Edible Apple

Daniel Eran Dilger has an interesting article up over at Roughly Drafted where he discusses just how ridiculous the discussion over Apple “patenting multi-touch” has become.  Despite what some tech writers and websites would have you believe, Apple has never claimed or attempted to patent multi-touch technology, and in fact, the technology has been around for over two decades.  Dilger hits the nail on the head when he writes:

In large part, the brouhaha over Apple’s multitouch patent is a simple matter of ignorance combined with lazyness on the part of blogger-journalists who, like Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella, weigh in on subjects with their opinion when they really have no idea what they’re talking about and don’t bother to to do a basic sanity check of their facts before rattling off their gut feelings on what they think is the issue at hand.

Amen.

Dilger also makes an interesting point when he notes that “No other industry seems so devoid of appreciation for creativity, aesthetics, and smart design.”  In contrast, he brings up the automotive industry, where critics regularly heap praise upon the sleek and innovative designs that premium car manufacturers routinely come up with year after year.  Why then, Dilger asks, do other industries have their ‘premium’ products praised, while the technology industry seems to value price over quality?  Dilger’s explanation makes a good deal of sense:

..The auto industry has plenty of knowledgeable people that actually care about cars who are available to write about them intelligently, while in the tech industry, anyone who has half a brain can apply their talents at actually working in a tech company, leaving only unqualified blow hards to take positions writing about stuff they really don’t appreciate or understand…

Amen x2.  For whatever reason, a number of high profile tech websites employ tech writers who are obviously not qualified or knowledgeable enough to write about the field they’re actually getting paid to cover.  It’s ridiculous, seems to be unique to the tech industry, and helps explain why the discourse regarding Apple and Palm’s potential multi-touch dispute is often so factually baseless.

You can check out the article in its entirety over here.  It’s well worth a read.