I used to love macstories.
It's edited by a fellow italian who writes excellent english (unlike the rest of us), and it was a place to read reasoned commentaries that I enjoyed.
But lately, like most of the other tech blogs, it has changed to a collection of commentaries on brainless apps, such as: twitter clients, calendar and reminder apps, plain-text editors. I'm the first one to acknowledge the importance of simple apps to make our everyday life easier, and in fact I've been using Simplenote and NValt for ages. But come on, do we really need to read and review shitloads of stupid apps to keep track of menial tasks? To write using fucking Helvetica? Yet another app to see what the hell I'm supposed to do today or to share crappily filtered photos?
Is this what computing has come to, after the demise of internet reduced to a Facebook medium?
I remember the excitement when I first used Netscape to access the world; I remember the first times I visited Philip Greenspun's photo.net. Where's all the smart and clever people now? All these bloggers endlessly ruminating on Apple shares and stock market? Who cares (except those who make real oney out of it)? Better yet: who the fuck is really interested to see another debate on Android vs iOS? About AAPL's stock prices? I don't, but maybe I'm in the minority (as always).
You know what I enjoyed the most yesterday? The single-minded focus of a friend of mine who has plenty of things to say but decided to put some words out there on a blog talking about his newfound passion, astrophotography. Just that; simple focus, sharp writing, ideas that flow. That's what internet is all about. Not discussions on stockmarket and calendar apps.
So please Federico, find some stimulating new apps among the zillions that are on the AppStore. Let's read something on new concepts and ideas. Let's discuss about something radically different, such as:
- using iPads in the fields to discuss geology, take photos on the fly of a carbonatic outcrop in the Maiella and draw unconformities on it;
- interpret and map earthquakes pulling out information from geophysical institutes;
- how professional photographers use their iPads to display and edit shots;
- not how I can shoot a video of my dog using the iPhone but how that guy that filmed the story of an old rusty bycicle did that;
- not the same old tutorial on Photoshop and "how to remove blemishes from your ugly aunt" but stories about how some graphic artist or photographer composed his photobook or blog;
- not interviews to the same 10 nerds (Gruber Blanc Arment Susanna Agnelli Monti Pirelli dribbla Causio che passa a Tardelli) that don't do nothing but write about how to do things (I'm sick of getting things done and checklist apps and planner and other shit like this) but some mac nerd from academia or engineering or law that can give his thoughts about how he do things.
Let fantasy run wild and stop talking about twitter and facebook clients!