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Posts Tagged ‘Onslaught’

Notice the Windows alternative in HP’s slate device. This is a good thing.
We have written repeatedly that Windows itself is one of the main reasons why touchscreen computers have never caught the general public’s attention. The interface just wasn’t designed for finger input. Like it or not, that’s the truth. Windows was designed to be used with a mouse, and to a lesser extent, a pen or stylus.

That’s fine. Windows 7 works great. I’m writing this on a Win7 machine. But I hate Windows on my tablet computers for the aforementioned reason. It’s also the reason I’m very apprehensive of the upcoming onslaught of slate computers. I’m afraid that wonderful hardware will be passed up in favor of the disappointing iPad because of the interface. But Adobe gave me hope today in its demo of Flash and Air on the HP slate device.

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I Pissed Off A PR Spammer Today

It’s no secret that we consider the PR industry, for the most part, the bane of our existence. They’re just under too much pressure to get results, and when we don’t do what they want (write about their clients), things turn ugly. And before things turn ugly, we get spammed. By phone, by Twitter, by Facebook, by email, by mail and by fedex. Some PR firms will lie, cheat, manipulate and then just smear your reputation to get what they want.

Today something new happened though. It wasn’t a PR firm we went to battle with, it was a press release distributor – prMac. I know these guys well, because for the last year and a half they’ve sent me an average of 15 emails a day, sometimes far more. Each email contains a useless press release that someone paid them to spam out to the media. As far as I know, not one of these emails has ever turned into a story.

Most PR emails come from a human, and it’s easy to just reply and tell them to stop if it becomes annoying. The more streamlined operations that spam stuff out at least give us an opt out to get off their dreaded mailing list. But not prMac – none of their emails have an opt out.

Today was the day I decided to take a stand against the onslaught of prMac emails. Some small step in my hope to regain human dignity, I guess. Since there was no opt out, I simply sent out a Tweet, saying “prMac really needs to chill out on the unsolicited press spam, and give an unsubscribe link.” I followed up with a link to a single day’s emails from the company.

If I were prMac, I would have seen this and either kept on spamming, or quietly taken techcrunch emails off their list. But that didn’t happen. Instead, they got angry. Really pissed off, actually.

First came a comment to that image of the spam, saying “Claims it’s spam, but OPTED IN to the service. The reason for the duplicates is TechCrunch provided two email addresses.”

Then a barrage of emails (sort of ironic). One said in part, and I’m not kidding, “prMac is an OPT IN service for the media. We’re not spammers. We set up your account for you, only for your convenience and under your behalf…”

Yep, they followed a statement that they are opt in only and that they aren’t spammers with an admission that they set up our account for us “only for your convenience” (and certainly not at our request).

Unpleasant words were exchanged over the course of ten or so more emails. prMac forwarded an email from 2008 where they cajoled a CrunchBase staffer into giving up our emails to start the whole process. I noted that I had no way of stopping the barrage, and kept pointing out that a simple opt out in each email would have been so…legal of them.

But by far the most perfectly absurd comment came from prMac in one of their last emails, where they said to me “…you seriously need to take some diplomacy lessons my friend. The smart ass remarks aren’t assuaging me one iota, and only making a situation worse than it didn’t even have to be.”

Indeed. And since I want to become a better person, I’ve enrolled myself in a course on how to be diplomatic with spammers who don’t want to let go. Hopefully, I’ll handle the situation with more finesse next time.

In the meantime, though, the whole PR profession really needs to get a grip. We aren’t here to do their bidding. We serve our readers. At least, the readers we like. And our community. If they want to be part of that community, they need to lose the sense of entitlement and chill out on the aggressive marketing a little bit.

I would have been quite happy just venting on Twitter earlier today and eventually setting up an email filter to remove anything that came from them. But we’re only human. And this tirade of angry emails (just now yet another one from them popped into my inbox – “If your receiving distributions from us were such a problem, when didn’t you bring this up long before?? It’s not like we started doing this yesterday.”) was a little too aggressive and a little too much. So now I’ve vented more fully.

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Brands Wasting No Time With Google Buzz. This Could Get Annoying.

When it came to Facebook and Twitter, it took brands a while to figure out how to take advantage of the social networks. With Foursquare, they have been much faster. But now with Google Buzz, they’re beating plenty of early adopters to it.

Samsung has already set up a Google Buzz account this morning and is already cranking out buzzes. Not only that, but they’re apparently trying to start their own trends on the service, as they have today tagged a bunch of their “favorite buzzers” and tagged the buzz with “#BUZZwednesday.” Of course, the problem here is that Google Buzz doesn’t support the “#” symbol the same way Twitter does (at least not yet). Still, you can search Buzz (right from within Gmail) for the term “#BUZZwednesday” and Samsung’s buzz will appear.

Of course, what’s annoying about the Buzz tagging mechanism is that it automatically sends these message to your Gmail inbox if you’re mentioned in one.

Hope everyone is ready for an onslaught of brands on the service! Need I remind you that Google Buzz just launched yesterday?

Update: And Samsung responds:

For the record, I think it’s smart for brands to hop on these services early — it’s just Samsung doing it’s job. But I think we can all see how this will get annoying quickly.

Update 2: And Samsung adds: “We agree that messages going to Inbox is not ideal. We need an @reply and DM section. Maybe even a comments, likes, and favorite sections.” A good idea, I think.

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NVIDIA Fermi pushed back to March, ATI prepping midrange refresh for early Q1?
Considering the present date, it’s no longer a mystery that Fermi won’t be seeing the glaring lights of store shelves this year, but now DigiTimes reports that the delay might be even longer than feared. Sources from within board manufacturers have been informed by NVIDIA that the launch of the 40nm GPU will be pushed back to March 2010. Though NVIDIA’s flagship DirectX 11 card has yet to get out of the starting blocks, ATI — already the proud papa of a litter of DX 11 parts — is said to be preparing a renewed onslaught on the mainstream market with two new releases slated for late January or early February. The HD 5670 (Redwood) and HD 5450 (Cedar) will slot in alongside the unannounced HD 5570 and HD 5350 to flesh out the lower and middle portions of ATI’s Evergreen refresh. So that’s one whole family of DirectX 11 parts from ATI, and one long wait from NVIDIA.

NVIDIA Fermi pushed back to March, ATI prepping midrange refresh for early Q1? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missile’

There’s something peculiar about Verizon’s latest addition to its promotional Droid onslaught. Sure, we get the expected Mad Libs-esque hyperboles like “it rips through the web like a circular saw through a ripe banana,” but other nods seem to indicate an acknowledgement that, well, it’s not the prettiest of flagship phone princesses. “Should [a phone be] be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?” (Wonder who that’s a reference to.) Listen Verizon, trading “hairdo for can do” is great and all, but why can’t we simply have both brains and beauty? Still, it’s nice to know the fighting words haven’t all but left the industry. See the ad for yourself after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missile’

Verizon ad confirms Droid is a not-quite pretty ‘racehorse duct taped to a Scud missile’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ATI Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 steal away reviewers’ hearts

The ATI onslaught of 40nm DirectX 11 parts continues today with two even cheaper variants coming from its Evergreen family of chips. Based on the Juniper core, the HD 5770 and 5750 represent ATI’s mainstream value proposition, with compute performance of more than 1 TFLOPS and pricing between $109 and $159. There’s a significant dropoff in specs from the world-conquering HD 5870 and similarly potent HD 5850, but reviewers found the latest cards were still up to the task, with the 5770’s performance said to be “just shy” of the very recent top dog for ATI, the HD 4890. With low power consumption, competitive pricing and added features like Eyefinity and 7.1 HD audio, the new cards might not push performance boundaries, but they also leave you with little reason to look elsewhere for your next GPU purchase. Hit up the reviews below for more detailed impressions.

Read – Hot Hardware review
Read – PC Perspective review
Read – HardOCP review
Read – TweakTown review
Read – Techgage review
Read – AnandTech review
Read – Hexus review

Filed under: Desktops

ATI Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 steal away reviewers’ hearts originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Podcast 166 – 10.09.2009

With the crazy week of news we’ve had, never has the ever-insightful, industry-encompassing commentary of the Engadget Podcast been so necessary, so vital, so… vigorous. Sure, you could try to make your way through the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 and an onslaught of Android news all by yourself, but then you’d just be alone and sad. And who would be there to comfort and hold you and tell you how terribly overpriced the VAIO X is and how little Dell revealed about its new Adamo this week? Nobody, that’s who. Don’t be another statistic, slip on some relatively comfortable earbuds and come on over to the Podcast side.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Cyberdelic – Such Great Heights

Hear the podcast

00:02:30 – HTC HD2 hands-on and impressions… on video!
00:03:02 – Entelligence: The HTC HD2 and the future of Windows Mobile
00:05:00 – HTC HD2 to arrive Stateside in early 2010 — huzzah!
00:08:00 – Windows Mobile 6.5 review
00:15:00 – Robbie Bach sits down for a roundtable discussion, Engadget is there
00:31:40 – Windows Mobile 6.5: a family portrait
00:40:00 – Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 update guide: no, no, maybe
00:43:05 – Verizon plans to support Google Voice, will launch two ‘game-changing’ Android devices in coming weeks
00:45:08 – Second Verizon Android phone to be an HTC, Motorola Sholes makes an appearance
00:45:35 – Verizon Motorola Sholes not running MOTOBLUR?
00:47:00 – Motorola Sholes to launch by holidays, along with the BlackBerry Storm 2 and Nokia Booklet 3G
00:49:31 – Samsung Behold II marries Android, TouchWiz for T-Mobile
00:50:30 – Samsung Behold II caught behind glass
00:52:05 – Samsung Moment for Sprint first hands-on!
00:55:00 – Samsung Moment slider coming to Sprint, packing Android (update: official, $179)
00:59:29 – AT&T now allowing iPhone VoIP calls over 3G
00:59:35 – VAIO X spotted in champagne, propped up by extended battery, ripped apart
01:00:00 – Sony VAIO X announced, starts at $1,299
01:03:33 – HP Mini 311 reviewed with earnest, ION-enhanced affection
01:06:45 – Dell reveals new Adamo XPS, gives no details
01:19:50 – The next Engadget Show tapes live October 22nd — with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer!

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
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Download the podcast

LISTEN (MP3)
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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 166 – 10.09.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Imagio pops live on Verizon with Windows Mobile 6.5

It’s October 6th. A magical date in Redmond that will see the official launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the glorious onslaught of handsets upon which to ride. Like the HTC Imagio for example, now live on Verizon for $199 with a 2-year tithe. That price nabs a 5 megapixel autofocus cam, VZ Navigator, and V CAST mobile TV viewable on that 3.6-inch, WVGA display. Naturally, it also packs HTC’s TouchFLO 3D UI. So, pull the trigger now VZW customers or wait to see what the day reveals? Tough call.

[Thanks everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Imagio pops live on Verizon with Windows Mobile 6.5 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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