Joel Johnson at CES 2005:

I didn’t quite know what to think of it, but I wasn’t going to turn it down. I would ask the hard questions: Does Ballmer really eat children? Can I swim in your Money Bin? I didn’t quite muster the balls to ask those, though, and instead acted like I had real questions or something.

[CES 2005]

Blam at CES 2007:

I’d asked him about the mug shot [from his Albuquerque arrest] and at first he looked a bit apprehensive, but answered. Apparently, Bill loves fast cars. In 1978, he told us, he’d gotten 3 speeding tickets on his drive to move up to Seattle. Two from the same cop. It was a Porsche 911 from that era.

[CES 2007]

Wilson at CES 2008:

When it came to be my turn, I had the warnings and admonitions of Blam to guide me. And sure enough, he didn’t look me in the eye at first, and though he was accommodating with my nervous stuttering, I could tell he was judging the substance of my questions. Mercifully, he little by little began looking more directly at me, and he lit up with answers, even letting his guard down enough to comment frankly about Windows, and the difference between Apple and Microsoft.

Here’s the vid itself, plus various excerpts, shot and digitally mastered by our own Chris Mascari:

Excerpts:

Part 1 – On the difference between Microsoft and Apple

Part 2 – On his changing public image

Part 3 – What he worries about most

Part 4 – On Windows Vista maybe, just maybe, sucking

Series 4 LCD — Low-End 720p
• 18.9″: $429
• 21.9″: $549
• 26.0″: $749
• 31.5″: $899
• 37.0″: $1199
• 39.9″: $1299

Series 5 LCD — Low-End 1080p
• 31.5″: $1,099.99
• 37.1″: $1,399.99
• 40.0″: $1,699.99
• 46.0″: $1,999.99
• 52.2″: $2,799.99

Series 6 LCD — High-End 1080p
• 19.0″: $479.99
• 22.0″: $649.99
• 31.5″: $1,299.99
• 39.9″: $2,299.99
• 45.9″: $2,899.99
• 52.2″: $3,199.99

Series 7 LCD — Top of the line
• 39.9″: $2,599.99
• 45.9″: $3,199.99
• 52.0″: $3,499.99

Series 4 Plasma — Low-End 720p, 3D Ready
• 42″: $1,199
• 50″: $1,699

Series 5 Plasma — Low-End 1080p, 3D Ready
• 50″: $2299
• 58″: $3599

Series 6 Plasma — High End 1080p
• 50″: $2,599.99
• 58″: $3,999.99
• 63″: $4,999.99

Biggest TV:
Panasonic’s 150-inch TV
We love it because: It makes us feel small.
Trouble is: You have to build your house around this TV.

Almost Big Enough:
31-inch OLED
We Love it because: OLED is the future, it’s thinner, faster, deeper.
Trouble is: These prototypes are years away from being affordable.

Best Media Player:
iRiver Media Players
We Love it because: We thought they were all concepts, but they’re
not. They’re just incredible.

Best TV Tech:
Tie: 9mm Plasma the Blackest and Mitsubishi’s Laser TV because it uses
lasers.
We love it because: Pioneer’s plasmas literally eat light. Lasers, cool.
Trouble is: Are we going to have to replace our plasma every year?

Coolest Geek:
Bill Gates Playing With Dolls Like in Spaceballs and on Windows Sucking
We love him because: Without him we wouldn’t be here.
Trouble is: He’s retiring! And when we asked him to play racquetball, Gates said he’d be washing his hair…for the next 30 years.

Making the Format War Irrelevant:
Samsung BP-U5500
We love it because: It makes the format war go away.
Trouble is: The format war may already be irrelevant. Best for those already entrenched in HD DVD

Best Ambush:
Blu-ray Winning the War by getting Warner to announce a change to Blu Jan 4th.
We love it because: Sony plays a good game of chess.
Trouble is: We prefer HD-DVD!

Nameless Women We Love:
Non-Booth Babe Babes
We love them because: Women should not be on display like TVs at this
show.
Trouble is: We can’t stare at them without feeling a little guilty.

Most Deceptively Dangerous Gadget:
Leopard Skin Taser with built in MP3 player
We love it because: It’s the Frankenstein of gadgets.
Trouble is: We want to run it out of town with pitchforks and torches.

Best Ghetto Fabulous TV:
Vizio HDTV with Silicon Optix Reon inside
We love it because: A budget company went for some high end video scaling gear.
Trouble is: Can the rest of the set keep up with the Silicon Optix?
Reon chip?

Best Follow Up to Steve Jobs’ Favourite Cameras:
Camcorders Panasonic HDC-SD9
We love it because: Tiny, 1080p, under $US1000.
Trouble is: Sony+Canon=competition.

Best Propaganda:
Microsoft-at-Home Server Book
Low blow, Microsoft (which means it was perfect).

Sweetest Laptop
Asus Eee PC, 8.9-inch
We love it because: The only thing wrong with our Eee is the screen size.
Trouble is: Like Viagra bottles tell us, erections lasting over 8 hours require doctor consultations.

Best Insulting Robot
This Guy
War with robots? It’s freakin’ on! You’d better grow some lasers fast before we kick your…

Best UMPC
Aigo Silverthorne-based system
We love it because: Intel Silverthorne chipset makes it tiny.
Trouble is: The early version we saw needs some polish.

Hottest Peripheral
Lasonic iPod Boombox
We love it because: Minimalist design is played out.
Trouble is: Boomboxes are too big for today’s weak geeks to tote anywhere.

Most Pants-Worthy Phone
Sony Ericsson W350
We love it because: It has a sexy, thin design that takes a chance.
Trouble is: CES was absolute crap for phones.

Best Couch Masturbation Enabler:
FyreTV
We love it because: “Quick draws” are rewarded with cheap viewing.
Trouble is: It’s not disguised as a PS3 or something else that our kids/wives will never touch.

Biggest Surprise:
Optimus Maximus Keyboard
We loved it because: We considered the hype met. OLED keys make our geek hearts palpitate.
Trouble is: People whining about the price—like a Ferrari, just because we can’t afford it doesn’t mean we don’t want one.

And that’s CES my friends!

Writing by Brian Lam and Mark Wilson.

MediaStreet Debuts World’s First Solar-Powered Portable Media Player Paired With Charger That Powers Other Mobile Devices

CES, Las Vegas, NV, January7, 2008 – MediaStreet, Inc., an award-winning manufacturer of innovative consumer electronics and services for the digital music and photography markets, announces the world’s first solar-powered portable media player, the 1GB eMotion® Solar Portable Media Player. This PMP comes with AC adapter and USB connector (6 varieties) that can recharge most mobile phones, MP3/MP4 players, laptop computers, digital cameras and other portable Lithium battery operated products. All players available immediately.

“We started off developing a product that would allow our customers to charge their portable devices on-the-go using solar energy,” says Norm Levy, president of Media Street. “We ended up with a most spectacular device that not only charges your cell phone, laptop and PDA, but it is a robust and power-packed portable media player that you will not want to take your hands off.”

eMotion 1GB Solar Portable Media Player

• Transfer music, photos, videos, games on and off player
• 5.5″ x 3″ x 1″
• SD card slot expansion (2GB SD card maximum capacity)
• Included charger powers most portable devices such as mobile phones, MP3/MP4 players, laptops, digital cameras and other portable Lithium battery devices
• Supports music formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WAV, ADPCM, AMR
• Play video: support AVI format film play achieves QVGA@25f/s fluent MPEG4 video (320 x 240) and provides video bookmark function
• View photos: JPEG, BMP, GIF
• Game simulator: supports FC/GB/GBC/MD 8/16 bit simulator expansion developed by third parties; compatible with NES/GB/GBC/SEGA game ROM
• Read books: supports TXT format
• User-friendly menu with relevant animated instructions
• USB 2.0 port
• OS: Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/Linux 2.4+/Mac OS 9+

M.S.R.P. $169.00, EM-SOL1GIG

Customers who purchase an eMotion portable media player have immediate access to download free professional photographs and stunning digital art images from http://MyDigitalContent.com for play on any eMotion product. All eMotion consumer electronics offer a limited 90-day warranty.

About Media Street, Inc.
MediaStreet, Inc. is an award-winning manufacturer and developer of innovative consumer electronics and services for the digital music and photography markets. Among the company’s unique advances is the marriage of digital content to its digital convergence electronics with the formation of two power web portals; one for professional photography to be enjoyed on eMotion frames, www. http://MyDigitalContent.com, and the other, http://Beyond.fm, to find intriguing music, videos and radio casts which can be played on the growing line of eMotion electronics including (musician) branded eMotion MP3 MP4 PMP DVD and Digital Picture Frame products. MediaStreet is headquartered in Deer Park, New York at 44 W. Jefryn Blvd, Unit Y, 11729. For more information about MediaStreet and their extensive line of products and services, please visit www.mediastreet.com.

[MediaStreet]

Consumer electronics tech journalism is very tricky. Those who strictly cover commercial CE depend on a powerful handful of companies for the very lifeblood of their content. That’s a dangerous position. A “favour” by a company can turn into the laziest kind of “scoop” imaginable, a scrap from the dinner table for the dogs of journalism. And every gadget journalist has wrestled with his conscience as he gains more access and becomes inseparable from the industry and depends on more and more of these scoops.

But bloggers and trade journalists, so desperate for a seat at the table with big mainstream publications have it completely backwards: You don’t get more access by selling out for press credentials first chance you get, kowtowing to corporations and tradeshows and playing nice; you earn your respect by fact finding, reporting, having untouchable integrity, provocative coverage and gaining readers through your reputation for those things. Our prank pays homage to the notion of independence and independent reporting. And no matter how much access the companies give us, we won’t ever stop being irreverent. That’s what this prank was about and what the press should understand.

Critics talk about the prank costing dollars and jobs. Motorola said “no harm, no foul” and enjoyed the joke. (Although they will be checking every body cavity I have for IR blasters next press conference.) Were there AV techs who got in trouble? They need only show their bosses the video to be blame-free.

Many of our harshest critics have done far worse than clicking off a few TVs. I’m talking about ethical lapses such as accepting paid junkets to Japan by Nikon, or free trips to Korea by Samsung. Turning a blind eye to Apple’s mistakes when they didn’t make an iPhone SDK and sought to lock down the handset. Stock prices torn downward by publishing incorrect leaked info. Writing about companies that also pay you for advertorial podcast work. All of these examples are offences from the last year. And I consider those offences far worse than our prank, because it ultimately it puts the perpetrators on the wrong team. As one reporter put it while chiding me, “Journalists are guests in the houses of these companies.” Not first and foremost! We are the auditors of companies and their gadgets on behalf of the readers. In this job, integrity and independence is far more important than civil or corporate obedience. Every tech journalist has to decide whether or not he’s writing for companies or for readers. When they start writing for the companies, covering all their press releases and regurgitating marketing jargon, you do no one any favours (not even
the companies, which already hire press release machines).

Gizmodo was given access to film and interview Bill Gates again this year. Some pubs might have softened up on questioning him, but we didn’t: We got the guy to open up and talk about Windows and its
shortcomings like he never has before, not even on 60 minutes. If that’s not journalism, I don’t know what is. If we had been in the pocket of this industry, we never would have asked such a risky question—and probably wouldn’t have been granted the interview to begin with.

In closing, I will fill you in on our little secret: TVs turn back on when you press the power button a second time. So, I can assure you, everything is going to be OK once the companies find their clickers between the couch cushions of our prank and your obedience. Will our critics find it as easy to turn their integrity back on? I doubt it.