Wired sold-out to Condé Nast long ago. They're the tired ones.
This sounds like something Louis Rossmann should cover as a counter-example of mfgrs trying to do the right thing but fickle, corporate reviewers behaving in a petty, unfair manner.
This sounds like something Louis Rossmann should cover as a counter-example of mfgrs trying to do the right thing but fickle, corporate reviewers behaving in a petty, unfair manner.
AirGradient (and several commenters here) feels like they're trying to spin their own QC problems as an indictment of modern journalism.
That they "immediately sent replacement parts and a new unit, including repair instructions, as repairability is one of our core differentiators".
That's good, I genuinely respect that. But are there going to be improvements in QC protocol? Consideration of a bigger display? Apparently not, or at least there's no mention of this.
Instead they launch into a distracting and unproductive discussion about reviews in general, missing the entire point of the review's critiques and an opportunity to make a better product, or at least to clarify why they don't see a need for better QC, or don't think a bigger display would be a good idea.
That's my take as well. I have seen several reviews where there were issues with the unit received where the unit was replaced and an update was made to the review. It's not like this is the only situation to have ever happened. A manufacture complaining about someone else complaining about a valid problem with what they received is just petty. Man up, admit there were problems, accept the loss in revenue by sending out replacement units. You screwed up the product during manufacturing/design/wherever, own it. Once you do that, stop whining about people correctly calling out defects in the units even if you did fix it. Until you recall/replace every defective unit (not just the ones with owners making noise about it), you have no standing to be upset someone making valid points about the defects.
This is what you could call a learning opportunity. Instead, they come across as petulant and whiny. Just take your medicine and grow and learn to not make the same mistake on future products
I actually tried to reach out to Louis Rossmann a few times but haven’t got a response (yet).
I think what’s most interesting is that we figured out a business model based on open source hardware that’s sustainable. Thus a win-win for the manufacturer and the customer.
Repairability was actually a feature we design into the product from the start.
Wired vs. tired is literally about what’s “cool.” That’s it. It has never been rigorous about anything.
It's become something else, Wired has a brand name and a reputation, so when they pooh-pooh something that has more weight that if you or I do.