Episode 49: 49: Pinching the Harmonica

FromHypercritical

Start listening View podcast show

Episode 49: 49: Pinching the Harmonica

FromHypercritical

ratings:

Length:

136 minutes

Released:

Jan 7, 2012

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss iPad use by three-year-olds, why non-gamers might consider the "Xbox" name a proxy for all of console gaming, the Wii generational hardware conundrum, and finally, an extremely long and obsessively detailed walk through the history of console game controllers, culminating in a rant about something that almost all other gamers love unconditionally.

Released:

Jan 7, 2012

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

A weekly talk show ruminating on exactly what is wrong in the world of Apple and related technologies and businesses. Nothing is so perfect that it can't be complained about. Hosted by John Siracusa & Dan Benjamin.

Skip carousel

1: Dream Crusher: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the sad state of TV technology, why TiVo sucks (but is still better than the alternatives), and why Apple has demurred. by Hypercritical
58 min listen
19: Don't Make Me Read: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk toasters again, then discuss John's first computer love, the classic Macintosh Finder. by Hypercritical
58 min listen
13: The Tortoise and the Hare: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Pixar, Facebook's open datacenter initiative, Star Wars, and, finally, Apple’s philosophy and practice of UI consistency over the years. by Hypercritical
85 min listen
4: iOS vs. The World: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Mac OS X Lion and TV devices, then discuss the possibilities for iOS world domination. by Hypercritical
65 min listen
2: Backup Vortex: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin tie up some loose ends from the TV show before talking about backups, the onus on Apple to make them work, Apple's past and present attempts, the failings of external hard drives, personal backup regimes, and online backups. by Hypercritical
75 min listen
7: ThunderCats: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about the big Apple news: new MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt i/o and the first developer preview release of Mac OS X Lion. by Hypercritical
90 min listen
15: The Bridges of Siracusa County: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue their discussion of high-level programming languages, now focusing on why all popular languages suck in some way, then transition into a hard look at Perl. by Hypercritical
103 min listen
24: Sometimes It Hurts: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Mac speech recognition software, how webOS is or isn't like Mac OS X, Apple's $50 Thunderbolt cable, how Google+ is different from Facebook, and what John thinks Apple's really trying to do with Final Cut Pro X. by Hypercritical
72 min listen
3: The Mouse is Not a Finger: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin do some follow-up on the topic of backups, then talk about Mac OS X Lion and the future of Mac OS X. by Hypercritical
69 min listen
8: A Cautionary Tale: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin vow never to talk about physics again, then discuss the new iPad and, finally, how Apple has set itself up for a Microsoft-like dark age. by Hypercritical
77 min listen
12: Nothing Is So Perfect: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin turn a critical eye towards last week's episode, then try to pick the single biggest challenge facing three different wildly successful companies: Google, Facebook, and yes…Pixar. by Hypercritical
72 min listen
17: Intruding Gooseneck: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk some more about TV technology, elaborate on why, exactly, PHP is a bad programming language, and ponder the place of SSDs in the lives of computer users who are not independently wealthy. by Hypercritical
95 min listen
5: Slippery Little Pill: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Apple’s hardware blind spots: keyboards, dock connector, iPod/iPhone cases, laptop designs, and more. by Hypercritical
61 min listen
29: In Too Deep: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Lion’s quittin’ ways, people who choose to turn off Dock indicator lights, the merits of a "clean install" of Mac OS X, Mac application launchers, and BBEdit vs. TextMate vs. emacs vs. vi vs. sanity. by Hypercritical
81 min listen
6: Frivolous Things: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin reveal the many prosaic reasons for not owning an iPhone, then veer off on several non-tech tangents and never fully recover. by Hypercritical
104 min listen
22: I Would Not Build Underground: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin decompress after WWDC, then discuss Apple's (apparent) iCloud data center strategy, comparing it to other successful online service companies: Amazon, Google, and Facebook. by Hypercritical
77 min listen
11: I Am the Steve Jobs of This Sandwich: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Apple's iLife island and Google's operational secret weapons, then talk about the nature of criticism, online and offline. by Hypercritical
78 min listen
26: White Smoke: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue to wait for the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. In the meantime, topics include Facebook's use of MySQL, some of the technology behind Google+, and new Mac hardware on the horizon. by Hypercritical
68 min listen
18: Worse and More Diverse: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin put the TV technology and PHP topics to bed, then discuss what's wrong with Twitter and why toaster ovens are worse today than they were a few decades ago. by Hypercritical
74 min listen
27: Nakedly Optimistic: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss John's review of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Topics covered: autosave, scroll bars, scroll direction, graphical changes, animation, disk encryption, plus some details of the publication and error correction process. by Hypercritical
96 min listen
28: Trust, But Verify: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about Lion, following up on the animation and disk encryption topics from last week, then diving into sandboxing and the state of the file system. by Hypercritical
83 min listen
9: No iLife is an Island: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin further opine on the iPad 2 and the Apple Strategy Tax, then discuss iLife's anachronistic media management capabilities. by Hypercritical
65 min listen
37: A Story of Triumph: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about the death of Steve Jobs: personal remembrances, the less-obvious lessons of his life, and the dangers of his deification. Also, misspeaking vs. failing to communicate, Star Wars blu-rays, and John's attempt to po by Hypercritical
72 min listen
14: A Dark Age of Objective-C: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Apple's GUI history, complain about TiVo some more, then explore the possibility of another Copland-like crisis looming in Apple's future. by Hypercritical
87 min listen
35: Wrestling an Alligator: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about the Netflix/Qwikster debacle and the big picture in the TV and movie industries, then continue their exploration of the Windows 8 Metro user interface. by Hypercritical
86 min listen
20: I've Got Nothing: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss John's upcoming trip to WWDC, Twitter's strange gaps in functionality, and the sale of NetNewsWire to Black Pixel. by Hypercritical
46 min listen
16: The Soap Opera Effect: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin repent after two episodes on programming languages by discussing TV technology…after about 45 minutes of follow-up. by Hypercritical
102 min listen
10: Like Giving a Machine Gun to a Baby: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin are briefly amused by iPhone 5 rumors, then dive head first into a ruthless analysis of Apple's online services, past and present. by Hypercritical
85 min listen
34: Pride in Craftsmanship: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin mourn the continuing shameful stewardship of the cultural touchstone that is Star Wars, then dive into the Windows 8 Metro user interface and Microsoft's prospects for the future of its hybrid tablet/desktop operating system by Hypercritical
90 min listen
23: No Sentence Left Behind: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit Apple's data center software, Pixar's weaknesses, lame Mac malware, obnoxious Twitter integration, and (one last time!) toasters, then talk about how and why John writes. by Hypercritical
103 min listen

More Episodes from Hypercritical

Skip carousel

100: Metacritical by Hypercritical
101 min listen
99: New Siracusa County Bros. U: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on iTunes 11 and Apple's continuing failure to grok online services, then discuss the Wii U, starting with the painful setup process and continuing on to New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land, and the Wii U GamePa by Hypercritical
121 min listen
98: Hardware Machismo by Hypercritical
127 min listen
97: Idle Doodles: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on silicon chip making and misogyny in geek culture, then dive into Hypercritical's first—and likely only—listener Q&A show. All questions entertained! Some questions answered! by Hypercritical
115 min listen
96: Blue Peter: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin reveal John's Wii U in transit, then talk more about Apple, Intel, ARM, and silicon chip fabrication, and finally, the Fake Geek Girl meme, misogyny, and problems with Geek Culture in general. by Hypercritical
105 min listen
95: Black Friday: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the upcoming end of this show, more on Intel vs. ARM, Apple's CPU/GPU needs, and the newly revealed internals of the Wii U console and GamePad. by Hypercritical
108 min listen
94: Shrink, Shrink, Shrink!: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit the topic of voting technology, then discuss the possibility of Apple using ARM processors instead of Intel processors in its Macs: RISC vs. CISC, process nodes, the x86 burden, and…sewing machines. by Hypercritical
100 min listen
93: A Magic Elf in My Computer: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about Forstall's departure from Apple, Surface storage, and Fusion Drive, then discuss US voting technology, Google voice search, and how Apple's design problems are more than skin deep. by Hypercritical
115 min listen
92: The Tim Cook Era: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the latest information about Apple's Fusion Drive and the first big executive reshuffling at Apple in the post-Steve Jobs era. by Hypercritical
126 min listen
91: Adolescence: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the new hardware announced at the October 23rd Apple event: the latest Retina MacBook Pro, the new iMac, Fusion Drive, and, of course, the new iPads, both mini and Retina. by Hypercritical
144 min listen
90: Salad Days: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin ponder the upcoming Apple event, assess details of the iPhone 5 and iPod touch, discuss pricing for the Microsoft Surface to its possible competitors, and discuss John's approach to getting value from Twitter. by Hypercritical
123 min listen
89: Lazy Sunday: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin relax on a Sunday afternoon and chat about Apple's taste for brute force solutions, the foibles of decentralized systems like Tent and email, and The Magazine, Marco Arment's new Newsstand publication. by Hypercritical
97 min listen
88: Nobody Leaves Email: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the latest events in the burgeoning App.net community, then explore the competing(?) Tent.io protocol for decentralized real-time social networking. by Hypercritical
115 min listen
87: Smarter and Harder: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on Apple's slippery little devices and Apple's mapping woes, then discuss the new iPod touch and iPod nano. John's hypothetical Ferrari is briefly mentioned. by Hypercritical
91 min listen
86: Naked Robotic Core: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss thew new iPhone 5: its physical design, the case for cases, the new lightning connector, and Apple's trouble with maps. Let the iPhone 6 speculation begin? by Hypercritical
85 min listen
85: Just Check the Checkbox!: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss all the things that went wrong during John's Mountain Lion ebook publishing experience. Please note that this episode was recorded before the September 12th Apple event. by Hypercritical
102 min listen
84: Spared No Expense: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Amazon's new Kindle and Kindle Fire products and make their predictions for next week's Apple press event. Is Amazon Apple's most dangerous competitor? Who is Amazon's ideal customer? by Hypercritical
129 min listen
83: Dishonorable: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the Apple v. Samsung court case, the rumors and leaks about the next iPhone, the possible internals of the rumored iPad mini, and which company we'd like to buy Twitter. by Hypercritical
90 min listen
82: The Opposite of Comprehensive: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin complete their discussion of John's Mountain Lion review. Topics include power management, UI simplification, automatic termination, Facebook integration, and plagiarizing from yourself. by Hypercritical
127 min listen
81: Channels of Control: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the latest round of Twitter API changes and their effect on third-party clients, and inevitably follow up about App.Net. by Hypercritical
123 min listen
80: Memory Palace: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue to discuss John's review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. by Hypercritical
100 min listen
79: Grandpa Uncle Joe: John Siracusa is on vacation this week, so we instead present its ersatz replacement, 'Kindacritical', with Dan Benjamin, Marco Arment, and Merlin Mann. by Hypercritical
104 min listen
78: Sins of the Father: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss—what else?—John's review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. There's so much to cover that this will have to be a multi-epsiode topic. On this episode: purchase and installation, interface and document model changes, and b by Hypercritical
146 min listen
77: Nucleation Site: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about a potential smaller iPad, OUYA's challenges, what makes a successful Kickstarter project, how the Penny Arcade Kickstarter could have been more attractive to funders, and finally, the strange case of App.net. by Hypercritical
107 min listen
76: Selling a Dream: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the OUYA Android-based TV gaming console Kickstarter project, the unprecedented Penny Arcade Kickstarter project to remove ads from its web site for a year, and the Kickstarter phenomenon itself. Also, check the sho by Hypercritical
126 min listen
75: Just a Dinosaur: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss rumors of a new, smaller iPad, Marco Arment's experience with and reporting of this week's App Store data corruption problem, Apple's response, and the continuing, unhealthy separation of developers and their custome by Hypercritical
93 min listen
74: Everybody Wants to Rule the World: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss alternate motivations for the Microsoft Surface, Google's new Nexus 7 tablet, the history and value of reparability in computer hardware, and the possibility of electronics that "age well." Also, there's a robot tha by Hypercritical
119 min listen
73: 22 Degrees: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the Microsoft Surface. It's a tablet! It's an ultrabook! It runs Office, Windows, and your existing x86 applications…unless it's the ARM version. And why is Microsoft making hardware, anyway? It's all very intri by Hypercritical
102 min listen
72: Seven Levels of Air Quotes: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss—what else?—WWDC: the hardware and software announcements, John's chances of getting his review done on time, John's WWDC survival gear, and the one time a year where he meets the fans face to face. by Hypercritical
69 min listen
71: Bristling With Controls: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the latest crop of iPhone 5 and WWDC rumors, E3 2012, the current state of the traditional game console market, and the elephant in the gaming living room: Apple. by Hypercritical
107 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

50: Maximum Deflection in All Directions: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit the world of console controllers, addressing the flood of listener feedback by expanding the discussion to include aftermarket and third-party controllers, and attempting to address the objections of PlayStation fans by Hypercritical
106 min listen
65: Look Right into the Eyes of Your Sweetie: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the WWDC ticket sales kerfuffle and the potential future of the conference, then revisit the topic of gaming as a form of art with some uncommon characteristics. Finally, the new Gmail user interfaces goes under the by Hypercritical
101 min listen
34: Pride in Craftsmanship: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin mourn the continuing shameful stewardship of the cultural touchstone that is Star Wars, then dive into the Windows 8 Metro user interface and Microsoft's prospects for the future of its hybrid tablet/desktop operating system by Hypercritical
90 min listen
920 - Dr. Mario World, Nintendo, and Game Preservation: The potential loss of a DKU game for the first time and the importance of game preservation. by The Kongversation: Donkey Kong Universe Discussion
79 min listen
BimP Gaiden: Super Console Wars: Blake J. Harris is back to talk more about the war between Nintendo and Sega. by Back in my Play: A Podcast for Nostalgic Gamers
63 min listen
Technado, Ep. 290: Best CES Hardware: There was so much discussion about LastPass in the comments that Don and the crew answered some of the questions about the breach. Then, with CES wrapping up last week, the team looked at the best IT hardware to come out of the event like the Asus 3D Vivobook, Lenovo's latest Yoga book 9i, Lenovo's Tab Extreme, and MSI's router with smart antennas. In other news, they covered an update to Apple's butterfly keyboard saga, Amazon encrypting S3 buckets by default, and CircleCI suffering a catastrophic compromise. by Technado
52 min listen
Hour 3 – Scott Hastings, The A’s Have a New Home by The Dan Patrick Show
42 min listen
Xbox shows its hand by The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast
58 min listen
74: Everybody Wants to Rule the World: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss alternate motivations for the Microsoft Surface, Google's new Nexus 7 tablet, the history and value of reparability in computer hardware, and the possibility of electronics that "age well." Also, there's a robot tha by Hypercritical
119 min listen
48: Blue Ocean by Hypercritical
123 min listen
68: Patent Hands: John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin, inevitably, revisit the topic of patents, attempting to address a wide array of listener feedback. For the hearty listeners that make it through the patent talk, there's a bonus discussion of the new MacBook Pro rumors, and by Hypercritical
134 min listen
Game Mess Mornings 01/11/24: Grubb and Jan sit down to chat about a new DualSense controller popping up online, the title of Bethesda's Indiana Jones game getting leaked, developers needing to disclose AI use on Steam, some quick impressions of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown,... by Game Mess Mornings
66 min listen
Ep.206 – SAG Episode 206: It Looks "Web Of": It's an E3 2018 live reaction show special! by The Stone Age Gamer Podcast
115 min listen
Retronauts Episode 108: Marathon, Super NES Classic, Final Fantasy VIII: Jeremy, Ben, and Benj talk about Bungie FPS classic Marathon in a Micro-sized conversation that balloons out of control into a full-length episode. Then, Retronauts bloggers Kishi and Kim Justice drop in to discuss the Super NES Classic... by Retronauts
130 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Episode 49: 49: Pinching the Harmonica

Episode 49: 49: Pinching the Harmonica

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Hypercritical

Related podcast episodes