A week ago we wrote about the new Gawker blogger payment system which provided hefty bonuses for higher pageviews. The idea is that once you meet a certain threshold, any additional pageviews each month will lead to a bonus check. So the incentive is there to get as many pageviews as possible for each story. I said this is a poor choice of plans because it can push each post on Digg and the other news sites to drive views. Not that most of the Gawker blogs need any additional Digg-lovin’ as they already have more than any othe group.

Today we learn that gadget blog Gizmodo went to the extreme for pageviews with a stunt at CES. They turned off all of the televisions in the exhibit halls screwing up demos all over the place and what appears to be a keynote by Motorola. For many of the companies demoing at CES and spending tons of money, this could be a make or break for them. And instead of focusing on a product, they had to worry about why their electronics wasn’t working.

Is the stunt funny? Sure. Was it in poor taste? Absolutely. Of course many bloggers believe they live "above the law" - we see this in tech blogging quite a bit. "The Canadian Destroyer" Mathew Ingram thinks it’s fine and dandy. Course he also thinks stealing Lane’s photos is ok, so his opinion here is suspect.

Loic LeMeur agrees that it was in poor taste and reflects poorly on bloggers in general. I’ve already watched some of the leading tech bloggers do things that reflect poorly on the group as a whole.

But hey, that story already has over 115,000 pageviews so who cares, right?

In its February issue, Wired promises “The Untold Story” of the iPhone. But as typical for the magazine, they instead deliver a rehash of things you mostly already know, spread over 3,336 lavish words. Here, instead, are 378 words, in bullet points, containing the truly juicy tidbits Wired writer Fred Vogelstein was able to turn up. My favorite? That when Steve Jobs gets really mad, he doesn’t scream. He stares.

• In the fall of 2006, in Apple’s boardroom, the prototype flat-out didn’t work. The phone dropped calls constantly. Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, “We don’t have a product yet.” The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs’ trademark tantrums.

• For those working on the iPhone, the next three months would be the most stressful of their careers. A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in; it took colleagues more than an hour and some well-placed whacks with an aluminum bat to free her.
• Just weeks before Macworld, Jobs had a prototype to show wireless boss Stan Sigman. Sigman, uncharacteristically effusive, called the iPhone “the best device I have ever seen.”
• About 40 percent of iPhone buyers are new to AT&T’s rolls, and the iPhone has tripled the carrier’s volume of data traffic in cities like New York and San Francisco.
• In February 2005, in a midtown Manhattan hotel, Jobs laid out his plans before a handful of Cingular senior execs, including Sigman. Apple was prepared to consider an exclusive arrangement to get that deal done. But Apple was also prepared to buy wireless minutes wholesale and become a de facto carrier itself.
• At one point, Jobs met with some executives from Verizon, who promptly turned him down.
• Around Thanksgiving of 2005, eight months before a final agreement was signed, he instructed his engineers to work full-speed on the project. One insider estimates that Apple spent roughly $150 million building the iPhone.
• Internally, the project was known as P2, short for Purple 2.
• Whenever Apple executives traveled to Cingular, they registered as employees of Infineon, the company Apple was using to make the phone’s transmitter.
• Even the iPhone’s hardware and software teams were kept apart: Hardware engineers worked on circuitry that was loaded with fake software, while software engineers worked off circuit boards sitting in wooden boxes.
• By January 2007, when Jobs announced the iPhone at Macworld, only 30 or so of the most senior people on the project had seen it.

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  CES 2008
  
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  CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
  
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Today’s most discussed stories are

Tips from a CES veteran (7 comments), McDonald’s outs Starbucks as fast food chain (6) and How Google controls Apple (5).

Source:Valleywag

Jay-Z and girlfriend Beyonce seem to be Apple fans. No surprise there: Plenty of musicians use Macs. What is surprising? Jay-Z was in one of those Hewlett-Packard “hand” ads last year touting HP laptops. At least Tiger Woods actually wears Nike. Catch the ad after the jump.

(Photo by ashbyyokosuka)

It would take a lot to pull San Francisco’s bloggers out of their default Starbucks habitats, but with a new, cheap line of espresso drinks and its free Wi-Fi, McDonald’s may well yet lure poor newsfeed slaves to its golden arches. While the constant aroma of fried food may not be the most appealing work environment, neither is the modern-day Starbucks.

When is the last time an outpost of the latte empire captured Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz’s vision of “a ‘third place’ where people gather between home and work and feel some of the romance of the European cafe.” In fact, the ease with which McDonald’s has entered the gourmet-coffee arena proves that Schultz’s “third place” is little more than a fast-food joint. Unfortunately for the ubiquitous coffee joint, Mickey D’s has been in the fast-food game much, much longer.

Source:Valleywag

Some guy: So, you gonna hit the tables while you’re here?
VC: Gambling is my job. When I come to Vegas, I hit the spa.

A veteran CES attendee sent us her tried-and-true tips to having a successful CES 2008 trip:

1. Wash your hands. There is a reason one PR firm constantly told everybody to carry anti-bacterial sanitizer — you shake all those hands, after a while, it gets gross. You can avoid a lot of stomach problems, cold sores and pink eye by either not shaking any hands or being neurotic about washing/cleaning your hands. I am not joking. There was a decline in people getting sick after it was pushed to do this.

2. When leaving the Las Vegas Convention Center, don’t wait in the cab line — walk straight up the cross street it’s on and there’s a hotel. Never a wait for cabs. It’s about two blocks away. Zero line.

Get lots more after the jump.

3. When in doubt and the cab line is long, step out, wave money and hurry — you more than likely will get a cab, and you’ll have just cut in front of everybody so you better hustle. It’s snarky, but when you are late for a miserable client who constantly complains and expects you to be super girl, it can be the only way to go.

4. It is virtually impossible to get a reservation anywhere, yet the Buccaneer Bay restaurant in Treasure Island is a secret place for amazing food — especially dessert. No, it’s not baller status by any means, but if you’re starved and can’t get a table, you won’t be disappointed, more than likely.

5. There is an outstanding tailor in the Aladdin shops area that does on the spot work while you wait. Great for hemming those sexy black pinstripe pants you found for wearing to the clubs.

6. Paris hotel is the most convenient location on the strip to get to the LVCC because you can go around its side street or back to get to the main drag the LVCC is on. It’s also very clean with good service and you don’t have to wind through an entire casino to find your room (like with most of the casino hotels) — elevators to rooms are literally just off to the right.

7. Mandalay Bay has the best buffet. I got sick at the Mirage.

8. I do believe that I heard rats or mice in the walls at the Palm last time I stayed — I was gravely ill and bedridden to where things got very quiet and there was definitely something in the walls.

9. If limos are lined up, ask people in the cab line (even if strangers) to share. Most of the limos will match what it’d cost for cab, or close to — and if you divide it up between 10 people, it’s actually very cheap.

10. The back side of the LVCC is always good for grabbing shuttles — less traffic. Granted you’ll have to walk a little further but you at least won’t have to wait in that dreaded line.

11. Only the cheesy people brag about attending the parties, unless there is a banging band playing. It is still tech, it’s still nerdy.

12. No, the cute PR girls do not want to date you. They are just hawking you for clients.

Got your own tips? Let us hear ‘em in the comments.

There are plenty of conference events and parties to go to at CES 2008. The bloggers here never stop working, but what are bored mainstream-media hacks to do after they’ve filed their perfunctory handful of stories? Our short list of things to do in Vegas after the jump.

• Shopping: Your wife and kids want you to bring them back some Vegas goodies. Head to M & M’s World by the MGM Grand. You can get all kinds of M&M’s merchandise including clothing and every color of M candy imaginable. Not into M&M’s? Everything Coca-Cola is next door. Lots of classic Coke gear to purchase or head upstairs to the soda jerk and try the Tastes of the World, a taster kit of 16 different Coca-Cola products from around the globe.



• Free entertainment: Vegas is expensive, especially during a big conference like CES. Luckily for you, there are plenty of free attractions that are worth seeing. Head to the Bellagio after 8 p.m. The famous fountain show goes off every 15 minutes until midnight. Head to the entrance just to the right of the fountain and grab some gelato before the show.



• Strip shows: Besides gambling, Vegas is famous for its amazing shows. At Wynn, which has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive hotel on the strip, pick up tickets to Le Rêve, a Cirque du Soleil-esque production set in a very-impressive circular water tank. Beware, the show is dark Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan accordingly.



• Gambling: What would Las Vegas be without some gambling? Head to the Sahara for the lowest minimums on the Strip, including $3 blackjack. Make your gambling budget last longer while collecting as many free drinks as you can stand.
• Got your own tips? Put ‘em in the comments.

(Las Vegas Sign photo by fadedpictures, M&M store photo by Alaskan Dude, Sahara photo by Pocheco)

Source:Valleywag

Having plenty of time on my hands while my compatriots at Gizmodo blog blog blog it all at CES 2008, I took a walk around the press lounge to check the ratio of Macs to PCs. The latest numbers peg Apple with a 7.3 percent market share in the world at large. Will the the press lounge be full of fanboys or stodgy old corporate types?

In an informal survey, I spotted 129 machines: 94 PCs and 35 Macs (disclosure: including my MacBook Pro). That’s a 27 percent share for Steve Jobs & Co. And you wonder why tech reporters spend so much time writing about Apple?

There are plenty of conference events and parties to go to at CES 2008. The bloggers here never stop working, but what are bored mainstream-media hacks to do after they’ve filed their perfunctory handful of stories? Our short list of things to do in Vegas after the jump.

• Shopping: Your wife and kids want you to bring them back some Vegas goodies. Head to M & M’s World by the MGM Grand. You can get all kinds of M&M’s merchandise including clothing and every color of M candy imaginable. Not into M&M’s? Everything Coca-Cola is next door. Lots of classic Coke gear to purchase or head upstairs to the soda jerk and try the Tastes of the World, a taster kit of 16 different Coca-Cola products from around the globe.



• Free entertainment: Vegas is expensive, especially during a big conference like CES. Luckily for you, there are plenty of free attractions that are worth seeing. Head to the Bellagio after 8 p.m. The famous fountain show goes off every 15 minutes until midnight. Head to the entrance just to the right of the fountain and grab some gelato before the show.



• Strip shows: Besides gambling, Vegas is famous for its amazing shows. At Wynn, which has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive hotel on the strip, pick up tickets to Le Rêve, a Cirque du Soleil-esque production set in a very-impressive circular water tank. Beware, the show is dark Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan accordingly.



• Gambling: What would Las Vegas be without some gambling? Head to the Sahara for the lowest minimums on the Strip, including $3 blackjack. Make your gambling budget last longer while collecting as many free drinks as you can stand.
• Got your own tips? Put ‘em in the comments.

(Las Vegas Sign photo by fadedpictures, M&M store photo by Alaskan Dude, Sahara photo by Pocheco)

There are plenty of conferences and parties to go to at CES 2008, but what are bored hacks to do after they’ve submitted their stories? Our short list of things to do in Vegas after the jump.

• Shopping: Your wife and kids want you to bring them back some Vegas goodies. Head to M & M’s World by the MGM Grand. You can get all kinds of M&M’s merchandise including clothing and every color of M candy imaginable. Not into M&M’s? Everything Coca-Cola is next door. Lots of classic Coke gear to purchase or head upstairs to the soda jerk and try the Tastes of the World, a taster kit of 16 different Coca-Cola products from around the globe.



• Free entertainment: Vegas is expensive, especially during a big conference like CES. Luckily for you, there are plenty of free attractions that are worth seeing. Head to the Bellagio after 8pm. The famous fountain show goes off every 15 minutes until midnight. Head to the entrance just to the right of the fountain and grab some gelato before the show.



• Strip shows: Besides gambling, Vegas is famous for its amazing shows. At Wynn, which has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive hotel on the strip, pick up tickets to Le Rêve, a Cirque du Soleil-esque production set in a very-impressive circular water tank. Beware, the show is dark Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan accordingly.



• Gambling: What would Las Vegas be without some gambling? Head to the Sahara for the lowest minimums on the Strip, including $3 blackjack. Make your gambling budget last longer while collecting as many free drinks as you can stand.
• Got your own tips? Put ‘em in the comments.

(Las Vegas Sign photo by fadedpictures, M&M store photo by Alaskan Dude, Sahara photo by Pocheco)

Having plenty of time on my hands while my compatriots at Gizmodo blog blog blog it all at CES 2008, I took a walk around the press lounge to check the ratio of Macs to PCs. The latest numbers peg Apple with a 7.31 percent market share. Will the the press lounge be full of fanboys or stodgy old corporate types?

In an informal survey, I spotted 129 machines: 94 PC’s and 35 Macs (disclosure: including my MacBook Pro). That’s a 27 percent share for the fruit company. Not bad.