The Evidence

Way back in the day, as a young undergrad in the English dept, there was a common misconception that essays were really just opinions, and you couldn’t be graded on your opinion, now could you? Until one professor came out and reminded us that not all opinions are created equal: those backed up by some actual evidence, of course, are going to carry more weight than those that riff off “I like this poem because it reminds me of my dog…”¹, and in fact your writing would be stronger the smaller and tigher its focus: think globally, write locally. Your opinion may even be “right”, in some grand scheme of things, but finding ways to essentially repeat “Shakespeare was a genius” for ten pages isn’t nearly as interesting or useful as, say, discussing the ramifications of the Duke’s presence on stage during Act II, scene iii, if indeed the stage directions suggest he is, even if he has no dialog, given what he says later.

Anyways. I don’t pretend to be an expert on much, which is why, chances are, if you’re reading this, I’ve been reading you this past year, to learn a few things. (And dammit, you’re all keeping me from the stack of books I’m supposed to be reading. You’re just too interesting.) So going into 2012, here are just a few of the writings I’ve found particularly useful this past year, because they had the evidence beyond the usual “Open! Closed! Awesome! Crappy!”…

Brennan Letkeman summed up the HP Envy (and, in fact, most Macbook Air knock-offs) in two withering sentences: “What are those bits tacked on either side of that wheel? They look like they were hot-glued on there.” I’m not an industrial designer, but I studied alongside some, and I know what hot glue is worth. Those words and a single image tell me more than any Business Insider or Zdnet article everything I need to know about HP’s priorities (sadly), and will make me take a second and third look at any piece of hardware in the future with a better appreciation for detail. Though frankly, if Brennan can tell this much from a video, there’s no need to pick up the actual hardware, now is there? Attention to detail: so basic, and yet so rare. So a question for 2012: does it look hot glued?

Steve Jobs’ line about the “intersection of technology and the liberal arts” got a lot of repetition this year, for obvious reasons. Sometimes “business” got appended there, which is a more complete picture of Apple’s accomplishments. Tom Reestman tied these threads together in his post about Apple’s unibody advantage. Apple has, over the years, taken a lot of flack for what were seen by some, at the time, as purely “aesthetic” decisions, which simply added to the mythical “Apple tax”. But as must be evident by now, Apple’s unibody strategy has been a long game which unifies their concerns for design, technology, and business, so much so that it’s proving very difficult for “competitors” to follow/slavishly copy. How a product is designed, performs, is made, for a price point, in a time frame, and feels to the user, is, well, unified in unibody. Tom elegantly made clear how unibody is a result of what Jony Ive and Tim Cook (and others, obviously²) each make possible. So a question for 2012: if it looks like “just” design, what else is it doing?

Last (for now), Michael DeGusta’s now-quite-famous research, analysis, and chart on Android version support was widely discussed, re-reported (often un-cited, which, crikey, just offends the first semester undergrad me; it’s not that hard, “journalists”: if your source isn’t Mark Felt, just cite and be done), and debated, but what it couldn’t be was disputed. Some attempts to deflect criticism of Android’s lack of available updates focused on subjective classifications of which phones were “premium” and which ones were, well, not, as if that were somehow relevant. (It’s worth noting here that Apple has its own “value” phones, which are essentially last years’ models, reduced in price or downright free; doesn’t change how they’ve been updated.) The kind of legwork Michael had to put into this makes me weep (mostly for joy, cause I didn’t have to), but I’m extremely grateful for it, because it makes clear the complexities of the Android (and, before it, Windows Phone, and Symbian) platforms. It also reinforces the challenges Apple faced in changing the equation, something I’ve been also grateful for on four occasions now: upgrading iOS 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, and just recently 4 to 5, on pretty much the same day as everyone else. So a question for 2012: what are the odds any promised upgrade is really going to happen?

2012 is two days away (one if you’re in Samoa), and the rumours are flying loud if not exactly clear. As is usually the case, those that are asking questions and looking for evidence instead of emptily opining may not get the page views, but they will have the impact.

Cheers to all in 2012.