Gruber and Siegler in The Talk Show #4

In The Talk Show #4 John Gruber is joined by MG Siegler. What a company! It was recorded before WWDC, and they were discussing all sorts of rumors, it was quite entertaining.

Then there was an interesting take on why one should care even about the small details which “regular” people won’t notice. Gruber (48:46...):

Maybe people don’t buy Newsweek and think, my god this thing is very finely printed. You may not think it, but you notice it. And that’s just like the way Apple stuff is all the way. Where people don’t buy, well, normal people don’t buy the iPhone and think about how nice the seams are between the steel antenna and the glass in front. You may not think about it, but you appreciate it.

But the most amusing part was on Google. Staring with Apple’s move to in-house maps and a pathetic Google’s pre-WWDC event (56:54...) and ending with an analogy with Microsoft (1:21:20...). Gruber:

Google is to me the new Microsoft, where they are the ones sticking their fingers in everybody else’s pies, and not making any friends, and spoiling the friends that they had... How far this industry can go in five years: when the iPhone was introduced there’s Eric Smidt invited up on stage backslapping with Steve Jobs talking about what great almost sibling companies Google and Apple are... And now look where they are. The way I see it is, Google’s really made enemies of everybody...

Siegler:

And it’s one of those things like we were talking about earlier, where, you know, you talk to them, and they don’t seem to be aware of this. Even though it’s not like a big secret, and anyone can see it...

Gruber:

It does seem like they are oblivious about it, and that’s to me is a difference from when Microsoft was the enemy of everybody in the Walley, is that Microsoft seemed very self-aware of their role... But Google seems to think that they are still everybody’s friend and everybody else kind of hates them.