Engadget

Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget operates a total of ten blogs—four written in English and six international versions with independent editorial staff. Engadget has ranked among the top five in the "Technorati top 100"[1] and was noted in Time for being one of the best blogs of 2010.[2] It has been operated by AOL since October 2005.

Engadget
Type of site
Blog
Available inEnglish, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Japanese, Spanish, German
EditorDana Wollman
Parent
URLengadget.com
Alexa rank 921 (Global, January 2019)
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedMarch 2004 (2004-03)
Current statusOnline

History

Engadget was founded by former Gizmodo technology weblog editor and co-founder, Peter Rojas. Engadget was the largest blog in Weblogs, Inc., a blog network with over 75 weblogs including Autoblog and Joystiq which formerly included Hack-A-Day. Weblogs Inc. was purchased by AOL in 2005.[3] Engadget's editor-in-chief, Ryan Block, announced on July 22, 2008, that he would be stepping down as editor-in-chief in late August, leaving the role to Joshua Topolsky. On March 12, 2011, Topolsky announced that he was leaving Engadget to start The Verge. Editorial Director Joshua Fruhlinger appointed Tim Stevens — profiled by Fortune on May 31, 2012[4]—as the editor-in-chief.[5]

On February 13, 2013, AOL acquired gdgt, a device review website that was created by Rojas and Block.[6] Overnight on July 15, 2013, Tim Stevens stepped down as the editor-in-chief, placing gdgt's Marc Perton as the interim executive editor.[7] In November 2013, a major redesign was launched that merged gdgt's features into Engadget, such as database of devices and aggregated reviews. The changes aimed to turn Engadget into a more extensive consumer electronics resource, similarly to CNET and Consumer Reports, aimed towards "the early adopter in all of us".[8]

As of April 2014, Michael Gorman was tapped as the Editor-In-Chief alongside Christopher Trout as Executive Editor,[9] with Perton leaving AOL to pursue other opportunities.

On December 2, 2015, Engadget introduced another redesign, as well as a new editorial direction with a focus on broader topics influenced by technology; Gorman explained that "the core Engadget audience—people who are very much involved in the industry—pay attention to it very closely, but the new editorial direction is really meant to try to make it approachable for folks outside of that realm."[10]

In April 2017, Christopher Trout became Editor-in-Chief[11] alongside Dana Wollman as Executive Editor, Olivia Kristiansen as Director of Video and Jose del Corral as Head of Product.

In September 2018, Dana Wollman was promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Engadget.[12]

Blogs

Engadget operates a number of blogs spanning seven different languages including English, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Japanese, Spanish, Polish (until April 1, 2010), Korean and German. The English edition of Engadget operates four blogs which, like the international editions, have been assimilated into a single site with a sub-domain prefix. These include Engadget Classic (the original Engadget blog), Engadget Mobile, Engadget HD and Engadget Alt. As of late 2013, these editions exist but have been wrapped into Engadget Classic. In March 2014, a UK edition of Engadget also launched to target the developing European tech market.

Launched in March 2004, Engadget is updated multiple times a day with articles on gadgets and consumer electronics. It also posts rumors about the technological world, frequently offers opinion within its stories, and produces the weekly Engadget Podcast that covers tech and gadget news stories that happened during the week.[3]

Since its founding, dozens of writers have written for or contributed to Engadget, Engadget Alt, Engadget Mobile and Engadget HD, including high-profile bloggers, industry analysts, and professional journalists. These writers include Jason Calacanis, Paul Boutin, Phillip Torrone, Joshua Fruhlinger and Susan Mernit. Darren Murph,[13] has worked on the site as Managing Editor and Editor-at-Large. He has written over 17,212 posts as of October 5, 2010.[14] Industry analyst Ross Rubin has contributed a weekly column called Switched On since October 2004.

Engadget uses proprietary AOL CMS to publish its content.

Podcast

The Engadget podcast[15] was launched in October 2004 and was originally hosted by Phillip Torrone and Len Pryor. Torrone was the host for the first 22 episodes of the podcast at which point Eric Rice took over. Eric Rice is known for his own podcast, called The Eric Rice Show and has also produced podcasts for Weblogs, Inc.. Eric hosted and produced 4 episodes of the podcast for Engadget until the show was taken over by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. The podcast was hosted by Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky along with editors Paul Miller and Nilay Patel with occasional special guests until their 2011 departure. The podcast was produced by Trent Wolbe under Topolsky's editorship and continued to be under Tim Stevens until December 2012.

The topic of discussion for the podcast is technology-related and closely linked to events that have happened during the week in the world of technology. The show generally lasts an hour or more. The show is normally weekly, however, the frequency can change, especially during special events. When events such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) occur, the podcast has been known to be broadcast daily.

The Engadget podcast is available as a subscription through iTunes and as an RSS feed. Alternatively, it can be downloaded directly from the site in either MP3, Ogg, AAC or m4b format. The m4b version features images related to the current topic of discussion and can be displayed in iTunes or on a compatible player.

Engadget started doing live podcasts, usually broadcasting Thursday or Friday afternoons hosted by Ben Gilbert and Terrence O'Brien. The recorded podcast is usually available the day after. Engadget also hosts weekly Mobile[16] and HD-focused[17] podcasts, with the former typically featuring Brad Molen,[18] and the latter is generally hosted by Ben Drawbaugh[19] and Richard Lawler.[20]

As of June 27, 2014, all Engadget podcasts are on hiatus according to a tweet sent out from Engadget's Twitter account.[21]

App

On December 30, 2009, Engadget released its first mobile app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.[22][23] Engadget then released an Engadget app for the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi phones on January 1, 2010 claiming it was the "1000th application in the "webOS" Catalog".[24] A week later, on January 8, 2010 they launched the app on the BlackBerry platform. An app for Android devices was released on March 25, 2010[25] and the app for Windows Phone was released on July 1, 2011,[26] making the app available on all major mobile smartphone platforms. On December 15, 2010,[27] Engadget debuted its official iPad app, while Engadget updated its Android app to support Honeycomb (and in turn, Android tablets) on July 28, 2011.[28] The app's features included sharing articles through Twitter, Facebook or email, the ability to tip Engadget on breaking news, and the ability to bookmark and view articles offline. Engadget also debuted "Engadget Mini," [29] an app that seemed to replicate Tumblr ahead of CES 2014, during which the site shared other tweets and media content out of the event. Since CES, the app just duplicates all published articles on the site and its fate or future use is unclear.

On February 2017, Engadget launched a completely redesigned version of the app after three years without any update.[30]

In 2019, Engadget stopped pushing new content to their app. It is no longer available on the Apple Store or the Google Play store. No reason was given for the discontinuation.

Distro

Engadget Distro[31] was a tablet magazine from the editors at Engadget that has been published on a weekly basis since its inception, although Special Issues[32] have appeared at times and multiple issues per week are published[33] during the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The magazine was born from Tim Stevens' desire to provide a different, distilled look at a week's worth of Engadget news, and to enable readers to enjoy that coverage without the frantic nature of the online experience being necessarily attached. The magazine was announced on September 20, 2011[34] and teased on that night's episode of The Engadget Show in New York City. It became available to the public on October 12, 2011,[35] with the initial issues being available for Apple's iPad. On December 21, 2011,[36] Distro officially moved into the Newsstand app within Apple's iOS ecosystem while also becoming available for the first time on Android tablets. Each issue is also made available in PDF form.

While Distro began as a way to see a week's worth of Engadget news distilled down into a single magazine, it evolved into a platform where high-profile features and long-form content are launched. Brian Heater's profile of Apple's third founder, Ron Wayne, was the cover story for Issue 18,[37] while Issue 69[38] featured an in-depth look at PayPal coupled with an interview with its president, David Marcus. In October 2013, Distro was folded into parent Engadget and is no longer producing a weekly edition.

Engadget Expand

On December 11, 2012,[39] Engadget announced Expand, a "live event and expo for gadget fans." This marks Engadget's first major foray into the conference world, following several years of sporadic meetups at smaller venues in New York City and San Francisco. Engadget alum Barb Dybwad[40] was brought on to help launch the event. The inaugural event will be held March 16–17, 2013 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, and it will feature "live panel and one-on-one sessions" as well as an Insert Coin: New Challengers competition where hardware startups can compete for exposure and other prizes. Nearly 2,000 people attended the first Expand,[41] and exhibitors / panelists included Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Lenovo, Microsoft, Oculus Rift, Razer, Boston Dynamics, NASA, Samsung, DJ Spooky, Esko Bionics, ZBoard and OUYA.

Tickets at the door are "$60 for a full pass, $40 for Saturday (includes the after-party) and $30 for just Sunday."[42]

As the inaugural Expand closed,[43] Editor-in-chief Tim Stevens announced that a second Expand conference would occur in Q4 2013 in New York City. At Expand New York 2013, the site welcomed big names including LeVar Burton, Ben Heck, Reggie Watts, Spike Lee, Ben Huh and speakers from companies like Google, Sony, Facebook and Pebble.

While the attempt to make the event biannual didn't pan out, the now annual Expand event is free of charge.[44] and will return to New York City in November 2014.

Engadget also hosts a myriad of smaller meetup style events called Engadget Live,[45] a merger of then gdgt + Engadget events prior to the site's merger. In 2014, Live events will occur in Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, Boston, MA and Los Angeles, CA.

The Engadget Show
See also: List of The Engadget Show episodes
The station identification logo first used on 'The Engadget Show' on June 1, 2011
The original station identification logo used on 'The Engadget Show'

On September 8, 2009, Joshua Topolsky announced that Engadget would be taping a new video show once a month in New York City. The show will be free admission and will later be put onto the site. It features one-on-one interviews, roundtable discussions, short video segments, and live music. At first it was taped at the Tishman Auditorium at Parsons The New School for Design, but after the fifth show they began taping at The Times Center, part of The New York Times Building.

The show was originally hosted by Joshua Topolsky along with editors Paul Miller and Nilay Patel. After their departure from Engadget and AOL in early 2011 newly appointed editor in chief Tim Stevens became the show's host. It is directed by Michelle Stahl and is executive produced by Joshua Fruhlinger and Michael Rubens. As of 2014, the show is cancelled.

Controversies

Trademarks

In early 2006, Engadget reported that they were victims of their likeness being stolen and used as a store name at a mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. However, they stated they would not be taking any action.[46] The store has since changed its name (or possibly shut down and a new store opened with a new name). In July 2007, another store had opened, also in Malaysia, with a logo bearing the same resemblance to Engadget's.[47]

On March 31, 2008, Engadget reported that Deutsche Telekom (the parent company of T-Mobile and T-Mobile USA) had sent a letter requesting that Engadget cease using the color magenta in its Engadget Mobile site, claiming that T-Mobile had trademarked the color.[48] Engadget issued a response on April 1, mainly by repainting the Engadget sites and changing the Mobile logo for the day to a logo that looks as though it is saying "Engadge t-mobile".[49] The site has since returned to normal format, with the exception of the highlighting color.

William Shatner and Twitter verification

On June 21, 2014, actor William Shatner raised an issue with several of Engadget's editorial staff and their "verification" status on Twitter. This began when the site's social media editor, John Colucci tweeted a celebration of the site hitting over 1 million Twitter followers.[50] Besides Colucci, Shatner also targeted several junior members of the staff for being "nobodies" unlike some of his actor colleagues who did not have such distinction. Shatner claimed Colucci and team were bullying him when giving a text interview to Mashable.[51] Over a month later, Shatner continued to discuss the issue on his Tumblr page,[52] to which Engadget replied with its own response, defending its team and discussing the controversy around social media verification.[53]

The Verge

In early 2011, eight of the more prominent editorial and technology staff members left AOL to build a new gadget site with CEO Jim Bankoff at SB Nation.[54] On leaving, Joshua Topolsky, former Editor-in-chief, is quoted having said, "We have been working on blogging technology that was developed in 2003, we haven't made a hire since I started running the site, and I thought we could be more successful elsewhere".

It appears the departure of the team from AOL which includes not only Topolsky but editors Nilay Patel, Paul Miller, Joanna Stern, Ross Miller, Chris Ziegler, Chad Mumm, Justin Glow, Dan Chilton, Thomas Ricker and Vladislav Savov was primarily the cause of an internal memo distributed by AOL detailing "The AOL Way", a 58-page long company plan to grow AOL into a media empire. Some employees suggested that AOL was sacrificing journalism for page views and that it would be difficult for the organization to apply a 'one size fits all' business model to reporting. The group set up a "placeholder site", This Is My Next, while they developed a new technology news site in partnership with Vox Media. The new site, called The Verge, was launched on November 1, 2011.

Awards

Engadget has been nominated for numerous awards, including 2004 Bloggie for Best Technology Weblog, and 2005 Bloggies for Best Computers or Technology Weblog and Best Group Weblog; Engadget won Best Tech Blog in the 2004 and 2005 Weblog Awards.

The Engadget Show won the 2011 People's Voice Webby Award in Consumer Electronics,[55] while also winning the official Webby in Consumer Electronics (voted on by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences).[56]

gollark: You can pass it things which aren't actually ints.
gollark: I think the python `random.seed` thing runs the seed you use through a bunch of weird processes including SHA512 and stuff, instead of just directly seeding the RNG with it.
gollark: Because why *not* ship an entire gigantic browser with every application?
gollark: And which consumes several gigabytes of RAM and disk space, naturally.
gollark: Like node.js, and electron.

References
  1. "Top 100 Blogs – 1 to 25". Technorati. August 21, 2013. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011.
  2. "Best Blogs of 2010". Time. June 28, 2010.
  3. Rachel Rosmarin (July 18, 2008). "The Gadget Guru". forbes.com. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  4. "Tim Stevens is the nicest guy in tech". Fortune. May 31, 2012. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
  5. Stevens, Tim (April 4, 2011). "Welcome to Engadget". Engadget.
  6. "Aol acquires gdgt: get those engdgt puns out of your system today". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  7. "Tim Stevens Out at Engadget, Marc Perton To Take Over". TechCrunch. July 15, 2013.
  8. "Engadget Makeover Folds In 'All The Best Things' About Gdgt As It Fields More Mainstream Readers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  9. "Engadget Names New Executive Editor, Editor in Chief". Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  10. "Engadget Unveils Redesign Focused on Technology's Effect on Society". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  11. "A letter from your editor: Changes ahead". Engadget.
  12. "A letter from the editor: Engadget's next chapter". Engadget. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
  13. "Darren Murph's Engadget Profile Page". Engadget.
  14. Joshua Topolsky (October 5, 2010). "Engadget's Darren Murph nabs Guinness World Record for most blog posts ever written!". Engadget. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
  15. "Podcast Archive". Engadget. Archived from the original on 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2017-08-27.
  16. "Mobile Podcast Archive". Engadget.
  17. "HD Podcast Archive". Engadget.
  18. "Brad Molen's Engadget Profile page". Engadget.
  19. "Ben Drawbaugh's Engadget Profile page". Engadget.
  20. "Richard Lawler's Engadget Profile page". Engadget.
  21. Engadget [@engadget] (27 June 2014). "If you're looking for the Engadget podcast - we're currently taking a break to re-tool it and make it more awesome for you. Stay tuned!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. Lavey, Megan (December 30, 2009). "Engadget releases iPhone app". The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
  23. "Downloads – iPhone". Engadget. November 30, 2011.
  24. Topolsky, Joshua (January 1, 2010). "now available for Pre and Pixi: the first webOS app of 2010 (and 1000th in the Catalog)!". Engadget.
  25. Topolsky, Joshua (March 25, 2010). "The Engadget app for Android is finally, really here!". Engadget.
  26. Stevens, Tim (July 1, 2011). "The Engadget app for Windows Phone is here". Engadget.
  27. Topolsky, Joshua (December 15, 2010). "for iPad now available!". Engadget.
  28. Stevens, Tim (July 28, 2011). "Android app updated, now with Honeycomb support!". Engadget.
  29. Perton, Marc (January 1, 2014). "Introducing Engadget Mini!". Engadget.
  30. "Introducing the new Engadget app!". Engadget.
  31. "Distro product page". Engadget.
  32. Trout, Christopher (October 19, 2011). "Distro's first special edition traces the origins of the iPhone 4S". Engadget.
  33. Trout, Christopher (January 12, 2012). "Live from Las Vegas, it's Engadget Distro's CES Special Edition". Engadget.
  34. Stevens, Tim (September 20, 2011). "Introducing Engadget Distro!". Engadget.
  35. Stevens, Tim (October 12, 2011). "Distro is ready for download!". Engadget.
  36. Trout, Christopher (December 21, 2011). "Distro now available on Android Market and iOS Newsstand!". Engadget.
  37. Trout, Christopher (December 16, 2011). "Distro Issue 18 explores the life of Ron Wayne, Apple's lost founder". Engadget.
  38. Steele, Billy (December 7, 2012). "Distro Issue 69: Can David Marcus fix PayPal's reputation?". Engadget.
  39. Dybwad, Barb (December 11, 2012). "Announcing Engadget Expand, a live event and expo for gadget fans!". Engadget.
  40. "Barb Dybwad's Engadget profile page". Engadget.
  41. Heater, Brian (March 18, 2013). "Expand SF 2013 wrap-up". Engadget.
  42. Dybwad, Barb (March 15, 2013). "Expand is tomorrow! Here's what you need to know". Engadget.
  43. Smith, Mat (March 22, 2013). "The After Math: Engadget Expand SF 2013 special". Engadget.
  44. Colucci, John (August 6, 2014). "RJD2 will join us at our free Engadget Expand event in NYC!". Engadget.
  45. Palermo, Philip (July 23, 2014). "Here's what happened at Engadget Live Seattle". Engadget.
  46. Rojas, Peter (July 10, 2006). "A visit to the Engadget store..." Engadget.
  47. Block, Ryan (July 1, 2007). "The (fake) Engadget store returns in a new location!". Engadget.
  48. Ryan Block (March 31, 2008). "Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile demands Engadget Mobile discontinue using the color magenta". Engadget. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  49. Ryan Block (April 1, 2008). "Painting the town magenta". Engadget. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  50. Alan White (June 23, 2014). "William Shatner Went On A Massive Rant About How He's Sick Of "Nobodies" Getting Verified On Twitter". BuzzFeed.
  51. Ulanoff, Lance (June 24, 2014). "William Shatner: My Problem With Twitter's Verified Accounts". Engadget.
  52. Shatner, William (July 29, 2014). "Abusing Verification - Segueing with Shatner". Engadget.
  53. Lee, Nicole (July 31, 2014). "The perks of being 'somebody' online". Engadget.
  54. Carr, David. "No Longer Shackled by AOL". The New York Times. April 3, 2011,
  55. Patel, Nilay (May 4, 2010). "wins the People's Voice Webby in Consumer Electronics, and you can win a Droid Incredible!". Engadget.
  56. Stevens, Tim (May 4, 2011). "We won some Webby Awards, and now you can win a BlackBerry PlayBook!". Engadget.
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