After listening to AAS Podcast #86: AAS Insight #33 - 'Samsung Innov8, comparisons and open source', I felt compelled to post. This is purely my own opinion and not any attempt to troll, flame or whatever the latest posting jargon is for outright, mindless provocation. Nor is it a personal attack on Rafe, Ewan, Steve and the guys that put their time and effort in to producing the very thing I want to express my opinion about.
I'm a long time smartphone and PDA user. From iPaqs, SPVs, MDAs, the occasional 6600 and now N95, gadgets are my toys and my profession. Working in Consumer Electronics, whilst I am no programmer, I'd like to think I have a fair tab on what's happening in the mobile world. I take in news from a variety of sources be they trivial, popularist, respected and/or hardcore in nature.
Listening to the AAS Podcasts for over a year, they mirror what's on the AAS site � detailed news with more depth than the Cnet's of the world, together with insight from people that know their stuff. Its a great listen in the car on the way to work in the morning.
Here comes the 'but'...
... the Podcasts aren't conversations, news stories, insights and features any more.
... the Podcasts have become a series of loosely connected monologues, more speculative than insightful, increasingly repetitious and occasionally stating the bleedin' obvious.
I've listened to the AAS Podcasts for over a year so this isn't a case of just tuning in and not liking what I'm hearing � the last month's worth have really had me reaching for the fast forward button and No. 86 really rammed it home.
Listening tonight, there's some juicy stuff to talk about. A new flagship model from Samsung to rule them all - seen the picture, gimme some specs, feed me some knowledgeable predictions into how this shakes things up? No - the product itself is pretty much skipped over, more important is Samsung's strategy. Fair enough but Ewan, making an assumption that Samsung knew about S60 going open source? It simply struck me as 'I'll tenuously connect this with the big topic of recent weeks' in the same way a conspiracy theorist blames the Illuminati for everything from the fall of Atlantis to the Grassy Knoll.
Open source � how many times do we need to hear about this? I'm not into code but I get the idea and the implications for the future. Can we leave this until we actually see something concrete, usable, even just announced before we get another lengthy reminder/diatribe?
Rafe, you overstated to the point of 'yes, I really do get it!' the inherent bias in any review. You had it nailed in the opening - if all people were interested in were the facts, we'd all read spec. sheets and nothing else. Stop there, move on or maybe tell us in your own biases? Isn't that the reason we have favourite sites and publications � not because of cold sterile facts, rather because we like the personal bias someone has on a topic? Just don't carry on stating the self-evident.
It's understood that without Steve and Stefan you are two men down � it doesn't change my view that there was a real absence of interplay and conversation. Ewan says his piece, Rafe acknowledges and agrees with it in a single sentence, then continues with his monologue, Ewan agrees and agrees in a single sentence, the continues with his monologue. Repeat to end of Podcast. Maybe that's harsh but that's how 40 minutes came across � recorded 'Ebony and Ivory' style like McCartney & Wonder; each saying their piece separately and devoid of synergy.
The only thing missing from the pattern of recent weeks was the repeated mention of the ethereal 'user experience'. Personally, I don't have a 'user experience' in the same way that I don't have 'issues'. I have a load of 'problems' to deal with, the avoidance of Apple/Management bulls**t-inspired fashionable nonsense phrases being one of them. Really, is there any need to perpetuate this crap with half the Internet already doing it?
So if I don't like the AAS Podcast any more, stop listening? Sure, none of you guys have any obligation to me - I don't contribute anything and it's not like I'm paying for a service. Yet knowing how good, how lively and informative the Podcasts have been, I can't stand idly by fast forwarding more of each successive Podcast.
Acknowledge, agree, condemn or disregard - mine is a trifling opinion but I hope something good comes of it.