Tech, electronic, gadget Discussion

The Daily Beast, Thursday, May 26, 2011, 11:46pm (PDT)

By Dan Lyons, The Daily Beast

David Pogue is an incredibly popular technology columnist and one of the most influential gadget gurus in the world. With a column in the New York Times, TV gigs on CNBC, CBS, and PBS, and 1.3 million Twitter followers, Pogue can drive sales of a new gizmo with a few exuberant words or crush a company’s dreams with a thumbs-down on a new product.

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But Pogue in the past has landed in hot water for failing to disclose potential conflicts of interest. And he has recently attracted some notoriety after he and his wife, whom he’s divorcing, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct following an alleged scuffle during a domestic dispute that some reports say involved him hitting his wife with an iPhone.

And now those two issues are converging: Pogue has been dating Nicki Dugan, a vice president at OutCast Agency, a San Francisco PR firm that represents top tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Cisco, Netflix, and Yahoo, since last year. (On April 24, things between them had grown serious enough that Dugan announced their relationship on her Facebook page.)

During the time they’ve been involved, Pogue has written articles about OutCast clients and their competitors without disclosing his personal connection to a senior staffer at the firm.

Pogue’s editor at the New York Times, Damon Darlin, says that Pogue told him about the relationship last December. “He was concerned that there might be a perception of a conflict of interest, so we went over it,” says Darlin, adding that he determined that as long as Pogue didn’t write about companies that Dugan personally represents, there would be no problem. He says he also asked OutCast not to pitch stories to Pogue. “People have romances all the time,” says Darlin. “He hasn’t written about any companies that she is representing.” (Neither Pogue nor Dugan returned a message for comment.)

Romantic involvement with a news source would create the appearance and probably the reality of partiality.

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Still, the fact that Pogue frequently wrote stories of great importance to his girlfriend’s firm without disclosure makes some familiar with the details uncomfortable. An in-house tech company public relations executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of rankling Pogue, says the issue is more about disclosure than bias. “What he’s saying is, ‘Just trust me. I don’t need to tell you anything. Just trust me.’ But hiding this is a mistake. Pretending it doesn’t matter is a mistake. Perception is reality.” The executive criticized “his potential inability to make a distinction between what he thinks is okay and what the rest of the world does.”

Some examples:

• In March, Pogue wrote about Amazon, an OutCast client, calling its new cloud music service “beautifully done” and “a joy to use.”

• Also in March, Pogue wrote about Zediva, a startup that competes with Netflix, which is an OutCast client. Pogue’s review of Zediva was positive in places, but he also criticized Zediva, calling its service “slow to respond,” “frustrating,” and “disappointing,” and describing its website as looking “like one somebody cobbled together in a weekend.”

• In February, Pogue hosted a show in the PBS Nova series in which he touted Bloom Energy, a green tech company that was represented by OutCast and was one of Dugan’s main clients at the time. Dugan’s online bio at the agency website touts her role at Bloom, claiming Dugan “was instrumental in launching fuel cell provider Bloom Energy, which debuted on 60 Minutes and received coverage in more than 1,500 stories.”

• Another of Dugan’s clients is the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, which has invested in dozens of top tech companies, including Groupon and Skype, both of whom Pogue has written about in recent months. (His Groupon story ran in February; his story about Skype ran in May.)

In Pogue’s defense, many of these big companies are hard to avoid, and his opinions were not always in lockstep with the wishes of his girlfriend’s firm. In April, Pogue wrote about Cisco, another OutCast client, criticizing it for shutting down the company that made the cool little Flip camera, which Cisco bought in 2009. And the Times’ ethics policy, within a section called “keeping our detachment,” states that while “Romantic involvement with a news source would create the appearance and probably the reality of partiality,” it’s up to the writer to disclose it to his or her editor, as Pogue did, and that “in some cases, no further action may be needed,” as Darlin decided.

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For their part, the top brass at OutCast are unfazed. Alex Constantinople, CEO of OutCast, says Dugan disclosed her relationship with Pogue last December. She says OutCast has no problem with Dugan dating a tech journalist. “She can’t be pitching him stories,” says Constantinople. “And that doesn’t happen. I’m one hundred percent comfortable with it.”

Though Dugan was representing Bloom when Pogue’s PBS show was in production, Constantinople says Dugan did not pitch the story to Pogue and that “when PBS approached Bloom, Nicki and David hadn’t met each other yet.” Furthermore, Constantinople says OutCast no longer represents Bloom.

For Pogue, there have been other disclosure incidents. In 2006 CBS News issued an apology after Pogue did a segment on a tech company called DriveSavers without disclosing the fact that the company had repaired his computer at no cost.

In 2009, Pogue was singled out by the paper’s public editor because he was making money writing “Missing Manuals” about tech products and then reviewing the same products in the Times without disclosing his work on the manuals.

Pogue’s defense at the time was that he was not actually a journalist, but rather an entertainer. Nevertheless, the Times at that time forced Pogue to start disclosing his “outside activities,” and to let readers know when he is writing a manual for a product he is reviewing.

To be sure, for many of Pogue’s millions of fans, these new details probably won’t change their view of him as perhaps the most trusted mainstream voice on tech gadgets. Pogue remains a first-rate writer and an engaging public speaker, with a reputation for calling them as he sees them.

But that’s why the lack of transparent disclosure seems unusual, especially within the context of the New York Times, which has stringent policies about disclosing conflicts of interest. Last year the paper appended an “editor’s note” to a column by business writer Joe Nocera after he wrote about a lawsuit and failed to mention that his fiancee was employed by one of the law firms involved. The editor’s note said Nocera was not aware of the conflict when he wrote the column and that “he would not have written about the case if he had known of the law firm’s involvement.”

Dan Lyons is technology editor at Newsweek and the creator of Fake Steve Jobs, the persona behind the notorious tech blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Before joining Newsweek, Lyons spent 10 years at Forbes.

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Funtime

Get all your gaming news here…

How many times do you check Facebook, send a text, play some “Angry Birds,” drown out your boss with iTunes and spend entire evenings watching Netflix On Demand…on your Wii? Yeah, same here. That’s why G Philly decided to round up some of the most entertaining, useful and downright cool new tech toys for summer. Because no trip to Rehoboth – or Fire Island – would be the same without them.

White iPhone 4

Nothing says fun in the sun like a white party…in your pocket. That’s what makes the White iPhone 4 such a hotly anticipated smart phone this season. The stunning case will look great with that tan you’ve been working on since February. Plus, it works with all of the cool video apps users have come to enjoy from this fourth version of the Apple favorite. (Can’t get enough iPhone? Rumor has it iPhone 5 will be released in the fall. But, alas, it’s only a rumor, folks.)

Illy Francis Y1 Espresso Machine

Refuel from last night’s late-night garden party without ever leaving the house. The crema-topped espresso that pours from the Y1 will save you a hungover trip to Starbucks. Plus, the cool coffee maker is as stylish as it is practical, steaming up consistently good, mess-free espresso for the coffee addict with a penchant for sexy small appliances. It’s also quite the conversation piece should you have company the next day.

HP Touch Pad

Not everyone loves Apple as much as we do, which is why the many PC users out there will be pleased with the new HP Touch Pad. The tablet looks a lot like iPad, but lets users move between apps on one screen. It even lets folks answer texts and phone calls – and works with Adobe Flash. If you are forced to take your work with you on vacation (say it isn’t so!), this sleek tablet sure beats a bulky laptop, especially if you consider that it works with most printers.

It’s also great for streaming movies and listening to music all in one place. And for you “literary” beach bums, you can even download digital books to the Touch Pad (yes, that includes the entire Jackie Collins collection).

Philips Fidelio DS9000 Primo Speaker Dock

Stream your music on the deck or by the pool with this new digital music dock from Philips. The touch of wood combined with the futuristic shape not only equals great sound, but it’s a stylish fit into any room – indoor or out. Just pop your iPod into the dock and you’ll be enjoying favorite playlists during parties and days off instantly. The dock is also portable should you want to pack it up before heading to your hotel, inn or summer house this season.

Shure SE315 Earphones

If you prefer to keep your guilty music pleasures to yourself (we know you listen to Barbra – on repeat – a lot) then these snazzy earphones from Shure should be on your gift list. Rather than be seen sweating in those oversized hipster headphones that block out noise, consider earbuds that actually fit and are comfortable. The best part is that this pair features a detachable cord, so if you get your buds stuck in a sand dune (or taxi door) you won’t have to worry about replacing them.

Check back for more geeky guides when we tackle sleek tech for the designer home.

David Pogue, the New York times technology columnist known as the Gadget Guru, and his wife were arrested Monday for getting physical with each other during a domestic dispute. On Tuesday, they both went to get restraining orders against each other.

By Thursday night, Pogue, who also is an Emmy-winning tech correspondent for the show Sunday Morning on CBS, was speaking at a conference benefiting victims of domestic violence. The irony is, the speaking engagement was planned before the argument, and Pogue did not find out that the rest of the world was reading the news of the altercation at the time of his speech. Upon finding the word was out, the Gadget Guru told reporters after his speech that Jennifer Pogue was to soon be his ex-wife.

The couple has been in the process of getting a divorce, and the incident occurred when Jennifer showed up during David’s visitation with the couple’s three children. It seems an argument, and Jennifer Pogue decided to record it on her cell phone. David claims she hit his arm when he tried to grab the phone from is wife.

However, Jennifer claims that David Pogue approached her while she was in bed reading and took the phone away from her. She told police he then beat her on the head with the phone. According to reports, Police reviewed the video and decided to arrest both for domestic violence. They are scheduled to appear in court June 22.

In keeping with his “techie” career, David Pogue seems to be using the incident to his advantage. His decision to use the altercation to talk about how his troubles have spread over the Internet and through personal electronic devices seems to either prove the man has a real obsession with technology, or he is just obsessed with his career. This could cause one to question just how much technology may have added to David’s marital problems. Undoubtedly, both of them need to get their act together.

The popularity of smartphones, tablets and flatscreen televisions has triggered a 150 per cent jump in the price of a little-known metal used in the manufacture of backlit screens.

Demand for iridium, one of the earth’s rarest metals, more than quadrupled last year, according to Johnson Matthey, the precious metals refiner that compiles benchmark supply and demand statistics on the market.

As a beekeeper, I can say that any foreign objects placed in a hive will generally upset the bees. Especially something synthetic, that makes noise, and emits EMI. So this “study” is laughable. The post by another member about the aluminum bullet was a fair comparison.

Many beekeepers (who have been doing it a LOT longer than I have) believe CCD is a result of many factors, not just one. Where data is sorely lacking is comparing CCD in managed hives (commercial or hobbyist colonies) vs feral hives (bees in the wild, in their natural habitats). Obviously the very nature of feral hives makes them difficult to study/track in any great quantity. It COULD be that CCD isn’t related to humans at all, and might be a cycle of bee biology, the way some other species have cyclical surges or drops in population for no (as yet) known reason.

But what I do know is that for the beekeepers in my area (southern US) who use organic methods of hive management (no chemicals, medications, etc.) the instances of CCD are rare or simply non-existent.

(CNN) — When you buy a video game from Best Buy, you don’t give the retailer the right to barge into your house whenever it wants. So why do we give that permission to software companies?

Most popular smartphone operating systems and other electronic gadgets include what security researchers refer to as a kill switch.

This capability enables the company that makes the operating software to send a command over the Web or wireless networks that alters or removes certain applications from devices.

Apple, Google and Microsoft include this function in their platforms, along with a few lines in their usage agreements describing the policy. Google and Apple executives say this feature is important in order to protect against malicious software.

“Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs told The Wall Street Journal in 2008. It’s there as a fail-safe for when the App Store gatekeepers erroneously approve an app that has problems, he said.

Apple doesn’t appear to have used this feature in the four years since introducing the iPhone. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the issue.

Andy Rubin, Google’s head of Android development, said something similar in an interview with reporters Tuesday. He described the kill switch as a “safety lever” or “malware apparatus” used for “removing stuff from devices once it gets out of the Android Market, once it escapes.”

Google is believed to have used the security procedure twice — once last summer when an independent security researcher unleashed a potentially troublesome program, and again in March after malware spread to Android phones. In the latter case, Google threw the switch within about 50 minutes of learning about the trouble, Rubin said.

Those two incidents were the only times Google has used the function, according to a person familiar with the matter. A Google spokesman declined to comment.

Agreeing to allow Google to remotely delete software from your device is required in order to use its market for downloading apps. It’s unclear whether phone manufacturers, which sometimes tinker with the software, can add a kill switch of their own. Samsung Telecommunications, a top Android handset maker, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Nokia’s Symbian don’t make kill switches available to their handsets.

RIM has referred to its lack of remote access for BlackBerry as a defense for why it could not provide the United Arab Emirates access to phone users’ data. “RIM does not possess a ‘master key,’ nor does any ‘back door’ exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorized access,” the company said in a statement last year.

Like many other app store operators, Nokia has a measure in place for its Ovi Store that scans software for security risks. But the system doesn’t have a kill switch, a spokeswoman said.

However, Nokia, which produces the highest volume of cell phones worldwide, plans to shift its primary smartphone software to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, which does have such a capability.

Virtually every smartphone system, including RIM’s and Nokia’s, allows corporations to remotely alter or disable their employees’ phones and data. The difference is that RIM and Nokia don’t actively police their customers’ usage.

McAfee, which makes security software, sees corporate security in the mobile industry as an important growth area.

“The number one thing that we see the enterprises and corporations needing is: how do we manage mobile devices in our network?” McAfee CEO David DeWalt said last month in an interview with Forbes. “Whether or not there’s some security features from Google or features from Apple on the device, you have to manage these devices.”

Kill switches don’t just apply to phones. Nintendo recently offered owners of its 3DS, the new hand-held game system, a free music video. It came with a caveat: The video “is provided for a limited time and may be deleted from your system with subsequent updates,” the offer read.

Unlike a toaster or a paperback, apps and many other digital files cannot be resold. According to the iTunes legal agreement, customers don’t even own certain music and videos that they buy, but instead acquire a license to use them on certain devices.

For consumers, accepting the idea of a kill switch may come down to a matter of trust.

“We have always had to completely trust our platform/operating system vendor,” Chris Palmer, the technology director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, wrote in an e-mail. “It will always be that way.”

Amazon.com broke that trust in a high-profile use of the kill switch in 2009, when the company remotely erased copies of George Orwell’s “1984″ and “Animal Farm” from its customers’ Kindles. The books had been mistakenly sold on its e-book store, the company said.

Amazon settled a lawsuit over the issue and agreed to limit how it uses remote deletion for books. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized for using the kill switch, calling the decision “stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles.”

Amazon didn’t return requests for comment for this report.

“Print media, when you buy it and you have it in your house, it’s yours,” said Mark Frauenfelder, a Boing Boing blogger who covered the Amazon case. He believes that episode “points to a dangerous future, where you see some of the downsides of cloud storage, digital technology and closed systems — where you have less control over the things that you paid for.”