Vesper is a new note-taking app from Q Branch, a company comprised of the engineering talents of Brent Simmons, the design talents of Dave Wiskus, and the directorial talents of John Gruber.

So far opinion seems to be divided – many Apple bloggers are hailing it as the greatest thing since sliced bread, whereas many of the regular developers that I know or follow on some form of social media are of the opinion that it is over-priced and under-featured in an already saturated market segment.

Much of my own opinion on the matter can be summarised by Dr. Drang’s take: “Form and Function”

Here’s a thought experiment: Imagine a new note-taking app written by an unknown developer. It’s has a nice, clean look and is easy to use, but it has no syncing, no TextExpander support, and no URL scheme. Assuming the app got any attention at all, how much effort would Apple bloggers put into defending that design choice? How often would the phrase “data silo” be used?

Personally, I’m a little jealous of the guys behind Q Branch. There, I’ve said it. As an iOS developer it smarts a little to see them get such acclaim for what is, by modern standards, a well designed but feature lacking app.

But what irks most is that this is symptomatic of much of what goes on in the Apple community these days. We have promoted certain individuals to the status of idols. We hang off their every word, we repeat their opinions in a parrot-like fashion, and we judge their work without the same level of criticism that we would apply to mere mortals.

We as a community need to stop this, otherwise we’re just the ‘fanbois’ we’ve always been derided for being.