willswideweb

Genius. And I actually learnt something.

[Robbed from: Duncan]

[More: CES 2008 : The Rap]

And no, it’s not the fact everyone is calling it GizmodoGate (slapping gate on the end of something does not make it a sensational scoop. It just makes you look like a lazy, uninspired, second rate writer with no ambition, ability or inspiration).

If you have even a passing interest in tech, then you can’t have helped but notice a modest gathering going on in Las Vegas last week. Everyone shipped out to the dessert for the Consumer Electronics Show, ready to be wowed by the thousands of vendors showing off their annual wares. CES isn’t an easy show to cover - it’s absolutely huge. It fills not only the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, the slightly smaller Sands Convention Center, nearly all of the exhibition space in the Hilton plus the lion’s share of the ballrooms in the Venetian. All this for five days of tech geekery.

However, with so much noise out there, companies are literally falling over one another to have the flashiest, brightiest, lightiest booth to wow the assembled press and buyers into visiting its stand - which means loud soundsystems, scantily clad women, men in fancy dress and a plethora of slick, tightly edited videos, featuring beautiful people having AMAZING fun with its product, plastered across plasma after plasma as far as the eye can see. It can be a little overwhelming, and doesn’t make it easy to find the good products among the mediocre, the tacky and the iPod accessories.

This year was no different - if anything it was one of the biggest yet product-wise - but while there was certainly plenty to see it was lacking anything major. There was no Xbox 360 or PS3 or Vista or even a spoiler pre-announcement of a touchy-feely phone 600 miles away to steal the show. And when faced with such a situation you have to make your own entertainment, which is exactly what gadget blog Gizmodo did. Armed with just camcorder and a remote control programmed with the switch off codes for almost every TV ever made. Point it at a TV in a bar that’s blaring away when you want some peace and quiet and it’s quickly silenced. Turn it on a wall of LCDs looping through product demo after product demo and the result should be much more satisfying.

So the Giz boys hit the floor and zapped. And zapped. And zapped some more until their was nothing more to switch off bar the Panasonic 150in fertility symbol - which is so far from being an actual real telly anytime soon it didn’t even have a remote control. The video quietly slipped onto the Gizmodo site among the other 4,397 stories filed from the show floor and quicker than you can switch off the last remaining screen on a presenter valiantly ploughing on through a speech beset with TV technical problems, an all mighty shit storm erupted all over the internet - no doubt fueled by the fact there was little else big to write about.

Condemnation and persecution bounced furiously around the blogging echo chamber, building up venom with each reverberation. It was like one big pile on as the third tier/rate blogs all clambered over one another to release stored reserves of pent up anger against Gizmodo because for years they’ve had to pretend to be best buddies despite it stealing all their content and only linking back one time in ten.

“I didn’t want to weigh in on this because I know all the parties involved,” started John Biggs over a CrunchGear, before weighing in a further 1,000 bitter, bitter words on the subject. But then if Gizmodo’s making page impressions from the stunt, then you might as well at least try and claw some back by being the most over the top in condemning it. “Too Bad Gizmodo / Gawker Media is Not Public,” pondered Zoli Erdos because if if it was then EVERYONE would be able to ruin its share price. YEAH! Because everyone cares soo much and has the power to make such a significant difference to the financial markets. Robert Scoble said something unintelligible like “WAH WAH - no one’s linking to ME! I AM TEH INTERNET. Behold my marvellous (sponsored*) PODCASTS.” before vacuously imploding into a ball of self created hype.

The fracas even hit the top of TechMeme for a day - which is the tech blogger’s equivalent of Bryan Adams topping the singles chart for 13 years with (Everything I Do) I Do It for You.

But despite all the thinly disguised animosity and chest puffing about it setting blogging back five years (it hasn’t - because there isn’t any difference between a blog and a traditional media organisation at the Gizmodo level) no one has seemed to noticed the one big problem in all of this: the video itself. It’s fucking awful. The idea is a good stunt, but it’s executed appallingly. There’s no narrative, no story, no close up reaction shots of people’s confusion - even Jackass had better direction and more engaging footage. Gizmodo may not have changed the status of blogging in the media hierarchy, but they’ve proved people will watch any old shit on the internet. Over and over again. Welcome to the new race to the bottom.

Last of the CES videos I made for The Register.

Bill Gates didn’t do anything silly this year - probably because he actually had quite a bit to talk about - so they went with a montage of his previous silly bits instead:

CES in five minutes - get an idea of the scale of the show. This is only the Convention Center, mind - there are two other locations as well:

Other videos, in case you missed ‘em:

Honda’s freaky Asimo humanoid robot

HP TouchSmart Media Center PC

Bill Gates’ Keynote highlights

Stuff wot I’m reading:

• Google Earth is terrorists’ tool of choice
  
  from the INQUIRER
• ZOMG, Zune runs teh Linux!
  
  from Engadget
• Will the iPhone flop like the Mac?
  
  from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog
• iPhone: 20 questions you need to ask
  
  from PC Advisor News
• Dell accused of selling defective notebooks - again
  
  from The Register
• BBC to bring back Tomorrow’s World
  
  from All Tech.co.uk news, reviews and features
• GADGETS: The Ugly Babies of CES
  
  from Valleywag
• Pirate Bay to buy country
  
  from Web User : Internet & Technology News
• Apple determined to keep control over iPhone software
  
  from MacUser news
• Dell sues cybersquatters for URL diversion
  
  from the INQUIRER

Stuff wot I’m reading:

• Porn boost for HD DVD
  
  from PC Advisor News
• 10 flaws so far in Apple bug month
  
  from PC Advisor News
• CES: New charge for “premium” bandwidth?
  
  from PC Advisor News
• The three reasons why AMD acquired ATI
  
  from the INQUIRER
• Google plans street advertising presence
  
  from Engadget
• Blu-ray: Betamaxxx 2?
  
  from Gizmodo
• GOOGLE: What if Google looked like Yahoo?
• Teens charged with breaking into school computer
  
  from The Register
• Is Google Falsely Flagging Harmless Sites?
  
  from PC World: Latest Technology News
• Top Five Reasons Why the iPhone Sucks
  
  from Gizmodo

I’m still not sure whether it actually is a real robot, or just kid in a spaceman outfit running round the stage.

Demo of HP’s new touchy feely Media Center.

Stuff wot I’m reading:

• BBC to develop social networking Web sites
  
  from Reuters: Technology
• YouTube Considering Conventional TV Shows, Channel
  
  from Gizmodo
• Apple used fake handsets and disguised software to…
  
  from MacUser news
• APPLE: Steve Jobs just farted
• Has someone bugged the coins in your pocket?
  
  from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog
• CES: tech recycling site launched
  
  from PC Advisor News
• PS3 trounced by Wii in Japan
  
  from the INQUIRER
• Apple, iPhone and Cisco trademarks: more confused
  
  from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog
• Skype says time is not ripe for cellphone version
  
  from Reuters: Technology
• The Real Deal On Xbox 360 IPTV With Pics and Video
  
  from Gizmodo

Some videos I made for The Register as part of its coverage of CES in Las Vegas.

Halo 3 preview:

Microsoft IPTV on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live on Windows Viata after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stuff wot I’m reading:

• IPTV on Xbox 360 is for real
  
  from Engadget
• OQO Model 02 arrives
  
  from Engadget
• Samsung Unleashes a Diminutive HD Camcorder
  
  from Gizmodo
• Youtube comes to a TV near you (Video demo)
  
  from CES
• Teens ‘turn to social websites’
  
  from BBC News | Technology | World Edition
• Industry prepares for CES and Macworld duel
  
  from PC Pro news
• BT offers Wi-Fi phones to consumers
  
  from the INQUIRER
• Web stalkers to get face search plug-in
  
  from The Register
• HDTV is Good, but Fire Truck HDTV is Way Better
  
  from Gizmodo
• Researchers claim dye key to faster Internet
  
  from Engadget

My original headline:

Want a free nano? Get yo ass to CES!

Italian traslation:

Volete un iPod nano gratis? Muovetevi ed andate al CES

I also fear my Japanese gamers brave winter weather to have a Wii / yellow snow joke may have lost something in translation:

Los jugones de Japón se enfrentan al mal tiempo para conseguir una Wii

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

[Read: Japanese gamers brave winter weather to have a Wii]

Full clip from the Comdex 2001 video of Bill Gates dressed up as Harry Potter.

Also includes Steve Ballmer dressed as Luke Skywalker (I think…)

[Related: PC Advisor takes you to Comdex 2001]

Comdex was THE tech tradeshow, until it suffered an untimely, slowly drawn out, spluttering death shortly after this video was shot. It’s since been overtaken by CES on the tech geek calendar.

You can relive all the Las Vegas action, direct from the show floor - shot back in 2001. We were soo ahead of the time.

I also got chucked out of Bill Gates‘ keynote for filming him dressed as Harry Potter…

Part two after the jump. The Bellagio fountains shot at the end was a lucky accident - we only had enough battery left to do one take…

Read the rest of this entry »