From the Editor’s Desk – Why don’t you report on fake news?

WPCentral Pillows

While it may not look it, this Monday has been an especially busy 1, particularly backside the scenes of our site. Because of that, I don't like spending time typing out articlesdebunking the news. It's a waste of my time and slightly irritating, only alas, this is also what I signed up for (having said that, following me on Twitter isn't a bad idea either, since I tin can answer to things there more than directly).

But let me take a few moments to address a bunch of questions that readers accept been slinging at u.s., sometimes with visceral disdain. And aye, I'll start doing these rants and opinion pieces weekly, as requested by Kevin Michaluk, our Chief Media Officer of Mobile Nations.

Permit's get-go with the most obvious….

Why aren't you reporting on that alleged Cortana video posted on Twitter?

Cortana Windows Phone

A lot of tech sites posted manufactures with the video in question, which was sourced from one 'WPLeaker' on Twitter. Who is this new source? No one knows. Neither have they been vetted. Past vetted I simply mean Have they ever posted anything on the net that has afterward been shown to be truthful? The answer is 'no'.

That's an important thing to accept—a track record.

So why non do an article on it? Not having a history is not itself a reason to dismiss the leak. We take had photos and information come to us from unknowns before that turned out to be dead on.

But the Cortana video (and related material) from WPLeaker is completely fake.

I know this only because of people who practise know. That'southward how this works: you lot get multiple sources on something, you check with your source and they tell you "authentic" or "fake". It's really that unproblematic. They used to telephone call this 'journalism'. Merely hey, that's work and some people got into blogging to get away from such requirements.

This is the aforementioned reason why y'all don't meet Tom Warren at the Verge doing an commodity on it, nor Mary Jo Foley or Paul Thurrott. People who know about Windows Phone 8.1 will simply gloss over this or just call it bullshit on Twitter.

Tech sites that are unsure, with no way to verify the news, may notwithstanding post information technology with caveats like "if" "maybe", etc. It'south a clever comprehend-your-ass technique where you tin exercise an article merely not really be held responsible for its accuracy. Other sites will simply post anything that they are tipped on, because hey, site traffic is traffic, facts exist damned.

This has nothing to do with NDAs either, which are not at issue at all in this situation. No ane in the press, to my knowledge, has been officially briefed by Microsoft or Nokia on anything almost Windows Phone eight.1. This isn't us playing dumb. If you even ask Microsoft about 8.ane they volition shrug and say they have no idea what you're talking almost. Seriously.

The but fashion some of us know things is due to sourcing. It's a pain in the ass to practise as yous tin't but walk up to Microsoft or Nokia employees and be like "risk your job and tell me what you know…oh and trust me with your identity". Hell, half the time you don't even know who to ask. Simply that's why we can accurately report on things similar:

Revealed –The Nokia Lumia 929
Lumia 1020 kickoff render and specifications
Lumia 1020 64 GB variant
Windows Telephone viii update i codename 'Portico'
Timeframe for Nokia'due south phablet and tablet devices
Recent info virtually Cortana

Nosotros're non perfect either and nosotros've made some mistakes in the past. Merely nosotros exercise at least attempt to verify news earlier posting it. That's an of import distinction. And when we don't know something, we grade the rumor on our old rum'o'meter. That's our informed stance on the story, patently and uncomplicated.

And then yeah, when people write the states and say:

"Come on WP cardinal you are actually missing out on alot (sic) of stuff for example a leaked image of the games hub (8.1) was leaked and Nokia Normandy was on sale on a Vietnamese site and cortana (sic) was caught on tape and so come up on pick up the pase (sic)"

I practice accept criminal offence a petty. After all, we do catch fifty-fifty the smallest bits of news like WhatsApp updates. Then the lesson learned for you today: if we don't report on information technology, information technology'due south probably considering we recollect it's crap.

Speaking of, other crap rumors include:

BBM for Windows Phone submitted to the Store and their Twitter account
"Lumia 1820", any that is (being announced at Mobile World Congress)
"Lumia 1520v", any that is (being appear at Mobile World Congress)

There's just no truth to those, sorry.

Why is the Android version of the WPCentral app gratuitous?!?!

WPCentral Android App

So last night our scrappy piddling company, Mobile Nations, published to the Google Play shop our WPCentral app. Information technology's i of many apps that will be going to other platforms (and vice versa). It's also free. That has sent many people on site into a tizzy, considering to remove ads and take hold of some advanced features nosotros charge 99 cents in our app for Windows Telephone.

Couple of things.

Nearly iii years ago, nosotros released our app to Windows Phone. That'due south about three years before the remainder of our sites had official apps. It was also three years before 'Mobile Nations' - our attempt to bring Crackberry, iMore, Android Central, etc. under i-roof - became a reality. In other words, lots has changed in the 3 years since we used the 99-cent model to remove ads.

Wait, the Android app for WPCentral is overnice. Does it accept Alive Tiles? Push notifications? Lockscreen support? Wide range of custom graphics? No. Was information technology adult by a young developer, fresh out of college, looking to help out our site? No. It was fabricated by Mobile Nations, a small sized company that does over 27 meg unique views a month in total.

Going forward, Mobile Nations apps will exist free. They will besides take ads. The question of what to do about WPCentral'due south app for Windows Phone is existence discussed. Fact is, we're damned if we alter and we're damned if we don't.

If you lot just dropped 99 cents on our app and we brand it gratuitous tomorrow, you and everyone else in the final three years will rightly complain. "Just I just paid for information technology!".
If we make information technology costless, but information technology has ads with no 99 cent choice to remove, people will also complain, because ads suck.
If we practise zero and keep the model the same, people will complain.

Meet our predicament? It'due south not that we don't hear you, we do, we really exercise. Nosotros simply need to find an like shooting fish in a barrel fashion to go forward. Same with our Windows eight app.

The fact is, every bit more and more of y'all use mobile to access our site, we have to call back of acquirement too. If you're not seeing ads, we can't pull in revenue. If we can't pull in revenue, we tin't pay people to be full-time writers, monitoring Windows Phone news 24/seven. So it's either 99 cents, ads, or something else.

WPCentral App Windows 8

But hey, await the WPCentral app for Windows viii app this calendar week. And so there's that.

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