JonPhillips

July 07, 2010 at 7:16am

Tested is a Whiskey Media site, so I think it's safe to assume that in due time, it will put more and more emphasis on the social networking/"commericial wiki" model that Whiskey does so well. (That said, from what I can gather, Tested, compared to other Whiskey sites, actually does much more original content.) Regardless, I would like to think that once the MT channel is up and running, and fully supported with staff and resources, we'll have a greater number of verdictized product reviews, white papers and how-tos. This will be a function of sheer resources. But you know what? At the end of the day it comes down to writing voice, product choice, and the unique, indescribable essence of what the editors bring to the table. LIke I wrote in another post, there are already plenty of websites that cover the huge category known as "CE." We don't want MT to be a "me too" site channel, and I think once all is said and done, history -- and our audience -- will judge this project as being unique. To say "you're basically doing what Will is doing at Tested," is a throwaway statement. People could have said the same thing to Tested, as in, "So you're basically doing what they're doing at Gizmodo, Engadget, Gadget Lab, GDGT, etc, and so on." On one level the answers is "Um, yeah... we do in fact cover a lot of the same products." But on another level -- the more important level; the level people actually RESPOND to -- it's the WAY in which we cover technology that establishes our mark. Regardless, I intend to explore the limits of the phrases "maximum" and "personal technology," so why don't you tell me if we're different. Just drop a line this time next year. ;-)

JonPhillips

July 05, 2010 at 1:12pm

All specials cost $9.99. There are no breaks for subscribers I'm sad to report. However, because our specials tend to have many more editorial pages than the regular monthly print magazine. So while it costs more, you also get more content for the money you pay.

essjay22

July 04, 2010 at 12:48pm

on this site.'nuff said

JonPhillips

July 02, 2010 at 9:29am

You make excellent points. I don't think the PC (at least the PC that MPC fans know and love) is going away anytime soon. But even hardcore PC enthusiasts ARE affected by overall market conditions, and when 95% of the population "moves on," so to speak, ditching what we know as the PC altogether, that will inevitably have punitive effects on the high-end PC component market. Efficiencies of scale in everything from R&D to production to marketing will be adversely affected, and these changes will affect the selection of what a hardcore PC builder can actually buy. Your observations about how the PC relates to gaming are wise. And they also suggest that in coming years, the nexus point for hardcore PC enthusiasm won't center around gaming, but will rather shift to content creation. While gaming, word processing and even music collection management can all be done on appliance-type cloud devices, if you want to actually *make* something of any ambition level, you'll still need some type of personal computer. Regardless, our plan is to have both MPC and MT around for a long, long time. (And let's not forget how many times in the past the PC death knell has been sounded.)

JonPhillips

July 02, 2010 at 9:19am

Last I checked (yesterday), the editors of PC Gamer were at their desks, playing games, writing about games, and just generally being editors of PC Gamer. You must be thinking of another magazine. PC Gamer is still quite in business. I can provide empirical proof if you need it. :-0

JonPhillips

July 02, 2010 at 6:40am

Please follow the Twitter feed. As the weeks pass by, you'll get a very clear idea of what we'll be covering. But, seriously, if you can't piece together 90 percent of it now, then I'd hazard to suggest that you're not using all the cognitive and problem-solving powers you were born with.

nodeffect

July 01, 2010 at 10:07pm

twitt twatt, sounds like tourette's syndrome

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 9:21pm

Kobalt: Right now, I think more than 75% of the print issue itself will be completely fresh, never-before-seen material. And once that print special goes on newsstand, we're going to wait a few weeks before trickling out the content. Now, that said, the web channel WILL go live as soon as the print mag hits newsstand. It just won't have the same content. The web channel will be pushing different reviews, features, white papers, etc. The web channel will also have what I'll call "addendum" content to the print magazine -- for example, videos that reference stuff you see in the magazine. I hope that explanation helps. But to cut to the spirit of your question: we are sensitive to the fact that print mag buyers want something they CAN'T get online. Besides a completely different photo/design experience, that also includes the pure content itself.

JonPhillips

July 02, 2010 at 6:41am

Thanks for the details!

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 3:53pm

I appreciate your enthusiasm! Just remember: This is a newsstand-only special issue. We will have a regular publishing schedule for Maximum Tech, but for now we are only announcing this newsstand special.

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 3:06pm

I have set up the MaxTech Facebook page, yes. It's just not populated with anything yet. I actually want to spread updates via the Maximum PC facebook page until September.

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:45pm

And we look forward to blowing your mind with a really good product. ;-)

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:45pm

This idea has been in the works for over a year. Will was my partner in crime in developing the earliest visions of the Maximum Tech concept. But he got a great opportunity to start something new on his own, and bless his heart, he is out the gate first. As for your gripes about corporate America, I'm with you on that. But one of the biggest problems about large corporations isn't that they're packed with idiots. It's that the larger you become, the less nimble and reactive you can be.

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:47pm

It's likely that the PC print mag will have less CE product coverage inside, and it will be funneled into the Maximum Tech newsstand specials. But remember: maximumpc.com is still our "container" for all Maximum coverage.

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:13pm

It will have the Maximum PC voice and approach to coverage, but cover different products: all the categories we already recognizes as "CE" (smartphones, tablets, HDTVs, etc... you know the drill), but also include consumer products designed with a high-tech angle. For instance, the world's highest-tech knives, espresso machines, shoes, etc.

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:17pm

I think it's inevitable that Maximum PC magazine (the print mag) will be doing less coverage of phones, tablets, cameras, etc, as that stuff will be "saved" for Maximum Tech. But all content for both the MT and MPC print vehicles will be filtered through MaximumPC.com (eventually... just as we do it today).

Fecal Face

July 01, 2010 at 1:22pm

Yeah! I mean, it's not like there's a link to MacLife at the top of the page, or anything like tha-

Oh wait

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JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:18pm

Exactly: a natural home for all those apple products.

BuLLg0d

July 01, 2010 at 12:52pm

Here, here!

JonPhillips

July 01, 2010 at 1:37pm

In my eyes, the focus of Engadget and Gizmodo is news and comphensiveness. You can go to either site and expect the very latest news announcements as they happen. And you can expect EVERYTHING to be covered. But we're not going to try to out-Giz Gizmodo or out-Gadge Engadget. We will have news on the online channel, yes. But that won't be our bread and butter focus. Instead, we'll focus on Lab- and field-tested product reviews (with definitive verdicts), techsplanation/buyers' guide-style white papers, and how-to/DIY projects. Now, obviously, all sites in this space (Giz, Engadget, Wired, Boing-Boing, Cnet, Popsci, etc, so on) have some type of mixture of every coverage type described above. I can't say there won't be overlap. But I am confident that we'll carve out our fans, just as we have done so over the last 15 years of publishing Maximum PC. 

 As for newspapers:  Newspapers still make loads of revenue. The problem is that the world around newspapers has changed, and newspapers can no longer sustain the profits (or staff sizes) they had during  their heyday. FWIW, Future has always run an extremely efficient, lean-and-mean publishing model. That's why Maximum PC print mag continues to thrive while the bloated pig called PC Magazine went online-only, and PC World is pumping all their energy into online while letting their print mag piggyback atop of their online effort. We have never played the sham circulation game, so we thrive now that that game is no longer sustainable. Also, without going into too much detail, we're not offering subcriptions. This isn't a monthly magazine launch.

NOTE (added later as a postcript): I don't think the PCmag.com editors are bloated pigs. Nor do I even think their website is bloated. But PC Magazine -- the print magazine -- was a bloated pig that played the "inflate your rate base to high hell" game. And that's one of the reasons it's gone today.