Unbelievable. Wait it's Sony, it was completely believable.

axiomatic

Detourz

TuxRug

SonOfMagicFact

thesez

They're finally realizing the memory stick model worked against them, especially that 2x128MB select crap.

Meh, beats having to buy a $200 120GB HDD, $70 wifi adapter and $40 memory card for my 360.

defn

For instance, I understand they had the hit on that dog canceled.
Nice.

strider_mt2k

TonyTriple

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

"Save $39 by adding 'Super-Happy-Fun' utilities. These add such and such search features, weather gadgets, and blah blah blah. Powered by AOL Spyware."

This way, people can accept a little inconvenience to save a little money, or people who care can pay a bit more for a clean system.

Either way, Dell's bottom line doesn't change, and customer's don't have to "add" something and pay more to get less.

Power users can game the system by paying themselves $39 to wipe the crap themselves.

With an opt-in system, you can make the ad-ware a bit more custom, a bit more invasive, with a more encompassing EULA, which makes it more valuable to companies that are doing user analysis and targetted spyware ad-related stuff. Everybody wins.

ludwigk

creamsissle

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

snakepliskin

lafond66

Intellimouse

Intellimouse

LJN

Simpsons-Movie-ruled

That little player works amazingly well, second to none sound right out of the box, compatible with Rhapsody To Go, simple to use, great design. I'm no Sony fanboy, but was thrilled that they finally got something right (including their business savvy approach to win the high-def media battle).

In fact, I'd say that historically, Sony's biggest problem was never the competition, it was Sony themselves! The rootkit fiasco, not making MiniDisc and Betamax available to more manufacturers earlier, forcing proprietary media types on its customers, etc.

purecoda

homerjay

Wonder why there is bloat ware? to furhter bring down the price point(for example google paid dell "$x" a box to have google desktop preinstalled).

People want more for less, who doesnt? Unfortunately, in regards to this topic, this is not a possibility. If you go to the site dell ideastorm, one of the most requested things was to offer a "clean" os for a premium. People are too stupid/lazy to simply reinstall the os after receiving the system. Unless you make $50 and hour, it is worth your time to save the money and let them install the crapware, then once you recieve the pc, wipe it with the provided media and start fresh(keep in mind that most major distributors provide a driver disk as well as a OEM OS disk, installing an OS is a cakewalk these days).

To criminalize sony with sensationalist headlines for offering customers the ability to opt out, forgoing the discount the software brings,is, for lack of a better term, irrational.

jackbling

kibets

Joseph

nutbastard

lilaliendog

Munch

Mandatory_Field

drewkkake

avatarr

BoinK