Category: Tech

Living by Joe WilcoxSep 8, 20149:56 am

Amazon Sale is ‘Predictably Irrational’

I can’t stop chuckling over one of Amazon’s many marketing sleight-of-hands today. I awoke to email promoting a one-day sale and “up to 60-percent off select SanDisk products”. Heck, my BetaNews colleague Wayne Williams even wrote a news story. But based on my recent experience buying a “SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 UHS Memory Card” I wonder about all the savings.

I purchased the card on July 2nd for $34.99. For the one-day sale, Amazon sells the same card for a dollar more, although a newer version (e.g., refreshed packaging and SKU) is available for $31.99. Amazon claims 64 percent and 51 percent savings—$64 and $33—respectively.

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 6, 20146:52 pm

Tim Cook must prove He can be an Innovation Leader

I must disagree with colleague Mark Wilson, who last week asserted: “There is no reason for anyone to care about the iPhone 6“, which as I write has 124 comments. I’m a big fan of provocative posts, because they engage the readership. But my feelings differ about commentaries that bluster without substance. Mark is absolutely wrong. There is every reason for everyone to care about the next iPhone.

Mark asserts that iPhone “used to be aspirational and high-end. Now the world and his dog has an Apple handset and it’s turned from something special into a poor substitute for one of the countless alternatives…The iPhone is run-of-the-mill. It is predictable. It’s just plain boring”. In many ways, I agree, but his boring assessment is every reason to “care about the iPhone 6”.

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 3, 20143:56 pm

Ten Months, 26 Stories About Apple

As a personal exercise exploring the tone of my BetaNews stories about Apple, I reviewed all of them written over the past 10 months—just 26, which isn’t many. I did this because, despite the last two posts (here and here) about Apple apologists, reader response does matter. Some critics harp about balance, and I admit there’s no glowing love for the company expressed in most of my stories.

There shouldn’t be. What some people call negativity, I see as constructive criticism. Then there is straight news reporting, which needn’t praise or raze. I prepared the list for myself and post it here mostly for my reference. But it’s a good look at my most recent news stories and analyses about Apple.

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 2, 20146:06 pm

Apple Apologists Sometimes Mean Well, But…

I started writing about Apple in 1999, when reporting for CNET News.com, and quickly earned a reputation for being anti-Apple. As a Mac user, the accusation puzzled me, because I didn’t yet understand how zealots sought to undermine journalists who wrote anything less than positive about the company.

My reputation got so bad that I couldn’t even deliver welcome news. In a January 2001 scoop, two reliable sources confirmed that Apple would break the 500MHz gap with new Power Macs. One Mac enthusiast site—apologies, I can’t find the link—said the story only made sense if untrue, because my news pieces were negative. So I must have written to lift Mac users’ hopes so they would be crushed when then-CEO Steve Jobs didn’t announce a 733MHz Power Mac.

Society by Joe WilcoxSep 1, 20147:39 pm

Apple Apologists are Dinosaurs

Three-and-a-half years ago, “I am not anti-Apple” posted to BetaNews. I reaffirm that position in the first of two posts looking at my experience dealing with Apple fanatics—the majority who appear to use tactics taught by Guy Kawasaki in the late-1990s when he was the company’s chief evangelist.

Any long-time journalist knows the drill. You write X story about Apple and the innuendo-carting cultists swarm in accusing you of Windows bias and shilling for Microsoft. Or in this decade, Google. The accusations whack the writer’s credibility often with no substance (e.g., facts) to support them. I credit (some would blame) Guy for the Mac cult attack squads that still clobber people writing presumed negative Apple stories today. Sure their numbers are diminished, but the ferocity of the few still bites.

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 29, 20147:51 pm

Finally, Some Competent Tech Reporting

Yesterday, I griped about how effectively Apple PR sets the Fourth and Fifth Estates speculating and rumormongering. What coincidence! Today, 9to5Mac published Mark Gurman’s gripping inside look into Apple’s PR strategy. The story, “Seeing Through the Illusion: Understanding Apple’s Mastery of the Media“, is fine example of the kind of news reporting too often missing on the web today. His multi-section report is well-organized, believably-sourced (even where anonymously), and accurate—to which I can attest based on my experience dealing with Apple as a journalist. He also validates many of my ongoing complaints about how bloggers and journalists report about the company.

I am thoroughly impressed by Matt’s report, not because I agree but know it to be true. I have interacted with all the principal PR people that he identifies. He writes about my experience, and that of other long-time tech journalists. More importantly, I like his tone, which even when recounting something many readers will take as negative about PR, is flat. His story is balanced, well-sourced, and believable.

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 28, 20145:36 pm

Another Apple Media Circus Begins

The Apple media invites are out today, and I am disappointed to see how effectively the company manipulates the Fourth and Fifth Estates and how willing are they to be led. For the record, I got no invite, nor did I expect one.

To the Apple marketing team, I tip my hat in recognition for job well-done. Please enjoy a well-deserved laugh on me. You earned it. The venue choice already has some blogs and news sites a-going.

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 27, 20146:50 pm

Give Us iPhone Air

Some sincerely given advice/analysis: Apple should call the next handset iPhone Air. The name better fits product and marketing objectives for the two other Airs—iPad and MacBook—and communicates clearer connotations about benefits. Besides, getting away from numbering would make iPhone nomenclature more consistent with other Apple products and make way for getting off the obsessive upgrade treadmill.

Google by Joe WilcoxAug 26, 20149:30 am

OK, Google, That was Easy

For my summer “Microsoft All-In” experiment, which also meant for a time giving up Google, I moved my main email domain from Google Apps for Business to Office 365—the latter through my registrar rather than Microsoft directly. I had used the domain on Apps for five years.

The registrar did all the setup for MX records and such, and I expected to do it all for myself when switching back to Apps—that was my experience half-a-decade ago. My how things have changed. Setup was scarily easy—much, much more than expected.

ebooks by Joe WilcoxAug 9, 201410:30 am

With Whom Should Authors Unite?

That’s the question on my mind since I started self-publishing ebooks about a year ago. Falling ebook prices and rising number of cheap reads—an increasing number of them serials built around single characters—offer readers bountiful choices. What’s good for consumers may not be best for producers, though. If 99 cents is the value of all books, who can make a living writing them? The answer to that question makes Amazon the savior of publishing or the great Satan destroying it.

I write about this today because overnight Amazon sent long email “Important Kindle request” announcing Readers United. But the letter didn’t come to me as a reader but as an author, from Kindle Direct Publishing. Amazon and publisher Hachette are engaged in a dispute that, long-term, could affect future ebook pricing. Hachette Authors United seeks resolution from Amazon, which calls on readers—and writers—to respond in kind.

News Media by Joe WilcoxAug 6, 201411:11 am

WTF is the Right Domain Question

I must thank Todd Bishop, whose tweet about a GeekWire story alerted me to the then forthcoming .wtf domain extension, which is now available. Generally, I think these dot-com wannabes are just plain stupid, but someone wants them—or ICANN decision-makers believe so. I ignored every domain registrar solicitation to grab one until .wtf.

My first concern is brand protection. I’ve pissed off more than a few fanboys over the years and I worried about someone snagging joewilcox.wtf and using that as a platform against me. You should worry, too, if you have any kind of brand to protect. “What the fuck?” is right. If your name is your brand, grab .wtf before someone else does.

Gear by Joe WilcoxAug 4, 20145:11 pm

Smartphones come of Age

Wired hits a homer with an incredible August issue on smartphones. As battery life and utility expand, so does my device’s use as secondary—and sometimes primary—device. Nokia Lumia Icon is all the digital device I carried to San Diego Comic-Con 2014. Snap. Edit. Share. And I took notes during the panels. It’s not a question if my smartphone replaces a PC but when.

Five years ago (this month) I asserted, perhaps a bit prematurely, that “Your Next PC is a Smartphone“. That was before the tablet craze sidelined attention, but I’m convinced the smartphone’s day is come—and so do Wired editors.