Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
Great job Jason! Excellent work filling in this week.
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As much as I like Jason Snell on his merits - is it possible for the show to not be This Week in Apple? I appreciate that Apple is a big company and impacts the industry, but the amount of time spent on AirPods 2 seemed… excessive - especially given that MacBreak Weekly will likely cover this in about two days.
I don’t want to come across as an anti-Apple guy. I am not - but whenever Jason hosts, it seems that - more often than not - the topics skew heavily Apple in terms of both number of topics and the amount of discussion time given to each topic. Discussions regarding other companies is either cursory, or in comparison to Apple and not on their own merits.
And the fact that the panelists were almost all Apple-focused journalists (not sure how broad Devindra Hardawar’s tech-focus is) means that the show seemed purposefully focused to discuss Apple rather than the broader topics that would seem to fall under the purview of This Week in Tech.
If the show had to have an Apple focus, it would have been nice to have discussion on topics more critical of Apple - like the issues with iOS 13.2 or the iFixit repair rating of the AirPod or the rejection of Electron apps from the Apple App Store. From my perspective, those topics - particularly the first, have far more impact on typical technology users.
[EDIT: Just noticed that the Electron issue was made know on Nov 4, so I’m not sure it could have been a topic. However, since an article on this appeared on iMore, maybe Rene Ritchie could have known about this and added it to the discussion list. But it wasn’t fair of me to included it in the list if it wasn’t widely known before Nov 4. My apologies]
I want to stress that, Apple focus aside, I enjoyed the episode and the interactions and points of view. It just seemed to be more narrowly focused and lacked the critical depth than I would hope for from the network’s flagship analysis show.
8 Likes
Really enjoyed the show this week! Keep up the good work Jason. This weeks episode felt like a breath of fresh air and kind of positive and light hearted, and I liked that. also i really enjoyed the chat about the different streaming services and how that affects TV.
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I haven’t seen this week’s episode yet, but my partner and I have both noticed and commented on the exact same issue in the past when Jason Snell has hosted. He does tend to spend too much time on Apple – I’m sure Rene Ritchie’s presence would only amplify this – and needs to make more of an effort to broaden things out…and I say that as a big Apple user/fan.
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I am inclined to agree that there was a high amount of Apple discussion that was getting a little bit long.
I would have preferred a more breadth of news and went to check this episode’s post here to see if I wasn’t the only one who noticed the extreme focus. It just felt (at the risk of sounding a little inflamatory) a little bit like an echo chamber, such as discounting Sony products pretty much just because they’re not part of the Apple ecosystem, implied to be the more important factor when you have Apple products already?
Actually needed to start seeking forward in the podcast (past the halfway point, to the Twitter/Facebook topic), which I don’t typically do. It felt a lot more normal afterwards.
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Totally agree @vernonlvincent, you said it much better then I was thinking.
I kept hitting fast forward and got half-way, then realized I should just stop an listen to music. Apple tech is not relevant to anyone not in the Appleverse.
I wouldn’t quite go that far. Apple is an important player in the technology sphere, and their actions are pretty relevant. But there were more significant topics this past week that involved Apple that, in my opinion, were missed. The Electron issue is one that I wish would have been up for discussion.
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Should have been renamed to This week in Apple. Having Rene (Mr Apple) on the panel pretty much dictated the direction of the show.
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I must agree with vernonivincent. I was sure that the title of show would be “Apple Fanboys assemble”. The discussion of the Airpods Pro was painful. While admitting that they didn’t sound that good, the panel seemed to be driven to find an excuse for the shameful price. In mentioning comparisons, there was only one mention of the new Echo Buds (“They’re terrible” someone said). I went looking for bad reviews of the Buds and had problems finding many. Oh yeah, price HALF!
Then their was the 15 minutes of apology and hopeful future for the new Apple TV offering. Equally painful. Unlike the Buds, finding negative reviews of that dog is not that difficult.
It was as if Jason (who I normally like as a guest) called up Tim Cook to vet the panel. Leo’s regular role as devil’s advocate was sorely missed this Sunday. At least the Patriots lost.
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Pretty harsh criticism dude. Yeah I agree they talked too long about Airpods Pro (which personally I would never buy in a million years). But the tech is cool and the hosts/contributors are Apple Fans…what did you expect?
The emoji conversation was hilarious and awesome. Not every episode can be the best ever and not all of them will be exactly what you’re looking for.
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I had a different problem: listening on a small speaker to 4 guys with very similar, slightly nasal voices, it got very tiring trying to distinguish who was speaking, not least because 3 of them were guys I didn’t know. But even Rene got hard to pick out after a while. I did end up skipping quite a lot of the content. Made me realise how good the selection of differing voices is on TWiT shows normally, which is helpful for audio-only.
Get a good speaker.
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Agreed! Jason is a great host for TWiT and The Incomparable. I’d love to hear him filling in as a guest host regularly, when needed.
I think there was a lot of relevant Apple news this week - with AirPods Pro & Apple TV+ (which led to discussions about other streaming services to, such as Disney+ & HBO Max).
Also worth noting: Jason’s comment that the Apple TV+ shows feel like they’re created in a lab was spot on.
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To be fair - what I expected was a balanced approach, which I feel usually happens on This Week in Tech. If the show was MacBreak Weekly, the conversation would have been wholly appropriate for its focus. But for the main show involving discussion and analysis of the week’s tech events, having the majority of panelists being so pro-Apple was a recipe for mono-cultural discussion. People are allowed their opinions, certainly, and I’ve said that Apple’s place in the tech industry means it rightfully should get a share of attention. But what was missing, in my opinion, was the discussion of the news stories less flattering of Apple - like the Electron app isssue on the iOS app store, or the issues with iOS 13.2, or the iFixit rating for AirPods (which did get discussed on MBW this week).
I enjoy Jason Snell as a host in general - as I enjoy listening to Rene Ritche on MBW and Devindra Hardawar when he’s a guest. But what I look for in This Week in Tech is more critical analysis of the events in the tech industry (regardless of the company), and I don’t feel that was present in the episode.
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I’m almost a week behind on some of my TWiT viewing, so finally got around to watching the entire episode (I know, just in time for the next one), and the second half – from the Apple TV shows discussion on – wasn’t bad at all. Always like Dan Moren and Davinder, and the topics were interesting (to me at least), even if a bit rushed/superficially addressed. Those damn Airpods just sucked all the oxygen out of the room during the first half of the show. Anytime my 4 T’s (TWiT, TWiG, TNW, Triangulation) dwell too long on gadgets, etc. – again, more than ample time for that on literally every other show – I start to get testy.
Afterthought: Twitter’s political ad ban announcement was a major story – esp. in light of all the recent scrutiny of Facebook’s political ad policy (or non-policy, as was highlighted by AOC’s recent grilling of Zuck in Washington) – and the brief discussion of this on TWiT was OK, though it probably would have went deeper/more challenging with Leo hosting and/or a different panel of guests (Brianna Wu, Alex Wilhelm, or any number of others). Of course, then everyone would have complained about a “political” discussion taking time away from gadget talk, so…
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