New York Times slams RIM

A balanced article from Nick Farrell and to top it off Hell isn't freezing over!

It shows the lengths that Apple will go to get positive publicity for what amount to (in my opinion) rather mediocre products. 

Oh and by the way, the link doesn't work properly.

It's amusing that there's an advert for the Blackberry Storm above your rant about not taking money from companies whose products you review.

You have a large advertising deal with Blackberry. This in turn makes YOU appear to lack credibility or objectiveness when commenting on this subject.

Oh come on, have you used the Storm? it sucks bigtime. Rather than ad hominem attacks on those with whom you disagree, how about actually using the thing.

PS
Pogue was not very complimentary about the iPhone 3G, it would be nice if you were as objective.

The title says it all, really.

This is what we call an "ad hominem".

I haven't used the Storm, but I know all of my coworkers are huge blackberry fans, even the guy who has an iphone 3g. But I have no love for apple, I've always found them to be unethical and totally full of bs.

The Inq's reviews on nVidia kit written by Charlie.

I read the article in NYTimes, and totally agree that it was written for Apple. 

The fact that the article starts with a missing blackberry 'signature' keyboard, and later complaining that 'SureType' keyboard is confusing and flawed was hillarious.

Thanks for the apt response.

I couldn't agree with you more. 

The unfortunate thing is, that this hack isn't the only one doing this very thing you describe.

It's actually almost pointless to read any reviews of the Storm because many of the reviews are such BS. 

It's actually commendable that RIM doesn't "hire" similar hacks to badmouth *their* competition.

Well, Apple has always played dirty, so no surprise there.

I guess playing fair doesn't get you anywhere, does it.

liking apple products is not unusual

disliking blackberry storm is not unusual

many apple products are good, and blackberry storm is a piece of sh**

this inquirer article is not necessary at all

...who went to an AMD sock puppet for
commentart on Intel's legal action
against the EC.

Over here in the uk, we're getting inside reports that vodafone contract are being flooded with 400 people in the queue etc about the storm... some of it interest trying to buy but most of it complaints over it being too hot to touch after a 2 hour call, buttons falling off and the OS systematically crashing...

Sometimes I'm glad I dont work contract \o/ 

We'll see I guess... all phones have thier teething issues.


You make your case that Pogue is in Apple's back pocket, however, if thats the case, then 90% of the reviewers are in Apple's pocket too. The Storm has been released to nearly universal criticism.

this is why i love the inq. i read this review on nyt yesterday and was appalled but too lazy to do anything (yes, i'm from the us); thanks for doing it for me :)

Thank you for stating everything I thought as I read David's "Review". Its pathetic that people review a product after less then a day of use. Being a whole new method to use BB I'd wait at least a week and it should be noted while the current OS has issue they are working to correct them. I forget Apple never has issues with products as they are "perfect" and updates only improve the product.

Apple is so nervous about this device (and others coming) they will do anything to have the sheep still believe iPhone is the only game in town. Sorry but Storm on Verizon will sell plenty of device and once it moves to GSM based carriers (something Apple can't do due to their deal with at&t) the OS will be solid.

Maybe if Pogue RTFM he'd find there are actual buttons on the Storm assigned to functions and low and behold one is the camera! He's just used to the iPhone index finger touch and anything else is just wrong.

"Well, Apple has always played dirty, so no surprise there. I guess playing fair doesn't get you anywhere, does it."

The Apple you apparently loathe now learned this the hard way at the hands of Redmond during the OS wars. Marketing is king.

If you DO want to see a WTF/iPhone bashing, in an article which only mentions the iPhone by name to gain exposure (Greenpeace-style), examine the objectivity of this Canadian news article.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/bustech/story.html?id=b827b2b2-a263-4d79-81da-5558ca36c88c

Instead of the mindless Apple bashing, and labeling anyone an "Apple fanboy" or kool-aid drinker if they give the Storm a poor review (or like the iPhone), try reading many of the "independent" reviews from the likes of PC World, InformationWeek, Engadget, Gizmodo, TIME Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Wired, Popular Mechanics, SlashGear, CrunchGear, The Guardian (UK), BoyGenius, InfoSync, i4uNews, etc. 

A search will find many that are rating it either mediocre or outright canning it.

Not exactly pro-Apple/Mac "rags" yet they've all given the Storm less than glowing, "iPhone killer" reviews, apparently much to the chagrin of some.

Live with it...

I have my fair share of issues with NYT columnists, Walt Mossberg in particular, I see no basis for this rant at all. Of course the comparisons are going to be to "i" stuff, they are the benchmark at this point in time. And the highly selective quotes do not do any credibility to your editorial objectivity. And when you say you have no experience at all with the Blackberry Storm, why even comment on the NYT author's credibility? This smells unsavorably like an editorial p***ing match.

John

Snorts... let's face it, the NY Times is infested with loads of these sissy, mamma boy pant load gays. I'm not surprised that this particular metro-queer wouldn't like anything other than his precious, blessed by His Holiness Saint Stevie Jobs.

But then, considering the NY Times hasn't been relevant for about, oh, 25 years, who the hell cares what they drone on about. It's just a propaganda rag for the local Bosheviks anyway. Not even worth lining the budgie cage with.

BTW, I live near Albany NY, about 240 km north of NYC, so I am quite familiar with the Times, wretched piece of Marxist crap that it is.

Since there's no room for FANBOYS...LOL Charlie D does a hatchet job on Nvidia every week. If not 2-3 times a week.

I can't even believe you guys could make a comment like "there's no room for fanboys" when your site destroys Nvidia weekly. Not just charlie you have others on the bandwagon now (paul, sylvie). You dog their products, their drivers, tell us NV is going out of business (laughable...They MADE 61mil, while AMD ate another huge loss) etc. All while praising ATI/AMD. Meanwhile, REAL sites like anandtech tell you ATI's drivers are LACKING/Unstable and they prefer NV...LOL.

Whatever...ATI has a good product this round, but with reductions in prices NV/ATI is a toss up at any level. The only winner is US the users.

I use a berry and went and checked out the storm, it is a dud. Ever seen the leap frog computer for kids.....I think that is where RIM got the keyboard.

I agree 100%. That storm review was crap. Pogue has his tongue so far up Apple's....I'll leave it there.
The Iphone is overrated crap. It lacks the functions of many other smartphones, and relies on the hype of fan boys like Pogue and others trapped in Jobs' reality distortion field.

Most of the criticism aimed at RIM is ultra-nationalist
crap from the rite-ards to the south who are outraged
that there is a whole nation full of Americans here who
don't want to be United with the Union. 

~D

I found Pouge's article very balanced and informative. It feels like your problem is with NYT and Pogue, rather than the Blackberry Storm or Apple iPhone. Have you ever tried either one? We all know Pogue, but where does your credibility come from?

That's just bogus. Do a little research, please! You'll find that until the BlackBerry Storm, I have given rave reviews to EVERY BlackBerry I've ever reviewed. I LOVE the polish, the solidity, the care that RIM puts into most of its products!

On the other hand, I have had PLENTY of negative things to say about Apple products. Have a look: http://www.davidpogue.com/bio_photos/fanboy.html

If you actually DISAGREE with my Storm review, say so! I'd love to discuss it on the merits, rather than just flinging names at each other.

--David Pogue

HAHAHAHAHAHA! This is hillarious! I too read the article in NY Times and from the beginning it was obvious that an Apple's fan had written it. It only had hateful comments about this new BlackBerry phone. Many people do that when they feel threatened by others, and it's funny to see companies doing the same. Shame on you Pogue... or should I say iPogue. Good article, Farrell!

It's credibility.

What in the hell do Vietnam Vets have to do with your lousy IT review? Not only out-of-line and disrespectful, but a VERY poor choice of words that does NOTHING to forward your argument or whining position. Third graders come up with better metaphors - maybe you should run your "jokes" through them first before your next commentary.


At least pretend to be

I have seen Pogue go off on other products when he thinks they are stupid. He also does offer balance at times for non-Apple products. He was really complimentary of the latest Zunes and video playback boxes not from Apple. In this article, Pogue was very complimentary of other Blackberry devices, just not the Storm.

You can call him biased if you like. It might also be that Apple is coming out with a lot of great technology and reviewers are responding to that. If you call them biased simply because they tend to like Apple products, you might be missing the point that products from Apple, while often asking a premium price, are usually well designed, easy to use and generally innovative.

I actually think Pogue hit the nail on the head with his review. The clicking on the touchscreen is potentially a cool feature - it just does not work well. Its not that usable and ends up being more effort than it is worth. I don't blame him for being frustrated with a device for which a very basic usage element is so broken.

Your commentary would make more sense if you could point to why you think he is wrong rather than saying that he has a tendency to like stuff from Apple. Did you think the click screen works well for text entry? Did you think the paradigm differentiating between touching and clicking made sense to you as a user? I found clicking versus touching brutally confusing when I tried the Storm. 

And you are crazy if you think that the Storm is not a response to the iPhone. The whole industry thought Apple using a touchscreen was a joke when Apple revealed the iPhone. Now they are all scrambling to make touchscreen devices. Its totally fair to ask how they compare to the product that defined the segment.

Note: I'm not an Apple fanboy, I'm a Linux dork. I won't buy an iPhone because Apple won't let me use it with my system.
Say what you will about the iPhone, it's a very nice piece of engineering and manufacturing. People complain about it not having all the features of other phones. The truth is: those "features" usually don't work for shit. 
Take MMS. The iPhone can't do it. Does anyone use those on other phones? For most recipients it fails to work. 
I own a Nokia phone that's supposed to play music. Well it does; but the software is so braindead that it's for all intents and purposes useless (ex: you can't fast forward, unless you call 1.5x 'fast'; or if you exit the music player to do something else, it won't restart at the same point when you come back)
The upside is, what the iPhone does it does it almost perfectly. Simple things: the flip screen thingie when you turn the phone. On the iPhone it's almost instantaneous. On every other phone I have seen with this feature (mostly Windows Mobile phones), and on the Storm as well apparently (unless you want to call Pogue a liar), it takes a good 3 seconds. Bottom line: functionality is mostly useless. 
I have a BlackBerry at work. It's a usability nightmare. The user interface is atrocious, full of incoherent quirks. I haven't been able to find how to type accentuated characters (this is on a French version). Sometimes the mail program adds the accents automagically; sometimes not. But that's a counter-productive function; some very common french words differ by a single accent, such as "a" (has) and "à" (to). It'd be much more appropriate to just not have any accent at all for consistency than a random sprinkling which makes the writer look sloppy. 
There, that's the word: the BlackBerries I've seen have sloppy design. It does the job done, just like taped-up spectacles may indeed correct myopia. No reason to think that RIM has suddenly become good where they've sucked so much so far.

I know that David Pogue is an Apple-phile, and that his review was extremely harsh. That having been said, the Storm is truly a POS in comparison to other "smart phones." How do you not include WiFi? How do you make a touch screen inferior to that of your nominal competitor? I don't get it. 

Yes, I agree with the main theme of the article: one should never bash products (gear) from a company that opposes one's bank account. At the same time, if a POS is a POS, say it and move on.

As always, the market and the consumers who make up the market will decide the outcome of this debate.

Pogues article doesn't claim that an unamed person couldn't send an email - he was commenting on the keyboard being hard/tiring to use.

Ya crazy apple freaks r scary as hell...and stupid @ the same time

Come on, for cyring out loud - just how childish can you get anyway? 

You mean, apparently, that we should totally dismiss and reject David Pogue's current article, just because he wrote something positive about Apple in the past? 

You got to be kidding, you just got to be - aren't you? This article is actually suggesting that you can bad mouth Apple, but you can't praise it - or it makes everything else you write about bias or something? 

This article totally ignores that David isn't the only one writing such things, so does this also mean that others who feel like David, that the Storm is flawed, should automatically have their articles diced too, like this fellow's article for example:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/cell-phones/?p=322

Hmmm, I guess that article should be thrown out the window too, for the simple reason that it just happens to agree with David, who's past positive Apple writings automatically makes him untrustworthy. 

I would expect that you and Paul Thurrot would make the best of buddies.

So, again please tell me, since when did writing something postive about Apple suddenly become the criteria for judging another writer or another article?

If I had any reason to reject an article it would be this one, because the author's obvious bias against Apple comes through loud and clear!


as a daily blackberry user, whose been contemplating the move to the iphone....i can tell you that Pogue is right on the money. I'll probably get a bold instead....but the storm really is a piece of crap. hard to type on, slow as hell, and feature deprived.

-td.

also, Pogue evangelizing apple is sweet.

This is just another Nick Farrel anti-Apple dribble.

Anything about Apple, be it remotely related is enough for him to pen something like this. It's ridiculous. The best thing to do is not read his articles.

The usual template for a Farrel article:

<Statement>

<Statement><Statement>

<Why Apple is going to eat your children>

<Statement>

<Pithy last remark>

....

<Comments telling him to stop writing about Apple>

Farrell writes that Pogue "has nothing good to see in the BlackBerry Storm."

Did he even read to the end of the review? Pogue devotes four paragraphs to listing its good features, and says that behind the usability problems it's "a very nice phone." Pogue's beef is clearly with the Storm's usability.

The only way to know whether Pogue's review was fair would be to actually use a Storm.

Have you done that, Nick? Have you spent time with a Storm? Do you have a counterpoint to Pogue's criticisms? Because if you do, you completely neglected to mention it in your article.

No, the reasoning of Nick's piece of junk article is that "Pogue reviewed Apple favorably and panned the Storm, therefore he must be in the bag for Apple." The question of whether he is right about the Storm seems to be completely unimportant.

Yes, there's definite an journalistically inept hack with an ax to grind here, but it's not Pogue.

You spent this whole article attacking Apple and David Pogue, yet you didn't provide any facts, any opinions. You didn't even mention the device, you just attacked a reviewer for giving a bad review over a device that is quite possibly bad.

There is no proof that his review was baised. Yes he may get stuff from apple but he gets stuff from everybody. If he doesn't like the Storm, why write tabloid stories like this one. I know a people who don't like the Storm's on-screen keyboard, I personally myself think its below average. The software on the iPhone is way better for writing on the glass keyboard. STOP writing tabloid stories like this. And you say there shouldn't be any fanboys in journalism, well, the writer of this is a fan of drama and sensationalism.

Have a good day!

I have news for you all who think this article is bunk...Pogue is an Apple hack and I have seen the proof. I used to work for an electronics company and had Pogue review one of our products in the NY Times. He butchered the product, but not because it deserved it, but rather because he didn't take any time to learn how to use it. He had about 14 incorrect "assumptions" in his piece and had he actually used the product he would have realized he was wrong. But he didn't. He has power writing for the Times and he wields this power without any brainpower behind his writing. We actually called him up after the piece ran in the Times and pointed out his errors. He didn't care, and dismissed us. We lab-tested the product after he sent it back and found that the items he claimed didn't work worked just fine. What a bonehead.

The information in an earlier post about how reviewers do Apple's bidding is very true. They do in fact get products from Apple ahead of time on an embargoed basis in exchange for running the articles on a specific day, so Apple's PR gets maximum effect. It is also true that if you say bad things about the Apple product you get taken off of that list. Other reviewers who fall into this category are Walt Mossberg (WSJ) and Ed Baig (USA Today). These reviews simply can't be trusted.

I actually tried out the Storm, and nice but I didn't like certain ways the product worked. But it was nothing like Pogue says it is. He is a fool.

Dang, Nick, quit sippin' on that Haterade and let a Playa' play! ; )

I'm not mad at BB users who make a living cutting and pasting their way to the top of the food chain.
But I saw nothing that made me want to kill off my iPhone just yet. There are so many features the device excels at, that I don't mind waiting a spell for Apple to perfect the missing functions before releasing them.

As a multi-media artist, iPhone has proven to be the perfect device for displaying my art & animation portfolio. This is how I make "my" living.
Give up the ease of effortless web browsing, cutting edge iPod and 6,000 killer Apps for the Storm's beta keyboard, "Vid/Cam and Cut/Paste" ???

Mnnnn.... I don't think so.

And NO, I don't work for Apple. Just a satisfied graphic designer, uhmn.... if that's OK with you.

But constantly comparing it to only one other phone is a bit weak. It's telling the reader there is only 1 product that they should consider.

What about the excellent HTC phones? Why doesn't he mention any of those? 5 MP cameras, WiFi, 3.8 inch touch screen, Word/Excel/Outlook, Messenger, Internet Explorer and Opera, Tomtom Sat Nav, very large clock on main screen, beautiful weather graphics etc.

Stylish in black.

480 x 800 pixel screen, 3.8 inches, it's gorgeous and makes apple screens look very old fashioned and outdated.

3.5mm audio jack - can plug in speakers or headset with ease.

7.2Mbps.

5.0 MP camera with auto-focus (although its a bit slow taking a photo).

MicroSD card slot - SDHC, comes with 8GB card.

GPS - Comes with google mapping thing, but if you're smart you'll buy Tomtom card for Windows mobile and use that instead. You can then plug it into your next Windows Mobile phone.

Etc.

HTC Touch HD.
HTC Touch Pro.
HTC Touch Diamond.

HTC have been making great smartphones for years. Check out the reviews on these excellent new gadgets.

Pogue is being lazy. And his name is Irish for kiss. Kissing apple arse maybe?

Pogue, why aren't you mentioning any other make of phone in your review?

He reminds of the Vista-lovvies who all bent over and took one in the hole from microsoft. One of the worst was the supposedly indepandant BBC in UK, their click online programme. The reviewer got so brown nosed that he must have used Michael Jackson's surgeon afterwards.

the bb software not being golden doesnt surprise me, my 8310 was very troublesome until i updated the os.

now however i'm on a windows mobile 6.1 phone, and where there are windows..there are crashes. spontaneous phone reboots, application crashes, activesync only works if its in the mood..

also it stops receiving email if anyone sends me a calendar appointment..

let me know when the bb os 5 that the storm is using gets a point release, ill bet everything is as it should be. until then, just be happy your phone isnt using microsoft's nonsense.

*disclaimer: i havent had such problems with windows mobile pro phones, only wm standard (samsung, motorola, etc). the only issue i have with wmpro phones is the across-the-board sluggishness.