"There was a point when blogs were the only sites that got down and dirty with every kind of gadget that spun up labs in apartments to test manufacturer claims and to be a consumer advocate. That was a valuable thing, and it became an obsession for a certain segment of the populace. Now, however, technology is in the mainstream. It’s in the ground water. Sites (or verticals) like these are also symptomatic of the fact that companies are specifically designing their products to not promote specifications; instead they’re being made to emphasize the user experience (something that was totally foreign to many industries just a decade ago). As the devices themselves de-emphasize their inner workings — the iPhone is carefully designed so that anybody who’s ever touched the thing can use it — this is reflected in public perception. People are busier than ever and have been educated by the industry to care about how something works, not why it works. And sites like this are reflections of that." - × × ×