Critique of: Are Cookbooks Obsolete? By Julia Moskin

Julia Moskin's argument is sound despite her initial anecdote. She uses an anecdote that limits her audience to extremely enthusiastic cooks, who have their recipes planned out a month in advance for thanksgiving. This would be fine were it not for the rest of the blog post being directed toward a wider audience including new, and casual cooks, and tech enthusiasts. She effectively uses the opinion of professionals, however there really are no credentials for these cooks, so we may not know if they are professional cooks or her aunt and uncle. for the most part a sound argument.

Summary of: Are Cookbooks Obsolete? By Julia Moskin

In this blog post Julia Moskin argues that cookbook apps will soon replace physical cookbooks in the kitchen. to get her argument across she used an anecdote to try to relate the situation an app would be better suited in the kitchen then a cookbook or recipe card. The technique wasn't used very well, using such an anecdote narrowed her audience, because not everyone gets as excited about cooking thanksgiving as she might assume. an effective method she used was using the opinion of seasoned cooks. It showed that not only were tech savvy new cooks preferring apps over cookbooks, but the older traditional cooks were showing a preference toward the apps.
Original Blog: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/dining/are-apps-making-cookbooks-obsolete.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Critique of Is Valve’s Steam Hack as Bad as the Sony PlayStation Debacle?

The author paints a scary picture of what can happen because of the hacking, but they didn't use very much of the evidence and support that they could have. It seemed the only support they used was comparing valves hacking to the Sony hacking, they are the most similar, but the argument could have been better, especially since there was very little actual issues that arose for regular people after the Sony hack, it was mostly just a public relations nightmare for the company. valve is yet to even offer any sort of compensation for the incident as Sony had, and news has hardly gotten out about the hacking, it's hardly equivalent to the Sony hack. The author then touches on an issue at the end of the blog, about how giving up control can be more convenient but also a lot more dangerous, that was the issue he should have been writing about, it's way more important, and yet it was barely touched on.

Summary of: Is Valve’s Steam Hack as Bad as the Sony PlayStation Debacle? By Matt Peckham

In this Blog post Matt Peckham explains how steam was hacked, and the importance of the event, as well as the concequences that could stem from the hacking. to speculate, Peckham used the fate of sony after their hacking, he uses bandwagon apeal to draw almost all conclusions. it's a good argument but could be much better.

Original Blog: http://techland.time.com/2011/11/11/is-valves-steam-hack-as-bad-as-sony-playstation-debacle/

critique of a blog by Harry McCracken

McCracken writes his argument very well. he includes appropriate and relevant examples of the issue, he's addressing, as well as possible and feasible solutions to the problem. His argument is mature and well constructed, as well as professional. You can tell McCracken has done his research. he knows all the versions of the android software, as well as which phones can and do run each OS. He also can support his theories with statements given by various google executives. McCracken can also effectively compare android and it's business strategies to it's main competitor apple.

Summary of Android’s Fragmentation Mess–and How to Fix It By Harry McCracken

Basically McCracken is saying that the Android OS would be better able to compete with other OS, especially the iOS, all it takes is better business strategy. The Android OS is not standard enough for the general public. There are fractured versions of the OS depending on the brand of phone, the phones capabilities, and the service provider. This makes it nearly impossible to update software, and impossible for apps to be universal. The Author believes that Google should control their product more, so that phones that use their OS will be more standard, so that updates can be more frequent, and so that the OS itself and all the apps on their marketplace can all work with all phones that run it. McCracken compares the Android OS and its success to the iOS and its success time and time again, to help make his point relevant. Obviously the consumer enjoys the certainty that apple will not simply out mode older models and stop coming out with updates for them, that’s why so many are sold. It’s a well written blog that is very persuasive in its argument; however the argument is pointless because the audience is not Google executives.

Original Blog: http://techland.time.com/2011/11/10/the-android-fragmentation-mess-and-how-to-fix-it/2/