**Update: Looks like filing that rumor in the rumor cabinet was worthwhile after all — (Link)
File this in the “half rumor” file cabinet for now. I say “half rumor” because the comments on which this post is based are in German. A German dialect that is apparently too much for Google Translate to handle. The resulting english output is anything but readable. But we press on. Supposedly bloggers and journalists attending a Microsoft event in Germany were warned by a Microsoft employee/rep to “not mention or use any Apple devices during the press conference”. Hmmm, can anyone say communist policies? I’m all for being determined and loyal to your own brand, but telling individuals who voluntarily come to your press events what they can and cannot use is ridiculous. Even Apple with their totalitarian ways don’t exercise such restraints. Then again, this is all based off of Google Translate’s attempt and utter failure at trying to decipher the cryptic German message.
With the initial shock of a “no-Mac zone” put behind them, the journalists sat through another apology of sorts by Microsoft for the lackluster WinMo 6.5 and extreme delay in WinMo 7′s release. Pretty standard affair these days. Though denying entrance to your events to get people interested in your products simply because they choose a competitors product that they feel is better is a pretty poor way to gain any sympathy or mend a broken relationship with their potential customer base. Just sayin’…
So fellow bloggers, journalists, and mere citizens: What would you say to Microsoft if they tried to stop you from whipping out your Macbook at a Microsoft event?
9to5 Mac
- November 11, 2009 1:58 pm
I like many of you reading these words are geeks. More specifically a tech/geek blogger. How geeky we are varies from person to person. But me, given the chance, (and a nice new Core i7 27″ iMac) I’d live in front of my computer. It’s not hard really. The sun is the same as it was thousands of years ago and will continue to be. If I really wanted some fresh air I can always open a window. Taking it to the nth degree, I could always rip up the hardwood in my house and put down some sod to give it that eco/green feel. In all honesty, I get out quite a bit. But the point is, tech bloggers such as myself often get stereotyped as lazy, house dwelling folks who really don’t know what the outside looks like, how to swing a bat etc. Would you believe that we bloggers are actually pretty darn good neighbors? So says a new study by Pew Internet Project.
It turns out that bloggers, if “good”, are actually more chipper than there less talkative counterparts. On one hand this seems startling given how much time we stare at pixels on a screen. On the other, you have to like hearing yourself talk (and think) if you’re to be a blogger — it comes with the job. If you can talk to yourself for ours and provoke deep thoughts and good ‘ol conversation, chances are you could be a pretty decent blogger…
- September 9, 2009 9:58 am
According to Sascha Lobo, co-initiator of the Internet Manifesto, Journalism has to adapt to today’s as well as the futures emerging technologies. Photo: Reto Klar
Bloggers as of late have been getting a fair deal of flack from more “reputable” news sources with fat checkbooks and more legal resources than most of us would know what to do with. Time and time again we have seen bigger news publications attack smaller blogs for piracy, siphoning content, and all out theft on the digital front. Though, this borrowing and sharing of ideas (*clears throat*…the whole purpose of the internet) and the so called “rules” that apply, only go one way. Whenever big publications are threatened, legal hounds are released. But when bloggers and smaller blogs across the internet are pillaged, well, that’s a different story. This double standard and utter nonsense has infuriated many. Myself included. Thankfully, the little guys aren’t taking it lightly.
15 of Germany’s most popular blogs and bloggers came together to create the “Internet Manifesto”. It is a document informing telling everyone, big publications included, how the internet works no matter the attempts to force it into nice little pay containers and walled gardens. The Internet Manifesto has garnered a great deal of attraction already as the site it is hosted on has been up and down due to traffic. The Manifesto highlights how this growing feeling of entitlement is a disease and that the internet is a new business model — applying old business models and failing to innovate to the changing markets and times will only cast those involved further into irrelevance.
The Internet Manifesto in it’s entirety just inside for those of you wanting some enlightenment, knowledge, and more importantly, a good read.
If you’re into the world of tech, gadgets, electronics, and politics, especially politics pertaining to technological issues, the ongoing battle the Associated Press is waging on pretty much the entire internet just goes to show you how terrible and outdate some businesses really are. Instead of embracing the internet for what it is and what it can help you achieve, companies such as AP are instead trying to make the internet conform to outdated business practices and policies used on older business models. Such mashups simply won’t work. It really is quite stupid and revolves around AP’s claims that everyone else steals their news. (In reality, news is not a single person’s property — heck it isn’t the “property” of anyone. We all know this. Except the AP seems to think they’re in their own little world where they rule all). One with even a sliver of intelligence would think that they would see how beneficial DRM has been to the music industry (extreme sarcasm) and learn from their mistakes. Obviously we assume too much. But I digress.
For the past several weeks, the AP has been hard at work pushing their DRM laced news services in hopes that they can get a cult started in which they’re the ring leader. In order to “help” us thieves, the AP has kindly provided us with the graph shown above (lightly altered by the oh so funny crew at Crunch Gear). The sooner that outdated and bass-akwards companies such as the AP either adapt or die the better off we will all be. Actually, if you look at the AP’s heavy lobbying for DRM, one could see the similarities between them and other crooked organizations such as the RIAA. Let’s hear it for the RIAA/Satan of the news industry: AP! *applause booooooooo* (Real image after the jump — bigger images also for those of you with less than stellar eyes *winky face*)
