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Uncovering Every Lie in MKBHD's Softball Interview; a scathing critique of 'brand safe' influencers (www.youtube.com)

submitted 6 months ago by mightyfoolish to c/technology

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Louis Rossman discuses many design flaws made by Apple over the years throughout their entire catalog.

This video also came out a few days after I praise the Macbook Pro series for being higher quality then their competition as well. 😂 🫣

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[–] dinckelman 78 points 6 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] mightyfoolish 56 points 6 months ago (7 children)

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).

[–] dinckelman 27 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Being honest isn't where the money is. Not reaching out towards that takes willpower, and strong principles

[–] ikidd 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectFarm

This guy has 3M subs and doesn't take free samples for reviews. I think he's doing OK, and damn, if you want a detailed comparison of something, he's the guy. He's branched away from the mainly mechanic oriented stuff recently, but still staying unbought.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thanks Steve

[–] mightyfoolish 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I legit upvoted every Thanks Steve comment right before I posted this thread! 🤣 I love that meme.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

ditto😆

Intel really set themselves up for a perfect memefest😂

[–] reddit_sux 12 points 6 months ago

This is true of apple as reviewers critical of them are never invited for their events.

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[–] Rakonat 10 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Yes! He's literally done this ever since his first iPhone review. I think it was the iPhone 4s? Somewhere around that time...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] viperex 5 points 5 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 71 points 6 months ago (8 children)

I just take Marques for what he is - normie entertainment tech channel.

All marketing hype associated with Apple is always to be taken with a grain, nay, a shovel of salt.

[–] Linkerbaan 15 points 6 months ago

MKBHD is still responsible for spreading advertorials.

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[–] the_toast_is_gone 48 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mightyfoolish 17 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mightyfoolish 26 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Fades 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

fuck that, you're missing the forest for the trees - we need RIGHT TO REPAIR LEGISLATION.

[–] modeler 1 points 6 months ago

I agree, so much legislation is broken, the legislators aren't doing shit, so we citizens need to fix it!

But we could start with the right to repair.

[–] Fades 43 points 6 months ago (1 children)

lmao and here I keep hearing about how MKBHD is SOOOOOO unbiased and has a following because he doesn't give easy reviews

[–] mightyfoolish 39 points 6 months ago (1 children)

His review on those AI gadgets were pretty scathing. Though, the claim here is that he is biased for Apple, not for whoever sends him devices.

[–] phoneymouse 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Linkerbaan 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

People critical of Apple get put on the Apple media blacklist.

MKBHD sucks up to Apple so he keeps getting early access to their events because Apple = Views.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mightyfoolish 37 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (7 children)

He does great videos

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Man this guy on speed or something

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Nah, just a workaholic IMO.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

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.

Why this isn't obvious is just idk.

[–] Fades 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Exactly. Apple only cares about the bigger fish, like big YouTube reviewers and their own presentation. They let their fanbase take care of the rest.

[–] TORFdot0 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Paying influencers, either in money or gadgets, is part of Apple's advertising. Their whole appeal is their popularity and "affordable luxury".

I'm not expressing this well, but I hope you know what I mean.

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