Episodes
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Episode 100: 100: Metacritical
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin end the Hypercritical podcast with a discussion of the show itself, followed by a final Q&A where Dan asks the questions and John attempts to provide sensible answers. Many thanks to all the listeners and the folks in the 5by5 chat room. The journey was the reward....
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Episode 99: 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, inevitably, the Wii U GamePad controller. Links for this...
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Episode 98: 98: Hardware Machismo
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on taping out silicon chips, Apple's seemingly bottomless silicon ambitions, and the pitfalls of labeling people, then discuss Twitterrific 5, the new Google maps app on iOS, iTunes 11, Tim Cook's national news tour, and Apple's upcoming "Made in the USA"...
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Episode 97: 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! Links for this episode: No Movie for Old Men On Dickwolves, Ethics, and Why I'm...
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Episode 96: 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. Links for this episode: Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware…
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Episode 95: 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. Links for this episode: Advanced Vector Extensions - Wikipedia 5by5 Specials #10: State of the Union for 2012…
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Episode 94: 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. Links for this episode: Apple Said to Be Exploring Switch...
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Episode 93: 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. Links for this episode: Why Executives Are Never Fired - Michael...
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Episode 92: 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: Forstall and Browett are out; Ive, Cue, Federighi, and Mansfield are in. Links for this episode: AnandTech - The Windows RT Review...
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Episode 91: 91: Adolescence
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the new hardware announced at the October 23rd Apple event: the latest Retina MacBook Pro, whether the new iMac is too skinny or too fat, the little information we currently know about Fusion Drive, and, of course, the new iPads, both mini and Retina. Links...
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Episode 90: 90: Salad Days
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin ponder the upcoming Apple event, assess picayune physical details of the iPhone 5 and iPod touch, compare the newly announced pricing for the Microsoft Surface to its possible competitors, and discuss John's approach to getting value from Twitter. Links for this...
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Episode 89: 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. Links for this episode: The Magazine The Magazine - Foreword...
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Episode 88: 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. Links for this episode: Real-time computing - Wikipedia Paying Developers is A Bad Idea - Charlie Kindel Ball...
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Episode 87: 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. Links for this episode: iPod touch - Apple.com iPod nano - Apple.com A letter from Tim Cook on…
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Episode 86: 86: Naked Robotic Core
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the 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? Links for this episode: iPhone 5 - Apple.com The Amazing iOS 6 Maps The Incomparable #108: Journey…
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Episode 85: 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. There's more than enough blame to go around. Please note that this episode was recorded before the September 12th Apple event. Links for this episode: OS X Battery Life...
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Episode 84: 84: Spared No Expense
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Amazon's new Kindle and Kindle Fire products. Is Amazon Apple's most dangerous competitor, or are the two companies not really in competition at all? Who is Amazon's ideal customer? Finally, John and Dan make their predictions for next week's Apple press...
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Episode 83: 83: Dishonorable
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the Apple v. Samsung court case, the near-comprehensive rumors and leaks about the next iPhone, the possible internals of the rumored iPad mini, and which company we'd like to buy Twitter, if it were actually for sale. Links for this episode: Predicting the...
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Episode 82: 82: The Opposite of Comprehensive
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin finally complete their discussion of John's Mountain Lion review. Topics include power management, UI simplification, automatic termination, Facebook integration, and plagiarizing from yourself. Links for this episode: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: the Ars Technica…
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Episode 81: 81: Channels of Control
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the latest round of Twitter API changes that further marginalize third-party "traditional" Twitter client applications, with the inevitable follow up about App.Net, the nascent Twitter-like service that takes money directly from its users, rather than…
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Episode 80: 80: Memory Palace
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue to discuss John's review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. On this episode: iCloud storage APIs and user interface, sandboxing, Gatekeeper, Retina/HiDPI, Scene Kit, Objective-C enhancements, and a bonus diversion into one of John's pet OS X topics: spatial...
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Episode 79: 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. Links for this episode: Macintosh 512K - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Timpani - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 70Decibels - CMD+SPACE…
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Episode 78: 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 bundled applications. Links for this episode:...
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Episode 77: 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. Links for this episode: Overcompensating...
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Episode 76: 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 show notes to find a poll about doing an…
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Episode 75: 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 customers in the App Store. Links for this…
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Episode 74: 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 that feels no shame. Links for this episode:...
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Episode 73: 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 intriguing. Links for this episode: Jobs: If you see…
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Episode 72: 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. Links for this episode: Retina MacBook Pro display handling…
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Episode 71: 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. Links for this episode: Build and Analyze #80: Please, Go to Starbucks E3: Electronic...
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Episode 70: 70: Deja Vu
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss more optimistic prospects for a new Mac Pro, the latest round of iPhone 5 hardware rumors, and the intriguing possibilities for WWDC implied by the large number of sessions on the schedule that are labelled "To Be Announced." Links for this episode: MagSafe...
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Episode 69: 69: Sport of Kings
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk a bit more about patents and copyright, revisit the sources of lag in human/computer interactions, revise the probabilities of retina-display Macs, MacBook Pros without ethernet ports, any Mac Pros ever again, and the various ways to deal with a possible taller...
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Episode 68: 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 a brief consideration of cutscenes and...
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Episode 67: 67: A Pill That Helps with Whatever
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the various ways that Apple takes money from transactions involving the App Store, lessons from gaming and gamers for the larger software world, why nothing is ever good enough when it comes to technology, the Instagram acquisition, and the sad state of the…
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Episode 66: 66: The Housewives of Siracusa County
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss meeting Apple employees at WWDC, the latest round of iPhone rumors, RubyMotion (a new product for writing iOS apps in Ruby), the distinction between producer, consumer, and performer in gaming and other arts, The Kids Today, games as art, and Dropbox-related...
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Episode 65: 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 microscope. Links for this episode: Apple...
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Episode 64: 64: You Will Die Instantly!
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit software updates (paid or otherwise), then discuss various screen size possibilities for the next iPhone, the historical and ongoing dilution of the concept of a "gamer" (and Apple's role in that phenomenon), and the extremely unlikely possibility of any…
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Episode 63: 63: Talking to the Bear
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about paid upgrades in the Mac App Store, how Apple is reshaping the software market (intentionally or otherwise), Readability's role as a middleman as compared to another prominent middleman, the App Store, and finally, the Flashback malware scourge and...
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Episode 62: 62: A Sack Containing Scum from a Pond
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin try to put the topic of car engine noises to bed, then discuss value of "enterprise" businesses, RIM's possible future as a services company, Readability's business model, and Wil Shipley's case for paid upgrades in the Mac App Store. Links for this episode: Kill...
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Episode 61: 61: I Ran Out of Bombs Long Ago
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the display of large images on iOS devices, Apple's latest web standards proposal and "rogue" implementation in WebKit, RIM's new enterprise-centric strategy, and the popular new iOS game, Draw Something. Plus, a Very Special epilogue all about Marco…
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Episode 60: 60: Reversing the Polarity
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss the puzzling UI of iPhoto for IOS, the magnetic polarity of iPad Smart Covers, the Apple TV's ability to work with any remote, the iPad's lack of a number in its name (again), automotive platform awareness in Germany, video signal value ranges, DVRs in the…
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Episode 59: 59: Safari is Apple's Google
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on John's TiVo and smoke detector woes and the angst about the lack of a number after the name of the new iPad. John reviews his new Apple TV. Finally, the videos showing Chris Pirillo’s dad exploring Windows 8 and Mac OS X for the first time are mined for...
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Episode 58: 58: No More Numbers For You / The Four Tuners
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin do some brief follow up on file systems, then dive into this week's Apple press event: the new Apple TV, the new iPad, specs vs. product names vs. Apple PR vs. sanity, and how we all still miss Steve Jobs. Plus, John reviews his new TiVo Premiere Elite and, of all...
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Episode 57: 57: Computational Skeuomorphism
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about file systems: the origins of Btrfs, how file systems might change in the new age of SSDs, the possibility of a Grand Unification of storage and memory subsystems, and why snapshots, clones, block-level diffs, and deduplication are awesome features of...
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Episode 56: 56: Belt and Suspenders
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about file systems: what they do, what makes a good one, and who needs a new one, badly. (Spoiler: it's Apple.) File systems discussed: Microsoft's ReFS, ZFS, and HFS+. Links for this episode: Apple Purchases Land In Oregon For Another Large Data Center The…
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Episode 55: 55: Region of Pain
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss this week's announcement of OS X Mountain Lion: what it means for John's reviews, how the new release schedule might influence adoption and reliability, and how features like GateKeeper will affect Mac users and developers. Links for this episode: The 'Undue...
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Episode 54: 54: Public Service Announcement
There's no Hypercritical this week, so we put together something special for you instead. Links for this episode: Kindacritical, a special episode with Dan Benjamin, Merlin Mann, and Marco Arment Sponsored by Sponsor 5by5.
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Episode 53: 53: Brad Pitt Gets to Contribute
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit gamification in education, talk briefly about the Nest thermostat, then engage in an ever-so-slightly more considered discussion of Wikipedia, attempting to address the mountain of feedback on the topic. No Wikipedians were harmed in the making of this...
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Episode 52: 52: Marked for Deletion
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about iBooks Author, Apple's real and stated motivations for entering the textbook market, and what really matters in education. This is followed by a long, ill-considered rant about Wikipedia. (Warning: original research, no neutral point of view.) Links...
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Episode 51: 51: Unjustified Confidence
John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin briefly recap the iPhone ringer/silent switch controversy, then discuss the new iBooks Author application, Apple's ebook ambitions and prospects, and the role of technology in education. Links for this episode: The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great…
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About this show
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.
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