Walt Mossberg

“In 2007, everything changed with the iPhone. As crippled as that first model now seems, with its lack of apps and glacial cellular connectivity, the iPhone was a practical, useful, self-contained computer a child could understand. It was an information appliance.”

“I've been on the Web from the beginning of the Web. The good part about writing about technology is that you never run out of ideas, because it's changing so fast. The bad part is that it's changing so fast that there's a million new products and ideas every day and every week.”

“Open-minded tech tinkerers may still prefer traditional PCs for work because they allow much more customization than, say, an iPad.”

“Though many people mistakenly credit IBM with the first PC in 1981, the Apple II came out four years earlier, in 1977.”

“There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers.”

“By the 2010s, almost everybody in the developed world, it seemed, had a powerful digital device that took little or no special skills or training to use.”

“Slack spread through businesses like wildfire, initially in the tech and media sectors, but now much more widely. At its public launch in February 2014, it had 17,000 users. As of April 1st, 2016, that number had rocketed to 2.7 million daily active users.”

“With Caavo, you don't have to know the device name, the network name, the service name. Just which show you want to watch, regardless of whether it's live, recorded, downloaded or streaming.”

“I've known Bezos for decades, since the very early days of Amazon, so it's no surprise to me that he's smart or willing to make big bets.”

“Amazon makes mistakes, including launching a smartphone in 2014 that was a flop and to which I gave a poor review.”

“As for the device we now call a TV or a cable box, I want it to be fast with a clean interface and seamlessly upgradeable to the latest software. I want it to be the primary source of all TV, not an ancillary device.”

“In August of 2011, Steve Jobs, the tech icon who disrupted a string of traditional industries, called me and told me he thought he'd figured out a way to revolutionize TV. He invited me to come see it at Apple in a few months, but he died just six weeks later, and that meeting never came to pass.”

“Taken as a whole, consumer technologies have made startling advances, but they still are not as easy to use as they should be.”

“Despite the never-ending debate on the question of the role of government in America, there's been a strong tradition of protecting our undisputed, important natural treasures or taking on great common engineering challenges.”

“I actually think it's against the rules at Vox Media to work there if you've never dropped an iPhone.”

“Though it has plenty of competitors, Slack claims to be the 'fastest growing business application in history'.”

“Practically every smartphone, tablet, and laptop is fabricated in a Chinese factory, even if they are designed here.”

“No computer or smartphone can ever be considered 100 percent 'safe.' We're all engaged in a perpetual battle with criminals and hostile governments trying to use computers and the Internet to steal information and identities.”

“Ultimately, I don't think even a five-company platform oligopoly is good for consumer tech. By its very nature, it handicaps independent companies with new ideas. But it will end one day. I just don't know when.”

“The car is the ultimate mobile device, isn't it?”