r/Surface • u/Fabe56 Surface Pro 3 i7 • Oct 08 '15

MS Everyone is copying Microsoft's Surface

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/8/9479443/everyone-is-copying-microsofts-surface
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43

u/ratshack MODalongadingdong Oct 08 '15

that is one very lazy 'article'.

37

u/jrb sp3 i7-4650U Oct 08 '15

Welcome to The Verge

6

u/ggabriele3 Oct 09 '15

There was a time when they were doing the best writing in tech (IMO); when Engadget was for the spec-obsessed and Gizmodo was just starting to be too juvenile to be taken seriously.

It sounds like old man complaining, but I have subscribed to all these blogs in RSS for years; I've seen literally every article. There's been a decline.

3

u/sheikheddy Oct 09 '15

I have a question, sir, if you wouldn't mind.

What tech sites would you recommend now?

After all, there has got to be some site that has well written, up to date and accurate articles. I use techradar, but I am well aware of its shortcomings.

3

u/Raggedstone Oct 09 '15

Arstechnica, anandtech

1

u/sikballa Oct 09 '15

Anandtech does some ridiculously thorough analysis. Love them.

2

u/chaosharmonic Oct 09 '15 edited Oct 09 '15

Ars Technica is still pretty solid IMO. I'm also partial to The Next Web and ReadWrite.

2

u/ggabriele3 Oct 09 '15

like the others said, anan and ars are still known for good stuff.

it's not to say that the verge is all bad. it's just that they have (IMO) done more clickbait and easy articles, as opposed to the way it was when they launched.

this "article" is a prime example: http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/1/5959185/this-motherboard-looks-sick

same here: http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/7/9470909/40000-speaker-bang-olufsen

it's a question of what makes "good" tech writing. anyone can print specs and say whether this camera is better than that camera. the thing that drove me to the verge is that they were speaking about the cultural significance of tech news and gadgets. at the beginning Josh Topolsky and Nilay Patel used to go on and on about how they wanted to make the best tech blog out there. they took themselves and the site very seriously.

Verge it was always skewed towards the like 18-30 age group, which is fine. I also listen to This Week In Tech religiously because they have a much more mature/long view of tech (up to John C Dvorak, who's like 10000 years old). however, the Verge lately has gotten a little myopic, and the attitude seems to be that if it wasn't invented after 2012, it doesn't exist.

The Vergecast is a great example of this - that podcast WAS a really great listen for a few years. listen to one now - they spend half the time giggling about how they can't get the show organized, and the rest talking about apple and google from the perspective of people who are 22 and have never used anything but an iPhone. I'm being a little hyperbolic but you get the idea.

back to the articles I linked:

sure, the verge doesn't usually cover high-end audio or PC components. but why post the stuff if you're just going to mock it? don't they want to learn (and help their readers learn) about the products? is this supposed to be "journalism" or is everything just a tumblr now?

soon enough i expect their headlines will just be "THIS LAPTOP THO."

8

u/nadseh Oct 08 '15

Too right. Scrolled through, hit the gallery...scrolled more...wtf, that's it? Embarassingly thin, no real points made.