Posts for Tag: gizmodo

Theft, journalism and professionalism

There's been a lot of chatter re: the iPhone leak and the raiding of certain "journalist's" homes. I won't rehash here so feel free to read up on the current situation.

I feel bad for Jason Chen and his wife for having their door kicked in. But I most definitely don't think it's unjustified. What should he have expected when he paid $5K for a stolen phone? I guess what pisses me off the most is how some people can't seem to understand that freedom of the press and crimes committed by journalists are two separate things. He's not getting his door kicked in because he leaked the next iPhone but because he PURCHASED STOLEN PROPERTY. If he had found the iPhone himself or if the person who found it gave it to Gizmodo to do their story, I'd have no issue. The fact that Gizmodo was willing to break the law to get the scoop on a story pretty much moves them out of legitimate journalism to tabloid fare for me. Michael Arrington writes a pretty reasonable post of how he would handle the situation - one I agree with in terms of the bounds of responsible, professional journalism. Unfortunately, the way the world works there is always an incentive to push and break the boundaries of the law in the name of "journalism". We as readers are just as responsible. How many outraged people did NOT go to Gizmodo to see the leaked iPhone photos/video?

In the end, I hope Jason Chen doesn't go to jail or face any type of punishment. He was only doing what the bosses at Gawker expected and asked of him. As for the guy who sold them the phone.........

Whiners of the world unite! AT&T sucks...

Let’s all do what we can to ensure that happens — to ensure Apple gets the message. Every time there is one of these ridiculous AT&T failures, tweet about it, blog about it, write Apple about it, or scream about it. Do whatever you can, but don’t just sit there and take it any more.

Just read this great article by MG Siegler over at TechCrunch. Basically, it's about how AT&T service stinks with the iPhone. By itself, this is not big news. Their service has stunk since the day I bought my first iPhone on launch day 2 years ago. What's great about the article is the above quote that rallies all iPhone owners to rage against the machine. If folks like Jesus Diaz had their way, we'd all just lie back and take it.

Why "Whining" does pay off

We're now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18.

This is a follow-up to my previous post about being considered a "whiner" regarding the iPhone 3GS pricing. Guess "whining" does pay off, huh?  It's a small concession but I can't help feeling like AT&T only made this move due to customer feedback.  Call it what you want - it gets results.

Why "Whiners" are good

Jesus Diaz writes a rant over at Gizmodo re: iPhone 3G owners (currently in contract) who are pissed about not being able to get the new iPhone 3GS at the fully subsidized price. To summarize, he's calling us whiners and that we should suck it up. Here's why he's wrong.
 
To his point - Yes, we are in a contract we freely agreed to. Yes, the cost of the iPhone 3G was subsidized by AT&T so that we could get it at the lower price. Yes, businesses like AT&T need to make money, too. But "whining" is the market's way of telling companies like AT&T and Apple that we demand better. It's how innovation is born and how we are able to enjoy things like iPhones. AT&T should listen to its highly profitable and highly engaged customers who stick with its service despite it being subpar. Apple should listen to its loyal customers who line up to buy its products by putting pressure on AT&T or better yet, by NOT renewing its contract with AT&T and allowing all major GSM based service providers (T-Mobile and Verizon) to have access to the iPhone and thus force competition on price and service quality. Don't hate on the whiners because without us, you'd probably have to pay full price for the iPhone 3GS AND have a 2 year contract like when the original iPhone came out. Or worse still, we'd probably all be using Windows Mobile phones because no one "whined" enough and demanded a better solution.