The Inquirer

The Inquirer (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch publisher Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU).[1] Mike Magee later left The Inquirer in February 2008 to work on the IT Examiner.

This article is about the British technology news website. For other uses, see Inquirer (disambiguation).

The Inquirer
News, reviews, facts and friction
Type of site
Tech tabloid
Available inEnglish
Dissolved19 December 2019 (2019-12-19)
OwnerIncisive Media Ltd.
Created byMike Magee
EditorCarly Page
Key peopleRoland Moore-Colyer, Dave Neal, Chris Merriman (as of November 2014), and Alan Martin (as of 2018)
CommercialYes
RegistrationNo
Launched2001 (2001)
Current statusCeased publishing

Historically, the magazine was entirely Internet-based with its journalists living all over the world and filing copy online, though in recent years it has been edited from Incisive Media's offices in London.[2]

Although traditionally a 'red top', under Incisive Media it has put more weight behind its journalism, reducing the number of jibes at companies, and moved instead towards sponsored online debates in association with high-profile organisations, most recently, Intel.[3]

The Inquirer ceased publishing on 19 December 2019, partly due to declining digital advertising revenues.[4][5]

Scoops

Sony laptop battery scandal

In 2006 The Inquirer reported laptop battery problems that affected Dell, Sony and Apple as of September 2006, with rumours of problems at Toshiba and Lenovo. In June 2006, The Inquirer published photographs of a Dell notebook PC bursting into flames at a conference in Japan;[6] The New York Times reprinted The Inquirer's photographs.[7] The Inquirer was also the first publication to report Dell's subsequent decision to recall faulty batteries, according to BusinessWeek.[8]

The Inquirer's successful reporting of the story relied on information supplied by readers and later by a confidential source at Dell. "I attribute being on top of the story to old-fashioned print journalism standards – cultivating, and, if you'll excuse the pun, not burning such contacts," The Inquirer's founder, Mike Magee, told BusinessWeek.[8]

Rydermark

In July 2006, The Inquirer posted images to show cheating by NVIDIA Windows device drivers in Rydermark 2006.[9] The images were alleged to be fake by a number of sources.[10][11] The Inquirer denied any wrongdoing and quoted the maker of Rydermark calling the allegations against them "irresponsible".[12] About 8 months after the original Rydermark article, The Inquirer ran another article claiming that Rydermark was still being developed, but was near release.[13] In response, one of its critics offered $1,000 to a charity of the Rydermark articles author's choosing if he could produce (breaching his NDA) a version of Rydermark that showed the alleged screenshots in full-motion video before a set deadline (which gave the author 10 and a half hours, beginning at 6:30PM UK time). No one produced the program before the deadline passed.[14]

Independent verification that RyderMark was genuine, first appeared in TweakTown in May 2007.[15] RyderMark developer Ajith Ram denied ever sending the Inquirer NVIDIA cheating allegations.[16]

ATI Intel front side bus license revocation

On 24 July 2006, The Inquirer wrote that, in response to AMD's announced intent to purchase ATI, "ATI had its chipset license pulled, or at least not renewed by Intel."[17] ATI responded by stating that its license had not been revoked and that they continue to ship Intel chipsets under license.[18] On 23 August 2006, ATI showed its chipset roadmap to motherboard vendors which showed that next-generation chipsets for the Intel platform are cancelled.[19] On 1 March 2007, AMD said that they would continue developing chipsets for Intel platforms.[20]

Windows 10 Technical Preview eavesdropping

On 3 October 2014, The Inquirer reported on the privacy policy for the Technical Preview the upcoming Microsoft Windows 10 operating system.[21] In the report, it pointed out that the permissions included the ability for Microsoft to monitor individual keystrokes as well as file content from users. The story was picked up by news media around the world causing Microsoft to admit that monitoring was a necessary part of the process, but denying use of a keylogger.

Ed Bott, writing for ZDNet, accused the site of being "a tech tabloid known for its breathless headlines and factually challenged prose" and said of writer Chris Merriman, "there's little evidence that the author has enough background in computer science or security to tell a keylogger from a key lime pie."[22]

References
  1. Bobbie Johnson (26 January 2006). "VNU buys into tabloid news". The Guardian.
  2. "All journalism will be Indian journalism one day". The Inquirer. 2 August 2006. Archived from the original on 30 August 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
  3. "The Effect of the Internet of Things on User Privacy: Part 1". Intel. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  4. "The INQUIRER reaches end-of-life". The Inquirer. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  5. Charlotte Tobitt (19 December 2019). "Tech news website The Inquirer ceases publishing as ad revenues struggle despite 'healthy' audience". Press Gazette. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  6. "Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference". The Inquirer. 21 June 2006. Retrieved 2 September 2006.
  7. Darlin, Damon (10 July 2006). "Dell's Exploding Computer and Other Image Problems". The New York Times.
  8. "The Battery Recall: A Win for the Web". BusinessWeek. 30 August 2006. Retrieved 2 September 2006.
  9. The Inquirer, 18 July 2006: Rydermark screenshots back California graphics fudge (cited 4 February 2007)
  10. DailyTech, 19 July 2006: "Rydermark" Cheating Allegations Discredited (cited 23 August 2006)
  11. Damien (19 July 2006). "The Inquirer accuses Nvidia of cheating". BeHardware. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
  12. The Inquirer, 19 July 2006: Rydermark maker labels hoax allegations 'irresponsible' (cited 23 August 2006)
  13. The Inquirer, 19 February 2007: Rydermark benchmark lives. It's almost done (cited 28 February 2007)
  14. Kristopher Kubicki. "DailyTech Digest: RyderMark, My take on RyderMark's newest incarnation".
  15. Lars Göran Nilsson (16 May 2007). "TweakTown: RyderMark Beta 2 Preview - Emerging competition for Futuremark?". TweakTown. Retrieved 17 May 2007.
  16. Kristopher Kubicki. "RyderMark Developer: We Never Said NVIDIA Cheated". DailyTech. Retrieved 11 June 2007.
  17. "Intel pulls ATI bus licence". The Inquirer. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
  18. "AMD & ATI Answers to Rumormongering". H Enthusiast. 26 July 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2006.
  19. "News - Thursday, August 28, 2008". xbitlabs.com. Archived from the original on 23 August 2008.
  20. "AMD keeping open platform strategy: Q&A with sales and marketing vice president Jochen Polster". DigiTimes. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
  21. Chris Merriman (3 October 2014). "Microsoft's Windows 10 Preview has permission to watch your every move". The Inquirer. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  22. Ed Bott (23 October 2014). "Windows 10: You've Got Questions, I've Got Answers". The Ed Bott Report (blog). ZDNet. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
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