Quite a shame that the vast majority of people this video is targeted at will just not care. Especially in the US, or the UAE, if your Apple device breaks, you just get another Apple device, because it's a status symbol.
On the topic of Marques though - I haven't watched any of his stuff in quite a while, after I've had an eye-opened moment from his content. He would scald and roast companies that make mistakes, and make bad choices, but when Apple, or lets say Tesla, make the same mistake, he lets them off the hook. That's not unbiased journalism at all.
Probably has to suck-up inorder to get products early so his reviews can be viewed first. I wish all of these reviewers would be honest as Steve Burke (GamersNexus).
Probably has to suck-up inorder to get products early so his reviews can be viewed first.
No. Apple and most major tech companies are pretty good about giving reviewer samples to anyone with a large enough audience. The only thing that gets you disqualified is breaking the moratorium and releasing your review early.
What conducting softball interviews gets you is more interviews.
Not to defend him (can't really stand his videos at all) but he's not a journalist. He's just a freelance spokesman for products that will sponsor him.
I think it's clear he's a fan of Apple and Tesla but he does make negative statements about them, the Cyber truck was not a positive review and he always criticized the fit and finish of Teslas. And he critiques Apple's idiosyncracies like the proprietary charger and lack of calculator app on the iPad.
I guess my point is that he's not a journalist he's a reviewer, we are tuning in for his judgement, his opinion. If he personally likes the products from a certain company, that's not a bias that impacts his capacity to do his job well.
Like movie reviewer giving Pixar a bunch of 10/10 reviews, and then criticizing Cars 2 as a mediocre cash grab. Maybe they are biased for Pixar, or maybe Pixar just puts out a lot of good movies. As long as you're calling out the bad moves, that's what we want from a reviewer.
The fair concern is when he gets exclusive access like this, I don't necessarily care about the puff piece interview but you hope it doesn't influence his future reviews.
MKBHD the tech reviewer and Louis Rossmann the tech repairer get the tech at different points in their life cycles. Does anyone expect MKBHD to open up a MacBook and start probing motherboard components? He reviews the form and function of new tech when they're polished and running at their peak. Louis sees them when something has gone wrong
The last time he was in the wider media discussion was because he negatively reviewed the Fisker Ocean and the Humane Pin and people were calling him a company killer.
I lost count of how many specific part numbers of defective Apple products he rattled off with the same design flaw, but that was a stunning display. Just exposed that they know these things are problems and just don't care, because people will keep buying their products.
Reminds me of Pokemon. I skipped out on Scarlet and Violet (9th gen) because I knew it was going to carry the issues 8th gen had. Both generations still sold extremely well. 9th gen didn't review as well 8th gen but the reviews were still carried by nostalgia and not critical enough.
I like this guy. I don't watch him often, but even 5 minutes in I'm enjoying his thoroughness. We need this in the era of misinformation we're in today.
He is every harsh on manufacturers and OEMs when they do bad things. He gave up on being nice and I fully understand why. We need more regulations in the tech industry, especially around warranty claims.
In another video on what his favorite phone is though, he picks an android. He does use both phones daily though because he likes to stay up to date and enmeshed in both OSes for his job. He prefers android though. If he covers a lot of Apple videos it’s probably just because those attract the most clicks. There is an entire media ecosystem around Apple. Some YouTubers purely post speculation videos about Apple. Many just repost different variations of Apple’s history and the Steve Jobs story.
I lost interest in that guy on the left the minute he reviewed one of the iPhone's for the first time, and gave the feature-poor handset this insanely positive review.
He's a shill. He does great videos, but he's a shill.
Mbkhd's studio, talking/narrating skills, editing skills, and skills in explaining tech in simple terms are extremely high quality. He just needs to be more honest about famous companies.
Yup, I agree. That's a really big "just", though. I'd rather watch a poorly edited video that's honest, than a high end video that glosses over major defects and difficiencies. I mean, let's call it what it is, Marques makes ads.
I had called out the bullshit about devices being less durable if you make them more repairable on MKBHDs video, but of course it got lost in the comments. Apple just refuses to make the compromises that would allow for durable and repairable devices. Not to mention that a repair being difficult shouldn't be used for justification for blocking repair or making it impossible/not worth it to get parts.
He's tired from fighting for your right to actually own what you buy (as in being able to repair and modify). Which is important in this era of manufactured waste.
Probably stress. Running a business + a nonprofit + YouTube is already a lot. And on top of that I think he's recently been diagnosed with being in the spectrum, which is stressful on it's own way as well.
I don't think he'll stop though. Dude's been burning himself like that for over a decade, it's probably the only way he knows how to live.
I mean, duh? Influencers only get paid if they do and say what the sponsor paying them wants them to do and say. You can, of course, NOT do that, but you won't get a 2nd check, so the whole job requires you play along with your bosses and do what they want.
There's not a single really trustworthy influencer type out there that takes sponsor money, and you shouldn't trust ANY of them to do anything other than what they have to do so they get paid.
I also don't think LTT ever calls anyone out about anything, ever. He's made noises about ethics and sponsorship, but he's never actively gone after a big sponsor, except maybe kinda ASUS and I'd bet that's because everyone else did and he thought it'd be a bad look if he didn't.
You mentioned nVidia, and I'll mention what happened to Hardware Unboxed when they didn't toe the marketing line. Sure, sure, they "apologized" after public outcry, but the point is they absolutely went after someone who didn't stay in line with what they wanted the message to be.
Every youtube reviewer's goal is to be popular enough to be a paid shill. It's money they're after, not your praises.
And Apple marketing invests a lot in their image in internet discussions. There are lot of shills and a lot of sock-puppets that prop them up. Every marketing company does but go to any popular Apple posts on reddit, hackernews, or Twitter, they just have same pattern.
Every youtube reviewer’s goal is to be popular enough to be a paid shill. It’s money they’re after, not your praises.
absolutely.
There are lot of shills and a lot of sock-puppets that prop them up.
Prop them up? Occam's razor would imply that it is more-so people following trends than it is apple paying shills to get in the trenches and push lies.
they just have same pattern.
Why this isn’t obvious is just idk.
if it's so obvious, surely you can provide some tangible proof? Like I'm confident apple and every other company does this but the way you framed this take it seems to imply that is the main driver and the majority of positive sentiment is just bots or scripts, which is just absurd.
You think Apple is paying all the kids to clown on non-imessage bubble colors? Or is it more reasonable that there is something closer to a hive-mind in regards to what is trendy and popular/a status symbol?
I really don’t think large brands like Apple have that many paid shills. Apple has a large fan base and good marketing. People that like their devices just naturally repeat the marketing line because they don’t really know why they like the devices, Apple marketing just told them that is why it is good. And fanatics will spend mental energy defending them for no good reason
Lemmy and the fediverse have sizable Apple communities and Apple is definitely not paying anyone to shill here