Recently in Tech journalism Category

The poor old Inquirer, which put together quite a persuasive and technically stunning article on why MacIntels will never run Windows XP, has had to backpedal a bit now that someone has managed to prove them wrong.

I'd actually been semi-persuaded by the article, since I'm no big BIOS/EFI expert. Should have known that just like in Jurassic Park, like life hackers will find a way.

There's still a little way to go before XP will get things like hardware acceleration of graphics on the Mactel, but it shouldn't be too far off now. I have faith in them. They're a clever bunch, hackers.

Slightly unfair headline on this article at the BBC about the exposing of the names of 2,600 CIA employees: 'Internet blows CIA agents' cover'.

Have a think about it: what should the actual headline be?

You guessed it: 'CIA blows CIA agents' cover'. If they put the agents' name up on a publicly-accessible web site, what do they expect?

VNU Business Europe has bought up The Inquirer. I do like The Inquirer, even it make The Register look like a broadsheet in terms of accuracy and reasoning at times.

I've bumped into the owner, Mike Magee, on a couple of occasions. Despite interrupting an interview I was doing at the Intel Developer Forum, he seemed an interesting and knowledgeable man, so I hope this works out well for him.

Technorati Tags: the inquirer

You write an article, naturally everything changes almost instantly. Intel, Motorola, Nokia and Texas Instruments have clubbed together to create a mobile TV alliance that will promote DVB-H. Would have been useful for me to know about it before I wrote this piece for iSight, but that's journalism for you.

Still, I don't think it changes things too much: these guys were all heavy promoters of DVB-H, as is much of the industry. All this means is they're working together on it. Given the number of alliances, groups, unions and so on that are promoting one technology or the other in various other fields without much to show for it, I'm sure it'll have a similar effect on the mobile TV market. The only thing that matters there are the customers: no matter how interested network providers are, without consumer interest, it's for nothing. And if the 3G market has shown us anything, it's that consumers really aren't that impressed with what network providers have to offer beyond voice and text.

Mactels are looking more likely, despite comments earlier in the day, thanks to an invitation I've just received from Apple. It's for the 10th and it's a chance to attend a live satellite broadcast of Steve Jobs' MacWorld keynote in San Francisco. Apple hasn't bothered with the last few keynotes. In fact, the last time they ran a satellite feed for Euro journos was over two years ago in Berlin – and that was for the launch of the first Power Mac G5s.

However, they're not flying us out to Berlin (curses) as they did in 2003: we're having to make our way over to White City and the BBC this time. This suggests that maybe it's not something as dramatic. Maybe the BBC and other broadcasters have signed up for the iTunes Music Store. Or maybe it's that media distribution network that Think Secret was on about. So I'm only upping Mactels to 90% likelihood.

Incidentally, Bite PR – if you're reading this – I know it wasn't you who sent out the invites, but you did promise to put me on the Apple events list. I got my invite to the event via... LinuxUser & Developer. Could you give Apple a little nudge about its priorities? Ta.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Bite PR, Mactels, Macworld

Updates and related entries
March 5, 2008: To a certain extent, I imagine doing Apple's PR must be a slightly cushy number. Apple are usually extremely reticent to talk about anything you want to talk about, preferring instead to drone on about what they want to...

Somewhere in London, there are two klaxons. They're very new and very shiny. They're in separate offices, yet next to both of them are two red lights. When the klaxon sounds, the red lights flash and it's action stations.

At least, that's what I presume is the set-up now in Bite PR and Text 100.

It's very odd. Despite my previous whinges (God, how English am I? Make a customer service complaint and I'm still feeling guilty about it, months later), both of the aforementioned PR firms are answering phone calls, returning emails and generally being efficient. I'm not sure how much of this is tailored to the fact it's me doing the calling (unlikely) or just a general improvement, but whichever it is, I'm certainly happier.

My whole world has been turned upside down. It's like there's a new law of physics with change in momentum being proportional not to force, but jelly content. How am I going to live like this?

I must find a way.

Technorati Tags: Bite PR, Text 100

I'm setting up a review of various mice from a certain magazine I write for. Apple's Mighty Mouse is a must-review, so I ring up Helen Lord at Apple and leave a couple of voicemails for her, asking for a Mighty Mouse. No reply. So I email Bite PR and they get back to me. No problem, they say, but you'll have to fill out a “loan agreement”.

That's right, they want me to fill out a form agreeing that if they don't get their Mighty Mouse (RRP £35) back within a week, they can break into my flat to retrieve it.

Logitech is just sending me their mice without complaint, as are Contour Design and 3D Connexion. Novell gave me a mouse on Monday for free, and they don't even make mice; admittedly, it was full of water and had an “N” floating inside it, so no one in their right mind would want it.

But Apple can't even spare a mighty mouse for more than a week. Tight. So very, very tight.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Journalism, Mighty Mouse

Updates and related entries
March 5, 2008: To a certain extent, I imagine doing Apple's PR must be a slightly cushy number. Apple are usually extremely reticent to talk about anything you want to talk about, preferring instead to drone on about what they want to...

Someone has come up with a handy PR logo system that I think I might have to employ on my site at some time. It's at MobHappy: PR Solutions.

The idea is you put up a red logo if you don't want PR pitches, a green logo if you'd like loads of PR pitches and an amber logo if you're open to suggestions with some caveats.

I'll go amber at some point, because there are PRs who still don't understand that despite the fact I put only an email address on all my Response Source enquiries and only put my phone number in the business enquiries section of my site, I really don't want PRs ringing me all the time. It's not because you're not very nice; it's because I'm averaging four articles a week at the moment and for every phone call I take, that's 30 minutes of concentration I've lost.

Until my logo goes up, I can tell you in advance the answers to some of your questions, thus saving you and me both some time:

“Have you got a second or two (ie five minutes) to talk about something?” Is it contract publishing? If it is, yes. If it isn't, no. No I do not. Please put it in an email and I'll get back to you.

“Do you want to come to an evening dinner event? It's for us to tell you things. But we won't tell you what until you're there.” No. Sorry. Send me the press release, but since I'm a features writer, not a news journalist, I probably won't need it.

“Are you interested in this attending this event?” If it's in another country, yes, yes I am. If not, put it in an email. If I am interested, I'll tell you. Thanks for thinking of me.

Technorati Tags: PR, PRs, tech journalism

A while ago, I hinted that y'all should keep tuning in to see if my opinions of various tech PR firms have changed any since my last post on the subject. Here's how they're all doing:

Bite PR
As far as the Apple group is concerned, I haven't had any contact with them since our last discussion. No invites. No nothing. But then there haven't been any events to be invited to and I haven't needed to ask Apple for anything. I have heard some funny stories of general cluelessness since then, but I won't publish them in order to protect my source. They are really funny though.

It is interesting, however, that they came to this blog via a Google search for “Bite PR” and despite my general slagging off of Apple since (and blatant request for a free G5 Quad), I haven't heard a peep out of them. Who wants to bet, though, that by including “Bite PR” as one of my Technorati tags, I might start to see some activity from them in my logs?

I have, however, had contact with some of Bite's other staff, including James Taylor who handles the Gartner account. He was very good, responded to emails, provided pictures, offered a good interviewee before I'd even had to ask him for one. Excellent. Admittedly, the interviewee called two days before he was supposed to and before we'd even arranged a time for the interview, but that wasn't such a terrible thing. It just left me a little bit unprepared, that's all.

Text 100
Still getting lots of lovely press releases from them. My one dealing with them since is not impressing: PR person in question hasn't responded to two emails so far - which in turn were a response to her email! Still, that might not be her fault, since she may need some information from the vendor in question (three guesses which vendor, given my previous discussions on the subject). Or she may be ill. No visits to my blog since the last posting, which saw an amazing 16 visitors from the text100.co.uk domain. Again, the initial visit was from a Google search on “blog text 100”.
UPDATE: She was ill. And the vendor wasn't very helpful, either. So Text 100 is in the clear. Still amazed by how many diseases all you people get. I'm getting visions of me as Charlton Heston in The Omega Man if the avian flu ever hits, because my immune system's better than Domestos.

The Red Consultancy
Now officially the worst PR company, given our previously agreed metrics. I've not heard a peep out of them. They don't even search for stuff about themselves, let alone their clients, it seems. Their previous crime - not being able to arrange an interview with Microsoft despite being given three weeks lead time - has been further compounded by the fact that Microsoft went and released an enterprise desktop search tool the very day my article on the subject came out. You'd have thought that might have been a handy thing for me to know about when I was writing it, wouldn't you?

Lastly, in the interests of balance, I thought I'd highlight some good PRs, just to prove I don't have the typical journo's prejudice against all PRs. They're in no particular order and I won't list the reasons why I think they're good. Just suffice it to say they know how to do their job well.

• Jesper Nielsen at Porter Novelli
• Matthew Cross at Axicom
• Helen Lord at Apple
• Jillian Alexander at Chameleon PR

There are others, but I'll save them for next time, when we find out again who are the sinners and who are the winners in the world of tech PR.

Technorati Tags: Bite PR, PRs, tech journalism, Text 100, The Red Consultancy

Updates and related entries
December 20, 2005: Somewhere in London, there are two klaxons. They're very new and very shiny. They're in separate offices, yet next to both of them are two red lights. When the klaxon sounds, the red lights flash and it's action stations....
March 5, 2008: To a certain extent, I imagine doing Apple's PR must be a slightly cushy number. Apple are usually extremely reticent to talk about anything you want to talk about, preferring instead to drone on about what they want to...

I'm glad I'm not the only one hacked off with the pointless hype of Web 2.0. No one's even sure what it is and of the definitions that have arisen, most of them are dumb: social networking, semantic web - they're all flashes in the pan and ultimately doomed as long-term money makers. Look at how the social network that is Friends Reunited is dying. Even Ajax, while excellent for many things, isn't going to destroy client software as we know it.

I'm slightly bewildered by The Register's own choice of definition: “A Huge, Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld”. How many people are going to get that reference?

It puts me in mind a recent article on Slate, about how we'll know when the baby boomer generation will have lost control of the media: headlines will include phrases such as “By the Power of Grayskull” and “I for one will welcome our new overlords”. The Register's definition is a clear indication that in the IT world, the boomers are already gone.

Didn't get the reference? Click the “continue reading” link below to reveal the truth (I'm too embarrassed to add it to the front page)

Technorati Tags: tech journalism, The Register, Web 2.0

Working on an article for the IT trade press, but stuck for an article plan? Look no farther, for I have one here. Use it sparingly or else people will begin to notice.

Technorati Tags: tech journalism

So Apple are coming to take the G5 back. I'm gutted. After life with an 800MHz G4 iMac, a Quad G5 was something else altogether. I'm going to be holding a small memorial service on Sunday, if that's all right.

The impending repossession has set me thinking though. Why is that hardware vendors expect their hardware back after you've reviewed it, when software vendors don't?

Technorati Tags: free gifts, PR, reviews

MPEG2, a perfectly serviceable format, has had the backing of Sony for Blu-Ray movies. So much squabble over nothing really, but it's worth a story on CNet apparently.

However, to reinforce comments I've made elsewhere on what it takes to be a sub these days, see how many times the article uses the word 'megabytes' when it means 'gigabytes'.

Technorati Tags: Blu-Ray, subbing, tech journalism

Two stories on Microsoft's 'opening' of the Open Office XML standard: take your pick as to which one is better and understands the nuances of so-called open standards better.

Technorati Tags: Business IT, Open source, tech journalism

First Bite PR reveals it's been reading my blog and is desperate to make amends for its past bad behaviour. Now Nick Giles of Text 100 has rung up to say he's launching an internal investigation into what's been going wrong at Text 100. I feel almost mean for mentioning it now: their IBM team has actually been pretty good, even if Novell has missed out on some free (good) publicity thrown in their direction by me.

I don't feel that mean, though. One thing I've noticed over the years is that, ironically, journalists don't get a right to reply. If a journalist writes something in an article and you disagree with it, you can write a letter to the magazine in question. Nine times out of ten, the editor won't print a defence or even ask for the journo's defence; they'll just run the letter, grateful that someone's written in. The letter will hang there, uncountered, like a Blunkett accusation of intrusion into private life, and people will assume that “bloody journalists” have got it wrong again.

PRs and marketing people write to mags all the time (standing PR tactic 47 to counter bad publicity), saying articles are inaccurate, “bad journalism”, etc. And that used to be that. This is the first time in history that the common or garden journalist can publish their own defence. God bless the blog.

Now I have this new-fangled “power”, though, maybe I should aim higher than just whinging about PRs who can't answer phones or set up interviews: not only has that been done to death, I'm sure there's something better I can do than shine light on mild inefficiency at PR companies.

Still, look what it's achieved. Of the top three bad PR companies I nominated, two are pulling their socks up. I haven't felt this good about sticking up for my consumer rights since I scared some noisy kids out of The Bourne Supremacy. That leaves one slacker. I'm counting the days until The Red Consultancy rings. Shall we agree that we'll use that figure as a metric for how good they are as a PR company? Seems perfectly fair to me.

The clock's ticking.

Technorati Tags: Bite PR, PRs, tech journalism