February 21, 2004
CNET's Lame 'PDA Prizefight'
CNET usually offers a mixed bag of content -- while they have some good reporting on tech issues, most of their features have pretty limited worth, at least to the hard-core geek. The latter is true of their current feature, the PDA Prizefight.
This feature supposedly compares the two dominant handheld operating systems, Palm OS 5.2 and Windows Mobile 2003, in eight categories. They go on to propose Palm OS as the winner, besting WM03 in four (of the eight) categories and tying it in two categories.
The article is pretty much worthless, IMNSHO. It's loaded with inconsistencies (e.g. it says that its goal is to consider only the operating system and not the hardware, but then uses many examples that relate only to certain OEMs' actual devices and/or third-party add-on applications). The article also assumes that the same qualities are equally important to users of both operating systems, which I'll be the first to admit that they aren't. Despite CNET's determination that Palm OS was the better handheld OS (it's the one I personally prefer), I still think this article only vaguely resembles "journalism" (sorry, Rick...I call 'em as I see 'em).
Posted by Craig | Permalink | TrackBackThank you for this post. I agree - CNET continues to disappoint on a daily basis with their fluffy regurgitations of the same empty opinions over and over. For a site purporting to be tech-centric, it seems like it is written by a bunch of people who could barely manage setting the time on their VCR's. I believe they no longer offer any real value to the hard-core tech fan, rather, they would be a better resource for a soccer mom looking to buy a nice PDA to keep track of her recipes, or some such. Again, thanks for the good post - I agree wholeheartedly.
Posted by Tom James at February 22, 2004 07:47 PMI find that I visit don'y visit them as often as in the past. I also think that they miss all the rumors and gossips that people are looking for. I agree that their offering is more "basic customer" oriented :)
Posted by lkluj at February 23, 2004 04:25 AMTo leave a comment or read updated entries, please visit GearBits' current site. Thanks.