Meta
”CNet Scoring System Analyzed; 70% of all gadgets between 6.0 and 7.9
I've always teased friends at CNet about their rating system, which appears to always rate products between 7 and 8, meaning everything is more or less "very good" in score. Ecoustics has done the job of analyzing 1,325 reviews from 2007 (all of them?) and figured out the exact math: 96% of all ratings from last year fell between 5.0 and 8.9; about 70% fall between 6 and 7.9. Maybe CNet should make anything a "CNet 6 or below" a "1", and anything that scores a "CNet 10" a "5". After all, anything below a 6 means DO NOT BUY to me. More »
gadgets
Why Apple Fanboys Think Reporters Are Licking Someone's Balls
The problem with fanboys is that it's never enough—no matter how breathlessly one lauds a gadget, pointing out the smallest of flaws inevitably triggers a tidal wave of email accusing you of sucking the competition's teat (or worse). Mossberg calls it "The Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation." Turns out, there's a scientific explanation for fanboys' maddeningly narrow worldview, Farhad Manjoo explains his new book about the death of objective reality, True Enough. Oh, and congrats, Apple fanboys you're among the worst:But many fans of Apple often seem to want more. They care little for honest opinion. They want to pick up the paper and see in it a reflection of their own nearly religious zeal for the thing they love. They don't want a review. They want a hagiography.More »
Aaron Broder, Kid Reporter, Blitzes CES, Gets the Scoops
Meet Aaron Broder, the 14-year-old reporter and member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps. He's covering CES from start to finish. Chaperoned by his mom, the resourceful young man convinced the CES suits to bend the "no one under 16, no exceptions" rule to grant him a press pass. Good move, because after all, there are millions of people his age who are tech experts (and who read Gizmodo), and it's about time they got some press representation.
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overheard at ces
Overheard at CES: Overcaffeinated Edition
Fat White Guy: I shouldn't even give you coffee.
Handsome Gizmodo Writer: Who? Me?
FWG: Yes you, you guys wrote a story on the cookie lady but not the fat white guy serving coffee!
Heard while: waiting for a latte. Congratulations, Fat White Guy, you're internet famous.
CES 2008: What You Missed So Far
We arrived at CES yesterday, and despite being separated into bloggers and press, and watching the game in standard def, we've had a great time so far. If you've missed the coverage, let's catch you up to speed: More »Saddest Sight in the World: HD DVD Sponsored Bags at CES
Oh, poor HD DVD. Toshiba pays big bucks to stamp its name and the HD DVD logo on every journo bag they hand out at CES. But Warner's bitchslap has sent them home to cut their wrists and cry in the corner, so they're not even here! Yep, the HD DVD Group has shitcanned their conference. Just how did we get to this sad state of affairs? Let's review. More »Bloggers Get Special Privileges, Their Own Exclusive Lounge at CES
We've done a bit more investigation into this Press vs. Blogger war that CES has started, and it turns out that the Bloggers actually have more privileges than the Press! What the hell is that about?! There's a press room for people to come and write up their stories, as shown above. Both Press and Bloggers are allowed in. It's a big, desolate space with a bunch of round tables with Ethernet cables. Pretty boring, right? Then there's the Bloggers Lounge, which is open only to Bloggers; Press is turned away at the door. Get a load of this shot we snapped inside there.
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hot badges of shame
CES Separates the Wheat From the Chaff with Blogger and Press Badges
High drama at CES! Instead of all of us being united under the umbrella of "press," some of us were arbitrarily deemed "bloggers" and others "press." I'm press, but Chen is a blogger. We aren't sure exactly what the difference is, but I assume that the CES admins will force Chen to wait for me to write up stories dryly and then he'll link to them and add some sassy commentary. We refer to his badge as the "white badge of shame." Sorry Chen, you lowly blogger.
zune
J Allard Finally Photographed In Public With Zune
We're not sure why this was a policy, but J Allard famously avoided being photographed with a Zune starting from the launch last year up until this week. Seriously, go try and find a picture of him with a Zune. It's impossible! Apparently his shame for the generation 1 product is over, since he proudly held up a Zune at the Microsoft event Tuesday. Welcome to the Social, J.Adam Frucci Talking iPhone on Attack of the Show, Sexing up Cable TV
Can't get enough Frucci hotness on Gizmodo? Check out a live version of our Adam on G4's Attack of the Show, talking about the iPhone. The clip's only about five minutes long, but that should be enough for you ladies to finish up. That is, if you look away when Mark McClusky is on the screen.
cellphones
Mark Wilson Wouldn't Give Up His Cellphone For Anything Less Than an Island
In an interview with ABCnews, Mark Wilson reveals that he would only give up his cellphone if he was given enough money to buy his own private island. I'm sure he was just being facetious, because I have it on good authority that he would give up much more for much less. More »
nyt pulpbite
NY Times: Smaller, Easier to Use Gadgets Are Made for Women
Typically, the most shoddy work journalists put out is the ubiquitous trendspotting piece. And today's NY Times article, "To Appeal to Women, Too, Gadgets Go Beyond 'Cute' and 'Pink,' " excels at digging itself so far into stereotypical, sexist bunk I don't even know where to begin to pull it apart. More »
meta
DPreview Bought Out by Amazon: How Does This Affect You?
Did you hear that dpreview.com was just bought out by Amazon? If you're not familiar with dpreview, it's the largest database for digital camera reviews and news on the internet. Hell, it's even the first result if you type "cameras" into Google. More »PC World Editor Harry McCracken Returns Victorious
In an interesting reversal, departed PC World Editor Harry McCracken has returned to the magazine as "vice-president, editor in chief" as of this morning. What's even more surprising is that CEO Colin Crawford has been dropped from the CEO position and is taking up the executive vice president, online position. He's even given the editorial staff an apology for killing the story. His blog has removed the post about the EIC changes at PC World. The situation sounds sour for him, but I doubt Harry would have returned to work with Crawford after such a public disagreement.
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Conan O'Brien Visits Lucasfilm, Intel
PC World Publishes Tame "10 Things We Hate About Apple" Story
Everyone was talking late last week about Harry McCracken and his resignation from PC World due to a breach of the editorial/advertising wall. The story, in short, was that Harry wanted to run something called "10 Things We Hate About Apple", and the CEO didn't, because of possibly upsetting advertisers (namely, Apple). Well, PC World ran the story today anyway.
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