then discuss the possibilities for iOS world domination. | 2/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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68 |
Hypercritical 3: The Mouse is Not a Finger | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin do some follow-up on the topic of backups, then talk about Mac OS X Lion and the future of Mac OS X. | 1/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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69 |
Hypercritical 2: Backup Vortex | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin tie up some loose ends from the TV show before talking about backups, the onus on Apple to make them work, Apple's past and present attempts, the failings of external hard drives, personal backup regimes, and online backups. | 1/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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70 |
Hypercritical 1: Dream Crusher | John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the sad state of TV technology, why TiVo sucks (but is still better than the alternatives), and why Apple has demurred. | 1/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 70 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Nothing is perfect in the tech world. John Siracusa explains why.
John Siracusa has been the go-to guy for long-form Mac stuff for ages. He's an articulate and intelligent guy who brings great insights into the world of Apple and technology in general. He has interesting viewpoints, and often brings up stuff Gruber misses or carefully avoids talking about. Dan Benjamin is the same Dan Benjamin: smart, focused, and has an uncanny ability to keep his shows going in the right direction (with the exception of Merlin Mann's show, perhaps. Not his fault). Hypercritical is another great one from 5by5, don't miss it.
A real find
I didn't know who John Siracusa was prior to listening to this podcast live, but now I'm seeking out more of his writing. During this podcast he showed some incredible insight in the media and content markets. Anyone looking to disrupt this space should give this a listen.
My Favorite From 5by5
Easily my favorite of 5by5's excellent lineup of podcasts. I've always enjoyed John Siracusa's more formal writing on Ars Technica, but the conversational format of this podcast really lets him shine. It allows him to cover a much wider array of topics and it also allows him to get sidetracked more often...which is a good thing. These asides and oh-by-the-ways, along with the follow-up from previous shows, are often my favorite parts of the show.
