# Spectacularly dreadful Guardian article: "Did Android copy iOS?"



## editor (Oct 25, 2011)

The Guardian's partnership/bias towards Apple has long been established, but today's non-article of pro-=Apple fluff is truly worthy of Gizmodo.

The article is entirely devoid of, well, _anything._


> Did Android copy iOS? We asked Google's product manager...
> What does Hugo Barra think of Steve Jobs's accusations of Android 'copying' Apple's phone operating system?
> 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/25/google-android-copy-ios


The only interesting bit is the user comments:



> In the past I've been loath to agree with those who claim the Guardian is providing free advertising for Apple, but when a week's worth of puff pieces about the firm are followed up with a snide non-story about one of its biggest rivals it's easy to see where they're coming from.
> 
> The headline for this piece could easily have been "Man declines to comment" but that doesn't seemed to have stopped it turning into a baseless dig.





> Are you going to ask iOS product managers if a whole bunch of the features that came out in iOS5 but have been in Android for ages were copied from Android?
> 
> And if you do will you get such an uninformative article out of that?


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## elbows (Oct 25, 2011)

Thats a pretty pointless article indeed. And a pretty pointless thread. Is there any chance that we could have one thread to put all the apple vs android stuff in going forwards, rather than the current situation which seems to rapidly be getting out of hand?


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## Kid_Eternity (Oct 25, 2011)

Not a surprise, walk into the Guardian news room and you see a sea of iMacs....


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## Maurice Picarda (Oct 25, 2011)

Can you just do that? Without security complaining?


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## Kid_Eternity (Oct 25, 2011)

Maurice Picarda said:


> Can you just do that? Without security complaining?



Some of us can.


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## Maurice Picarda (Oct 25, 2011)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Some of us can.



Are you a Kurd?


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## editor (Oct 25, 2011)

elbows said:


> Thats a pretty pointless article indeed. And a pretty pointless thread


Why is it pointless? I think it's worth discussing when a national paper is caught out showing obvious tech bias - especially when it then gets utterly caned by its readers for doing so.

Edit to add: it's currently the Guardian's most popular tech story. I can't see why we shouldn't  discuss it here too.


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## Kid_Eternity (Oct 25, 2011)

Maurice Picarda said:


> Are you a Kurd?


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## Kid_Eternity (Oct 25, 2011)

editor said:


> Why is it pointless? I think it's worth discussing when a national paper is caught out showing obvious tech bias - especially when it then gets utterly caned by its readers for doing so.
> 
> Edit to add: it's currently the Guardian's most popular tech story. I can't see why we shouldn't discuss it here too.



In all fairness Guardian commenters are kinda known for being a nest of vipers at the best of times! But I agree, I don't think this is a pointless thread at all, it's fair enough to discuss any aspect of these richly successful tech companies and the drooling sycophants that report on them.


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## elbows (Oct 25, 2011)

editor said:


> Why is it pointless? I think it's worth discussing when a national paper is caught out showing obvious tech bias - especially when it then gets utterly caned by its readers for doing so.
> 
> Edit to add: it's currently the Guardian's most popular tech story. I can't see why we shouldn't discuss it here too.



Im not suggesting it shouldn't be discussed. Only that in recent months we've seen people expressing some frustration with the number of threads that are about Apple stuff that are appearing, whether it be about a particular product or the next stage of a silly legal battle or whatever. I started off arguing that many of the threads were justified, but then even I came to wonder if it wasn't all getting a bit much recently. I don't want to see the stuff discussed less, just would prefer it if certain recurring themes could be lumped together more. Thought Guardian bias had been discussed in the past, but if it was in the middle of some huge thread about a specific product then I can't really ask you to take this strand of conversation there, it does need a distinct home. I just hope that the next time something similar happens in the lazy media, it finds a home right here rather than another new thread.


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## editor (Oct 25, 2011)

elbows said:


> Im not suggesting it shouldn't be discussed. Only that in recent months we've seen people expressing some frustration with the number of threads that are about Apple stuff that are appearing, whether it be about a particular product or the next stage of a silly legal battle or whatever


This isn't really about Apple. It's about a national paper continuing to show clear bias towards a certain brand, and their readers' response to that bias (which is, let's be fair, rather entertaining in itself).

Seeing as this forum is all about chatting about the pros and cons of tech, it seems appropriative to raise questions about a mainstream news source.


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## editor (Oct 25, 2011)

I note that the buffoon who wrote it has already had to correct what few facts there were in the article.


> or the provision of a shortcut to the camera from the phone's lock screen (first seen in Windows Phone 7 in October 2010 iOS 5 previews in June),


I note loads of user comments have now been deleted too.

Way to go Guardian.


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## souljacker (Oct 25, 2011)

This shouldn't be in the tech forums. It should be in the books forum and ridiculed as a piss poor example of journalism.


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## FridgeMagnet (Oct 25, 2011)

souljacker said:


> This shouldn't be in the tech forums. It should be in the books forum and ridiculed as a piss poor example of journalism.


Or appended to the "Why the Guardian is going down the pan!" thread.

They've always been pretty dreadful when it comes to gadgets. Even as a fully paid-up Apple Sheep, they have some awful fawning gosh-wow stuff about iPhones - which they occasionally try to balance with some equally awful dumb anti-Apple pieces.


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## grit (Oct 25, 2011)

They did a bit UI wise, and thats fine, thats what makes a standard.


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## editor (Oct 26, 2011)

FridgeMagnet said:


> Or appended to the "Why the Guardian is going down the pan!" thread.


I think it's   worth a thread of its own, you know, especially as the user comments keep giving - like this story about Apple pilfering an app it had previously booted out of its own app store that's just been mentioned.


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## Kid_Eternity (Oct 26, 2011)

I think it's good to have it as its own thread; I have no issue with us all praising or slagging off companies on as many threads as we want, it's kinda the charm of urban75 that there isn't this overtly mad one thread to rule them all mindset.


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