Sunday, November 24, 2024
Archived Post

The Dead Zone: More Apple Sites Bite The Dust

UPDATE: One site listed in an earlier version of this post is very much alive! That is Apple Must, run by Jonny Evans. We apparently had a bad link to a single page on the site, so it appeared that Apple Must had not been updated in two years. Our apologies for including it in the list.

It’s sad to see websites shut down for any reason, and it seem like some of the older, more established sites just aren’t making it anymore. That’s the case with two sites run by the same team, MacSurfer and TechNN, which have announced that they’re ceasing operations immediately. In addition, Mac360 shut down last month as editor Ron McElfresh is suffering from ALS.

The first two sites were at a disadvantage from the start, being “aggregation” sites that basically just ran headlines from other sites (AWT included) rather than publishing any original content. It also appears that they weren’t keeping up with the sites they were following, since many of the names on the list had been gone for years!

Well, that list gave me a good look at the sites that are no longer with us…

  • As The Apple Turns: Last article published March, 2000

  • ATPM: Last article published May, 2012

  • Automation Orchard: No idea when last article was published, since no year was used in blog articles

  • Betalogue: Last article published May, 2017

  • Insanely Great Mac: Safari won’t open it because the certificate is invalid

  • Ken Stone’s Final Cut Pro: A smattering of articles from 2014

  • Mac360: Shut down last month, see first paragraph

  • MacGameFiles: Appears to have died in early 2016

  • Mac Kung Fu: Last article published October, 2018

  • MacOSX Hints: Last article published November, 2014

  • MacReviewZone: Server not found…

  • MacSlash: “Sign up to be notified when we re-launch”

  • MacSpeedZone: Appears to be experiencing a WordPress error that hasn’t been resolved

  • Macuariam: Dead fish floating in the bowl since 2003

  • ModMy: Last article published in early 2019

  • The Mothership: Appears to have gone stale in 2017

  • Tech Night Owl: Allegedly still running although the last article is dated New Year’s Eve, 2019

  • Two Guys and a Podcast (TGAAP): Domain up for grabs as of January, 2020

  • VR On Mac: Server not found…

That’s not including The Unofficial Apple Weblog (killed by AOL in February, 2015), MacCentral, Macsimum News, and Apple Daily Report — websites that Dennis and I were involved with over the years.

As you can see, it’s not easy for smaller websites like AWT to keep going. Even some of the larger Apple sites over the years have been shut down or absorbed into other sites.

We need your help to ensure that Apple World Today doesn’t go the way of this litany of websites! You can buy hardware and software through the Apple World Today Deals Shop, click on those ads you see scattered around the site, or donate a few bucks a month to the care and feeding of AWT. You can do that by becoming a Patreon supporter!

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Steve Sande
the authorSteve Sande
Steve is the founder and former publisher of Apple World Today and has authored a number of books about Apple products. He's an avid photographer, an FAA-licensed drone pilot, and a really bad guitarist. Steve and his wife Barb love to travel everywhere!