Welcome to Apple Thoughts!

[Vincent Ferrari]

<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1225773761.usr18053.jpg" /></p><p>Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way.&nbsp; There are lots of Apple-related sites out there right now, and there will be many more out there after we launch this one.&nbsp; It's not a stretch of the imagination to say that Apple fan sites are nothing new, for the most part.</p><p>At Thoughts Media, we believe that sites aren't just places for you to go to read, but to participate in a community that's interested in what you're interested in. Think about it. How many times have you gone to a site that falls into your favorite topic and the comment section is uncivilized, off topic, or outright useless?&nbsp; How many times have you read a review of a product that didn't appear genuine, or that you realized was unfairly biased toward the company that made it because they were a sponsor?&nbsp; How many times have you left a site because the forums were like the wild west?</p><p>We don't do that here.</p><p>Apple fans and enthusiasts are the most passionate and devoted to their platform in all of computing.&nbsp; We choose Apple products for many reasons; aesthetic reasons, functionality, stability, and so on.&nbsp; What Apple fans deserve is a community that is as supportive to them as they are to the platform, and that's where we come in.&nbsp; In that respect, we promise five things to every single person who visits:</p><ol><li>A healthy flow of daily news and views on the top Apple-related stories of the day.</li><li>A consistent flow of reviews on the latest Apple and Apple-related products on the market.</li><li>A community that will be supportive and helpful yet still be open to discussion and debate.</li><li>An honest look at our favorite Cupertino-based company with no room for shilling and fanboism.</li><li>An honest desire to be your one-stop shop for everything Apple-related.</li></ol><p>As Executive Editor, I take the role of doing the right thing for our readers very seriously.&nbsp; We won't "love" a product simply because Apple makes it or because a sponsor asks us to review it.&nbsp; Your trust is the most important thing we have and without that we have nothing.</p><p>Welcome aboard, thanks for reading, and I hope we can live up to your expectations as well as the fantastic example set for us by the other sites in the Thoughts Media network.&nbsp; I want to thank Jason for this opportunity and his hard work setting us up, Fabrizio for the behind-the-scenes work in setting up the site, the Thoughts Media network of sites for having us, and my team for agreeing to help bring this dream to fruition.</p><p>We won't let you down!</p><p>Vincent Ferrari<br />Executive Editor<br />Apple Thoughts</p>

[humayunl]

Hey, its good to see the thoughts media sites expanding coverage to other players in the market.

i look forward to getting my daily fix of apple related information here.

good luck applethoughts!

p.s. am i really the first person to post on this new site? wow.. there's gotta be a giveaway for this no? (a guy can dream) ;)

[Vincent Ferrari]

Don't worry... There will be plenty of contests and such coming soon. And you're definitely the first. I'll remember that next year when I do our anniversary post!

[Phronetix]

Forecast just in. Today's high in Diablo City is a frosty minus 7.

;-)


Awesome. I look forward to this site, Vince. Congrats. Now, let's start off with a discussion about the one button mouse. Hehe.

Dennis

[Jason Dunn]

Congrats on your new site Vincent. :)

And to everyone else, since we're brand new, there may be some bugs, glitches, etc. Please report them in this thread (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f393/any-bugs-glitches-91168.html). Thanks!

[Snowmation]

Can't wait to see how the site develops over the coming months...I love a lot of the "Thoughts" sites, so I'm pretty sure I'll love this one too.:D

[bubuschoeny]

The one thing I like about these site(s) is they provided a non biased view of non-Apple based products. With this new site you're essentially jumping the shark. I guess it's on to other pastures. I hope the new Iphone was worth alienating your readers. FOR SHAME!!

[Vincent Ferrari]

I really hope I can change your mind. I take credibility very seriously and neither I (nor my team) would never sugar coat something just because it's an Apple product.

Don't go. I promise. It won't be that bad! :cool:

[The Yaz]

I'm glad to see this site go live. I agree that tech lovin' users do use multiple products to fit their needs and Apple is one of the solutions for many of us.

Good luck with the site and I'l be looking forward to the discussions.

[Darius Wey]

Congrats on the launch, Vincent! Look forward to all the news and reviews. :)

And, to those with an iPhone or iPod touch, Apple Thoughts and the other Thoughts Media sites are Web Clip-friendly, so feel free to add them to the home screen.

[Jason Dunn]

The one thing I like about these site(s) is they provided a non biased view of non-Apple based products. With this new site you're essentially jumping the shark. I guess it's on to other pastures. I hope the new Iphone was worth alienating your readers. FOR SHAME!!

You're replying to Vincent's message, but I think you're addressing me here, right? It seems like it, so here's my response...(if I've misunderstood you, please clarify).

I don't own an iPhone, I don't own a Mac, and I don't own any Apple product now that my wife's iPod Shuffle broke (which didn't surprise me, but let's not get into that :rolleyes:). But I'm not going to be writing here on Apple Thoughts other than perhaps commenting in the forums like everyone else - I'm not even a member of the Apple Thoughts editorial team! I won't be writing reviews or news posts.

So from an editorial perspective, I remain completely focused on Windows Mobile, Windows Vista, the Zune, and overall Windows ecosystem. I'm still a Windows fan, and you can expect the editorial coverage on the other sites to remain the same. I'm super excited about Windows Mobile 7, Windows 7 (just got my beta invite!), and I remain firmly committed to the Windows world.

I hope that helps reassure you that the sites you enjoy are going to remain the same!

[rlobrecht]

Congrats Vincent and Jason. As a longtime Windows guy who joined the Mac movement earlier this year, I'm interested in seeing what comes of this community.

[txa1265]

Excellent to see this! Don't know how it will fare when there are comprehensive sites MacRumors out there .... but I've been with you guys since the USENET days, and as I use Apple stuff along with everything else, I will be here as well!

[Dyvim]

The one thing I like about these site(s) is they provided a non biased view of non-Apple based products.
Because Apple products are also important in the markets I care about (media players, computing, laptops, smart phones), I think it's equally important to have non-biased views of Apple products as to have non-biased views of non-Apple products. The other Thoughts Media sites cover the latter, and now finally (I hope) this new site will cover the former. (Personally I think being blindly biased against Apple is just as silly as being blindly biased for them- although I have repeatedly been guilty of the former- having personally dismissed both iPods and the iPhone solely because of their popularity without ever having held one. Then when I finally spent time with them, I changed my opinion.)

[emuelle1]

Congrats on the new site. I'll add the front page to my Google Reader account to keep up on what's going on. I've officially passed up the iPhone 4 times to this point (although it was a close call) but I do have a 32 GB iPod Touch that I love.

[Jason Dunn]

Excellent to see this! Don't know how it will fare when there are comprehensive sites MacRumors out there...

Starting a news & reviews site in a field of established competitors isn't easy, no doubt, but both Vincent and I talked about the sites that are out there, what they offer, what they don't, and we both feel there's an opportunity for a great looking site with great content and a great community. And hey, you don't know until you try, right? :)

[Vincent Ferrari]

Don't know how it will fare when there are comprehensive sites MacRumors out there .... but I've been with you guys since the USENET days, and as I use Apple stuff along with everything else, I will be here as well!

My philosophy (and Jason agrees with me on this) is that Thoughts Media is more than just news, reviews, and rumors. Thoughts Media is all about community and family. I'm not going to run this site as a big rumor site. I hate Apple rumors. Most of them are pie-in-the-sky garbage (wanna see someone who got badly burned? My buddy Duncan Riley got pretty badly burned right before the MacBook announcement and lost a lot of credibility in the interest of "being first" with a scoop.

I'm not gonna play that game. My goal is simple: Provide an honest trustworthy site with a great community behind it and let it grow as organically as possible with no linkbaiting or hit-whoring. If I can accomplish that, I'll be very happy, and I think the community will be better off for it.

I look forward to proving to you that we can hang with the big boys and still keep the feel that makes Thoughts Media the number one community site network on the planet!

[gmontielh]

About time! Best wishes and I look forward to experience the great information resource Thoughts sites are. All the best!

[brianchris]

Congrats on the new site! I'm a big Windows fan too (including Vista), but have a few different ipods in my family (which I sync with Windows Media Player via http://www.mgtek.com/dopisp/ and NOT iTunes!). Also, being a freelance network administrator, I too can't afford to stick my head in the sand regarding Apple. Its for these reasons that I'll be watching this site as well. Good luck!

On a side note, is there a Thoughts Media RSS feed, that would include all the sites (including this new one)? That way I'd only have to maintain one RSS subscription for all the "Thoughts" sites and (hopefully) there wouldn't be too many duplicate posts as there are now from subscribing to the mulitple individual feeds. Thanks!

[crimsonsky]

Well, it's certainly good to see this site, even though it was a surprise. I've long been a fan of Thoughts Media sites, particularly PPCT which is the one I've followed the most closely over the years.

I've owned Macs for a little over 3 years, had a stint with the iPod Touch (which I wound up giving to my son), have two iPods and various other Apple gear.

But fanboi I am not! I like Apple products, but have some serious issues with the company (mainly it's fanatical control and refusal to acknowledge issues, although that is changing somewhat). But that being said, I can't see leaving OS X to go back to Windows (I do dual boot with Vista on two of my three Macs, mainly for a couple of things that the Mac really can't do).

Looking forward to seeing this site grow and prosper. Thanks guys!

[David Tucker]

Well, even if you guys are the the 'dark side' (no way I'm accepting that side!) welcome! :)

[Rocky Sullivan]

Im not sure what i think of this!

Its not that I am a windows mobile fanboy (I use both a HTC touch diamond and an Iphone) and i am certainly not an apple fanboy (although I just replaced my desktop PC for a Mac). I have been a daily reader of PPCT since its beginning, and while I have looked in on the other thoughts sites they never really caught my full attention.

Why dont you just develop the Thoughts Media site in to a full gadget website covering all 5 ?

[Jason Dunn]

On a side note, is there a Thoughts Media RSS feed, that would include all the sites (including this new one)? That way I'd only have to maintain one RSS subscription for all the "Thoughts" sites and (hopefully) there wouldn't be too many duplicate posts as there are now from subscribing to the mulitple individual feeds. Thanks!

We do have a merged RSS feed (which I have to update with Apple Thoughts now actually), but Feedburner (nor our XML system) isn't smart enough to eliminate duplicates. The number of duplicate items (like today announcing AT) is pretty low though, hopefully it's not too irritating. :)

[Janak Parekh]

I'm not gonna play that game. My goal is simple: Provide an honest trustworthy site with a great community behind it and let it grow as organically as possible with no linkbaiting or hit-whoring. If I can accomplish that, I'll be very happy, and I think the community will be better off for it. I'm looking forward to it! I like Apple products, but I'm not a fanboy. There are very few sites that walk that walk. Most of my favorite Apple blogs are way too fanboy-ish and are often misinformed about the corresponding Microsoft products. This is coming from someone who owns a PBG4, an iMac, a Mac Mini, three AirPorts, uses a MBP at work, and bought both the iPhone and iPhone 3G. (And, obviously, needs help.)

Go, Vincent, go! If I may ask, who's the team you've assembled? :)

--janak

[Jason Dunn]

But fanboi I am not! I like Apple products, but have some serious issues with the company (mainly it's fanatical control and refusal to acknowledge issues, although that is changing somewhat). But that being said, I can't see leaving OS X to go back to Windows (I do dual boot with Vista on two of my three Macs, mainly for a couple of things that the Mac really can't do).

Can you find 10,000 people exactly like you? That's exactly the kind of community I want to see flourish here. ;)

[Jason Dunn]

Why dont you just develop the Thoughts Media site in to a full gadget website covering all 5 ?

Too broad...too hard to do really well. The biggest reason why Digital Home Thoughts hasn't been the success I hoped it would be is that the topic area we cover is so broad. I personally like reading about digital cameras, video cameras, and digital audio topics, but there's evidently not enough people out there like me. The exception are sites like Engadget, but you have to be world-class to compete with a site like that, and that's not what I do best.

[karthur]

Vincent and Jason - Welcome and thanks! Like others here, I'm no fanboy for the First Church of Apple. What I am, though, is someone always looking for sincere and thoughtful reporting and analysis. It's too bad to hear that Digital Media Thoughts is not getting the reach you anticipated, I love it and look at it several times a day - much like I do at Gizmodo (who can't hold a candle to Thoughtsmedia, IMHO).

I use Microsoft and Apple technology and I look forward to the same level of honesty and interest in the topic-at-hand.

--Ken--

[brianchris]

We do have a merged RSS feed (which I have to update with Apple Thoughts now actually), but Feedburner (nor our XML system) isn't smart enough to eliminate duplicates. The number of duplicate items (like today announcing AT) is pretty low though, hopefully it's not too irritating. :)

GREAT! Where is that XML feed? (hopefully I haven't missed something painfully obvious).

[hnelson59]

i am stoked to see this site arise from the PPCT original. i own an iPod Touch and love the dang-blasted thing . . . iTunes and all! :) i am looking forward to checking this site out for all the info on my new favorite toy!

BTW - i own three PCs . . . one laptop running Windows XP, the other two - a laptop and a PC - run Vista. i also own an Axim X5 and an Axim X50v running WM 2003 SE

[Jason Dunn]

It's too bad to hear that Digital Media Thoughts is not getting the reach you anticipated, I love it and look at it several times a day

Well, I have some good news: I'm bringing on several new editors, which I hope will breathe some new life into the site. So stay tuned!

[Jason Dunn]

GREAT! Where is that XML feed? (hopefully I haven't missed something painfully obvious).

Oh, so you want to know how to find it? How strange! ;)

http://networks.feedburner.com/thoughtsmedia

[Underwater Mike]

Since jumping my eight-year ride on the WM ship to an iPhone this past summer, I've been hoping that Thoughts Media would launch an iPhone-focused site. I still hate Apple as a company, but this phone is pretty damn good, and I think the new site will follow suit.

[dazz]

Huge congrats to Jason and Team for launching Apple Thoughts!!!

I think it's a great idea and shows everyone that Thoughts Media is not biased on platform. While iPhone isn't my choice for smartphone I would LOVE to get my hands on a Mac laptop of some kind.

Gratz again!!

[Twain]

Welcome! Although I maintain my interest in all things Windows Mobile, I am sufficiently interested in Apple products (I have owned several iPods over the years) to follow relevant community web sites.

My only request is that Apple Thoughts be devoted to entirely new postings and stories that aren't found on the other Thoughts sites. It's very irritating that there is almost zero difference between Pocket PC Thoughts and Smartphone Thoughts -- those two ought to simply merge into one, unified Windows Mobile Thoughts...

[sub_tex]

congrats on the new site guys!

Now I have yet ANOTHER site to add to my daily checking....

[marvi1]

I'm a relatively new Mac enthusiast. Not a total convert, but I've actually purchased a Macbook, and use a Macbook Pro at work. There are still some things I prefer to do on Windows, but that's what Parallels is for. If Apple actually came up with an equivalent of Vista Media Center (or WIndows 7 Media Center), I would give it very serious consideration.

Congratulations on the new site. I'll be visiting on a daily basis, as I do with the other Thoughts pages.

[Tim Williamson]

This is really exciting news! Since I use an iPhone now, I've been more interested in hearing what Apple is up to. So far I've been happy with Vista/XP so I haven't been swayed to switch to MacOS, but I still enjoy hearing about Apple. :) On a side-note, I like the color scheme chosen for AT.

[PPCTechs]

Congrats on the new site!
:D

[EdXeno]

Hey, I just wanted to say I think it's cool how willing you guys have been to both take criticism and respond to it in this thread. Looks like this has lots of potential to build community.

[Vincent Ferrari]

Thanks Ed, and I have to say I'm really REALLY glad to see you here :-)

[TopDog]

I never thought I'd see the day when Apple Thoughts would appear.

...but I think it's great! I'm a passionate Windows Mobile user, AND Apple user, have been for years :)

[Jason Dunn]

Hey, I just wanted to say I think it's cool how willing you guys have been to both take criticism and respond to it in this thread.

It comes with the territory, though I admit it took me a couple of years to develop skin thick enough to take it properly. ;)

[StregoneAira]

I have visited Thoughts media sites namely pocketpc thoughts off and on for several years. When the iPhone was being rumored I hoped that they would include it in the pocketpc thoughts section. Of course that would not have been appropriate. But I hoped they would do something. I never posted any message on the other thoughts only used them to read up on a few gadgets from time to time .

Now it has come to be. hurray! LOL

I am glad to have joined Apple Thoughts. I will be a part of the community and contributing my thoughts as well. I know even though I have been a Mac nut since 1991 there are always others who may know something I do not and I look forward to learning as well.

Stregone Aira

[paris18m]

Congrats on the launch! Look forward to all the news and reviews.

coming from pocketpcthoughts.com due to switch from WinMo to iPhone will apreciate a flood of iphone news.

i simply cant find a site to match pocketpcthoughts.com that will cover the iphone in term of news and reviews

[WyattEarp]

Congrats Vincent on your new position and thanks Jason for including Apple and seeing their relevance in the tech world. And thanks for the "Also, stay tuned for Apple Thoughts (shh!). ;)" heads up sometime ago.
I'm no Apple or Microsoft fanboy as I have issues with both companies but after an unfortunate incident with my iPaq 4700 I purchased an iPhone and must say that it is a very good device. It in no way as of yet can replace my iPaq but is much better that the Dash I also used before giving it the my wife. Anyway I believe in using the best device for the job regardless of who makes it and right now for me it's the iPhone. Hopefully this community will take off and maybe a little more understanding between the two sides of the coin will emerge also. As they are more alike than different. I'll definitely be posting again now that I have something new to look forward to.

[gojeffrey]

I can't think of a better person than Vincent to give a candid opinion on... well anything. He, along with the rest of the team on applethoughts.com make this one of my favorite new reads.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I can't think of a better person than Vincent to give a candid opinion on... well anything. He, along with the rest of the team on applethoughts.com make this one of my favorite new reads.

Thanks man. I love speaking my mind. It gets me in trouble a lot, but for those who get it, they enjoy it!