The day I knew tech journalism was dead

One area I've loved since my AOL days was getting better information on computers and tech gadgets from online sources. Sure the articles in PC Magazine and Macworld were great, but the time gap between print and online media was already evident back then. The online reviews were typically written by tech journalists who actually used these gadgets. You got the geeky details on a product that only the perspective of another geek would provide you.

Recently the speaker setup I used in my garage died. ¹ So I've been looking around for a new speaker and I saw an article in my RSS feed about a new Anker speaker.

Reading through the announcement I was underwhelmed by the details and noticed the article had 3 links. The links in the article didn't add any additional details about the announced speaker, they links went to:

1. Amazon.com for the Anker brand group.
2. Amazon.com for a different Anker BT speaker.
3. Amazon.com for the previous generation Soundcore speaker.

All 3 links had an affiliate tag on them and no notice about the kickback the review site would get. I closed the browser tab out of annoyance because none of the information included in the "announcement" actually included any real details on the new speaker - estimated playtime, size, weight, speaker power, etc.

At this point I closed the tab, looked out my window, and yelled at the neighbor kids to get off my lawn.