AppleZulu

tzeshan said:

Apple's aptitude is typical of R&D engineers.  They like to blame testers for using their software incorrectly. But this is not Jobs liked. R&D should implement software such that no matter which user uses the software it will always perform as specified and make the user happy.  

That's not possible. You could produce a bicycle that works wonderfully when operated as intended. If a user chooses to let all the air out of the tires, however, it is unreasonable to expect that the bicycle would then operate just as well as it did with tires properly inflated. A user with that expectation will not be happy, and it's not the fault of the designer. The user is not operating the bicycle as specified, and should not expect the bicycle to nonetheless operate as specified. The user is just an idiot, and you can rest assured that's exactly what the late Steve Jobs would say about it, too.

This article does an excellent job of pointing out a number of issues I've observed during the year as well.

I note that Mr. Dilger calls out, among others, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, for erroneous and sensational reporting that doesn't generally get held to account. I can't help but also note that Gurman is the one who led the charge this year in reporting on the (supposed) death of AirPort and networking hardware at Apple. Much of the tech media jumped on board that bandwagon, including appleinsider. To their credit, AI did entertain a good discussion of the nature of that reporting, noting that they also had their own sources on the issue. AI also seemed to take the discussion to heart, as a subsequent report significantly toned down a number of previous assumptions on the issue, making it easier for the reader to discern what is actually known, and what isn't. 

I personally keyed in on the reporting on that particular story because it seems to reflect not only the sort of problems Dilger notes in this article, but also many of the broader issues in coverage of really important world and national concerns as well. In this case, the reporting took an interesting but anonymously sourced tidbit of information and quickly spun it out into a narrative based on a broad set of assumptions that don't make sense unless you buy into the sort of criticisms about Apple that, in this piece, Dilger says are nonsensical but rampant. The narrative that spun up about Airport was that Apple was unceremoniously ceasing development, sales and even support of the entire product line. This narrative led to the usual commentary about Tim Cook's shortcomings, Apple's cessation of any sort of thought or business plan, their imminent doom, and customers' need to immediately switch to other vendors for their networking needs. 

Anyone taking the longer and more considered view of Apple would instead consider the actual information gathered on the subject and note that there may indeed be some changes afoot with regard to Apple's networking hardware, but it's hard at this point to know what those might be. Also, given Apple's pretty good record of giving ample warning when a product (or even a given model in a product line) will be headed for the archives and an end of active support, the alarm bells on AirPort shouldn't start ringing just yet, since they're still selling the devices and issuing firmware updates. So, Dilger's right with this article, and we all need to aim for a higher standard with this sort of thing.

jbam said:

Apple is testing new Apple TVs with an integrated router and TV tuner. http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/29/apple-is-testing-new-apple-tvs-with-an-integrated-router-and-tv-tuner/

While it's possible they could be looking at integrating all those things, this link is to a three-year-old article. 

AppleInsider said:

...

The AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule products are not currently being sold in Apple Retail stores.

This is false information. The link above is to a story from months ago, when AirPort was temporarily pulled for updates. They were re-stocked. These devices are all available right now. They have not been discontinued. Rather than check their information, AppleInsider is just repeating something with no follow-up. Search the Apple website. AirPort devices are currently available for order, with delivery as early as tomorrow. They're also currently in-stock and available for pickup at your local store today. 

The "news" that AirPort is being discontinued is all based on a single article, which quoted anonymous sources, and even those sources were only saying that some engineering staff was being reassigned from the AirPort group to other projects. The "discontinuation" rumor is just pure speculation. There doesn't appear to be anything written out there that's independently reported. All the hype comes from the one article. Haven't we had enough fake news lately? Does anyone actually care about accuracy and reliable information?