Hehe, This is How You Report About the Consumer Electronics Show

Engadget features editor Joseph Volpe buries the lede, so I fix it for him by posting over at my new project, Frak That!, headline: “Steve Jobs calls Apple Watch a ‘Joke’“. Oh, the clickbait accusations will fly from some, and the Apple Faithful will fling rotten fruit for my irreverence, but the post fits the site’s core editorial principle of pointing out the absurd—in this case the otherwise lack of original reporting about the Consumer Electronics Show, to which the somewhat oddball Engadget story affronts.

Joseph rises above the CES 2016 public relations cluster-fuck to write something really original. He consulted a “higher source” to get the lowdown on the year ahead in tech: Las Vegas psychics. Brilliant! And it’s something I actually read in all the dribble designed to self-flagellate corporate egos.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJan 8, 20163:45 pm

The Holy War Against Apple Lightning

A recent SumOfUs petition begins with those magnanimous words: “Apple is about to rip off every one of its customers. Again”. Ha! The sentence is Holy Writ. Canonize it into the Gospel of Tim Cook, who, extending the metaphor. is like the Apostle Paul, whose discipleship took Christianity forward but beyond Christ’s shadow. We all know the hallowed story of the Jesus Phone, and how humbly Steve Jobs saved humankind from Satan (Bill Gates) and ushered in the post-PC era. Snicker. But only under Cook has Jobs’ aspiratonal doctrine spanned the globe, under the glow of a billion bitten-fruit logos.

That, my friends, is how you offend two religious groups, with the Apple Faithful the more-likely vengeful. Hell hath no fury like—you know the rest. But seriously, I mean no disrespect to the esteemed Jobs (God rest his soul) but to his successor, who made Apple a giant among publicly-traded corporations, and you pay the price for it.

Mobility by Joe WilcoxJan 7, 20168:53 pm

EFF Should Be Wary About Getting Into a Bar Fight with Un-carrier’s CEO

John Legere waved his magic spin-control wand today, following accusations from Google and the EFF—that’s Electronic Frontier Foundation to you, Bud—that the cellular carrier throttles video streams in violation of Net Neutrality rules. In a video, T-Mobile’s CEO calls the throttling accusations a “game of semantics” and “bullshit”.

“We give our customers more choices, and these jerks are complaining?” Legere blasts. “Who the Hell do they think they are? What gives them the right to dictate what my customers or any wireless consumer can choose for themselves?” I wonder, too.

News Media by Joe WilcoxJan 6, 201610:48 pm

Valleywag May Be Gone, But Its Spirit Lives On

I follow few bylines. Matt Taibbi tops the short list, which also includes Gawker writers Sam Biddle and John Cook. I read them for their biting style and searing sarcasm. But one of the vehicles for their content is gone, and I should have seen the end approaching.

The New Year left behind Valleywag, the snarky insider rag that over the course of 9 years shamelessly scorched Silicon Valley’s power elite. But no more. On December 31st, John posted “R.I.P. Valleywag, 2006-2015“.

Events by Joe WilcoxJan 5, 20164:44 pm

There’s Nothing Sweet About CES

It’s Zero Day in the desert, when technology vendors stampede the gambling mecca’s convention center groveling for attention. A narcissist gangbang couldn’t be more self-absorbed or self-seeking attention than this lot. Their annual pilgrimage to the Consumer Electronics Show is an abomination of noise, and it is a metaphor for the fall of 21st Century civilization.

Forget climate change. CES will kill us all first—if not this one than look to 2050. Climate change scientists warn of rising sea levels causing global disaster by that year. The hot air coming out of each CES will doom the planet sooner. You want to stop carbon emissions? Disband the Consumer Electronics Show.

Critters by Joe WilcoxJan 1, 201610:09 pm

Remembering Bubba

When I started Flickr a Day one year ago, I envisioned a photographic storytelling project, That was 2015. For 2016, I shift storytelling to broader venues but can’t promise daily delivery. Our first installment time travels 10 years to June 2006, when our family inherited lost baby bunny Bubba.

While walking our Kensington, Md. neighborhood on the evening of the third, we came across a couple clasping a tiny rabbit; their cat caught the bunny a day earlier. They desperately sought someone to care for the animal. As house-rabbit owners, we obliged, with the intention of taking Bubba to a wildlife rescue center the next day. He didn’t live long enough to be rescued,

Apple by Joe WilcoxJan 1, 201612:01 am

Apple Lost My Heart to Google in 2015

Whoa, the difference a year makes: On Jan. 1, 2015, my main computing devices were 13.3-inch MacBook Pro Retina Display, iPad Air, and iPhone 6—oh yeah, Apple Watch, joined them six months later. My mainstays at the start of 2016: Chromebook Pixel LS, Pixel C, Nexus 6P, and Huawei Watch. I abandoned Apple and there are no plans to return. I choose the Google lifestyle instead.

I have changed computing platforms too often during the past two decades. From the December day in 1998 when carting iMac out of CompUSA, no matter what the switch, I always returned to Apple products, even after boycotting the company during second half 2012. My last rally was months ago, before giving up Apple Watch, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6 Plus, the 6s Plus (for a single day), and MBP. I don’t expect to ever go back. The allure is gone.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 31, 20156:34 am

Flickr a Day 365: ‘Cat Scratch Fever’

My favorite photo of the 365 is Day 38 “Master of Venice” by Alexis Bross. Cats are such an Internet stereotype how could I not conclude the series with another—conceding that Flickr a Day has too many. Additional Days: 51, 143, 201, 220, and 302.

In choosing the feline that would end the series, I favored habitat shots and ignored facial closeups or handsome subjects. None of the finalists is ugly, per se, but only the last two do I find to be attractive. I never imagined seeing more cat photos than I could possible tolerate, until selecting our winner.

News Media by Joe WilcoxDec 30, 20151:03 pm

Journalism Matters

Over on Google+ today, Alex Hernandez reminisces on 2015’s closing by looking at content from years past. Among them: Dan Lyon’s February 2012 missive “Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool“. Hey, I vaguely remember that indictment of Silicon Valley journalism. Alex, who runs tech-news site Techaeris writes in response to the nearly four-year old story: “I’m working really hard to not be a ‘Valley Press’ site—as Scott Wilson rants about often—and after reading this and a few other articles today, I may be reforming the way we approach things.

Jack Weisz mentions me in a comment, to which I responded and to another from Alex. While both responses reiterate principles posted to this site many times before, end-of-year reflection is good time to present them again.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 30, 20156:30 am

Flickr a Day 364: ‘Mr. Lonely’

I picked the second-to-last pic in the series for capturing my mood: somber. I enjoy curating the photos and end satisfied in completing the task: 365 selections, one a day, each from a different Flickr […]

News Media by Joe WilcoxDec 29, 20157:01 pm

Flack Attack

Yesterday, while catching up on days of RSS-feed news, I stopped grazing and actually read TechCrunch Christmas Eve post “#MisguidedPR: The Industry’s Internal Crisis” by Colin Jordan, who is—what many of my peers would call—a flack. I rarely use the descriptor, deeming it as condescending. But for this post, the term fits.

The commentary’s objective is clear: To encourage his colleagues to abandon past public relations strategies that are obsolete today. Part of the problem he identifies is imbalance: There are way many more flacks than there are journalists (but perhaps not bloggers, I must add). Using U.S. Department of Labor statistics, he finds “5.7 PR professionals for every one journalist”. Because I do my own reporting rather than source someone else, whenever possible (most often), I checked the data.