Nerd fight 2009: Gruber vs Lam on the Apple Tablet

Check out our MacBook touch poll for a chance to win a $50 iTunes gift card!

In this corner, wearing dark gray shorts, John Gruber of The Daring Fireball. In the opposite corner, with the light gray shorts, Brian Lam of Gizmodo.

I believe this feud started when Gruber openly mocked Lam’s “inside source” for the Apple Tablet:

So Lam’s source is an “insider” but has no idea what the OS is and has the ship date wrong. Sure.

Then a back and forth started on Twitter:

Lam: @gruber I bet you’re not daring enough to say half the shit you’ve said about me to my face. twirp. (view original tweet)

Lam: @gruber also, we should syndicate your side of the story on Gizmodo if you are open to it. You’re a dickface, but I respect your work. (view original tweet)

Gruber: @blam Why not? Do you carry around some sort of dossier proving you are not, in fact, a hack? (view original tweet)

Lam: @gruber sure, I’m a hack. Never said I wasn’t. But never claimed to be daring either. typically, people who are don’t claim it. (view original tweet)

At this point I think Lam realized he was coming off as more of a dbag than Gruber and tweeted to his followers:

Lam: I appreciate the support, but lets cease the bad words about gruber. its out of my system. going to chill now. in the end, he does good work

In the end it looks like they have worked things out with Lam’s last tweet on the subject:

Lam: patched things up with @gruber . if I learned anything from vs @ryanblock days, better to cooperate than battle. for readers and our sanity.

So after reviewing the fight I have to give this one to Gruber. He came off like less of a dbag and he makes a lot more sense. If we get a tablet in 2009 I will rent a steam roller and run over my MacBook and iPhone*.

*DISCLAIMER: I will not actually do this

Follow me on Twitter @justin_horn

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Apples & Oranges, Humor, iPad, Speculation

Apple Tablet to be call the iPad? …probably not

Mac|Life just posted an interesting tidbit about a Borders customer survey:

While randomly checking off answers we noticed something odd. Borders wants to know if we plan on purchasing an “Apple IPAD (Large Screen Reading Device)” this year.

We here at WhenWillApple might be wrong with our MacBook touch guess, but iPad…I just don’t see it. I don’t think Borders has any kind of inside info and just posted this as a filler for the unreleased device. Also, backing up my doubts, Mac|Life points out that they called the iPod touch the “Apple iTouch”. But the fact that Borders has this in a survey does make the old tablet rumor feel even more real this time around.

Follow me on Twitter @justin_horn

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iPad, Speculation

Snow Leopard Gold Master leaked…

Thanks to a tip from a reader, it has come to our attention that Mac OS X Snow Leopard has reached Gold Master status and somehow got leaked… According to Mac4Ever (found through Redmond Pie via Mac Rumors) the leaked build is 10A432 which they are saying is the final version. This seems plausible as we are in mid August and the release is scheduled for sometime in September.

Now, we are not sure if the leaked file is the real thing or not…  I wouldn’t download it, but if you insist in doing it here is the link our tipster sent us… Do it at your own risk… But come on, don’t be a cheapass Snow Leopard is retailing for $29… Just wait for it…

Follow me on Twitter @chiyinng

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OSX, Software, Speculation

Your Twitter and Facebook apps are fine, the servers are down

Twitter has not worked for me at all since about 9:30AM EST. Facebook seems to be having issues with some servers as some pages work and some don’t.

Twitter reported on their status blog:

We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.

Update: the site is back up, but we are continuing to defend against and recover from this attack.

Although Twitter says it’s back up, it’s still not working for me in Miami.

Not sure what’s going on with Facebook, but they may also be under some kind of attack. Although, it could just be all the Twitter users that have stopped using Facebook on a regular basis hammering their servers while twitter is down.

Follow me on Twitter @justin_horn

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Apples & Oranges, iPhone apps

Woman dies in freak accident, iPod to blame?

Sad story coming out of Philadelphia last night, a woman was struck and killed by a falling branch while running in Fairmount Park…her iPod still playing when police arrived. This reminds me of a visit to NYC. While walking around Central Park rocking out with my iPhone and taking pictures a woman suggested I remove one of my ear buds. She said it was dangerous to have them both in as I wouldn’t hear someone running up behind me. I didn’t really think much of it at the time since it was the middle of the day, but if it were night I think I’d probably follow her advice.

MyFoxPhilly reports:

“A large branch about 30-feet in length that fell, broke off a tree about 50-feet high in the air,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small at the scene. “Head injuries, what appears to be a broken neck and a compound fracture of her right leg. She was killed instantly. She was wearing an iPod and when police responded to the scene, the iPod was still playing music. She appears to be alone. Someone called 9-1-1. However, they didn’t stick around for police to arrive.”

Follow me on Twitter @justin_horn

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Apples & Oranges, iPod

Snow Leopard preorder available on Amazon

Looks like Apple’s promise to deliver Snow Leopard in September is on target. Amazon is now listing various versions of Snow Leopard for preorder including family pack and server versions. For $29, it’s definitely worth upgrading! Don’t want to spend the $29 bucks?  …then take a guess in our Snow Leopard poll for your chance to win a copy.

Also, if you click our Amazon links and order we get a few bucks, which will help support our giveaways.

(via @9to5mac)

Follow me on Twitter @justin_horn

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OSX, Software