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 at least read his free posts.

And I’m looking forward to having dinner with him next week on a long-overdue trip to Boston.