DISQUS

The problem with reading guys like Thurrott, Ed Bott, George Ou, etc. is not just that they are still fighting in the jungle, but that their actual day jobs (since its obvious blogging isn't paying their bills) are as IT consultant types, who obviously recommend Microsoft Windows. They are the guys who advise companies to stick with Windows, and not venture out into OSX land, or god forbid, Open Source world. Loved reading Ed Bott's tireless defenses of Vista last year-he and Ballmer are the last two guys who still pretend it was a huge success.Its a pretty cushy gig actually; write a blog/column for some tech rags like ZDNet and WinITPro focusing on sticking with Windows ("Most IT departments I know are using Windows!") , and advise IT departments on which OS to run ("Based on what ZDNet/WinITPro  columnists have written, I suggest staying with Windows!" ) All from the comfort of their jungle hideaway :p

Everyone knows Engadget's quality plummeted when Ryan Block left to do his own thing.
The worst part is their live-blogging-the whole "oh we are so jaded nothing impresses us now" attitude may play "cool" to their 15 year old readers, but everyone else is just rather annoyed by it.

Their writers just don't seem to really enjoy gadgets anymore-or rather, the current writers they hired don't-its all about being snarky and "witty", at the expense of actually enthusiastically reporting on the latest in the gadget world. Rojas and Block could be critical, and could see thru the bullshit marketing hype, but they were gadget fans first. Guys like Topolsky and Murph could be writing about laundry detergents at this point-their lack of interest/knowlege is just disappointing.

What is apparent is that Gizmodo's writers are the perfect target of stock short-sellers: young, gullible, desperate-for-scoops, and basically, amateurs at reporting, or understanding even the simple basics of fact checking. I mean, for god's sake, Scoble at least does some leg work for this thing (as did Goldman). Gizmodo? Just had to post without checking to, you know "beat Engadget".

The saddest part? At some point, Steve Jobs will retire/quit/pass away. Could be next week, next month, next year, or 5 years from now. And guys like the Gizmodo writers will be the first to say "SEE? TOLD YOU SO", and proudly link to their old posts. As if that somehow makes their rumormongering somehow justifiable. Embarrassing

Fascinating, well researched, thoughtful article on the console wars. Thanks!

One funny observation: Shane Kim:
We won’t know the winner, he says, until somebody sells 100 million units.
Uh, sure. Let's just forget Bill Gates' boasts that the "first console to sell 1o million wins" Now Kim is claiming its 100 million?

I'd be fascinated to see you explore how Microsoft manipulated the gaming press and public with their supposed metrics of what constitutes victory in the console wars. They pushed two metrics repeatedly: First one to sell 10 million, and "attach rate". Neither of these metrics were ever used before to determine anything in previous console wars, and both metrics are based solely on one thing: which console launched first. It is no wonder Microsoft pushed those two metrics as the sole determining factor in the war (as opposed to profits, for example) what is amazing is how obediently the gaming press followed along.

What is interesting is that the article in question is written by Ed Bott-ZDNet's Microsoft "observer". His articles tend to read as Microsoft press releases reformatted into "computer news" blog posts.

Microsoft is launching a new ad campaign?
Bott: Looks like a great start!

Sony's new notebooks don't have as much adware as other computers?
Bott: Amazing advances in Windows!

Microsoft trying to get people to move from XP to Vista?
Bott: Proof Vista is much better at security than XP!

@justin:
"I think their point is that Apple has you by the balls when you buy an iPhone"

Uh, what phone manufacturer/Carrier in the US doesn't? Shouldn't this be "don't buy a cell phone, keep using the telegraph"?

Why focus on Apple? Oh yeah, because they are publicity whores.

"But does that mean his content shouldn’t be allowed on Verizon’s mobile service? "

The people who found his content unfunny, racist, and inappropriate exercised their free speech rights by letting a corporation know they wouldn't be customers if they disapproved of the content.

Loren Feldman's supporters are free to exercise their free speech rights as well, to contact Verizon and let them know they do want his content. As opposed to just visiting all the blog comment sections and accusing everyone who disagrees with them as being "politically correct" or "humourless".

Great post.
And the all the "i despise politically correctness" whiners miss the point.
They have the exact same right as you do-to tell corporations such as Verizon how they feel about the content they provide. And Verizon can decide based on that feedback.

I wonder how many of the whiners here bothered to contact Verizon as you did to voice their opinion? Or just went around bitching in the comments sections :p

Well done!

Didn't FriendFeed add Robert Scoble (and a few other "A listers") to EVERYONES Friends list? Basically counting on people's laziness in not de-friending them, similar to "Tom" being everyone's default friend on MySpace?

Great perspective on the issue, thanks for the article.

I'm a bit puzzled by Techcrunch's escalating rhetoric and mounting hysteria about this issue. Its a big deal, but they are blowing it way out of proportion with their warnings of impending doom for the Net. I notice today they have continued the rant with more new articles about it.

One has to wonder why Techcrunch is so emotionally involved in this deal-unless of course they have a lot of stock riding on it :p

This is very cool. I wonder if we'll start seeing a bit of the DIGG controversy rising from this-where certain power users get all the clicks to stories, even if a smaller blogger breaks it first. Hope you keep researching this!

Interesting how Scoble makes the call on the deal based on an actual datum point (the stock prices-as good a measure as any), and the detractors counter with...opinion on how wrong he is.

The fact is, everyone on Saturday predicted Yahoo's stock would plummet to pre-deal price, and it didn't. So the stock was a useful datum point on Saturday, until it didn't show what detractors wanted to see, so now its not?

It has been seriously hilarious watching the Firefox guys the last several months. From the embarrassed reaction to revelations of how much the "free browser company" makes from Google each year (A LOT), to the "Acid3 is useless now that we can't meet it, besides, we are busy with Firefox 3 ", and now this whole snit about an Apple browser's checkbox on Windows machines...its great entertainment!

I love it!

It was by Jon Fortt. That should have tipped you off immediately.

Wow, Robert, you really stirred up those Enterprise Software guys :p I think its amazing how many of them fell back on the old "its more complex than you realize, you just don't understand" chestnut. Reminds me of all the old mainframe guys trying to defend their turf as everyone moved to personal computers. A change SHOULD be coming, and the old school IT/Enterprise guys are the first that should be put out of work.

Even more ridiculous, he's blaming Apple for "killing" the music business?

The problem with Scott's criticisms is his constant whining about the iPhone, which he has already admitted in previous posts he doesn't own and has never owned or used except "in the store". He has problems with his Blackberry and "the Mobile Web" based on personal experience, fine. But his insistence in bringing up the iPhone in 4 of his 5 examples (without any proof) is just link baiting, and tiresome.

Damn. You nailed it.

Microsoft's 500meg limit is obviously carefully set to keep anyone from uploading movies (divx run around 600M min.) or games.

Another case of someone planning a service based mainly on PREVENTING 5% of the "bad" people from doing questionable stuff, rather than ENABLING the 95% of "good" people from actually, you know, getting something useful :p
(cf. DRM, etc.)

Robert, you are best when you are blogging about stuff you are passionate/excited about...why should you blog about stuff that isn't interesting to you?

Hardly fair, Robert. Apple's guys just finished up a hectic WWDC, and I'm sure the Apple iPhone guys are pretty tired from all the work up to the launch just last week too. Give them a break.

I think the BarCamp is fun and all, and I hope some interesting stuff comes out of it. But it seems to me the BarCamp stuff is great BECAUSE it brings non-Apple views to the platform; we all know what Apple can do-just turn on your iPhone. After BarCamp, we'll know what OTHER people can do with this new Apple product.

And John's blog was pretty humourous-"turn for the worse"? He's always had a chip on his shoulder about Apple...maybe he needs to cut them some slack too. Or not.

Can't wait to see your review of it, Robert.

Oh, btw, not sure if you've been following ZDNet's blogger coverage of the iPhone-its been a bit controversial, given the negative aspects they have focused on. Now that Kingsley Hughes dude has resorted to moving from critizing the PRODUCT (iPhone), which is legitimate, to attacking anyone interested in buying the iPhone as "Stupid" (The "Stupid Rich").

So ZDNet has resorted to attacking users and potential users of a product thru name calling, rather than just reviewing/criticizing a product. Very classy!

(Note that he doesn't have an iPhone yet of course)

Exactly Robert-Disclosure is everything. This raises the question though..if you have to disclose, does the campaign work? That WalMart Across America debacle..would that have even been launched if they had to reveal it was a WalMart sponsored campaign? Would Arrington's use of the term be seen as MORE credible if he admitted being paid for using it?

The sad fact is a lot of these campaigns are based on deception...and based on your other point, that bloggers are considered credible (and above this astroturfing shit).

I've always appreciated your being upfront about stuff like Seagate, etc. This Microsoft "conversation" talking points thing just doesn't pass the smell test.

"You might need to goto settings in the real player to change how it connects to the internet from your GSM APN to your WIFI SSID."

That bit of technobabble is exactly the problem right there. :P
How about..You click on the play icon, and it plays?