>”Microsoft pays star writers to recite slogan
The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV news hosts, shouldn’t trade on their public trust to endorse products. It’s become redundant: the reading public typically wants journalists to drop the pretense of objectivity, and wear their prejudices in public. (For the record, my current passions are the iPhone and Facebook.) But there are limits to journalistic endorsements, and Federated Media just crossed them.

John Battelle’s ad network has roped in some of its star writers to an ad campaign on behalf of Microsoft’s “people-ready” catchphrase. In the ads, and the companion site built by Federated Media, Michael Arrington explains how his Techcrunch site became “people-ready”. “When is a business people ready?” asks Gigaom’s Om Malik. “The minute you decide to strike out on your own…” Other writers who’ve been paid to repeat Microsoft’s slogan include Paul Kedrosky and Matt Marshall of Venture Beat, as well as Fred Wilson, the blogger-investor.

I can’t blame Battelle’s team for latching on to this idea. The campaign is slick; and Microsoft is a deep-pocketed client. But it’s disappointing that so many of his most reputable writers have signed on as spokespeople. One would have thought that tech opinion-leaders as influential as Om Malik and Paul Kedrosky would ration their credibility more carefully, and reserve it for companies and products for which they felt real enthusiasm.

FRI JUN 22 2007
BY NICK DENTON
AT 4:59 pm
13,767 views”

>”…
Paid to Shill Propagandism.
Since Microsoft just got busted yet again with another grassroots payola astroturf campaign that paid several high profile bloggers to lace their opinions with Microsoft jingles, it’s not hard to imagine that the company has outlined its own iPhone talking points as well.

Among those caught red-handed by ValleyWag for repeating the “conversational marketing” jingles in Federated Media’s pay-for-say ad program for Microsoft were:

•Michael Arrington of Techcrunch
•Om Malik of Gigaom
•Paul Kedrosky and Matt Marshall of Venture Beat
•Fred Wilson the “blogger-investor”
…”

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/.....F3078.html

Michael your initial comment regarding Apples’ supplying of devices to the NYT was in my opinion unwarranted but perhaps understandable given your obvious frustration at having been ‘left out’.

Where you have really let youself down, though, is in your reply to David Pogue’s post. The man is clearly in good faith, and reponded to your provocations without a hint of irony or anger. You, on the other hand, did not respond to his comments, and even went so far as to try and turn his reply your advantage:

“Look, look everyone! The New York Times reads MY blog !!!”

Very poor and disappointing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....viewed_day

Maybe I am missing the point here, perhaps Apple’s goal is to create an all-in-one device that phases out low end laptops.

- my stupid Razr (prob Stupid service) has trouble doing that ….

- chat programs like AIM Express … will just be loaded into safari browser on the phone

- no SD card? (you got 8 gigs no problem)

- Can’t capture video? (who cares; phone vids suck anyways)

-RB

Sorry, Michael, but that’s a ridiculous assertion.

If Apple withheld products for retaliation for some bad review, then the resulting bad press would hugely outweigh the effectiveness of that gesture. They’d just never do it.

Apple will continue to provide review products to the big outlets like the NY Times, no matter what I say, no matter who holds the job.

Frankly, I’d even dispute your characterization of my review as a “big thumbs up.” I’d call it “balanced.” Excerpts:

“it’s flawed… it lacks features found even on the most basic phones…There’s no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You can’t install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web… can’t capture video… can’t send picture messages… have to send the phone to Apple for battery replacement… AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Times’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear, Amazon.com 100 seconds, Yahoo two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem…deal-killers for some people.”

I’d love to know what you’d have said differently about the iPhone.

–David Pogue
NYTimes

*I’m assuming there are people camping in PA as there are in NY

Still happy with my Cingular 8525 - even if it is running Windows Mobile.

Seriously, though, I can’t wait to get one! I’m dropping Sprint.

Then do not write about either

I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t even sell a 100,000 pieces once it is out in the market.

Trying to bring professionals (BlackBerry type of users), young adults (Music, Gaming and Text fans) and travelers (GPS Tracking users) on the same device is sort of an over kill.

As we all know that these three categories are very unlikely to intersect into a single user. And the pace at which technology is changing, it won’t even live up to be used comprehensively.

But I may be wrong.

~Accidents lead to patterns
http://accidentalpatterns.blogspot.com