Welcome to Apple World Today. While this is a new website, the roots of it go back ten years to the founding of a site called The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). That site grew out of Weblogs, Inc., which had a large stable of websites including Engadget, Joystiq, and Autoblog. Weblogs, Inc. was acquired in 2005 by Aol, which regrettably decided to discontinue some of the “smaller” websites in the last week. TUAW was down, but not out.
When I worked at Apple back between 2005 and 2007 I cannot tell you how frequently TUAW was open in the back of the store. Apple didn’t provide us with more information than we needed to sell their products, so sites like TUAW allowed us to do more research, read reviews of accessories, and learn more about the Apple world. Last week, Aol shut down TUAW, which was a major punch to the gut of many in the tech world, but today the team that was let go from TUAW is now launching Apple World Today (AWT).
What makes me happy is this:
Our biggest desire is to avoid the banner ad hell that most websites, especially those owned by our former employer, have become. That’s why we’re looking at doing two things: relying on a few sponsors who are depending on you to go out and buy their product to keep them afloat and supporting AWT, and working that Patreon crowdfunding. Let’s throw the advertisers back into the trash heap and take back our internet; make Apple World Today your “public radio” of Apple news and reviews!
Ads on the web are becoming simply rediculous. Sites like MacStories and Beautiful Pixels avoid annoying ads by leveraging sponsorships and their readership. It’s great to see another blog launching with the same intent.
For anyone that has followed TUAW over the years, Apple World Today is definitely one to follow.