Comments on: Why we need to go digital this holiday

By: Next in Learning

Next in Learning — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:41:34 +0000

[...] a recent article written by John Biggs, a contributor to CrunchGear.com he says: We won’t need any more “things” in the basest [...]

By: Your Dose: Weekend Goodness - 13th/14th December «

Your Dose: Weekend Goodness - 13th/14th December « — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:53:02 +0000

[...] Crunchgear - Why we need to go digital this holiday [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:51:24 +0000

Crunchgear actually states that they are a biased source of information. I thought I read that they take pride in not being another ‘cnet’ that has to sugar-coat everything to not piss anyone off.
They have opinions and you have opinions, and you’re probably not going to change each others. So move on to the next article.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:44:59 +0000

I should have said digital media specifically, my bad.

By: Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:08:10 +0000

I thought the site was all about gadgets and technology? Blu-Ray by no means old technology yet they are constantly trying to claim the format is dead.

How about taking a realistic approach instead of reporting greatly exaggerated viewpoints on what one person wishes the world was like? Nearly every Blu-Ray article here was met with comments stating why declaring the format dead is a gross overexaggeration.

By: Ben Chen

Ben Chen — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:07:04 +0000

Very true

By: AppBeacon

AppBeacon — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:01:49 +0000

Cyber Akuma : Please remember, this site is called “CrunchGear” and is a part of “TechCrunch”. Of course they are going to be pushing towards digital items as that is what the site is all about.

Surely you don’t expect them to start covering the news of your local library and video store, right?

By: Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:59:28 +0000

I didn’t mean you are literally being paid to say the things you do for DD, but the rather foreful way Crunchgear keeps attempting to declare Blu-Ray dead and advocating DD makes me wonder that this is more than just simple preferance for DD over physical media.

You basically seem to try to strongly lead everybody into a DD-only world, without regard to the problems, disadvantes, or advantages of physical media.

And with the comments I have seen here, most don’t feel like a DD-only world is a good idea.

There are a lot of problems with going purely digital as well, and many prefer physical over digital.

Come to think of it, I have seen Crunchgear repeatedly bash physical media, but pretty much almost never seen any article talking about the disadvantages of digital downloads, unless its more about DRM than the idea of DD. At least nowhere near the frequency of yet other “Blu-Ray is dead!” post. Lots of heavy bias. Crunchgear as a whole seems to be very biased towards one side instead of taking a neutral stance.

Case in point, the recent articles asking if people still had a landline or use a cellphone holster, they were basically designed to be heavily against landlines and holster use, the holster poll was basically insulting to anyone who did use one.

By: Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:26:11 +0000

I didn’t mean you are literally being paid to say this, but Crunchgear’s rather enegetic view on doing away with physical media (especially Blu-Ray) makes it pretty hard not to think there isn’t something an stake.

You seem to blindly try to charge everybody into a Digital-only world without considering the consecuqnces, downsides, or even the advantages physical media has over digital.

And as most of the comments from such articles show, most do not share the idea that a digital-only world is a good idea and there are still a lot that prefer physical media over digital.

I am saying this because I have also noticed a lot of heavy bias in the articles here, take for example the recent article asking how many still have a landline or use a cellphone holster.

The site as a whole is advocating one viewpoint and being biased against all others instead of adopting a neutral stance.

I don’t think I have once seen anything said against digital downloads (that wasn’t more of a DRM argument), and definately not anywhere near the freq

By: John Biggs

John Biggs — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:48:30 +0000

You got us again on the “You got us” stuff! Akuma: who is going to pay me to advocate digital downloads? There’s no money in it until it actually hits the mainstream and, as I’ve said before, I’m completely separate from the advertising folks and I set it up that way in order to ensure that we DON’T get money for advocating certain things. Generally, however, I think digital is far superior to physical in terms of media and I think it can really change things up if we stop thinking of game/movie/music disks and instead focus on game/movie/music media.

By: Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:30:28 +0000

I’m serious.

The bias in this site is starting to become borderline rediculus, almost at satire levels.

The only people I have seen that advocate digital downloads this much are those that already have a stake in it, and even they arent this blatant about it.

Not to mention you always respond with the sarcastic “you got us” reply :P

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:15:44 +0000

CrunchGear People’s Front. We’re the People’s Front of CrunchGear!

By: Curtis Gray

Curtis Gray — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:01:57 +0000

And I recommend that, rather than spend our money this season, we save it. We’ll need it.

By: John Biggs

John Biggs — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:01:56 +0000

You got us! The Downloadable Bits Council pays us 5 cents per mention of digital media! I can cut you in on the deal, if you like. All you have to do is troll about Blu-Ray on a few posts a day.

By: Lili

Lili — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:04:34 +0000

Quite a good idea in terms of invironmental protection, but I can’t thouroughly agree to it, as our world is too much dugitalized now and if we go on like this all human beings will also be digitalized one day:)

By: limo london

limo london — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:37:27 +0000

its time :) go for it guys

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:15:50 +0000

You can’t possibly be serious.

$250/$150 are a bargain for software with such ubiquity. Windows runs thousands of games, .NET apps, whatever… for the price of just 4 or 5 of those games?

Windows is still the greatest software bargain on the planet. Buy it, download Visual C# Express, develop in the best dev environment, period, for free. And no I don’t work for Microsoft.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:13:12 +0000

I do believe though that digital gifts and the likes most of the time need to be complimented with physical things. I used to purchase digital artworks on http://www.Imagekind.com or customized artworks on http://www.Phokki.com . At the end of the day, softcopy feels a bit cheap. Physical canvas print still do the job. What do you think when someone sends you an email with mp3 songs, as compared to a music CD bought from the shop?

By: Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:14:45 +0000

Or software could become reasonably priced.

$250 for Vista?

$150 for the cheapest version of office?

And these aren’t even the Ultimate versions.

By: Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:11:58 +0000

Ebooks are quite different, they don’t have the advantages that music does.

If one buys a CD for example, they can easily rip that to MP3 and play it on their iPod.

You can’t (practically) scan your books into your ebook reader.

Reading books also requires far more time and concentration than music.

Not all digital media is the same, you can’t apply a music player mentality to ebook readers.