In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that I wouldn't have been able to get any of these jobs out of college. I didn't finish with a 3.8, do a year of service in Nicaragua or file any patents during my sophomore year. But the worst part of this list is the fact that the people taking these jobs did. To paraphrase Dan Lyons, there's something distinctly evil about the way Google and the other companies listed below hoard the world's best and brightest and put them to work on creating more efficient text ads or, worse, tasking them with taking phone calls from angry customers.

Follow the link for each job to see a picture of their locations, a list of key responsibilities, first hand accounts of why each job is so bad and how much they pay.

• Tech's ten worst entry-level jobs
• Online sales and operations account manager, Google
• Support engineer, Washington-Seattle, Amazon.com
• Content Acquisition Intern, IODA
• Customer support specialist, Fox Interactive, MySpace division
• Database administrator (temporary), Google, contracted through WorkforceLogic
• Support professional, product: Windows, Microsoft
• Executive admin to Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore
• Analyst, user operations, Facebook
• Operations finance, analyst intern, Yahoo
• Part-time guide, Mahalo

(Top photo by star5112)

Hello Everyone,
This is an exciting day for us. Today, CBS and CNET Networks announced a definitive agreement under which CBS will acquire CNET Networks. This announcement represents an important strategic step for both of our companies. We expect to complete this transaction by early Q3 of this year.

You can read the full release formally announcing this acquisition here.

Together CBS and CNET Networks represent an unbeatable combination of premium content online, premium content on air and premium audiences. As a leading online media network, we will have an impressive portfolio of leading brands, including CNET, CBS.com, CBSSports.com (formerly Sportsline.com), GameSpot, BNET, and TV.com to name a few. Together we will be bigger, bolder and better than we could be apart.

Both CBS and CNET Networks share a common vision about interactive media, the importance of category defining brands and how to build online destinations that give people more of what they crave. CNET Networks brings unique skills and assets to CBS including our ability to build, operate and grow interactive brands, our flexible technology platforms as well as some of the most talented interactive media professionals in the industry today.

There will be significant promotion opportunities for our brands online across CBS's Interactive portfolio, as well as offline across CBS's leading media properties.

CBS's brands complement our existing categories, giving us quality reach across premium audiences. On the sales side, we now have the ability to offer advertisers a larger audience, more brands, and more page views - providing marketers more scale. For example, we can now build the ultimate men's network with sites like CNET, CBS Sports, GameSpot and BNET.

On Tuesday, May 20th, I will host a Company All Meeting in San Francisco. We'll talk about the transaction and the exciting opportunities that it creates for both NCAA and CNET Networks and we'll answer your questions. Stay tuned for details and logistics on that meeting.

So what now? We must remain focused on our day-to-day responsibilities. We still need to deliver on the commitments and promises we made to our users, our advertisers, our shareholders and our fellow employees.

In the weeks ahead, as we work to ensure the smooth integration of our two companies, we will continue to provide you with regular updates. If you have specific questions, please feel free to submit them through offline. We will aggregate your questions and incorporate answers into our communications.

Finally, I want to thank you for your continued hard work and support. It is because of you that 160 million people show up each month to interact with some of the best websites in the world. It is because of you that we have been recognized as a leading company with a unique culture and exceptional employees. It is your dedication to our users, our brands and each other that have enabled us to take this exciting step.

Today, the next chapter in our story begins.

Best, NA

***************** Neil Ashe CNET Networks, Inc.

KPCB's iFund is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

[...]

The iFund will be managed by KPCB Partner Matt Murphy in collaboration with partners Chi-Hua Chien, John Doerr, Bill Joy, Randy Komisar, Ellen Pao and Ted Schlein. Apple will provide KPCB with market insight and support.

Expect more consolidation: Just as the PC-chip market has narrowed to two suppliers, Intel and AMD, the flat-screen market can likely sustain even fewer players than it has now. Will Sony be one of them? Unlikely. Caught flat-footed by the rise of LCD TVs, it was forced into its Samsung venture. Now, with Sharp, it will be a junior partner, owning one-third of the business.

The Trinitron made Sony a household name. But in the LCD business, it's just another purchaser of commodity parts, with a brand name tacked on. Sony will no doubt argue that in a future of networked televisions, software, not hardware, is what matters. But in that field, Sony has hardly distinguished itself.

No other bidders have publicly emerged. Microsoft could walk, leaving shareholders in the lurch — and Yahoo's board of directors exposed to legal repercussions.

The board's rationale? According to the Wall Street Journal, the $44.6 billion price "massively undervalues" Yahoo. (And the original price for the half-stock, half-cash deal has already dropped by $3 billion, along with the value of Microsoft's shares.) The directors also fear that regulators, who have already lengthened their antitrust supervision of Microsoft, will put a Microsoft-Yahoo deal through the paces.

There are two ways to look at this rejection. The cynical view: MIcrosoft has already established what Yahoo is; they're just negotiating over the price. Microsoft can easily afford the extra $12 billion; it's just a question of appeasing its own shareholders.

But there's a more optimistic view. Why is Yahoo's board willing to risk Microsoft walking away? Perhaps it's because, unlike most of the Valley, unlike Wall Street's investors, they have yet to write Yahoo off. Yahoo has value, they're saying. For Yahoo's dispirited employees, that's not just a matter of numbers. Someone out there believes that what they're doing has purpose. Do you Yahoo? In telling Microsoft "No," the board has answered yes.

Reuters, which broke the story, does not go into detail about what a Google/Yahoo partnership would entail, but it likely wouldn't include a merger or acquisition because of antitrust concerns. Instead, Google would likely guarantee ad revenues in exchange for access to inventory on Yahoo's pages, much as it does already for News Corp.'s MySpace.

The loss of Bell was apparently so intolerable to Jobs that Palm hasn't dared announce his hire publicly, though he's listed on the company's management page, and SEC filings reveal he's received stock in the company. A Palm spokeswoman says the company hasn't announced any new hires recently. That strikes me as an unlikely reason: The company is desperately in need of some good news, and wooing a top executive from Palm's most lethal rival in the smartphone market would seem to qualify.

Seeing the picture, seeing Jobs's face on his daughter, got me thinking. In what other ways are they similar? Did Brennan-Jobs inherit Steve's brilliance, his charisma, his infamous temper? Would she be as suited to the job of running Apple as her father? Would the male-dominated technology industry accept her?

This is not so much a question about Brennan-Jobs — though it's an intriguing thought to imagine her delivering a Macworld keynote. No, it's about the still-rampant sexism in tech. What if Steve had been a girl? Would he have been able to start Apple, raise venture capital, take the company public? Women CEOs are still few and far between; with eBay CEO Meg Whitman's retirement, replaced by a man, we have one fewer. That's a movement in the wrong direction.

WiMax is an unproven technology with questionable support beyond Sprint and Intel. Network World reports that Sprint has soft-launched WiMax networks in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., so it's possible that Apple will build in the hardware in preparation for Sprint's nationwide rollout in April. This would be a huge win for WiMax, which suffered a blow when Sprint and Clearwire abandoned plans for a WiMax joint venture. But Apple has proven it can popularize technologies — think USB in the original iMac, and Wi-Fi in the iBook — even with a scant market share. If anything, its position is stronger now than ever before.

• 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.

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.

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 [editor's note: now the Miracle Mile Shops by Planet Hollywood] 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.

• 
• 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)

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?

• Veronica Belmont of Jason Calacanis's Mahalo Daily is here with a crew of three or four people — and that's before her Engadget support team shows up. Jason, I thought the point of Internet video was that you didn't need a big support staff.
• There are the usual event staples of fish and pasta, but then there is a lone waitress walking around with delicious lamb chops. Every time she walks by I hear a quiet chorus from the surrounding press flacks: "Ooh, are those lamb chops?"
• A remote-controlled rolling robotic beer cooler. True, this is a gadget but it combines laziness, beer, and completely uselessness; three tried and true geek pastimes.

One analyst said "Fox and potentially other studios are coming around to the idea that there is nobody out there to challenge iTunes." The rumor mill pegged Sony, Paramount and Warner Bros. as having talks with Apple about movie rentals, but this is the first concrete evidence of a deal. With Apple getting into millions of homes as a result of increased Mac sales and millions of video-savvy iPods and iPhones sold this holiday, the service could get off the ground much faster than competing services from Amazon or Netflix, which have foundered. We mentioned the possibility of Apple setting up a movie rental service back in November.

More: Fox to allow DVD copying on Apple's iTunes

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Newsweek had an glowing exclusive review from Steven Levy and New York Times tech reviewer David Pogue wrote up the Kindle soon after it was made public, but it took Mossberg more than a week to review the device. What happened? Another tech columnist told us that Mossberg "was only interested in reviewing it if he could be first. When Steven Levy got it first Walt threw a tantrum." Classy. We also hear Mossberg tried to edge out other reviewers to be first on the iPhone — but got turned down. Incidentally, I still haven't gotten any response from Amazon PR about a review unit. What's up with that? I'll be nicer than Mossberg — maybe.

What's likely going on here? A snark offensive, with editorial consistency sacrificed on an altar of witty barbs. Feeling pressure from gadget blogs, CNET is trying to mimic their tone by going negative. The manufactured edginess, of course, has inadvertently hilarious results, like the one above. What's sad is that despite the blog buzz, CNET's doing just fine. Why the sudden panic?

In response to purely speculative figures announced in the press regarding the number of downloads and the price paid for the album, the group's representatives would like to remind people that ... it is impossible for outside organizations to have accurate figures on sales.

However, they can confirm that the figures quoted by the company ComScore Inc are wholly inaccurate and in no way reflect definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project.

As we've said, there is no Googlephone. Instead of a phone as slick and streamlined as Google's search interface, instead we may see customized mobile versions of Google services like Gmail and YouTube — but those already exist. And instead of a free mobile operating system, you'll more likely see something like Google's OpenSocial initiative for social networks — a set of programming tools, in other words. (No comment forthcoming from Google and T-Mobile, naturally.)

Until third-party developers pick those tools up and start building applications, there won't be anything for gadget geeks to play with. And like most mashups, Web widgets, and Facebook apps, what we'll get at first will be rehashes of applications that already exist today. Google's wireless announcements may set the stage for interesting mobile apps years down the road — but get ready for whatever they announce next week to be a nonevent.

It's a big comedown for Google's wireless engineers, who have, it seems, wasted as much as $100 million Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin staked on the failed Googlephone project. But as a piece of corporate jujitsu, the Googlephone may still pay off brilliantly. The mere threat of a Googlephone may have been enough to corral some wireless carriers into its camp.

And the most intriguing element? Google's wireless software efforts will pull in existing mobile versions of Gmail and YouTube, among other Google services. But that's not the key part, as my colleague Gizmodo editor Brian Lam has speculated. No, instead, Google's hoping to establish a software platform that's open to third-party developers.

And that may be the trickiest part to sell. Wireless carriers are famous for restricting what software can run over their networks. That they would crown Google as the new kingmaker seems unlikely. About as unlikely, in fact, as a Googlephone.

Facebook has a history of protecting profiles from outsiders. The site once sent cease-and-desist letters to two of Valleywag's sister blogs for publishing certain student profiles.

The site does not allow regular users to see which profiles other users have seen. While one third-party application lets users voluntarily make their profile-visiting known, no application allows one to "spy" on the activity of an unknowing user.

Checking who's viewed a profile may be how Facebook found the tipster who violated their terms of service by sending Valleywag Steve Ballmer's profile. But were they violating their own terms?

Well, Facebook's privacy policy doesn't explicitly reserve or waive employees' right to check out your profile for any reason. Of course, the practice still reeks of skunkery — it's one thing to check profiles in the course of business, but these people are looking up records for kicks. This is a company with $150 million in projected revenues this year and a gigantic ad deal with Microsoft, not a corner video store. The privacy of millions is at stake. Google clearly promises not to crawl through mail or search records with anything but a computer program, and even AOL apologized for releasing semi-anonymous search data and violating its privacy policy.

We have no idea what else employees can see. Do they look at your messages? Your private gifts? Who knows? (Really, who knows? Email me or the tipline. Unlike some, we'll protect your identity.)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the New York State Attorney General's office are two possible candidates for a fraud lawsuit. A fraud charge could hinge on the manner in which Comcast is disrupting traffic. The technology, provided by a company called Sandvine, tricks computers into shutting down BitTorrent connections. Comcast is, in effect, pretending to be the customer in order to prevent data from being transferred. In New York, it is criminal impersonation in the second degree to "(impersonate) another and ... act in such assumed character with intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud another."

Somehow we doubt if Comcast will cave to mere bad press — they get kind of a lot of it. Nor are mass customer defections likely. A lawsuit is probably the only measure that would stop Comcast.

Unlike our blog brethren at Gizmodo or The Consumerist, we'd be all in favor of a broadband provider doing anything it likes with its pipes. You don't like it? Go lay your own fiber, bub. And I'm sure AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the rest are doing all kinds of naughty things with their customers' Web connections. The problem here? Comcast got caught. That's the real no-no.

I realize this news is going to traumatize a lot of gadget nerds, especially Gizmodo editor Brian Lam, with whom I've had a running back-and-forth on the Googlephone. I'll save Lam the trouble of writing one of his "Yes, but ..." retorts. Let me nutshell it for you: It's not about the hardware, it's about the operating system and customization and integration with Google's apps. Nonsense.

Here's what it's really about: Fear. Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin got spooked in early 2006 when they heard that Microsoft was putting its Windows Mobile operating system on 90-plus smartphones that year. So they threw a rumored $100 million in Google shareholders' hard-earned cash on a crash Googlephone project.

Cooler heads have prevailed, though. Yes, it's smart for Google to optimize its services for cell phones. But they don't need hardware or software to do that. Nor do they need exclusive deals with carriers, though those might help a bit with distribution.

The Googlephone, however, has worked like a charm in two ways: First a threat. The Googlephone was a useful fiction, a way to scare carriers and phonemakers into cooperating with Google, and spook Microsoft into cutting its licensing fees for Windows Mobile. To perpetuate that fiction, Google apparently went as far as ordering up some prototypes from HTC — an elaborate Potemkin village of gadgets.

Second, the Googlephone functioned as a fantasy. A very useful fantasy. Like the Apple rumor mill, the cottage industry in Googlephone speculation served as free, crowdsourced market research. Gizmodo, Engadget, and the rest spun countless feature wishlists out of Larry and Sergey's phone folly.

Too bad it was all for naught. There is no Googlephone, folks. Move along.

And for those gadget-heads who were taken in by all of this, and are now disappointed, here's a thought: If you think you feel crushed, how do you think Microsoft and the wireless industry will feel once they figure out that Google has played them for the fool?

Comcast is apparently using technology from Sandvine to prevent uploading of "torrents," the special file format used by BitTorrent. Comcast sends faked packets of data to interfere with the transfer. While not illegal, it is a bit sleazy — and in this case, makes Comcast look like it's against the spreading of the Gospel.

Said BitTorrent COO Ashwin Navin to the AP, "They're using sophisticated technology to degrade service, which probably costs them a lot of money. It would be better to see them use that money to improve service." Navin should consider himself lucky, though. The AP could have run the test by trying to share the violent fiction of former BitTorrent CEO Bram Cohen. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

Here's what to buy this fall:

• Prepare to spend at least $800 for a good PC.
• Any dual-core CPU is fine. Ignore gigahertz ratings.
• Splurge on Windows Vista Home Premium.
• 2 gigabytes of RAM, 300 gigabytes of disk. You'll use it.
• A separate graphics card, not "integrated" graphics.
• If you can, test the PC's performance live:
  • Run the Vista Welcome Center.
  • Click "Show more details."
  • If the performance rating isn't 3.5 or higher, don't buy.
• Avoid "craplets" — trial versions of programs that clutter and slow the PC. You can:
  • Buy a business model .
  • Opt out of trial software.
  • Ask store to uninstall all that junk.
• Mac fanboys: I love you, too. Now go away until MacOS 10.5 ships next week.

An iPod's ancestry goes like so: An iPod is one step up from the CD player, which is a step past the record player or phonograph. Before that sound reproduction came from sheet music, which was a way of marking down sounds from instruments. The most primitive instrument is the drum, and the real part of the drum was hitting it, so the ancestor of the iPod was a stick being beaten atonally on various rocks. (The sound would return in the form of Nickelback.)

But what about the Nintendo Wii?
Well it's a descendant of the N64, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo gaming system; before consoles, Nintendo made arcade games, which were just fancy pinball games, which evolved from a game called the Bagatelle, a table game adapted from billiards, which came from croquet. Stick-hits-rock.

Flashlight
Easy. Light bulb → oil lamp → torch → stick on fire.

Digg.com
Digg → blog → newsletter → town crier → poking someone with a stick and saying "Hey!"

Nuclear ICBM
Missile → rocket → gun → firework → arrow → spear → poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Microwave
Microwave → oven → coal stove → fireplace → campfire → rubbing two sticks.

Beer helmet
Beer helmet → crazy straw → straw → hollow stick.

Fig Newmans
There is no precedent to Fig Newmans. They were birthed fully formed when the universe was still pure and without deformity.

Nick Douglas writes at Valleywag and Too Much Nick. He wrote this on a stick.

The problem with tests based on advance access to carefully doled out "review units" is obvious: It's in the gadget maker or service provider's interest to provide a few well-placed reviewers like Pogue with hand-picked, flawless gear and overly helpful support. The real customer's storebought or online experience is sure to be different.

For example, my own Macs have a lot more hardware failures than Walt Mossberg's do at the Wall Street Journal lab. And I've frequently been given misinformation from the Genius at the Apple Store counter. He can't grab a senior product manager to answer my questions, as the company's publicists do when I'm working on a Wired review.

In Pogue's case, he reviewed an overseas phone calling service whose super-low rates — the feature that sold him — turned out to be three, four or more times higher when the service went live.

Pogue observed to us that the Times' restaurant and theater critics do their reviews incognito, buying their own tickets and meals on the company expense account to avoid special treatment or pricing. Yet gadget reviews are traditionally done — by the Times and everyone else — on equipment loaned by the maker. Reviewers are under pressure to seek early access so they can meet deadlines and beat other publications, rather than wait for the product to hit stores or the site to go live.

The shining exception is nonprofit Consumer Reports. All tested products are purchased at retail by its staff, and no free samples are accepted from manufacturers. But who's going to wait around for CR to pronounce that "Our tests of Apple's new iPod Touch confirm that it is indeed essentially an iPhone without the phone?" By the time early buyers learn, as CR did, that the iPod Touch's screen can be dimmer than an iPhone's under the same lighting conditions, it's too late.

I don't expect David Pogue to stop accepting advance products and services, nor the special treatment that comes with them. It would be career suicide unless all other journalists stopped at the same time. But when readers' experiences turn out different than that provided to reviewers, hopefully more writers will do what Pogue did: Stand tall and warn everyone, rather than letting the issue die quietly on a Corrections page.

(Photo by realmerlyn)

Entrepreneur published a mostly positive review of Palm's Foleo, the smartphone companion, informing readers that they could buy it for $599. "Users who really just need email and Web access while on the road ... might be tempted by the Foleo," the magazine concludes. Might be tempted, of course, except for the minor detail that Palm canceled the Foleo in early September. I'm sure the magazine's editors will say that was after their press time. But do you think readers care about the logistics of printing magazines? Or will they care that the information was outdated and, well, wrong? (See the full review below.)

The honest thing for magazines to do is stop covering gadgets altogether. Magazine freelancers, paid by the word, have no incentive to test gear thoughtfully and thoroughly. And print magazines will always be behind the curve in getting news of new gadgets. I doubt, however, that publishers will allow editors to give up covering the subject so easily. So here's an idea: Instead of covering gadgets, why don't magazines just write articles rating the best gadget blogs?

Ordinarily, I conduct my own tests of products and write my own conclusions. But on a product whose primary feature is its price, I have to rely on the company that makes it — especially when I'm writing the review before the product is available to the public, as often happens in my business.

In his correction, Pogue says that the prices are still much lower than using, say, your AT&T cell-phone service overseas, so Cubic is still a good deal. Um, no thanks — I'll stay far away from a company that flat-out lies to a reviewer, especially one as well known as David Pogue. Still, I give Pogue credit for coming clean and apologizing rather than just sticking a correction on some back page somewhere.

I'm not exactly sure how the problem could have been avoided — in 20 years of reviewing tech products, nobody has ever deliberately misled me on hard facts like prices — but I thought you should hear about it from me.

If you're truly looking to save your cash, Dell's entry-level Windows model is a third cheaper than the Penguinmobile — $499 versus $774. Its Windows Vista Basic is hardly the "stripped-down" operating system Times writer Larry Magid claims — see this checklist. It'll run iTunes. It'll play DVDs without choking, unlike Magid's Ubuntu test unit. Spring for the cheaper laptop and your savings will more than cover an upgrade to Vista Home Premium ($30), a gigabyte of RAM ($50), a legal copy of Office 2007 ($149), and a double cappuccino for me as a reward for saving you from this sort of alterna-chic foolishness.