That was the worst Infomercial I 've ever seen in the middle of the show

[G+_Kenneth Shields]

That was the worst Infomercial I've ever seen in the middle of the show.

My BS detector was beeping like a Radar detector..

[G+_Kenneth Shields]

Richard Harkness I'm willing to bet that was a Paid for spot. Very sneaky... And not well done..

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

I do not think it was a paid for spot. They have had other persons who have products on the show. Was the nexbit robin feature an infomercial? The fact is AAA is a popular show among the Android community as such I am sure Jason Howell has a lot of people asking to be on the show. They gave a space for someone who is producing low cost hardware.

[G+_Ryan Ballard]

Yeah, it felt a lot like a "sponsored interview" to me as well. If it wasn't, the format/style should be revisited.

[G+_Jose C Martinez]

Well, it would be a bit rude and classless to berate the phone and the company behind it without ample time to review it properly. Plus, it's not unusual for shows like AAA to allow a new product to be featured. IMO it won't stand up to flagship phones but either way, the phone deserves to be reviewed the right way; it's the fair thing to do.

[G+_Jim Yvon]

I actually got a great laugh when the dude said that what separates his company from the rest of the crowd was that they were "nice guys"...

[G+_Jason Howell (raygun01)]

Alright guys. A few points (and pardon at least one f-bomb that I know for a fact is coming here)

 

1. I get it. Some of you didn't care for the interview. Hey you can't like everything we do. We'll take this information and try our best to learn from it. Maybe it means being a bit more critical during the interview, I dunno. Maybe it means (and I actually think this is a big part of it) we don't talk to marketing folks and instead stick to the developers, the people with their hands on the actual technology. But anyways, you weren't satisfied with the interview and that point is heard. I personally felt like it went a bit too long too so I hear ya.

 

2. We've featured Nuu phones on the show in the past. We feature a lot of phones and OEMs on the show. As such, sometimes, (at least I think so) it's interesting to get THEIR take on what they are doing. Yes it could come across as shill-y, but hey, they have an agenda: to sell phones. The way they do that is tell their story. And we talk ALL THE TIME on the show about this new wave of low cost high performance devices. This was a chance to talk to someone about them from THEIR perspective. Maybe you didn't care for it, but I thought it was an opportunity to explore familiar ground from a new perspective.

 

3. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. I love how when people don't like a particular segment on a show (not just AAA btw), or they think coverage of something was too positive, or even just given too much time (in their opinion) that it suddenly comes down to the assumption that's then taken as gospel that "oh well they must have paid for their spot on the show. Wow these guys suck for taking money to feature someone's product." I will say this in no uncertain terms. We have not, do not, and WILL NOT take payment in order to feature a product on the show. It has never happened, and it won't. That crosses a pretty big fat line IMO and I just won't go there. The only products that you'll see on the show that had any sort of financial negotiation involved would be the sponsors of each episode and we go OUT OF OUR WAY to make sure you know that we are transitioning away from content and into sponsor territory so there is no mistake about what you are hearing and who funds the show. PERIOD. Sorry to drop the f-bomb, but this argument infuriates me because, at least in the case of the shows I produce, I make sure to go out of my way to ensure this never happens, that it isn't even an option. It's a disservice to the listener, it's elusive, and it's simply not the way we run our shows.

 

We talk about Robin on the show because, guess what, as fans of Android, SOME OF US HAPPEN TO ACTUALLY LIKE THE DAMN THING. The show is built around the things we enjoy and as such, you just hear about things that we like. Nexus devices, another prime example. Some people say we spend too much time on Nexus and that its outside of the reality of how popular they are in the big picture but you know what, we like em. So we'll talk about em. Google didn't give us any fucking money for that. We talk about what interests us. END OF STORY.

 

deep breath

 

I'm sure there will still be a small percentage of people that will just go "yeah right" and hey, ya can't please everyone. I've learned that much. All I have is my word, and that's that.

 

Onward and upward.

[G+_Jim Yvon]

Geeze, sorry Jason. Big fan of the show no offence ment from me.

[G+_Ryan Ballard]

Jason Howell? thanks for the reply. I would like to expound a bit. In light it what you're saying about it being a legit interview, I'm happy to take you at your word, and I do so here. My critique then is more the feel of the interview. I can't quite specify which question (or which answer) tipped the scales for me, but the feeling was there for me nonetheless, and the thought crossed my mind early into it. If it helps, it's the first time I've ever wondered it, so I've never heard anything else on this show (I've caught every episode so far), nor anything else on the network that has given me any kind of pause. I know that's not the most helpful feedback, but a gut feeling was all I had to go on. And again, thank you for speaking up and my allying concerns.

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

Jason Howell dropping the mic like Neil De Grasse Tyson , I didn't have a problem with the interview or when people come on and talk about their products as I saw this as being no different to when Nextbit was one or when we used to have the HTC then Samsung guy on in the early days. I think what may have felt "funny" to people was they were an unknown entity, and he wasn't as articulate as many other guests you had on so if you watch the interview it looks like you helped him more than he helped himself. maybe that is what you were getting Ryan Ballard. . Overall Jason I think your judgement was right. AAA is about  featuring all aspects of Android and if you can get an interview with a startup or a new hot dev that are trying to make their mark I say go for it. 

[G+_Aaron Kimmins]

We need a rant subscribe button! This was great! I do like Jason's response, as every show makes a big point in saying 'our sponsor' or 'this is an ad'.

[G+_Ryan Ballard]

Marlon Thompson? could be. Again, I don't doubt Jason's word on this, but it just felt different.

[G+_Daniel Charles]

I thought it was unfortunate (and awkward) that the hosts had recommended a phone with more RAM earlier in the show and then the Nuu phone only has 1GB. That was just unfortunate timing, not the fault of anyone involved. Nuu is a low-cost, newcomer to the market and fit in with the types of interviews that have been on the show in the past.

[G+_Jason Howell (raygun01)]

Sorry to have so emphatically responded. I suppose I may have been in "a mood" this morning! ha. Anyways, I think I react so passionately about it cause I see it and read it online, often attached to others, and think to myself (from an "inside the gate" perspective) that though it's possible (I suppose) that a publication is outright paid for positive content (in the way that anything is possible), it's unlikely that the majority of them are. But sometimes its easy to throw that out there when we don't like what we see or read. All the accused can really do is sit there and take it cause there's no true way to prove it otherwise. Just a bummer that it happens cause the mention of it casts doubts that are difficult to overcome.

 

But then again, I suppose we gotta keep everyone on their toes else they get lazy and cross lines like that as a result of no one watching!

 

So anyways, I don't want anyone feeling like they offended me here. Honestly, it was simply an open door for me to express my views on the subject and apparently I'm very opinionated about it! ha even I didn't realize how opinionated I was about it until this morning. I'll shut up now.

 

+1 to you all.

[G+_Jose C Martinez]

Jason Howell Someone attacked you in a way so it's understandable that you defended yourself. No problem with that at all. I was actually happy to see something as passionate as that reply from you. You are a great host Jason. Keep up the show, I look forward to it every week!

[G+_Tharanga Basnayake]

Having just finished listening to the podcast, I was expecting a discussion along these lines. If I can add my two cents, I think it was a great learning experience for Nick Slater.

1) Know your product back to front. It might be OK to know just the headlines by heart but if you introduce yourself as the "Senior Marketing Wizard" you stick your neck out of the trenches by a mile and the internet is full of sharpshooters. Next time have the specs of the components and any anecdotes about hardware and software development on a cheat sheet handy, if you face a tech savvy audience.

2) Please make sure you have a good network connection. You're more likely to be forgiven if what you talk about is really really interesting but a low cost phone and "being nice" as a point of differentiation isn't something that placates the phone-processor-brain-eating-Android-zombies (myself included).

Finally, I apologise for any spelling, grammar or odd word choices as this was typed on a 5" screen... :)

[G+_Alan M Carlino Jr]

Jason Howell? I think part of the problem is the community obsession with big numbers. Phones need 4 gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of Memory. Well to some people that may be true. But I'm still running a Nexus 5, 2 RAM, 32 memory. And I know people who are good with 16 gigs memory, which even you guys on AAA spend too much time bashing. With most computing done in the cloud and most of us on WiFi, if you don't download a lot, huge memory isn't needed. Just my unwelcome two cents. Maybe that could be a topic on an upcoming show in regards to cell phones. The needs/wants of tech people vs real people.

[G+_Gary Volk]

Jason Howell?? I actually thought it was ok, not too long or bs at all. Very cool to see a company try to focus on end users. The phone looks interesting. I thought you reviewed one on ByB, but you weren't that impressed with it. Does the one Flo had on the show fair any better?