[Strongblade]

Lars commented:

Not to shatter your glass, but doing a Mac-news site is not a good idea. The sheer competition of news of other Mac sites that do the samething; you need a clear objective: Why would people want to your site over MacCentral?

Well, with a successful PC site (which would have to compete in a much tougher market) Neil's Envy News site does have a different slant from many of the others. As well, building off of the success of Envy News is certainly a good step.

Besides, MacCentral only does news. If this new site does more, such as Envy-quality reviews of top notch hardware like EnvyNews, but with a Mac perspective, I don't see how it would be in direct competition with MacCentral.

 

[Neil Yates]

Well said, StrongBone.

First off, I can populate the review section of the new site with dozens if not 100s of reviews of gear that we've reviewed on the Mac and PCs, or of gear that is mac compatible. Two, the new site seems to already have six dedicated staff, of which two are from the main site. Three, I see EnvyNews.com as being a successful business model and site template, and it has succeeded amongst 1000s of PC sites, in just 3 short years. I can only truly find a handful of sites to compete against on the mac side of the fence. Four, very few of those sites review hardware. As it stands now, we have over a dozen pieces of gear sent to us for mac reviews, and with my established contact database of 164 hardware manufacturers, I don't really think we'll ever have a shortage of gear to review. Lastly, it seems i've already sold advertising for the new site, from a Mac peripheral/accessory manufacturer, and that's based on our excellent review of 1 of their products, without them even having seen the new site. That speaks for itself.

Oh, and to clarify things, since i've purposely left things vague, www.envymac.com will be a Macintosh Hardware/Peripheral/Gadget review site, with news/editorials/columns, and Features for MacWorld Expo coverage (ie: we'll be attending shows) and the like. We're doing that now and have been doing that now on the main site, but it's time to physically separate the beauty from the beast (EnvyMac from EnvyNews).

N.

 

[RicktheChemist]

Need I say more... MacCentral is the news collection agency while we are the hardware review site.. we have several others to compete with yes, but I would rather form relationships with them to share news and reviews and build a PC-like hardware review community.

Cheers,

RtC

 

[Neil Yates]

Btw, of interesting notice, Envynews.com has an Alexa.com popularity rating of 6691. Maccentral.com/Macworld.com has an Alexa.com popularity rating of 7963. That stunned me today. Lower is better. Apple.com's rating is 171. Neat stuff.

 

[ehMax]

Hey, nice review

Yes, exciting stuff! There's more goodness to come.

 

[monokitty]

Btw, of interesting notice, Envynews.com has an Alexa.com popularity rating of 6691. Maccentral.com/Macworld.com has an Alexa.com popularity rating of 7963.

I find those results hard to believe. MacCentral probably gets close to 500,000 + visitors within 24 hours or less. You site tops that count? If it does... congrats, dude, I'm impressed (and convinced).

 

[Strongblade]

It's quite probable that it does. I know I was blown away with the results I saw.

Although you did bring up quite a valid point. A pure "News" site for Mac in this wacky Internet of ours wouldn't really have alot of pull. It has to stand out.

envymac will stand out. Trust me. The amount of stuff already waiting for it's debut will certainly provide a solid foundation for this venture.

 

[monokitty]

Speaking of new sites, my own Mac-based publication is going to launch around the 10th of July/03 with the help of fellow ehMac'ers.

Inside Apple, not so much a news site will also feature a rather unique thing to it.

And, as the name implies, it is NOT a rumor site!

 

[Neil Yates]

Ok, it's official. The ball has started to roll, and it's picking-up a lot of momentum. We have SO MUCH mac review hardware in-bound now, and getting published on the PC site.

Check out RtC's review of the first Griffin PowerMate accessory - the MacMice IceMate. (http://www.envynews.com/review.php?ID=483)

Now for the really exciting stuff... Remember when IMG/Inside Mac Games had a site appearance overhaul? Well, EnvyMac.com is being graphically-designed by the same Graphic design studio/Artist! I was in talks with the owner this past week, and he's agreed to go ahead with the design of my new site. The work has begun.

Another cool thing, on the opening-day of the EnvyMac.com, we'll have a series of mac-hardware give-aways! I haven't pieced together all the gear yet, but it appears we'll have a Belkin 6-port FireWire Hub, a 128MB Flash Memory USB Watch (review in-bound!), and we're finallizing a storage drive give-away.

We're also negotiating other elements of the site that are in a way tied to EhMac.ca. More on that if it in fact takes root.

To reiterate, we won't be a News Site competing against MacCentral, nor do I plan to compete against EhMac.ca for its forums. All will be made clear soon!

 

[RicktheChemist]

Free stuff.. I want in.. I want some.. uhh.. wait..

Cheers,

RtC

 

[Neil Yates]

Yes, and in another installment of 'The Thread That Never Dies', we take a look at the iSkin PowerBook Keyboard Protector.

URL:
http://www.envynews.com/review.php?ID=487

On another note 'mmmflame' is officially our first News Writer for EnvyMac.com - hired from your very own ranks, here at EhMac.ca.

 

[Chealion]

Congrats mmflame! Can't wait to see EnvyMac up and running!

EDIT: Fixed spelling mistake

[ June 20, 2003, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: Chealion ]

 

[RicktheChemist]

A new Mac news writer.. woo hoo!!!

RtC

 

[RicktheChemist]

Thought I would mention that the format of EN has changed a bit, the news will be listed at the top of reviews along with the front page, do not worry, the reviews are still there, you just have to scroll down a bit to see them.

I was initially wondering when I saw the change, but after you are used to it, there is no problem.

Cheers, and thanks for reading EnvyNews...

RtC

P.S. I can feel what EnvyMac will be.. it's going to be cool.. you can count on that...

 

[mmflame]

that's a lot of "m"s.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words of encouragement. I do a lot of writing and I'm happy to be able to contribute to www.EnvyMac.com. Though I may be a newbie to ehMac.ca compared to many of you, I'm glad to be a part of the Mac community. I'm looking forward to hanging around here more often.

 

[Arachnid]

WOW
I thought I only had 2 editors

Thanks for the encouragement and help fellas.
It has been a pleasure and with more fun-ness (can I use that word?

) to come...

Envy Mac is going to be awesome.
Finally a pure Mac review site. Other sites will pale in comparison.

SpiderPlane

 

[Neil Yates]

Weeee!
Another Mac review to hit the road...
This time, from RtC.

http://www.envynews.com/review.php?ID=472

PUPPY Suite for Mac OS X
(Biometric login for the Mac).

Coming up soon - PodPerch!

 

[RicktheChemist]

This thing was the coolest damn little device I ever used.. too bad I have to give it back.. *crying*

Cheers,

RtC

 

[Chealion]

Very good review RtC!

Sony might sell quite a few of these, especially to those who require something that is a little harder to break then a password

 

[Neil Yates]

Another Mac review has been posted. From The Mayor this time. MacMice PodPerch - stand for iPod new and old.

http://www.envynews.com/review.php?ID=498#start

Btw, EnvyMac.com won't be launched until the end of the July at the earliest. It's a huge undertaking, and with my current schedule of 25 PC reviews per month on EnvyNews.com published, my hands are a bit full. However, we'll be making up its delay with a few 100 or 1000 dollars in Mac gear give-aways.