Are Engadget and Gizmodo selling out to Apple???

arn said:
I think you guys are missing the original poster's point... and I do think he has one. He's not criticizing their acceptance of NDA's products perse... but it is strange that if the sites did have full knowledge of these products over the past few days, then it's weird for them to be speculating and acting like they didn't know anything when reporting about the last minute rumors. That said, I don't know the details of who/how/when they got access to these review products. arn
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arn, correct me if I'm wrong. But one employee at Engadget could be given the product, the NDA could prevent that person from even legally telling his/her coworkers. Another could write the articles regarding speculation?
 
thegoldenmackid said:
arn, correct me if I'm wrong. But one employee at Engadget could be given the product, the NDA could prevent that person from even legally telling his/her coworkers. Another could write the articles regarding speculation?
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Sure, anything's possible. I would assume they acted appropriately. I generally trust both engadget and gizmodo from an editorial standpoint. It seems like they got the devices this morning. I was just acknowledging the appearance of the situation as described by the original poster.

And if MacRumors were offered pre-release NDA'd hardware reviews from Apple, I'm sure we'd take them. But, I would feel very weird about writing the night before that X,Y,Z might be coming out if I happened to know for sure that only X,Y are coming out.

arn
 
arn said:
But, then I would definitely feel very weird about writing the night before that X,Y,Z might be coming out when I happen to know for sure that only X,Y are coming out.

arn
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That's what Eric is for. :rolleyes:
 
arn said:
Sure, anything's possible. Like I said, I don't know what the situation is and I generally trust both engadget and gizmodo from an editorial standpoint. Maybe they got the devices this morning. Maybe they got them a month ago. Just pointing out the appearance to the original poster, which is a legitimate question mark.

And if we were offered pre-release hardware reviews from Apple, I'm sure we'd probably take them. But, then I would feel very weird about writing the night before that X,Y,Z might be coming out when I know that X,Y are definitely coming out.

arn
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ARN!!!! I had given up on this thread and I came back one last time and I see this.

Thank you so much for understanding the point of this thread.

For all that are listening, Arn said that he would feel pretty uncomfortable writing about stuff he clearly knew about and acting as if he knew nothing (creating hype). Now layer that over willingly doing it, and getting paid for it.

That is lack of journalistic integrity. Something that Engadget and Giz, and any popular blog should hold themselves to.

There are many different ways Giz and Engadget can make money on their site. I hope that they don’t sell their credibility by selling the body (or core content) or there blogs.

And today it very much seemed like they did with apple posts. (Remember it was the fact that they created hype, and acted as if they knew nothing (when they clearly knew something) that has caused me concern.
 
arn said:
I think you guys are missing the original poster's point... and I do think he has one. He's not criticizing their acceptance of NDA's products perse...

but it is strange that if the sites did have full knowledge of these products over the past few days, then it's weird for them to be speculating and acting like they didn't know anything when reporting about the last minute rumors.

That said, I don't know the details of who/how/when they got access to these review products, so I don't want to accuse anyone of anything.

arn
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Now if this is the case, I suppose they could have some of the "bloggers" who are lower on the hierarchy at Gizmodo, or where ever else, that don't have access to info that the editor does, write about the speculations...

Then when Apple goes official with this, the editors and reviewers write about it. That could be the case..
 
TheShagler said:
I felt like a young kid walking in on his parents putting presents under the Christmas tree and learning the painful truth about Santa Clauses nonexistence….
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You arse, Santa is real. :rolleyes:

Apple is just promoting it's products through third party reviewers like engadget and gizmodo. Sounds like you think products don't exist one moment and suddenly come into being.

And Steve Said: "Lest no pocket be ye without iPod"
 
HBOC said:
Now if this is the case, I suppose they could have some of the "bloggers" who are lower on the hierarchy at Gizmodo, or where ever else, that don't have access to info that the editor does, write about the speculations...

Then when Apple goes official with this, the editors and reviewers write about it. That could be the case..
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It wasn’t a lower hierarchy blogger that was generating the hype. It was the same blogger that posted one of the unboxing and hands on before the information was on the Apple site.

Additionally yesterday the same blogger wrote a long post speculating on many Apple rumors titled "Apple to introduce host of new machines, new multitouch input devices tomorrow?"

Now how great does that make Engadget look that all the rumors they were speculating on came true, sure makes them look credible?

The problem here is knowing something, acting like you don’t know something, creating hype, and getting paid to do it.

It’s a very grey area, and I think it’s dishonest and wrong.
 
TheShagler said:
Acting like you know nothing… Building Hype…. And then having Pictures, Reviews, and Positive comments moments after the product is announced is suspect, and a problem.

The Key to this problem is around the Hype that these blogs create.

Hype = Product sales.

We expect the blogs to be unbiased and to report the news, not a media for selling products to us.
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Sorry but this is the stupidest thing I've heard for some time.

How do you think ANY review site works? Companies send out review samples ahead of time accompanied by a NDA. This does not 'influence' a site, it's part of the review process. Not one sinlge thing you've said points to anyone being biased, they're not trying to sell you anything (it's not as if they're a retailer) they're just reviewing kit as soon as possible.

Now with that said, have you even READ what they've posted? There's a basic unboxing and what's obviously a quick video (this is Engadget). There's no review, just initial impressions. If they'd had the kit for a long time THEY'D HAVE HAD FULL REVIEWS UP! Most likely Apple had told them 'expect a delivery today around 11am' under a NDA. During the period the Apple Store was down Apple ships product to the big blog sites because, guess what, they're the primary source of news for thousands upon thousands of geeks. There's a dozen other ways that could work without the sites knowing what was coming, only that something was, and there's no need for them to know weeks in advance.

Actually, having read through Gizmodo's stuff again, their photos are actually taken of the iMac IN THE BACK OF A CAR! Do you really think they'd be doing that if they had received these machines weeks in advance? Or is it more likely that they've just gone to pick them up from their local UPS depot when they agreed with Apple that they'd do so?

What you've seen today is no different to attending a keynote or getting an interview. We should be CELEBRATING the fact that blogs can get so big and so important that a company like Apple would go to such trouble to supply review units. You've got no proof whatsoever that they knew in advance, all the evidence points to them NOT knowing specifics (very short hands on, unboxing today, shots of products in cars etc) and this just feels like complaining for no damn reason.
 
smiddlehurst said:
Sorry but this is the stupidest thing I've heard for some time.

How do you think ANY review site works? Companies send out review samples ahead of time accompanied by a NDA. This does not 'influence' a site, it's part of the review process. Not one sinlge thing you've said points to anyone being biased, they're not trying to sell you anything (it's not as if they're a retailer) they're just reviewing kit as soon as possible.

Now with that said, have you even READ what they've posted? There's a basic unboxing and what's obviously a quick video (this is Engadget). There's no review, just initial impressions. If they'd had the kit for a long time THEY'D HAVE HAD FULL REVIEWS UP! Most likely Apple had told them 'expect a delivery today around 11am' under a NDA. During the period the Apple Store was down Apple ships product to the big blog sites because, guess what, they're the primary source of news for thousands upon thousands of geeks. There's a dozen other ways that could work without the sites knowing what was coming, only that something was, and there's no need for them to know weeks in advance.

Actually, having read through Gizmodo's stuff again, their photos are actually taken of the iMac IN THE BACK OF A CAR! Do you really think they'd be doing that if they had received these machines weeks in advance? Or is it more likely that they've just gone to pick them up from their local UPS depot when they agreed with Apple that they'd do so?

What you've seen today is no different to attending a keynote or getting an interview. We should be CELEBRATING the fact that blogs can get so big and so important that a company like Apple would go to such trouble to supply review units. You've got no proof whatsoever that they knew in advance, all the evidence points to them NOT knowing specifics (very short hands on, unboxing today, shots of products in cars etc) and this just feels like complaining for no damn reason.
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Thanks for sharing your opinion. I wish you would have done it with out attacking me first, but thanks any way. This is a very passionate post, do you work for a Blog?

I too am happy that blogs get preview samples of new products so they can report them to us. But I expect them not to create unnecessary hype for the manufacture by releasing tidbits of information to us under the guise of "leaked information". When in fact they know the whole story because they have review products in their office.

That is what Im "complaining" about.
 
TheShagler said:
Thanks for sharing your opinion. I wish you would have done it with out attacking me first, but thanks any way. This is a very passionate post, do you work for a Blog?

I too am happy that blogs get preview samples of new products so they can report them to us. But I expect them not to create unnecessary hype for the manufacture by releasing tidbits of information to us under the guise of "leaked information". When in fact they know the whole story because they have review products in their office.

That is what Im "complaining" about.
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Hype=traffic=staying in business. Thats how a blog pretty much works. No hype, no reason to visit the blog.
 
NT1440 said:
Hype=traffic=staying in business. Thats how a blog pretty much works. No hype, no reason to visit the blog.
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Wrong.

Good content = traffic = staying in business

Creating unnecessary hype to drive traffic to your site = unfair way to treat your readers.
 
TheShagler said:
Wrong.

Good content = traffic = staying in business

Creating unnecessary hype to drive traffic to your site = unfair way to treat your readers.
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Lol, you're funny.

You really think those two approaches can't coexist?

You call it unfair, I call it reality, good luck in that fantasy world of yours. If THIS kind of manipulation is what gets to you then I suggest you take a look at the outside world for a while.
 
I think, as Arn and others have stated, that the blog sites got the products early this morning, while the Apple Store was down. They likely had no idea what the products were.

That being so, they could genuinely relay information from other sites and sources that new products were likely coming out. I'm too lazy to go look at the posts in question and if someone wants to link to them we could speculate more, but I HIGHLY doubt they had the new products any earlier than this morning. This is Apple we are talking about.
 
benlee said:
I think, as Arn and others have stated, that the blog sites got the products early this morning, while the Apple Store was down. They likely had no idea what the products were.
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One of the sites product gallery shots were taken in the parking lot of an ihop, I'm sooo sure that they've had the products for quite a while now....;)
 
NT1440 said:
One of the sites product gallery shots were taken in the parking lot of an ihop, I'm sooo sure that they've had the products for quite a while now....;)
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But yet they continued to build hype, speculate on rumors, and release leaked information. When they likely had the products in hand. All well maintaining a position of knowing nothing.
 
NT1440 said:
One of the sites product gallery shots were taken in the parking lot of an ihop, I'm sooo sure that they've had the products for quite a while now....;)
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Really? I thought the back of a hatchback offered prime photograph conditions, especially when trying to sling a product for the man.:D

This is for the OP: They were reporting on gadget news, within their NDA. I don't think it was for hype, but rather to relay news. Plus, the poster was being sarcastic.
 
TheShagler said:
But yet they continued to build hype, speculate on rumors, and release leaked information. When they likely had the products in hand. All well maintaining a position of knowing nothing.
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Yes, I'm sure in their dastardly plans they've had these new products for days, then to complete the illusion they drove to a parking lot to do their rushed photoshoot. :rolleyes:
 
i really don't see what the big deal is. I go to Gizmodo (for the past years) and other such sites, because i ilk the info the offer and what others' have to say.
 
HBOC said:
i really don't see what the big deal is. I go to Gizmodo (for the past years) and other such sites, because i ilk the info the offer and what others' have to say.
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The OP's point is to some extent a large deal, about creating the hype surrounding the rumors. You cannot credibly post that you think there will be products tomorrow when one is sitting on your desk. There are so many reasons why Engadget/Gizmodo could not say that they had products. Honestly though, if those two sites posted nothing about the likelihood of products?
 
HBOC said:
i really don't see what the big deal is. I go to Gizmodo (for the past years) and other such sites, because i ilk the info the offer and what others' have to say.
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Really? I agree that I like what the bloggers have to say, but the comments really bother me. Not as whiney as here, but 85% of Apple related posts are complaints about the fact that Apple sucks or Gizmodo sucks Apple's stem, etc. It is really annoying. I'm an Apple fanboy to an extent, but I don't EVER bash MS products.
 
thegoldenmackid said:
The OP's point is to some extent a large deal, about creating the hype surrounding the rumors. You cannot credibly post that you think there will be products tomorrow when one is sitting on your desk. There are so many reasons why Engadget/Gizmodo could not say that they had products. Honestly though, if those two sites posted nothing about the likelihood of products?
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Well, I am not a journalist, or even a reviewer or editor, so maybe that is why I just don't see why this is a big deal. I am sure that if they did something wrong, in Apples' eyes, they would have their privileges taken away from getting products early. That is a HUUGE deal to tech sites; to get products early. Are there laws against this practice, though? I am interested if there are...

benlee said:
Really? I agree that I like what the bloggers have to say, but the comments really bother me. Not as whiney as here, but 85% of Apple related posts are complaints about the fact that Apple sucks or Gizmodo sucks Apple's stem, etc. It is really annoying. I'm an Apple fanboy to an extent, but I don't EVER bash MS products.
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It is the internet. Everyone talks, I don't really care if people bash whatever. Yes it is annoying, but i find it funny that people will defend what they bought to the death, like they actually had a hand in the design process...

There is NO ONE review/tech site that NO ONE thinks is biased. People think consumer reports is biased... just the nature of technology sites..
 
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