John Gruber

iPad vs. Windows 8: The war of the tweets

Shots were fired in both directions as partisans previewed Microsoft's next tablet OS

A war of words -- blogged, tweeted and syndicated -- broke out at Microsoft's (MSFT) annual developers conference Tuesday when the company distributed Samsung tablets loaded with beta copies of Windows 8, its answer to Apple's (AAPL) OS X and iOS, rolled into one.

Paul Thurrott, the news editor of Windows IT Pro and host of the Windows Weekly podcast, MORE

One million Lions. Fake Apple Stores. That Hulu deal.

And other stories we missed while we were busy chasing down Apple analysts

It was an unusually busy week for Apple (AAPL), which released two new computers and a major overhaul of its flagship operating system the day after it reported earning that have more than doubled in a year. We covered the earnings and the subsequent pop in the stock price. Here are some of the stories we missed:

A pride MORE

New BYTE bitten by link bait

Editor of the reincarnated publication retracts -- by strike-through -- its first opinion piece

It was not an auspicious beginning for the reincarnation of BYTE, the bible of the "small computing and software" business for much of the 1970s and '80s before it was bought and unceremoniously killed by CMP Media in 1998.

Four days after BYTE was relaunched last week as an online publication, its editor not only retracted its inaugural MORE

Steve Jobs' iCloud: The view from 10,000 feet

How to wrap your mind around Apple's vision of the post-PC world

Four days after Steve Jobs' keynote address at Apple's (AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference, commentators were still searching for ways to convey what it signified -- often by comparing Apple's approach to Google's (GOOG) or Microsoft's (MSFT) or Amazon's (AMZN).

Below, we've posted excerpts from the best analysis we've seen or heard this week. If you come across something that helps MORE

The coming iCloud: Apple experts predict what's about to debut at the WWDC

Apple's pre-announcements -- of Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud -- have only made things worse

I've never see the Apple (AAPL) cognoscenti quite so confused. They're all in town for the Worldwide Developers Conference that opens Monday at San Francisco's Moscone West -- the first one since 2007 that doesn't feature a new iPhone. And without that shiny piece of hardware to anchor their thoughts, they seem to MORE

Obsessed with Mac malware

Believe it or not, the author of Ed Bott's Microsoft Report is doing Apple a favor

It's easy for Apple (AAPL) aficionados to take umbrage at Ed Bott's recent series on ZDNet about a piece of malware called Mac Defender.

After all, Bott has made a career writing books (more than two dozen), editing magazines (PC Computing and PC World) and writing columns about Microsoft (MSFT) Windows, a family of operating systems MORE

Apple malware: 6 years of crying wolf

A collection of dire warnings from the past puts this week's alarms into perspective

Three days after ZDNet ran a piece entitled "Coming Soon to a Mac Near You: Serious Malware": Daring Fireball's John Gruber has posted, under the headline "Wolf!" more than a dozen variations on the same theme.

They date back to 2004 and all sound a familiar warning: Apple (AAPL), having achieved critical mass in the market place, is MORE

The white iPhone is here

Apple's most-delayed product in memory finally appears in the company's online store

"INT. Early Morning, Today. The Lobby Bar of a Top-Tier Las Vegas Casino Resort. The White iPhone 4 is slumped back in a chair, alone, playing a table-top video poker machine embedded in the bar. He is up late, not early."

So begins John Gruber's X-rated cinematic pastiche on Daring Fireball, perhaps the only thing that's left to read -- MORE

The day Fred Wilson dumped AAPL

The VC at the center of an Android vs. iOS debate bet publicly against Apple two years ago

"I am selling my entire position in Apple this morning including the stock I bought earlier than last fall. My average price on my entire position in Apple is $96, so I'll take a small loss on this and a small gain on the stock I bought during the meltdown last fall."

So wrote MORE

iPad 2: The reviews are in

Apple seeded the usual suspects with its new tablet last week. A sampling of the reviews:

Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal: I've been testing an iPad 2 for about a week and I like it a lot. While it's evolutionary rather than revolutionary like the first model, the changes Apple has made are generally pleasing and positive, and the device worked very well for me... It never MORE