

The closest thing we'll ever get to an official Apple blog - barredo
http://stevemail.tumblr.com/

======
vark
I thought the URL for that was <http://daringfireball.net> :P

~~~
w1ntermute
I actually expected to read a blog post talking about how Gruber's basically
become Apple's official blogger in the wake of Steve Jobs replying to an email
about the 3.3.1 fiasco redirecting the person he was writing to to Gruber's
blog post defending the changes.

~~~
cookiecaper
To me that email kind of validated the idea that Gruber is a real-life Apple
shill. Meaning, on the take from Apple to publish their desired propaganda.

~~~
isleyaardvark
The first link currently on Gruber's blog is about an iPad DHCP problem. The
first long essay currently on his blog criticizes Apple's app store policies
(something Gruber does on a regular basis - see also his recent posts on the
rejected app by the Pulitzer winner). Then there's his criticism of the HTC
lawsuit...

Certainly Gruber is a fan of Apple, but so are a lot of people if Apple's
consistently increasing sales are any indication. I get sick of people
labeling him a "shill" because he happens to like the company, and/or has
developed an insight into what Apple's management is thinking. Throwing around
those sorts of accusations is the paranoid style of tech punditry, and a
disservice to rational discussion.

~~~
hurlasunder
Yep, this is a good description of his blog.

As a daily reader of his blog, there still is this deep, deep seated arrogance
against any company other than Apple. Apple gets a fair set of positive and
negative coverage, but any other company almost always gets _only_ negative
coverage.

For example, the current frontpage has depressing things to say about
Flip(Cisco), Adobe, RIM, Motorola, Goldman Sachs, Palm, Sony and Ning.

Positive mentions: Just 2. One each for Adobe(this is rare, and only because
of hard evidence -- 2x speedup in Photoshop CS5) and Google. (One neutral
mention of Unity).

The more worrying concept is that he is widely read by all of Apple's
employees, all the way up to the top. Clearly some of his views resonate
_in_to the company as well, so even if he is not on their payroll, I very much
consider him an Apple evangelist, and take every negative comment of his with
a huge pinch of salt.

------
mrduncan
For a little background, John Gruber tweeted "Someone should make a Tumblr
site for (and only for) these Steve Jobs email replies." earlier today. It
seems a few people have ran with the idea. He's retweeted[1] about 6 of them
now, this one seems to be the most complete though.

[1] <http://twitter.com/gruber>

------
asimjalis
I wish <http://www.fakesteve.net/> could be as succinct.

~~~
glhaynes
Really interesting point. While I love Fake Steve, it's hard now to imagine
Real Steve as having so much to say. Minimalism seems to pervade his very
being. Will Fake Steve have to change his schtick?

------
mattparcher
From MacStories.net, there are at least five other similar blogs:

<http://stevejobsemailreplys.tumblr.com/>

<http://fromstevejobs.tumblr.com/>

<http://stevejobssays.tumblr.com/>

<http://emailsfromsteve.tumblr.com/>

<http://saysstevejobs.tumblr.com/>

(from [http://www.macstories.net/news/steve-jobs-email-replies-
now-...](http://www.macstories.net/news/steve-jobs-email-replies-now-
catalogued/))

As mrduncan noted, these all seem to be inspired by John Gruber's tweet asking
for such a site:

<http://twitter.com/gruber/status/12358833629>

------
drawkbox
I can only dream of being so direct and to the point.

~~~
puredemo
This is usually how I respond to emails as well. Doesn't seem to be an issue.

------
mikecane
And I was just wondering if someone was going to think to compile all of
those. And now that you are, will he stop answering them?

And oh, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple PR decides to do an "Email to Steve
Jobs" section of the Apple site now.

~~~
rooshdi
I think Steve's generally succinct responses would be better acclimated to the
Twittersphere. Steve should start tweeting, but I think even he knows his
"reality distortion field" defies the laws of the Twitterverse.

------
jluxenberg
Would be nice if his replies had a signature so we could be sure they actually
came from Steve

------
cookiecaper
This will go a long way to stopping Jobs from replying to emails.

~~~
johns
I doubt it. Every email already gets a ton of press. How much higher profile
could they be? Jobs knows exactly what he's doing with the responses.

~~~
cookiecaper
It just seems like, if this catches on, external control of such a dump would
threaten Apple's PR department pretty extensively. Perhaps the emails have
been excusable heretofore because it's not all that common that they come up
and get "tons of press", as you claim, or because they figured those isolated
emails that do get attention are relatively harmless and not a big deal as
independent, one-off stories.

For instance, I check HN a lot, and I used to check reddit a lot, and I've
heard of perhaps only two of these emails. Most of them do not cast Jobs in an
overtly positive light. It's a publicist's nightmare, basically, because they
lose control of the image.

And Apple is all about image. I don't know, I just think that there will be a
lot of internal pressure on Jobs to stop emailing people who may go and repost
the conversation verbatim. He might not stop, we all know that Jobs has a
general contempt for business-as-usual and does what he wants, but making a
thing like this just seems to kind of be "looking a gift horse in the mouth",
as it were, because most CEOs have the sense not to even try personal
responses to customer complaints or feedback for the reasons mentioned in this
post.

~~~
jkincaid
I suspect Apple's PR team plays a role in at least some of the email
responses. The emails serve as a channel that's 'official' enough for people
to take it seriously, without Apple having to bother with making an official
announcement or giving a reporter a quote.

It also helps make the company seem more accessible ("hey, Jobs will answer an
average Joe's email, he loves us!") when in reality Apple PR is notorious for
ignoring the press unless it serves them.

------
BrandonFletcher
Awesome.

