JosephBustillos.com » CNET

Why Does C/NET Hate Apple?

jbb — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:59:17 +0000

I don’t remember what cable channel it was on, but I was so happy to find a future-tech-oriented TV show one day many, many years ago and soon came to appreciate and look for the giant red C/NET logo. That was before Tech-TV, which has come and gone, and before podcasting. These days, I continue to listen to C/NET’s flagship podcast, Buzz Out Loud, not because I’m looking for tech-journalism but because I’m want to know what the haters are thinking about when Apple is in the news.

brian tong and molly wood - image by CNET

Anchored by two very smart and funny tech-observers, Molly Wood and Brian Tong, the once daily podcast seems to have fallen victim to the talk-show radio syndrome where news stories have become launching points for venom and hyperbole. Back when Tom Merritt was part of the crew the balance between news reporting, analysis and rants was well managed, entertaining and worth listening to/watching. The revolving third seat, since Merritt’s departure, has been manned by good people, but all seem to be either too quick to go into rant mode or no one can be found who is strong enough a personality to maintain the news/analysis/rant balance. I’m sure that there are probably constructive reasons for the change, but the reduction of the podcast from daily to weekly isn’t a good sign. And for me, with the rant-a-thon, I can hardly make it through even the weekly sessions.

Case in point, news item: Apple’s Siri voice-service is under scrutiny over it’s apparent aversion to giving info when asked for assistance looking for birth-control. Siri doesn’t seem to have any problem giving assistance when asked for where one can score pot or how to dispose of a body. The latter example, obviously meant to be humorous while the former… well, have you read the Steve Jobs biography? Molly Wood goes into rant mode about Apple’s obvious nanny-mode control issues. Apple had previously responded that it wasn’t a political statement and that, after all, the service is still in Beta. One of Wood’s co-hosts offered that it could have also been a CYA thing, with Apple not wanting to be sued in the future when someone under-age uses Siri to get info and then gets an abortion. Wood wouldn’t have it and called Apple “Beta” explanation bull[shit], and continued the rant. I shut off the podcast and deleted the episode.

What it comes down to is that there’s no one there to pull back on the rants and maintain even the illusion of journalistic balance. It was a little understandable when they were under the pressure of doing a daily tech-news show that they would riff on the headlines and not spend too much time to dig deeper into the stories. And given the ongoing nature of most of the stories and the incomplete record of the events, one does need the analysis. Problem was and is, especially when dealing with anything Apple or Steve Jobs, Wood and Brian Tong always assumed the worst, most controlling, evil motives. To their credit they’ve earned their skepticism over Apple’s motives. Wood has seen how Apple marketing has been savage in their pandering and mistreatment of the press and Tong worked for Apple in the early years of the Apple Stores (which I guess qualifies one for … wounds). Alas, having been poorly treated by individuals or organizations… well, if one is going to be a journalist one needs to rise above it. Where’s the objectivity when one automatically goes for the “evil” reason. I’m not saying that one shouldn’t be skeptical and just buy the marketing fluff, but there is a middle ground that C/NET and Buzz Out Loud seem to have lost a long time ago.

Sources:

Buzz Out Loud 1568: That’s just the Google Maps guy, ignore him. http://www.cnet.com/8301-19709_1-57334959-10/buzz-out-loud-1568-thats-just-the-google-maps-guy-ignore-him-podcast/ retrieved 12-30-2011.
Petition To Correct Siri’s Apparent Anti-Abortion Bias Collects Nearly 30,000 Signatures by Laura Bassett/Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/siri-abortion-petition_n_1124281.html retrieved 12/30/2011.

#1 Music Recording of 2009 That You Can’t Buy

jbb — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:50:59 +0000

I have no business reviewing music. I gave up on keeping up with what’s hip in music when studio tricks took over for musical talent. Yeah, I’m an old fart. That said, a top 5 list written by Nathan Chase caught my attention because Chase’s #1 recording was a collection that you can’t get at Amazon or Wallmart or iTunes: Kutiman’s “ThruYOU” project.

I previously posted a blog entry about the ThruYou project after a friend sent me a link to the project on the same day that the Buzz Out Loud podcast crew commented on Jonathan Coulton’s blog post about the project. Like Coulton, my first impulse is to go on and on about the tour de force that this project represents and how it reveals how ridiculously broke copyright is. One track from the project, Wait For Me, has almost 140,000 views. After listening to the project I bought his commercially available CD, Escape Route, from Amazon (in DRM-free downloadable MP3 form). That’s one sale of a record that wouldn’t have happened had this artist posted his creation for free on YouTube. As Larry Lessig said in his TED presentation, this is not about taking someone else’s work and passing it off as ones own (piracy), but taking what has gone before and making something completely new: remix culture.

An excellent website has been created listing the Thru-YOU videos and all of the contributing videos: http://thru-you.org

Sources:

* My Top 5 Albums of 2009 – Tortoise, Muse, P.O.S., Mute Math, & Kutiman by Nathan Chase, http://nathanchase.com/2009/12/my-top-5-albums-of-2009-tortoise-muse-p-o-s-mute-math-kutiman/ retrieved 12/31/2009.

* YouTube video: Kutiman-Thru-you – 06 – Wait For Me by Kutiman, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i88CKr6Shn4 retrieved 12/31/2009.

* TED Talks: Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity by Larry Lessig, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html retrieved on 12/31/2009

Windows 7 Launch Party Spoofs

jbb — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:34:02 +0000

In honor of last week’s launch of Windows 7 we have the “bleeped” version of the lame instructional video. Amazing how much better it is with a few strategic beeps. And as if that weren’t enough, I’ve also included the CNET deconstructed version below and one of the latest PC/Mac ads. Enjoy!

Google OS Announced Today, I Predicted it 3 Years Ago

jbb — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:02:02 +0000

In their official blog, Google announced Google Chrome OS. CNET’s Webware ask why, to which Google said “Why not.” Who cares, my Pepperdine friends and I predicted this back in Early 2006 with the following video commercial:

Support the artist: “Too Much Information” by the Police

After 3 Year They Still Line up for Their iPhones

jbb — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:10:35 +0000

image by Caroline McCarthy/CNET

… But not nearly as crazy as the previous two years. To recap, last year Apple released a faster iPhone to take advantage of AT&T’s faster network (3g) and mega-podcaster, Leo Laporte did a 24-hour marathon run-up to the phone’s release. Before that, in year one, it seemed like the whole world was lining up three or more days early to get what some were calling the “Jesus phone.” And even though I’d sworn myself to wait until version two I couldn’t resist the gravitational pull, walked in after the lines died down that night and bought my iPhone (see my iPhone Unbox! Pls Sign Me Up for a 12-Step Gadget Program blog post. Good times. Funny, I miss hanging out in the lines of happy apple-fanboys, even when I wasn’t intending on buying anything. It was just fun to be there, catching the happy vibe. Sigh.

Here’s a run-down of “waiting-in-line” videos, beginning with this year’s smaller, less-hyped up crowd in Colorado (courtesy TUAW):

Year-Two in NYC w/ Dan, correspondent for Leo Laporte’s TWIT network:

Year-One in NYC w/ Shawn King from Your Mac Life:

For blow-by-blow, multi-city reporting on iPhone Launch Day, version 3 check out CNET’s Live blog: iPhone 3G S launch day coverage. Also check out CNET’s Photos: iPhone 3G S launch day

Mother of All Funk Chords – Kutiman YouTube Remix

jbb — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:44:39 +0000

I know something is up when I get a link to the same artist from several completely different sources in one day. Earlier today fellow web-voyager, Linda, sent me a link with the subject line: “Interesting music videos.” Ah, understatement. I loaded the video off of the artists’ site and thought something was wrong ’cause it looked like YouTube but wasn’t. Than this afternoon said artist, Kutiman, was featured on CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast, after the crew saw this video posted in Jonathan Coulton’s blog. “What you are about to see,” says Kutiman on the ThruYou website, “is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other worlds – what you see is what you hear.

According to Coulton, Kutiman is an Israel musician who takes bits and pieces of unrelated musical instruction and amateur performance videos from YouTube and creates something really amazing. Here’s Kutiman explaining how he does it, followed by one of my favorites from his collection:

One of my favorites – Wait for Me:

Coulton concludes, “So amazing, so illegal. What are we going to do with you, future?” I agree, copyright is so broken and it’s up to us, those who create and those who enjoy these creative works, to leave the old models and make a new future where the Creatives are compensated and all of us can freely enjoy the works of their labor.

UPDATE:

So, since posting this blog entry, Kutiman pulled his videos from YouTube. Damn. The videos are still available at his site:

http://thru-you.com/

Go there and enjoy. jbb

The iPhone Hype Continues – Leo Does 24-Hour Marathon

jbb — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:23:48 +0000

One cool thing with this year’s iPhone release is that I can follow it live on the web, especially iPhone coverage by Leo Laporte on his TWiTlive stream. This year Leo decided to stay “on-the-air” for over 24-hours, beginning with the release of the iPhone in New Zealand around 1PM PST and ending with the Hawaii release. The comparisons with Jerry Lewis’ famed telethons have been abundant. Thank god it’s been very much a dialogue and not a monologue with TWiT favorites Tom Merrit, Cali Lewis, Andy Ihnatko, Amber MacArthur, and Alex Lindsey and Apple Co-founder Steve Wazniak. As if additional buzz was needed, Leo has been giving away iPhone 3Gs which were donated by Audible.com. Thus there have been a few “give me an iPhone” videos such as the following:

Leo’s Kids – A TWiT Charitable Effort from Nick S on Vimeo.

Leo’s own ad for the 24-hour coverage:

I’m thinking that I’ll probably swing by the local Apple Store sometime over the weekend. And the hype continues. jbb

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