The Inquirer

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This article is about the British technology news website. For other uses, see Inquirer (disambiguation).
The INQUIRER
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The INQUIRER

The INQUIRER (sometimes shortened to the INQ and commonly referred to as The Inquirer without caps) is a British technology tabloid[1] news website focusing on the computer and semiconductor industries.

Contents

[edit] History

The INQUIRER was founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register, (of which he was one of the founding members), in 2001. The magazine is entirely Internet based with its journalists living all over the world and filing copy online[2], and with Mike Magee as the overall Editor.

On January 26, 2006, a press release was issued announcing that publishing company of The INQUIRER had been acquired by Magee's former employer, Dutch publishing giant VNU Business Media Europe.[3]

In addition to the English site, as of 19 June 2006, The INQUIRER has editions localized for Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Spain[4].

[edit] Writing style

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The site hews to The Register's slogan, "Biting the hand that feeds IT", and is known for its early access to industry news based on insider sources. When served with "cease and desist" orders, the website sometimes publishes them in full, with commentary.[5] It has also recently started publishing information regarding hardware available in the UK, U.S.A., France, and other countries[6].

The INQUIRER's articles are written in a subjective and opinionated tone, with much the same style of reporting common in British tabloid newspapers.[7] In the English version of the site, slang terms, particularly those common to Great Britain, are used.

[edit] Scoops

Despite getting scoops, some of the reporters for the INQUIRER have a policy against signing non-disclosure agreements.[8] The publication has various connections with the industry; Intel in particular has acknowledged that its staff have a tendency to send details of meetings to the Inquirer.[9]

Some INQUIRER articles include information unconfirmed by official sources within the companies they report on. When dealing with such information, they typically preface the article with a statement such as the following, "We've heard an odd, but strong whisper on the grapevine . . ."[10]. As such articles lack official confirmation, they can be classified as rumor or speculation.

[edit] Playstation 3 Graphics Processor

As is the case with most publications, some stories published by The INQUIRER cause controversy, such as a 31 August 2005 story about a claim that PlayStation 3's GPU is less powerful than the GeForce 7800[11]. NVIDIA responded to this claim [12] by stating that the Playstation 3's RSX is more powerful than than the GeForce 7800.

[edit] Sony Laptop Battery Scandal

One of the The INQUIRER's greatest scoops has been its reporting during 2006 of laptop battery problems that affected Dell, Sony and Apple as of September 2006, with rumours or problems at Toshiba and Lenovo. In June 2006, The Inquirer's report[13]. and dramatic photographs of a Dell notebook PC exploding in flames at a conference in Japan attracted global media attention. Many renowned publications, such as the New York Times, reprinted the Inquirer's photographs. The Inquirer was also the first publication to report Dell's subsequent decision to recall all 4.1 million of the faulty batteries, according to BusinessWeek Magazine[14].

The Inquirer's successful reporting of the story relied on information supplied by readers and later by a confidential source at Dell. "I attribute being on top of the story to old-fashioned print journalism standards — cultivating, and, if you'll excuse the pun, not burning such contacts," The Inquirer's founder, Mike Magee, told BusinessWeek Magazine.

[edit] Reverse Hyperthreading

A scoop that was later withdrawn was the rumor published on 23 June 2006 of an upcoming improvement to AMD Athlon 64 Socket AM2 chips called "reverse hyperthreading" [15]. A follow-up article [16] was posted on 10 July 2006.

[edit] Rydermark

In July 2006, The Inquirer was accused of photoshopping images which claimed to show "cheating" by NVIDIA Windows device drivers in a then-anonymous benchmark called Rydermark 2006. The images were alleged to be fake by a number of sources [17]. The Inquirer denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations against them irresponsible, [18]. Some online forum users who claimed that the images were fake claimed that they were able to track down some of the stock art used in the screen renders. [19]. However, at the end of October 2006, Candella Software, contractors on games like Juiced, Stubbs the Zombie and The Fast and the Furious 3 publicly announced their Rydermark benchmark. [20]

[edit] ATI Intel front side bus license revocation

On July 24, 2006, The Inquirer claimed that, in response to AMD's announced intent to purchase ATI, "ATI had its chipset license pulled, or at least not renewed by Intel." [21] ATI responded to this claim by stating that its license had not been revoked and that they continue to ship Intel chipsets under license. [22]. On August 23, 2006 ATI showed its chipset roadmap to motherboard vendors which showed that next-generation Intel FSB chipsets are canceled as XbitLabs reported. This cancellation includes RD700 and integrated RS790 chipsets.

[edit] Writers

As of November 2006, The Inquirer's writing staff includes:

  • Adamson Rust
  • Charlie Demerjian
  • Dean Pullen
  • Fuad Abazovic
  • Ian Williams
  • Mike Magee
  • Nick Farrell
  • Theo Valich
  • Eva Glass
  • Cher Price
  • Jock McFrock the bekilted engineer
  • Chip Mulligan

[edit] Nicknames and terminology

Following the standards Mike Magee set at his previous publications, The INQUIRER uses nicknames for many IT firms and persons:

Other nicknames are available in The Inquirer guide to Inquirer jargon[23].

[edit] Other

Some of The INQUIRER's writers visit the Ace's Hardware website's message board, including Charlie Demerjian, who uses the nickname Groo_ on the board.[24]

The public forums for the website are known as the "Hermit's Cave", in memory of the original forum moderator and friend, Hermit Don Martin.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Inquirer, Thursday 02 December 2004: Intel wonders how INQUIRER gets leaks so fast (cited 23 August 2006)
  2. ^ The Inquirer, Wednesday 02 August 2006: All journalism will be Indian journalism one day (cited 23 August 2006)
  3. ^ The Inquirer, Thursday 26 January 2006: VNU Business Media Europe buys the INQUIRER (cited 23 August 2006)
  4. ^ The Inquirer, Monday 19 June 2006: Euro INQUIRERS burst forth (cited 23 August 2006)
  5. ^ The Inquirer, Wednesday 10 September 2003: US Republican Party threatens to sue the INQUIRER (cited 23 August 2006)
  6. ^ The Inquirer, Sunday 25 June 2006: Mio C710 will tell you where you are (cited 23 August 2006)
  7. ^ For instance, The Inquirer, Thursday 02 December 2004: Intel wonders how INQUIRER gets leaks so fast (cited 23 August 2006), or The Inquirer, Sunday 07 December 2003: Last week's top INQUIRER stories (cited 23 August 2006)
  8. ^ The Inquirer, Tuesday 5 March 2002: The INQUIRER, Intel, embargoes and NDAs (cited 23 August 2006)
  9. ^ The Inquirer, Thursday 2 December 2004: Intel wonders how INQUIRER gets leaks so fast (cited 23 August 2006)
  10. ^ The Inquirer, Wednesday 12 July 2006: New iPods to use OLED displays (cited 23 August 2006)
  11. ^ The Inquirer, Wednesday 31 August 2005: Playstation 3 GPU "slightly less powerful than GeForce 7800" (cited 23 August 2006)
  12. ^ Team Xbox, Aug. 31st, 2005: PlayStation 3 GPU More Powerful than GeForce 7800! (cited 23 August 2006)
  13. ^ [http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32550 The Inquirer, Wednesday 21 June 2006: Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference] (cited 2 September 2006)
  14. ^ [http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2006/tc20060830_642667.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech BusinessWeek Magazine, Wednesday 30 August 2006: The Battery Recall: A Win for the Web] (cited 2 September 2006)
  15. ^ The Inquirer, Friday 23 June 2006: AMD Socket AM2 has a secret weapon (cited 23 August 2006)
  16. ^ The Inquirer, Monday 10 July 2006: Reverse Hyperthreading does not exist (cited 23 August 2006)
  17. ^ such as Dailytech, July 19, 2006: "Rydermark" Cheating Allegations Discredited (cited 23 August 2006), or Behardware, 19/07/2006: The Inquirer accuses Nvidia of cheating (cited 23 August 2006)
  18. ^ The Inquirer, Wednesday 19 July 2006: Rydermark maker labels hoax allegations 'irresponsible' (cited 23 August 2006)
  19. ^ The Modding Theater, particular post posted 07-19-2006 (cited 23 August 2006); user himself referencing a free stock image on www.sxc.hu (cited 23 August 2006).
  20. ^ Candella Software announces Rydermark benchmark (cited 1 November 2006)
  21. ^ The Inquirer, Monday 24 July 2006: Intel pulls ATI bus licence (cited 23 August 2006)
  22. ^ H Enthusiast, Wednesday, July 26, 2006: AMD & ATI Answers to Rumormongering (cited 23 August 2006)
  23. ^ Sunday 02 March 2003: The INQUIRER guide to INQUIRER jargon (cited 23 August 2006)
  24. ^ Ace's Hardware (cited 28 September 2006)

[edit] External links

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