Hypercritical

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 it…

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 …

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, …

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 s…

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, an…

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…

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
  

Spon…

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 add…

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, …

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 techno…

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 …

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 final…

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin briefly indulge in more grammar questions, then revisit the consequences of HyperCard's demise, why we're all still talking about the Kindle Fire, using music and movie…

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about low-stakes grammar issues, the continuing debate about partisanship in tech writing, more theories about an Apple TV product, the origins and fate of "friend…

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin revisit complaints about Siri's apparent biases, reconsider the fake-book chrome in iBooks, explore an interesting new conception of an Apple TV set, and use John Grube…

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin follow up on a host of topics: what ails Microsoft, the (slow, partial) democratization of corporate IT, the people vs. George Lucas, perpetual copyright, applications …

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk about what ails Microsoft. What could the former titan of the technology world have done differently in the past two decades that would have prevented its decline…

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin continue their discussion of Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs, starting with listeners' reactions to the last episode, then (finally) talking about …

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin discuss Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs. Topics include Isaacson's failings as an author and biographer, the technical cluelessness on display in …

John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin are joined by special guest Jeff Atwood, cofounder of the Stack Exchange Q&A network and creator of the popular programming blog codinghorror.com. John and Jeff try to…