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You are here: MacNN Forums > News > Mac News > The MacNN Podcast, episode 68: Side effects may include death

The MacNN Podcast, episode 68: Side effects may include death
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Jun 27, 2016, 12:41 PM
 
By sheer coincidence, our final episode of The MacNN Podcast comes just before a scheduled break for the Canada Day/Fourth of July holiday. Yes, it is sort of true -- because the site will be shutting down (more on that in a bit, but you can read about it here), this will be the last episode under the MacNN banner. However, because Mike and Charles and others are still having too much fun with this, we'll pick up again on the week of July 11 with a new creation, Cranky Old Guys Generally Disapproving of New Things, or Project Keep Us Off the Streets, or whatever we're going to call it.

We do actually also get in at least a half-hour's worth of the kind of content you usually hear from us, including comments on BlackBerry's slow decline, and the death of the Thunderbolt Display (and unofficially as of yet but just as inevitable, the death of the Mac Pro). Yes, death and change is a constant theme of this episode, but we still manage to get in a lot of laughs, some lovely memories, many high-fives, shout-outs, and pats on the back, and thank-yous. Show notes after the big player.



05:49 -- Having let everyone know about what's happening and teased our impending audio rebirth, Managing Editor Mike and Editor Charles dig into the actual announcement of MacNN's site closing and come up with -- not much in the way of reasons. By all the metrics we had access to, the real "Apple in 1996" moment for us was 2.5 years ago, when we finally saw that if we just kept doing what we were doing, we'd be dead in six months. So we changed things, and it worked: more readers, more views, more everything.

Even the redesign (which, yes, went un-smoothly but ultimately and finally gave us a genuine mobile version of the site) worked to help us achieve our goal of bringing in new readers along with the old. So in short, we're as confounded as you are about the whys behind the closure, but we're determined to go out doing our jobs and letting our readers and listeners know how much we appreciate your support. We even coined a new word on the way out: Nerdlish. You'll have to listen to the segment to find out what the heck that means.

13:35 -- What would an episode of the podcast be without plugs for articles we've written that are on the site? In this case, though, they are all about us: two new columns -- Best of MacNN and Saying Farewell -- respectively showcase some of the most memorable stories we've covered, and some of our top staffers' individual memories and salutes. From the death of Steve Jobs to MacWorld coverage, from crazy inventor lady to the Bluetooth toilet, you'll see some of our picks for the stories that really stood out in our minds.

We also talk about the crazy-great worldwide coverage of our closing notice, including some site that -- somehow -- got it wrong. In addition, we throw in a free bonus story about Charles' history of writing obituaries, and (across the episode) some talk about some of the ways Mike and Charles worked together to change and improve the site.

22:40 -- A short segment where we outline what we have in mind for the new podcast, which will occupy the same space on Soundcloud and iTunes but be more of a general tech discussion about all kinds of things. Will the crew of our other podcast, One More Thing do the same? Remains to be seen (or heard, we should say) so stay tuned. The site will be gone, but the bad jokes and occasional disagreements and smart-mouth commentary will continue, starting in mid-July.

26:29 -- Okay, finally we get into what would be considered a "typical" segment, where we explain and analyze a big tech story, in this case one of the few places having a worse week than we are: BlackBerry and their terrible mounting losses. We also talk a bit about BlackBerry history (and how we hope it won't repeat anytime soon) and the lessons we can learn from it. Again you get a bonus discussion from the Old Guys about how telephones have evolved, the "aha!" moment in product evolution, and a bit about how much a part of the Canadian national psyche BlackBerry is (not as big as hockey, but maybe about as important as lacrosse).

36:00 -- Continuing with our theme of death and disappointment, we talk about the official discontinuation of the Thunderbolt Display, and why some of the rumors about some kind of new monitor from Apple are probably not happening. We can't rule out (and just don't want to rule out) the idea of an overpriced-but-gorgeous 4K Thunderbolt Display with Thunderbolt3/USB-C "Retina monitor of the future," but there's sound reasons why we won't see an Apple standalone 5K monitor. So having attacked this rumor with logic and facts, we expect Apple will bring one out just to make us look bad in a week or so. Because it has been that kind of a week.

48:21 -- Just before you (and we) get suicidal from the bad news, William Gallagher pops along to give us his App of the Week, which this week is Ulysses, a "writing studio" for people who are serious about their creative writing. In it, he specifically mentions that one of the reasons he came to it was that he had given up waiting for an iOS version of Scrivener -- so guess what's happening. That kind of week, folks.

50:44 -- And at last we come to the segment where we put off concluding the podcast for as long as possible, by telling the tales of how we came to work here, how we made it into a great workplace, and what we did to make the place better for you, our readers and listeners. You'll hear a bunch of names from the history of the site, most of whom have gone on to bigger and better -- which may end up being our fate as well, despite our reluctance to give up this space.

The episode is dedicated to our founder and original publisher, Monish Bhatia, who flipped the switch on a server in 1995 and kept it going by hiring such great people. On behalf of him and the staff past and present, thank you for being there and supporting our little adventure. We're 21 now, and it is time to leave the nest and stretch our wings.

The MacNN Podcast can be found here at MacNN, on its RSS feed, or you can subscribe via iTunes. We're also on YouTube.

The MacNN Podcast is copyright 2016 by MNM Media, with all rights reserved. Opinions expressed by the hosts or guests of the podcast may not reflect the opinions or views of MNM Media, its sites, or advertisers. Original music by Bradley McBurney. Comments and feedback are welcome at our Tips email address.
( Last edited by NewsPoster; Jun 27, 2016 at 05:31 PM. )
     
   
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