Review Site Ethics

Stonelaughter / April 25, 2012 / One comment

[EDIT]

Bearing in mind the content of the comment made by Nirave, I’d like to soften my conclusions – clearly this was a mistake and my conclusions therefore about this website’s actions are unfounded. However – I’d like to leave the post as it is because I feel that the central point it makes is valid; Reviewers are free to do what they wish and any site which censors comments should be treated with caution. In this case there is a good outcome and the article has been amended.

 

I wanted to have a look at the ways in which Tech Review websites and so on conduct their trade; as I’ve been subjected to a particularly crass example of reputation manipulation and wanted to examine the background.

It seems that well established, respected sites (T3, Tech Radar etc) will do a review, and when they draw negative conclusions about the product, are willing to engage with the manufacturer and where possible will amend/append to/review their conclusions based on that interaction. They also allow any and all commentary by members of the public so long as they fall within certain respectful guidelines which prevent unpleasantness and so on.

However yesterday I came across a review of the HTC One X (a new mobile phone by HTC which is attracting rave responses from most of the world; press and public alike) which first of all went into great detail about what they were testing, then into their results. Their “Battery Life” test concluded that with heavy use of the phone they were getting about 12 hours of use; which to me is excellent – there are not many smartphones which can boast battery performance like that, anywhere!

However, the article was worded very carefully to make this look BAD – how they did it I don’t know but the reader was left extremely disappointed that an owner of this phone would, with heavy usage, ONLY expect 12 hours of use.

I quickly took issue with this clear anti-HTC bias – I’m a HTC user with one of their slightly older smartphones; and I DREAM of 12 hours of use… the One X is an excellent smartphone and has just about the best battery life on the planet. So I commented on the article; something like the following:

“If you think that 12 hours of battery life in a heavy usage case is “poor” then you’re deluded. There isn’t a smartphone on the market which can make a claim like that – an iPhone 4s or a Samsung Galaxy S2 under heavy use would give up the ghost after about 4-6 hours. I would suggest you review your article and re-word it to show that 12 hours of heavy use is actually rather good – because it bloody well is!”

The comment awaited moderation for some 18 hours and was then deleted. There are still no comments on the article.

Behaviour like this from a review website allows them basically to put the views of the author and website owner out there as fact – unchallenged in any way. Which means that uninitiated people reading their reviews come away with a particular bias; again unchallenged. This makes me wonder if this website are being paid a fee by certain other manufacturers; it also makes me extremely cautious about anything they may write in the future.

 

Category: Internet Stuff, Other Rants, Personal, Tech / Tags: , , , ,

The only camera you’ll ever need.

Stonelaughter / February 28, 2012 / 4 comments

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a guy (Dan Lazarides) in HTC’s EMEA Social Media team (in fact he heads up the team) and asked if I was interested in joining a group of HTC customers who would get the chance to help give a customer perspective on HTC products of the future, and to help HTC in their design and marketing efforts by giving ideas, opinions and discussion. I jumped at the chance; I felt very privileged to be asked! The program is called “HTC Elevate!” and is a truly inspiring place to be.

A couple of weeks after I joined Elevate!, I was invited by the amazing, cheerful and super-organised Hugo Sieiro to an exclusive event being hosted by HTC in Barcelona immediately prior to Mobile World Congress – an absolutely HUGE Expo of mobile communications technology and surrounding industries. Again – I jumped at the chance! (DUH…as if I wouldn’t…!)

So on Saturday morning I got up at 3am and went to Barcelona! It was a long tiring trip; by the time I got there I was ready for sleep… but I instead got to meet up with a couple of others who’d been invited; fellow Elevate! members Droider and Peter were there, and later on, Victor too.

In the evening, we were taken to a bar in Barcelona; where we were plied with Mojitos and made to feel welcome (Special mention to the very beautiful Katya who was our bar hostess – she was brilliant and really looked after us with good cheer – nothing was too much effort). Some time after 9.30 we were taken to a closed room, and had our phones taken away… and had to sign a non-disclosure agreement! (Nothing I’ll tell you here is secret). There were about 20 Elevate! members there I guess from all parts of Europe.

Then, John Starkweather (who’s the Worldwide Director, Digital Marketing at HTC) told us a little about what HTC were hoping to do with their new phones – which is basically to really focus hard on performance, camera and audio. He then let us play with the new hardware – remember this is before the press had officially seen it! This range of phones is simply astounding; the performance, features and quality are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. I’ll let the media keep you up to date on them; this post is about the trip.

The HTC One range.

After we’d seen the phones, and played with them (while being filmed by the omniprescent Jason Dunn, Senior Manager of HTC Communities) we were wined and dined some more until we all wandered off to our respective abodes.

 

 

The next day, we were taken out for a roast dinner (Barcelona Style) and some

The Sagrada Familia

wine; simply gorgeous food and great company – followed by a walking tour of some of Barcelona’s chief cultural architecture – which is breathtakingly beautiful. It’s very strange to see a huge church in a very medieval style parked in between two ultra-modern office blocks! The architecture style changes

Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia

Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia

from building to building.

In the evening we attended the official press conference (at The Dome of the Sands in Barcelona City Centre, an amazing building with a sightseeing platform wrapped around the top) releasing information about the new HTC One phone range where Peter Chou (CEO) talked passionately and strongly about what the phone was all about. Afterward we wandered around aimlessly, drinking some beers and watching the press drooling over the demo phones.

The next day was a bit strange – some of us had early flights, some middle ones and some later; but in the end, Victor and I were left and decided to go to the Congress and have a look around. When we got to the gate it wasn’t immediately obvious HOW we should get in… so we tried Fast Track (who couldn’t find us from our bar codes). We made a couple of phone calls, and then tried the same place again to no avail. Then we had a ten minute walk around to the back of the venue where we

The Dome of the Sands

finally managed to hook all our resources up at once and get passes to enter. Once we got in, the true size of this event was apparent… there were 9 halls, each of indescribable size; and a huge avenue with even more stands and displays. Having only a couple of hours, we visited the HTC stand (hooked up again with John, Dan and Jason), then the Google stand, and then went back up on top of The Dome of the Sands to chill and take pictures.

The entrance to MWC

A tiny bit of Hall 8...

Finally it was time to leave; I had been told a car would collect me at 1pm (which I thought a little late – my flight was at 3.20pm). I got a phone call at ten to one saying where to meet the driver (Paral lel Avenue) but they didn’t say which direction he’d be coming from (and therefore which side he’d be on). Barcelona streets are three or four lanes each side; and very VERY wide. I waited… and waited. The driver (we had a very poor language interlock – only understanding two words in four of what each other said) would keep calling me and saying “two minutes” but traffic was AWFUL. We finally agreed on a meeting spot, but not which side; he arrived nearly an hour late, with the car ten minutes away… with me starting to feel a little less than comfortable about the time.

Then we set off – traffic was initially slow, and then stopped completely after we’d been going twenty minutes. We had to turn back the way we’d come, and go a different way to the airport – when I finally arrived I had to dash through every stage, and arrived at the very back of the line of passengers boarding the plane… I could not have been two minutes later and made the flight. The rest of the trip home was completely uneventful… chatting with fellow passengers and generally relaxing… although on that first plane I can’t have smelt very nice!!

Special thanks go to Hugo Sieiro for his calm, cheerful and unflappable organisation of this entire Elevate! event and untold other things; to John Starkweather for being so friendly, approachable and the least director-like Director I ever met; to Jason Dunn for being a cheerful Canuck who knows his customer well but loves learning more about them; to Dan Lazarides, for the initial invitation and for running the facebook page; and last but not least to all the Elevate! members for being so much fun this weekend.

Some names of people I met this weekend (there were others but I never found out their names…)

Some of us waiting for a taxi to the preview event...

 

Victor “Spartan” Louis; Torbjörn “Droider” Jonsson; Peter Vernelen; Arianeta; Jaume Estruch; Jonathan David; Leigh Momii, Developer Evangelist for HTCdev; and the others mentioned above.

I hope you enjoyed this post and the photos…!

Category: Gadgets, Internet Stuff, Personal, Tech / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Your first glider flight

Stonelaughter / February 16, 2012 / One comment

Well, the moment has come. You’re sitting (well, lying down actually) in the front seat of an aeroplane with no engine… a parachute on your back and your knees are brushing against the sides of the cockpit, seemingly in danger of fouling the levers and controls. The canopy is open, and the glider has its left wing lying on the floor – the right wing sticking up in the air at about thirty degrees. Someone is fiddling around you, getting your straps ready; which are coupled up and pulled very VERY tight. Meanwhile, the instructor in the back is calmly talking you through what’s going to happen. You don’t hear a bloody word of it.

Then he/she seems to go into ritual mode; reciting something. “CONTROLS” they say (the stick and pedals start waggling around alarmingly in your cockpit as the instructor tests them) “…full and free. BALLAST – weights are already checked and within limits. STRAPS – are your straps tight and secure?” You suddenly realise you’re involved and answer “err… yeah *weak smile*”. There are a good few more checks then someone puts down your canopy with a “Clunk”, reaches through the window and pushes the locking levers. Then a lever on your left moves backwards and the check is “airbrakes”… you see a couple of red-painted planks stick out of the wings, go half way back in, and then close with a BANG.

Then things start to happen. The left wing is picked up by someone who seems to have appeared from nowhere, the guy in the back shouts “Cable on please!” and someone rummages around under the glider and shouts something while you can hear metal rattling. There’s another clunk, the guy underneath gets up and says “Cable on and secure!” pulling the cable hard as if to show you. He gets away from the front of the glider, and stands to the side, watching expectantly… and then you see the cable move. Slowly but surely it pulls tight – the drogue chute on the cable rolling across the ground… and then…

EVERYTHING happens at once… the glider leaps forward like a scalded cat – rumbling along the ground for less than two seconds before it lifts and all goes quiet – just a whistling noise. Less than a couple of seconds later, the glider tips slightly to the left and you feel a little bit pushed into your seat as the nose comes up… up… up to an almost unbelievable angle. (it’s actually only 30-45 degrees but feels incredible). It’s fast, rushing, pulling, a bit bumpy – and perhaps even a bit scary. The nose starts to come down, as if of its own accord – but you can start to hear a moaning, groaning echo of engine noise from below  as the winch strains to keep pulling. Then suddenly, all the tension releases… the glider seems to float. There’s a little “Chink” sound as the instructor releases the cable… and you’re free.

The gentle whistling is back; there’s a gentle breeze on your face from some as-yet unseen air vent, and you start looking around. At a height of about thirteen hundred feet (about a quarter of a mile) the world is spread out below you – the instructor is calmly chatting away, directing you to familiar features as they gently turn the glider around and around. Then you realise that actually it’s quite bumpy – the glider alternately pushing up into your back and then pulling down away from you – with accompanying rushing sounds. The instructor is changing the glider’s attitude; pulling, pushing rolling and pitching the glider. You’re told you’re in a thermal and start to notice the glider is climbing, and you can see more and more of the world as the little puffy clouds in the summer sky get closer. You feel motion in true 3D for the first time ever – and can see other gliders above you, below you, to the sides. Their motions seem odd – seeming to slice across the sky, move up and down in unexplained ways and coming towards you and away from you at unaccustomed angles.

All too soon, it’s time to go back; other people need their turn at flying too. There’s a “CLONK” as the airbrakes come out again – you can feel the glider descending and the instructor points out the airfield ahead of you. The nose of the glider gets lower and lower – and at some point the instructor has put away the airbrakes without you noticing and tells you that you’re now travelling at 130mph! The noise is loud, rushing, roaring but nothing like you would expect for that speed. You can still hold a chat! Then he pulls the glider into a steep climb… you’re pressed heavily into your seat as the glider climbs and gently slows back to “normal” speeds. There’s where you launched from, just down on your left hand side; it’s going past at what seems a high rate because you’re heading downwind – not to mention that the glider seems to be going a bit sideways! Then you turn left… and keep turning… and keep turning… and suddenly you’re pointing at the piece of grass you left, just half an hour ago. The airbrakes CLONK again and this time you can SEE the descent as well as feel it. The landing point seems to stay in exactly the same place in front of you and slightly to the right of the nose… except it’s getting closer and closer. Then all of a sudden, you’re flying along the ground… when did that happen?! The nose of the glider lifts… there’s a little “BUMP” and then rumbling as the glider rolls gently to a stop…. and the left wing again gently touches the ground. It’s over… and you are completely hooked.

Category: Fun, Gliding, Personal / Tags: , , , ,

Evils – two of – Lesser.

Stonelaughter / February 13, 2012 / One comment

Today, I read a friend’s blog (link below) and it got me to thinking. His central point started out that boxing should be banned because it’s A Bad Thing(tm). He then goes on to acknowledge that some good comes of it… but concludes that these good things are outweighed by the bad and it should be banned. Please read it – it’s a good read.

http://www.dargue.co.uk/?p=163

However; I think that boxing regulated and lawful… boxing out in the open, allows people to choose a career in it and trust that they have a good chance of making money at it and actually having a good life… whereas boxing driven underground through a ban will simply lead to a corrupt, criminal underworld where kids are recruited through fear and lack of choice.

Life’s all about choices – we all know that. We make a choice, then we have to live with the consequences of that choice… like it or not. Rinse then repeat. However so much of our life we are confronted by choices where the only options we have are bad in one way or another… Come with me and I’ll make you rich – but you’ll forever be a fugitive on the wrong side of the Law… say “no” and I’ll kill you because you might tell. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Out of the frying pan into the fire.

My car is dying a slow and painful death. It is the second in a row of my cars to take this route; the last one I threw money at because I didn’t see a choice. This time I have a choice (a difficult and costly one) so I’m taking the opposite route… but I’m looking for one similar to my current one because it’s as close as I can get to the one I have (which I love) – and TWO IN A ROW can’t be that faulty can they? I leap into the unknown reluctantly but knowing the experience with the last car which turned into a money pit until it finally expired.

We have to choose the lesser of two evils… SO often. Deciding which evil is the lesser can be as difficult as the final choosing itself. So when you see someone you know seemingly stumbling from disaster to disaster and having a terrible time, just remember that we’re not all blessed with easy or uncomplicated choices to make and that learning one lesson per choice simply doesn’t help when life deals us yet another shitty card. I guess in the end I’m saying not to judge other people’s lives when they don’t seem to fit your idea of what they SHOULD have done… simply because you have no idea of the circumstances which led to the decision.

Category: Internet Stuff, Other Rants, Personal / Tags: , , , ,

Inspiration – what’s it all about then?

Stonelaughter / January 30, 2012 / 3 comments

Let me introduce you to a woman I know. She’s a WAHM with two kids and a husband. Husband has a job which pays well for what he does, but only just covers the household bills and his own expenses; so nothing usually left over for luxuries or emergencies. Or for that matter savings.

This woman has Coeliacs Disease; which to cut a long story short results in low iron retention; which results in a tendency to extreme fatigue. She also has a wrist that has been rendered extremely fragile, and prone to collapse and failure due to being attacked TWICE in her previous job. To add to this, she’s prone to asthma, and due to all of these issues finds it hard to get fit. Adding all this together leaves her prone to depression and anxiety, which means she’s perhaps a little more sensitive than she should be to people’s feelings and actions towards her. She has relationship problems with hubby’s two eldest children due to an extremely difficult history with them and various issues which don’t need to be opened here.

Having left her previous job, and her “sideline” business having ceased trading a couple of years ago, she needed a new source of income to boost the household coffers. So she took up as a children’s books selling agent with basically a huge amount of freedom in how she operates, and more recently a franchise manufacturing and selling casts of childrens hands and feet, pets’ paws etc in both 2D and 3D. This is an unbelievable amount of work for each cast – the lead time for each is about 6 weeks, AFTER the cast is taken from the subject.

This woman as I said has two children; a six year old boy who is thirsty for knowledge and activity, but who can be emotionally very trying; and a 14 month old girl who is completely fearless but shouts very loudly when hurt – and is constantly demanding attention, breastfeeding and stimulation. Having a six year old almost mandates having an involvement in his school; she’s vice chair of the PTA and is very involved in raising funds for the school – which she somehow manages to marry up with her two businesses and looking after the baby with barely a pause.

The books business have recently changed how they do their work which means that she needs to up her game considerably to remain involved. Many of the people she converses with on a day to day basis in this business are howling in pain at the changes; how can I ever… why do this now… what can I do…

Let me introduce you to a woman I know. My Wife Nicola. Who is sitting in her chair watching her favourite program while she writes this year’s business plan; which will set out how she can work these changes to her advantage; how she can drive for excellence. She’s setting a target of earnings per month which far outstrips the minimum set down in the new arrangements. She’s looking at tie-ins between her two business streams. She’s looking at how she can make these businesses work for her. I don’t hear her whining. I don’t hear her wondering how she’ll cope.

Nicola Stonelaughter – YOU are what inspiration is about. You inspire me, and anyone who sees what you do and who you are. You inspire me to work the dishwasher, and the washing machine without (too much) fuss. You inspire me to think about how MY business could be made to work. You inspire me to continue with my running. You just inspire me, and I love you. Please don’t stop.

Category: Challenges, Family, Personal / Tags: , , , , , ,
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