Tech

The Upside to a Giant Gadget Orgy

By Derek Mead

Having finally escaped Vegas and cleared the red fog of gadget blogging from my brain, I have to admit that I enjoyed CES more than I expected.

Sure, it's crowded and bewildering and stressful and you can't write anything about anything without worrying about shilling for somebody, but all that aside (yes, all that) it's fascinating to see what's coming in consumer tech all laid out in front of you.

The most common criticism of something like CES, especially as a journalist, is that you're basically shoved into a battledome-version of a NASCAR car and told to write about it. Embarrassing affairs like CBS telling CNET to rescind an award because of a lawsuit doesn't help. And yes, at the end of the day writing about gadgets means giving publicity to companies, which can be tough to swallow sometimes.

In an environment like CES, when you're competing to cover everything, good or bad, it can feel harder to be objective. But at the end of the day, that's an inherent quandary in writing about gadgets in general.

Read the rest over at the new Motherboard.VICE.com.