The Inquirer

In a rare consumer victory, Apple nixes return fees

Sylvie Barak — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:15:17 GMT

Sylvie Barak the Inquirer, Friday 16 May 2008. 19:11:00

Fair and square

THE CONSUMER-FRIENDLY computer advice site Computeractive claims it has won a victory against Apple, causing the firm to cancel its 'processing fee' charged to customers returning products they don't want. Products bought online falling under the consumer protection law should not incur penalties to the consumer if they want to return what they bought or change it for something else, but this is what Apple have been doing. The Apple terms and conditions noted that any buyer who wanted to send back goods covered by the Distance Selling Regulations, had to cough up a collection and processing fee, which Computeractive realised was illegal....

Amazon seeks to expand kids' education

Andrew Thomas — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:11:11 GMT

Andrew Thomas the Inquirer, Friday 16 May 2008. 17:04:00

Oh Uncle Bulgaria! Yes! Yes! YES!

ELECTRIC BOOKSHOP, Amazon, has a nifty mechanism for showing you items you might like based on your previous purchases and searches. Were one, for example, be so bold as to buy a book on 19th Century narrow gauge steam locomotives, one might also be furnished with details of publications concerning Victorian inventors and entrepreneurs. But more basic searches sometimes turn up more unexpected, pliant and nubile treasures, possibly completely unconnected with the topic in hand. Should one instigate a search on Google's UK site for DVDs about those loveable, cuddly, furry creatures, the Wombles, one might express a certain degree of surprise and/or delight at the eleventh item on Amazon's list of recommendations....

Get a hack the sack!

Nick Booth — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:37:34 GMT

Nick Booth the Inquirer, Friday 16 May 2008. 10:49:00

PR On a Dollar a Day Part 2

CONTINUING our PR on a Dollar a Day Guide to DIY PR, here we look at press briefings. You've written a press release, and the usual undermanned news web sites have dutifully reproduced it, with a few minor changes here and there. (Incidentally, don't hesitate to complain if any hack dares to try to improve on your words. Never let them get away with that. Be inspired by one corporate DeskMonster from, er, a large chip manufacturer, that recently tried to get a hack the sack after he tidied up her turgid quote). There will still be a few pockets of resistance, however....

Brits are quite green, regardless of what they claim

Sylvie Barak — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:44:45 GMT

Sylvie Barak the Inquirer, Thursday 15 May 2008. 18:17:00

Cycle again

NEW RESEARCH BY T-MOBILE shows that most Brits don't really believe they do enough for the environment, despite the fact that results seem to prove they do quite a fair bit. The study, commissioned by T-Mobile to highlight its mobile phone reuse and recycling scheme reckons that 58 per cent of Brits think they don't do nearly enough for the environment, with only one person out of every 20 claiming to be "green". But having said that, 88 per cent of the 2187 people that took part in the survey did claim to do a bit of recycling at home, with the oldies winning the green prize hands down with 91 per cent of over 55s separating paper from plastic....

CBS pays through the nose for Cnet

Andrew Thomas — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:42:42 GMT

Andrew Thomas the Inquirer, Thursday 15 May 2008. 17:09:00

$1.8 billion in cash buys broadcaster web presence

MEDIA MEGALITH CBS has reached down the back of the sofa and pulled out a cool $1.8 billion to snap up online news service Cnet. CBS' desperation to get online is amply illustrated by the purchase price which values Cnet at a staggering 45 per cent more than its closing price on Wall Street yesterday. Also no doubt staggering under the weight of dollar bills will be Cnet co-founder Shelby Bonnie who still owns shares in his old outfit which now look set to pay out a trouser-stretching $116.2 million windfall. Despite apparently paying over the odds for Cnet, CBS' chief financial officer Fred Reynolds told a press conference the price was 'fair' and that the acquisition would immediately add to CBS' bottom line....

Croatian state broadcaster nicks BBC web site design

Andrew Thomas — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:42:42 GMT

Andrew Thomas the Inquirer, Thursday 15 May 2008. 17:24:00

What on Earth would Lord Reith say?

THERE APPEARS to be an acute shortage of Web designers in Croatia if state broadcaster HRT's site is anything to go by. Vijesti.net has a rather damning comparision of the two state broadcasters' sites here where it would appear that the two sites were indeed separated at birth. One allegation appears to be that a bill for the services of a non-existent appeared in the broadcaster's books. It seems it saved someone a few bob to simply lift Aunty Beeb's code wholesale. As our knowledge of Serbo-Croat is rudimentary at best and web translation services insist on telling us things such as 'then then remain indefinitely of how this yes' and 'smo does raspitati who is who leg is doing', we feel unable to comment on the detail of the accusations....

AMD's Dirk tells the troops what is happening

Charlie Demerjian — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:25:50 GMT

Charlie Demerjian the Inquirer, Monday 12 May 2008. 23:06:00

Memowatch Message to the masses

IF YOU ARE running a large company like, say AMD, you occasionally need to tell the troops about the changes going on over their heads. This is how you might go about it. µ ----------------------------------------------- TO: All Employees FROM: Dirk Meyer, President and COO RE: Allen Sockwell New Chief Talent Officer The Chief Talent Officer at AMD is a key member of the Corporate Staff, focused on developing our leadership and technical talent to help AMD differentiate itself in the industry, and ultimately to win. In addition, this person is a key advisor and counselor to me and our senior executive team, especially during times of transformation....

Intuit gets a new logo

Charlie Demerjian — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:30:01 GMT

Charlie Demerjian the Inquirer, Saturday 3 May 2008. 09:36:00

Too daft by half

IF YOU THOUGHT the old Intuit logo was bland, try the new one Gone is the reddish-purple and face-outline-attacked-by-8-bit-bees look. It is replaced by a much more bland light blue script without bees. Blue, grammatically incorrect and dull as dishwater If anyone from Intuit PR is reading this, you forgot to dot the Is but you did dot the Ts. You aren't supposed to do that. No, really, dots go over the Is. Before you make the new logo public in a few weeks, move the dots two letters and one letter to the left respectively. Just a tip, we love you even if you ignore our sage advice....

Stats show women still shun tech jobs

Mark Ballard — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:25:06 GMT

Mark Ballard the Inquirer, Friday 2 May 2008. 13:15:00

But your industry needs you

THE LAMENTATBLE LACK of women in the UK's IT and telecoms industry has been born out in official statistics published today. In 2007 the numbers of women working in IT and telecoms professions in the UK increased a mere half a percentage point over2006. The proportion of women in IT has been languishing around the teen percentiles since the air started escaping from the dotcom bubble. That is, over 80 per cent of the people in tech jobs are men and its been that way for years, according to stats produced exclusively for the INQUIRER by the Office of National Statistics....

INQUIRER Guide to PR on a dollar a day

Nick Booth — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:48:56 GMT

Nick Booth the Inquirer, Thursday 1 May 2008. 18:40:00

Dollar Bill

"If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on PR." - Bill Gates. WITH THIS IN mind, The INQ is launching the Dollar a Day PR training course. Whoever coined this the Information Age was only half right. It's actually the dis-information age. Now that technology has made us all naked, we need spin to cover ourselves up again. Journalists rarely make the news these days, it's all PR driven, We all need to learn PR. But since UK firms charge you £600 a day, just to be serviced by a bloke so fresh out of college he's still hungover - we've gone for a more 'cost effective' version....

UK music Mafia threatens kiddies

Stewart Meagher — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:57:33 GMT

Stewart Meagher the Inquirer, Wednesday 30 April 2008. 15:17:00

Rant Don't download that or mummy will go to jail

MUSIC INDUSTRY FAT CATS have gone one step beyond with a nauseating campaign, hiding behind the skirts of legitimate children's charity, to stop kids from downloading music which isn't lining their own bulging, hand-stitched pockets. The campaign, which is spearheaded by a leaflet which will be distributed to thousands of schools and libraries, uses the kind of scare tactics we thought were no longer acceptable in our free and open society. The campaign tries to convince kids that downloading even one song without paying for it will send Daddy's computer into virus hell, and goes on to point out that, as children are not legally responsible for their own actions, downloading that Bob the Builder live bootleg will almost certainly end up with mummy going to prison....

Microsoft Times is Highly Reliable - honest

Nebojsa Novakovic — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:54:21 GMT

Nebojsa Novakovic the Inquirer, Wednesday 30 April 2008. 12:32:00

(T)rusty sword of truth

WHY BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH? Here's paper that does exactly what it says on the tin. Far, far away, in the land of healthy kimchi and pretty, plastic girls and boys who (all) drink non stop, there it was. On a crowded metro train, right in the middle of Seoul, the gigantic capital of South Korea which boasts more population than the whole of Holland. The name says it all: Highly Reliable Times. While in Korea, some things tend to be overpromised and underdelivered, this wasn't the case here - delivered to you free, right in the train compartment to read standing during long rides....

Print industry sunk by Internet

Nick Farrell — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:23:58 GMT

Nick Farrell the Inquirer, Wednesday 30 April 2008. 07:49:00

Wibble blamed for everything again shocker

PRINT NEWSPAPER circulation in the USA is about to plummet to its lowest level since 1946, thanks to the rise of the Internet, according to analyst outfit Newsosaur. Apparently life is getting so bad the printed newspaper industry that circulation will drop to about 50 million this year. Since 1946 the US population has doubled so that means that only half the numbers of people that used to look at a newspaper over their cornflakes do so now. Alan Mutter, at Newsosaur is predicting that, within a decade, print-paper circulation and ad revenue will likely be a quarter of what it is today....

Nvidia declares the CPU dead

Charlie Demerjian — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:04:12 GMT

Charlie Demerjian the Inquirer, Friday 25 April 2008. 17:43:00

Gutterwatch Fare thee well, Intella, for we did love thee

A MISSIVE from a guy called Roy Taylor dropped into our paws, and we were intrigued by its contents. Nvidian boy Roy basically declares that the CPU is dead, and Nvidia's chips do all the real work in a PC. To back up his claims. He quotes almost an entire article from TGDaily, penned by out old mucker Theo Valich, and found here. We say "almost", because Roy omits the bits he doesn't like and highlights the bits he does. Just in case you're wondering here's a bit he missed off: "In case you wonder, no, Nvidia's CEO did not deliver explanations on the results of Windows hardware survey which blamed nv4_displ.dll driver for almost a third of BSODs in Windows Vista (Google search will reveal around 613.000 results for a "Nvidia BSOD" search)." The following letter is reproduced exactly as we got it with only formatting changes made....

Paddick pledges free wifi for London

Mark Ballard — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:57:23 GMT

Mark Ballard the Inquirer, Wednesday 23 April 2008. 14:45:00

Have nots should have, says most likely won't have

BRIAN PADDICK, the Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate for London, has vowed to provide free wireless internet access from all public spaces in London. He wants to close the gap between the digital haves and have-nots, he said in a statement today. He also wanted to help the poor get computer access, he said. Free wifi would be installed in public places in 10 inner-city London boroughs, he said. He didn't say which two inner boroughs would get left out, but we can assume that every sharp suited merchant banker in the City of London is using 3G already. The other twenty London boroughs would only be given free wifi if a public consultation supported the idea....

CNET slashes 120 jobs

Sylvie Barak — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:32 GMT

Sylvie Barak , Thursday 27 March 2008. 11:47:00

Plummet sharelines

CNET, THE ONLINE technology media company, rightsized 120 workers yesterday claiming that it was a necessary move in order to focus on its restructuring and long term growth efforts. The move comes as the company faces hostile board takeover from their investors, Jana partners hedge fund, after a court ruling in early March. Jana Partners holds about 10 per cent of CNET's voting stock and is leading a coalition of investors to force the company to 'revitalise' and hike its share prices. Perversely, this is exactly the effect the job cuts had on CNET's share prices yesterday, which rose in after hours trading as soon as the news of the job losses broke....

Rabid press declares war on games

Nick Farrell — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:32 GMT

Nick Farrell , Monday 31 March 2008. 20:57:00

Byron's facts, knickers twisted

HER MADGE'S loyal press have been rushing to pillory violent video games in the wake of a report by Dr. Tanya Byron. Since the report was released there has been a baying of blood from the press. TV presenter Anne Diamond appeared in a Daily Mail article last week, discussing the 'chilling' dangers of titles such as Resident Evil 4 and Scarface: The World Is Yours. It also seems that an unnamed national newspaper has been offering hundreds of pounds to hard up actors to confess that violent games lead to a life of crime. An advertisement appeared on an 'online talent community' site which promotes opportunities for aspiring actors and models....

Murdoch sets WSJ on FT

INQUIRER Newsdesk — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:31 GMT

INQUIRER Newsdesk , Wednesday 2 April 2008. 16:20:00

London to get the Journal before the US wakes up

RHUBARB MURDOCH'S News Corp is set to launch the Wall Street Journal in the UK in a bid to kill off the Financial Times. From April 16 the the Amrican edition of the Journal wil be flogged in London some time before it goes on sale in the US According to the Grauniad the paper will go on sale in some 250 newsagents in the capital with an initial print run of 3,500. It'll cost a wallet-lightening £2.50. Michael Bergmeijer, the managing director of Rupe's newly acquired Dow Jones consumer media group in Europe saifd he thinks, "a large number of internationally minded people living and working in London will value the US edition, and we'll now be able to give them the competitive advantage of having the world's best business paper five hours ahead of US readers." We might not be fans of Murdoch but the Journal has credited the INQ with scoops on at least three separate occasions....

AMD waves Stars and Stripes

Andrew Thomas — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:31 GMT

Andrew Thomas , Thursday 3 April 2008. 18:28:00

Forbes goes misty eyed, sings God Bless America

CHIMPZILLA may be suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune on the stock market, but the plucky little outfit can still find time to support America's finest. "Every branch of the military is using our stuff," George Warren, AMD's director of public sector sales, told Forbes. "That's a dramatic change from 18 months ago." Apparently, over the past two years, the US Air Force has made 70 per cent of its 330,000 personal computers AMD-based. The mag adds that the military market looks like a 'natural fit' for the combination of AMD and ATI, for applications such as flight simulation and advanced, three-dimensional mapping applications on the battlefield and elsewhere....

Stephen King defends videogame violence

Nick Farrell — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:31 GMT

Nick Farrell , Thursday 10 April 2008. 08:18:00

Good for the soul, even if you've flogged yours

WORDSMITH and writer of scary stories about small town America, Stephen King has slammed moves to ban violent video games. King said that such a move would be undemocratic and it was up to parents to monitor their children's entertainment. The writer of Salem's Lot, and the Shining, said that he was no computer game fanboy, but was outraged when he heard that a bill in the state of Massachusetts could ban the sale of violent games to anyone aged under 18. He said he was miffed when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous....

Mesh Computers enmeshed in unholy row

Paul Hales — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:30 GMT

Paul Hales , Friday 11 April 2008. 08:06:00

Miffed adversary washes soiled sheets on the web

AN UNHOLY row has broken out between a third party warranty provider and system builder Mesh Computers. According to a post on its web site, Repair-Line recently placed Mesh's account on stop. "All services to the manufacturer are being withheld due to non payment of account and failure to exchange parts buffer stock to allow repairs to continue," says the message on the website. The long, detailed and occasionally rabid account apparently posted by boss of Castleford-based Repair-Line, Carl Hill, accuses Mesh of all sort of shenanigans and picks out consultant Paul Kinsler as the focus of his anger. Kinsler is a fairly well-known chap in the UK IT business, having made his presence felt as MD of Mesh back in the days when system builders were virtually printing their own cash. After some years at the helm, he left Mesh in 2000 to found his own PR company. A personable chap, Kinsler is always ready with a laugh and an anecdote but, back in the day, Mesh employees did suggest he could be fearsome when riled. He's a well-built fellow and you do get the impression you wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of him should he explode. We were pretty sure Kinsler would right now - to use our founder's favourite phrase - be going apeshit bananas. But having spoken to him on the phone, he seems pretty sanguine about the whole sorry affair. Repair-Line lays into Kinsler in the long diatribe which is really aimed at Mesh, alleging various misrepresentations of the way the deal for on-site warranties was handled between the two companies. It seems Mesh, having found itself in a bit of a pickle, called on ex-MD Kinsler to get involved with the company again. Kinsler has run a PR company PK Media for the past few years and said he was asked by Mesh to help restructure and refocus the company. According to Repair-Line, "Paul subsequently took charge and Max (Sherafati) was no longer contactable the last claims are he is in Iran living his life in his Mansion complete with servants to tend his ever need." (sic). Kinsler said he used the title acting MD and denied that he "likes to disassociate himself with Mesh just in case the inevitable happens and they fall," as Repair-Line alleges. Kinsler said that as part of his attempts to sort out Mesh he decided to cancel Mesh's contract with the Repair-Line giving the firm the required three months notice, a version of events Repair-Line disputes. "It's a Mickey Mouse company," he said. "They are in the process of being wound up. We'd be winding them up ourselves but we can't as they're already being wound up. They gave crap service so we gave them three months notice." In reply to our query, Dave Williams Technical Manager at Repair-Line said in an email: "Repair-Line are not in the process of being wound up and expect that is just a slanderous rumour being passed about by certain disgruntled persons to discredit the company." He added: "We will be posting a further update to this on our website in the next day or two once we have confirmed it will not affect our legal case against Mesh Computers". Kinsler wouldn't be drawn on the specific allegations made by Hill on the web page, "What can I do?" he opined. "The whole thing's total rubbish. The only good thing I can say about it is that PK Media now shows up on a Google search..." µ AN UNHOLY row has broken out between a third party warranty provider and system builder Mesh Computers. According to a post on its web site, Repair-Line recently placed Mesh's account on stop. "All services to the manufacturer are being withheld due to non payment of account and failure to exchange parts buffer stock to allow repairs to continue," says the message on the website. The long, detailed and occasionally rabid account apparently posted by boss of Castleford-based Repair-Line, Carl Hill, accuses Mesh of all sort of shenanigans and picks out consultant Paul Kinsler as the focus of his anger....

Israeli Army sees Facebook as a threat

Sylvie Barak — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:30 GMT

Sylvie Barak , Friday 11 April 2008. 12:53:00

Prefer soldiers to be anti-social

ISRAEL'S NATIONAL SECURITY could be under serious threat; from 18 year old soldiers posing with their military equipment on Facebook. The Israeli Defence ministry on Thursday published new guidelines and rules to try to in some way stem, what they see, as significant leaks of classified information, flowing out through the social not-working (or fighting) site. The new rules will apply not only to soldiers, but also to Defence Ministry employees. It is important to note at this point that military service in Israel is mandatory, meaning that most young people between the ages of 18 and 21, Facebook's majority demographic, serve in the Israeli army, whether they particularly want to or not....

Intel's Maloney in bed by nine

Andrew Thomas — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:30 GMT

Andrew Thomas , Saturday 12 April 2008. 10:12:00

Gutterwatch Party on, dude

ONE OF THE PERILS of working for a Sunday paper is that you sometimes get asked to write an in-depth profile of the great and good. So spare a thought for the Sunday Times' Andrew Davidson who was asked to do the business on Chipzilla executive veep, Sean Maloney. Despite the Sunday Times once having the best investigative reporting team on the planet, it has now sadly descended to the level of Smash Hits when it comes to tough questioning. Readers should also bear in mind that the interview took place in the offices of Intel's UK spin doctors, so it would be surprising if at least some of the answers given weren't pre-arranged to ensure Maloney was on message and down wid da kidz....

Adultvest buys Iporn

Ambrose McNevin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:30 GMT

Ambrose McNevin , Sunday 13 April 2008. 22:07:00

The value can go up as well as down

ADULTVEST, AN adult entertainment investment company which has $7 billion under its, erm, belt, has "big plans" for iPorn. Coming next, more double entendres. Here's Adultvest chairman, Francis Koenig: "Transparency and liquidity builds credibility and investor confidence, which ultimately drives the price of a company higher. I believe this is the formula to unlocking value in some of the adult industry's hidden gems. Wait till you see what we have in store." On its iPorn acquisition, the investor reckoned the pairing a tight fit. He said, "Our developers are already hard at work on what will be 'the iPorn.com platform' and we have begun to cut deals with technology providers and major adult studios....

Nvidia mounts sleaze attack on Intel

Charlie Demerjian — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:25:30 GMT

Charlie Demerjian , Tuesday 15 April 2008. 16:41:00

Gutterwatch Disinformation campaign outed

NVIDIA HAS PUT OUT quite possibly the perfect model for sleazy, disingenuous presentations. It is simply so bad that the firm won't put its name on it. The presentation, labeled "Intel Graphics.pdf", is the sneakiest below-the-belt presentation from a company known for ethically borderline messaging on the best of days. When it won't sign its name to it, you know it's bad. When asked about the presentation, Nvidia responded with the following statement. "We distributed this to our sales force as a sales tool for them to share with customers. It is a collection of press clippings from the industry on the increasing inadequacies of Intel graphics in a world that demands more and more visual processing....