Andy Ihnatko’s New Blog Is Thoroughly Enjoyable
My old friend and fellow tech industry pontificator Andy Ihnatko has struck out on his own with a new blog, Ihnatko.com. Although Andy has, over many years, written for magazines (Macworld, MacUser, Fast Company, etc.) and newspapers (Chicago Sun-Times), not to mention books and various personal blogs (Colossal Waste of Bandwidth), I feel as though he has been more focused on podcasts and radio (MacBreak Weekly, Material, and Boston Public Radio) for a while now.
That was our loss, since few writers in the tech industry are as thoroughly enjoyable to read. Andy’s writing combines some of the absurdity and pop-culture analogies of Dave Barry with a long history in the Apple world, a deep appreciation for under-the-hood technical details, and an instinctive sense of the humanity inherent in every situation. Andy may share initials with AI, but there’s never any question that everything comes straight from his brain.
He’s delightfully self-deprecating, telling stories about the time that David Letterman licked his iPad and his embarrassing first meeting with Tim Cook (and Elvis Costello). More recently, in writing about how Apple’s WWDC keynote might have revealed the rumored folding iPhone, Andy pointed out that the video showed what an “iPhone-style app would look like if the iPhone’s screen were, hypothetically, much, much wider.” But what I liked most was that he introduced the screenshot with “For those of you running Netscape 2.0 and can’t see YouTube content…” How long before Cyberdog gets a callout?
That Tim Cook link is behind a paywall because Ihnatko.com is one of the new breed of membership sites where you can get something for nothing, but to get everything, you have to ante up. It’s $5 per month or $50 per year, so I’ve added Ihnatko.com to my collection of tech journalism sites worth supporting, alongside 404 Media (heavy topics, but essential journalism) and The Verge (breadth, depth, and trenchant commentary). Whether you choose to subscribe to Ihnatko.com is up to you, but I encourage you to read his free posts.
And I’m looking forward to having dinner with him next week on a long-overdue trip to Boston.
AFAICT, Andy Ihnatko no longer appears on Boston Public Radio. His last appearance was 2/24/2025: over 15 months ago. This comes from the AIs who are able to scan through the net archives easily: https://x.com/i/grok/share/6834d737951848d88f1740041b235a00
Leo used to mention the Boston radio show on MacBreak Weekly episodes when introducing the panelist, but he stopped doing that. It’s somewhat a mystery that Andy still references the gig on his web mastheads. I can understand a delay of a few months to refresh the webpages, but a year seems excessive.
MBW is a truly great podcast: an all-time classic. I really miss Alex Lindsay on MBW; I hope Apple appreciates what they got. I also really miss Rene Ritchie.
Thanks for noting his reference to Netscape 2.0 on his WWDC coverage. That comment went completely over my head the first time around. Funny! If I can just figure out how to make all the #!$$ videos stop auto-playing in macOS Safari (countermanding my explicit Safari config) I will be a happy man. Stop the madness already!
See StopTheMadness Pro in the Mac App Store. You pay for it once then you can install it on all your iDevices and Macs. There are MANY configuration options (some may say too many) but it wil fix your auto-play in Safari as well as many other annoyances. I’ve had it for several years and it’s on all my devices. Note that it might break some things on some web pages but if you take the time to configure it for those specific sites it works well.
BTW, I love your Tensegrity avatar! Yes, I recognize the Omni because I made those and Cuboctahedrons for Christmas gifts many years ago.