The Inquirer

Last updated

The Inquirer
The Inquirer logo.png
TheINQUIRER Screenshot.png
News, reviews, facts and friction
Type of site
 Tech tabloid
Available in English
Dissolved 19 December 2019;4 years ago (2019-12-19)
Owner Incisive Media Ltd.
Created by Mike Magee
EditorCarly Page
Key people
  • Roland Moore-Colyer
  • Dave Neal
  • Chris Merriman
  • Alan Martin
CommercialYes
RegistrationNo
Launched2001;23 years ago (2001)
Current statusCeased publishing

The Inquirer (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch publisher Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU). [1] Mike Magee later left The Inquirer in February 2008 to work on the IT Examiner .

Contents

Historically, the magazine was entirely Internet-based with its journalists living all over the world and filing copy online, though in recent years it has been edited from Incisive Media's offices in London. [2]

Although traditionally a 'red top', under Incisive Media it has put more weight behind its journalism, reducing the number of jibes at companies, and moved instead towards sponsored online debates in association with high-profile organisations, most recently, Intel. [3]

The Inquirer ceased publishing on 19 December 2019, partly due to declining digital advertising revenues. [4] [5]

Scoops

Sony laptop battery scandal

In 2006 The Inquirer reported laptop battery problems that affected Dell, Sony and Apple as of September 2006, with rumours of problems at Toshiba and Lenovo. In June 2006, The Inquirer published photographs of a Dell notebook PC bursting into flames at a conference in Japan; [6] The New York Times reprinted The Inquirer's photographs. [7] The Inquirer was also the first publication to report Dell's subsequent decision to recall faulty batteries, according to BusinessWeek . [8]

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. [8]

Rydermark

In July 2006, The Inquirer posted images to show cheating by Nvidia Windows device drivers in Rydermark 2006. [9] The images were alleged to be fake by a number of sources. [10] [11] The Inquirer denied any wrongdoing and quoted the maker of Rydermark calling the allegations against them "irresponsible". [12] About 8 months after the original Rydermark article, The Inquirer ran another article claiming that Rydermark was still being developed, but was near release. [13] In response, one of its critics offered $1,000 to a charity of the Rydermark articles author's choosing if he could produce (breaching his NDA) a version of Rydermark that showed the alleged screenshots in full-motion video before a set deadline (which gave the author 10 and a half hours, beginning at 6:30PM UK time). No one produced the program before the deadline passed. [14]

Independent verification that RyderMark was genuine, first appeared in TweakTown in May 2007. [15] RyderMark developer Ajith Ram denied ever sending the Inquirer Nvidia cheating allegations. [16]

ATI Intel front side bus license revocation

On 24 July 2006, The Inquirer wrote that, in response to AMD's announced intent to purchase ATI, "ATI had its chipset license pulled, or at least not renewed by Intel." [17] ATI responded by stating that its license had not been revoked and that they continue to ship Intel chipsets under license. [18] On 23 August 2006, ATI showed its chipset roadmap to motherboard vendors which showed that next-generation chipsets for the Intel platform are cancelled. [19] On 1 March 2007, AMD said that they would continue developing chipsets for Intel platforms. [20]

Windows 10 Technical Preview eavesdropping

On 3 October 2014, The Inquirer reported on the privacy policy for the Technical Preview the upcoming Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. [21] In the report, it pointed out that the permissions included the ability for Microsoft to monitor individual keystrokes as well as file content from users. The story was picked up by news media around the world causing Microsoft to admit that monitoring was a necessary part of the process, but denying use of a keylogger.

Ed Bott, writing for ZDNet, accused the site of being "a tech tabloid known for its breathless headlines and factually challenged prose" and said of writer Chris Merriman, "there's little evidence that the author has enough background in computer science or security to tell a keylogger from a key lime pie." [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMD</span> American multinational semiconductor company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATI Technologies</span> Canadian technology corporation

ATI Technologies Inc., commonly called ATI, was a Canadian semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985, the company listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by AMD in 2006. As a major fabrication-less or fabless semiconductor company, ATI conducted research and development in-house and outsourced the manufacturing and assembly of its products. With the decline and eventual bankruptcy of 3dfx in 2000, ATI and its chief rival Nvidia emerged as the two dominant players in the graphics processors industry, eventually forcing other manufacturers into niche roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graphics processing unit</span> Specialized electronic circuit; graphics accelerator

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell XPS</span> Line of high performance computers manufactured by Dell

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentium D</span> Family of Intel microprocessors

Pentium D is a range of desktop 64-bit x86-64 processors based on the NetBurst microarchitecture, which is the dual-core variant of the Pentium 4 manufactured by Intel. Each CPU comprised two cores. The brand's first processor, codenamed Smithfield and manufactured on the 90 nm process, was released on May 25, 2005, followed by the 65 nm Presler nine months later. The core implementation on the 90 nm Smithfield and later 65 nm Presler are designed differently but are functionally the same. The 90 nm Smithfield contains a single die, with two adjoined but functionally separate CPU cores cut from the same wafer. The later 65 nm Presler utilized a multi-chip module package, where two discrete dies each containing a single core reside on the CPU substrate. Neither the 90 nm Smithfield nor the 65 nm Presler were capable of direct core to core communication, relying instead on the northbridge link to send information between the two cores.

nForce3 Chipset by Nvidia

The nForce3 chipset was created by Nvidia as a Media and Communications Processor. Specifically, it was designed for use with the Athlon 64 processor.

The 65 nm process is an advanced lithographic node used in volume CMOS (MOSFET) semiconductor fabrication. Printed linewidths can reach as low as 25 nm on a nominally 65 nm process, while the pitch between two lines may be greater than 130 nm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMD FirePro</span> Brand by AMD

AMD FirePro was AMD's brand of graphics cards designed for use in workstations and servers running professional Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-generated imagery (CGI), Digital content creation (DCC), and High-performance computing/GPGPU applications. The GPU chips on FirePro-branded graphics cards are identical to the ones used on Radeon-branded graphics cards. The end products differentiate substantially by the provided graphics device drivers and through the available professional support for the software. The product line is split into two categories: "W" workstation series focusing on workstation and primarily focusing on graphics and display, and "S" server series focused on virtualization and GPGPU/High-performance computing.

The AMD mobile platform is an open platform for laptops from AMD. Though little marketing was done on this platform, it has been competing with the Centrino platform in the segment to gain more marketshare. Each platform has its own specification, catching up the latest technology developments. Since the acquisition of ATI, AMD began to include Mobility Radeon GPUs and AMD chipsets as part of the requirements of the mobile platform; the first of such platforms is the Puma platform.

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The AMD 690 chipset series is an integrated graphics chipset family which was developed and manufactured by AMD subsidiary ATI for both AMD and Intel platforms focusing on both desktop and mobile computing markets. The corresponding chipset for the Intel platform has a marketing name of Radeon Xpress 1200 series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell Vostro</span> Line of laptop and desktop computers by Dell

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Michael Magee is a British journalist. He is credited with introducing a tabloid-style approach to the coverage of technology news. In 2009 the Daily Telegraph placed Magee 35 in its list of Top 50 most influential Britons in technology.

The nForce 700 is a chipset series designed by Nvidia first released in December 2007. The series supports both Intel Core 2 and AMD Phenom processors, and replaces the nForce 600 series chipsets. Several members were spotted, including the codenamed MCP72 for AMD processors and the C72 for Intel processors, launched with the name "nForce 780a" and "nForce 780i" chipsets respectively. Currently, the released variants are the 750i, 780i, 790i, and 790i Ultra.

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References

  1. ↑ Bobbie Johnson (26 January 2006). "VNU buys into tabloid news". The Guardian.
  2. ↑ "All journalism will be Indian journalism one day". The Inquirer. 2 August 2006. Archived from the original on 30 August 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ↑ "The Effect of the Internet of Things on User Privacy: Part 1". Intel. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "The INQUIRER reaches end-of-life". The Inquirer. 19 December 2019. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ↑ Tobitt, Charlotte (19 December 2019). "Tech news website The Inquirer ceases publishing as ad revenues struggle despite 'healthy' audience". Press Gazette. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  6. ↑ "Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference". The Inquirer. 21 June 2006. Archived from the original on 5 July 2006. Retrieved 2 September 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ↑ Darlin, Damon (10 July 2006). "Dell's Exploding Computer and Other Image Problems". The New York Times.
  8. 1 2 "The Battery Recall: A Win for the Web". BusinessWeek. 30 August 2006. Retrieved 2 September 2006.
  9. ↑ The Inquirer, 18 July 2006: Rydermark screenshots back California graphics fudge (cited 4 February 2007)
  10. ↑ DailyTech, 19 July 2006: "Rydermark" Cheating Allegations Discredited (cited 23 August 2006)
  11. ↑ Damien (19 July 2006). "The Inquirer accuses Nvidia of cheating". BeHardware. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
  12. ↑ The Inquirer, 19 July 2006: Rydermark maker labels hoax allegations 'irresponsible' (cited 23 August 2006)
  13. ↑ The Inquirer, 19 February 2007: Rydermark benchmark lives. It's almost done (cited 28 February 2007)
  14. ↑ Kristopher Kubicki. "DailyTech Digest: RyderMark, My take on RyderMark's newest incarnation".
  15. ↑ Lars Göran Nilsson (16 May 2007). "TweakTown: RyderMark Beta 2 Preview - Emerging competition for Futuremark?". TweakTown. Retrieved 17 May 2007.
  16. ↑ Kristopher Kubicki. "RyderMark Developer: We Never Said NVIDIA Cheated". DailyTech. Retrieved 11 June 2007.
  17. ↑ "Intel pulls ATI bus licence". The Inquirer. 24 July 2006. Archived from the original on 15 August 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  18. ↑ "AMD & ATI Answers to Rumormongering". H Enthusiast. 26 July 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
  19. ↑ "News - Thursday, August 28, 2008". xbitlabs.com. Archived from the original on 29 August 2008.
  20. ↑ "AMD keeping open platform strategy: Q&A with sales and marketing vice president Jochen Polster". DigiTimes. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
  21. ↑ Chris Merriman (3 October 2014). "Microsoft's Windows 10 Preview has permission to watch your every move". The Inquirer. Archived from the original on 4 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  22. ↑ Ed Bott (23 October 2014). "Windows 10: You've Got Questions, I've Got Answers". The Ed Bott Report (blog). ZDNet. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
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