When I 1st saw HWExtreme, I was bloody impressed. The Star painted them like Malaysia's top hardware experts. And when I stopped by to have a look, what can I say? Superb site... or that was at first sight! Then I dropped by Alexa just to see how they fare against the big boys (like Anandtech). And there I saw :- "Come on... What kind of articles are u writing man... They look more like cut + paste jobs of press releases than actual articles... N dun think we dun know what's going on. Look at your EVAP preview, man! It's copied exactly from the EPoX press release! For gawd's sake... at least change it a little! U r a disgrace to da community. Hope people will expose you for the fake YOU ARE when they read your stuff. At least I am! I WILL NOT BE BACK!" I thought he was a little too much. I meant... it looked like they all wrote what they wrote. Unfortunately, I found that he was quite right. So, I posted :- "Hi to the Tong brothers... Read about you guys a couple of times in the newspaper... Thought I would drop by and have a look. Nice site... but after reading Dominatrix' opinions, I have to admit he could be right. I took the effort to go through all your reviews... Many of the pictures appeared to be taken from somewhere else... Nothing to suggest that you actually had the product to test... Also, I went and downloaded that EPoX press release... looks remarkably identical... I sympathize with you guys for having to go through a lot these days. But I'm quite surprised to see that Dominatrix could be right. Are our Extreme Twins cheating? I hope you guys can prove Dominatrix wrong by fighting back with some evidence. I'll be eagerly watching this page for updates." However, the more "articles" and "reviews" they roll out, the more disappointed I am. I checked the press releases issued by the various companies and I found out that they did nothing more than cut and paste them! So, I wrote to them :- "Ever since my last post (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/reviews?q=&url=hwextreme.com), I have been keeping watch over your "reviews". I'm VERY SAD to say that what the other "more aware" readers have noticed are SO TRUE! You guys are FRAUDS! All your reviews and showcases are nothing more than cut and paste jobs of various press releases! I personally checked the press releases myself so I'm not just trying to put you down. I don't think you can prove me wrong since the press releases are available for everyone to see. These are facts that you cannot run from! You are just cutting and pasting them and calling them a review or a showcase. But it's really nothing more than an attempt to mislead people into buying those products. I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED in you. I wonder why The Star even wrote anything about you two. Shame on them and shame on you! I hope to see you post an article about your shameful behaviour and an apology for thinking that your readers are fools. I WAS a fool to begin with... but thanks to the others, I see the light now... and the scum that you are. You are not fooling me again! PS. I will be e-mailing this to you as well and I hope to see a response here - http://www.alexa.com/data/details/reviews?q=&url=hwextreme.com. If you don't... we all know what that means! Serves you right for trying to cheat people." First, I must apologize for my phlegm. But I was just SO DISGUSTED with their Opteron and Tablet PC "showcases". I have never seen anything so "plagiarised" and "profit-oriented" as their "showcases" or reviews... or whatever they want to call them. Anyway, here's what Kelvin Tong posted to me :- "Hello Boy Tungsten, The Epox Tablet PC preview was indeed a Press Release written by my editor for Epox. My reviewers, Edward Chang and Johann Ramirez are working with Epox USA and they submitted the "Press Release" of the Tablet PC for us to be posted in Hardware Extreme. We are helping Epox to promote the Tablet PC back then. Showcases, as the name suggest, are just showcases of some of the cool products. They are not reviews. If you have any more assumptions, doubts or questions, please feel free to ask. BTW, we are not cheating anyone, and sorry to tell you but I won't "post an article about your shameful behaviour and an apology for thinking that your readers are fools". We never consider our readers as fools. If you think you are a fool, then you are. "If you don't... we all know what that means! Serves you right for trying to cheat people." So you are trying to threaten us?" First of all, Kelvin or Melvin, I'm NOT threatening you. I'm just letting you know I'm now fully aware of your game. Like many of your readers, I didn't believe what the others were telling me about you and your history. Or was it Melvin. Anyway, the fact is that you have lied to all of us all these while. You said that was just a press release. But why did you post it like it was your own preview? All the other sites are very honest. They post company press releases as press releases. You, on the other hand, post press releases as your own reviews/previews/showcases! Just how ethical is that? You all decide!
i'm sure many of us noted that before. but we just mine our own business. The Star should promote the BOG instead. btw calling them a FRAUD is a bit harsh and hard.
Wow... imagine if the Star promotes BOG, the the ARP guys will be very famous. Free advertisement. Btw, how did the Melvin brothers get themselves into the Star? Hey... this is cool... But Chai... where are the other emoticons?
I mailed Charles So I mailed Charles just now, he IS the one that wrote the article about them if I remember well enough right? Here's what I sent him OK... I was a bit unfair since I don't know any other Malaysian hardware sites.... but still do you guys think this will get the message through?
there's another site called myWORLD. it's found at http://www.myworld.com.my at least they did their own reviews.
poor little rich kids with too much $$$ to burn. They must have been still in high school when they got their first site up. As for the star in tech article, just sufficient to say that for a paper that "reviewed" the "asian prince" website, i guess its no real big deal for them to review hwextreme as well. Let them be is all i can say. Fraud or no fraud, i never liked the site from the moment they came out with a statement that said "this site is more for the US/UK visitors" - in their reply to being asked why do they have an affiliation with pricegrabber since pricegrabber prices don't apply in M'sia. Bah~!
hrmrmr........just a thought, does the name EXTREME there originate from Sharky? hehe. their office. doesn't look like an office to me, but definitely a good description for rich kids. their PC area is better than all of us combined. LOL note the air-con, imac and LCD screen with the ikea rug and customized furnitures.
I hate rich kids... They think they're good but the FACT IS... They're just good cause they can AFFORD ANYTHING! Hell, if I can afford anything I'll be good too! (Imagine getting to try out all those cool overclocking tips without the worry of needing the cash to buy 'em stuffs) Okay maybe I'm a bit biased but I've always envied the rich kids
As expected, they posted some stupid excuse and lock the post i made in their forums. U should check it out - http://www.extreme-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=4265 Their pimp, chet (sounds like cheat, doesn't it??), basically admitted that they copy press releases but make it sound like it's something perfectly ordinary. He's really dim... or maybe he's just Melvin under another name? wowoweeeeee..... marauder... u de man.... i wonder what the star will say this time! Please please post their reply here! i'll be watching out for it!!!! Hahaha... se7en, u got it right! i dunno when they set up their stupid site.. that chet (or cheat) fella said 2001 but i wonder if they were really up for so long. Anyway, can tell from the newspaper article that they are just in it for the money. everythin's so commercialized... all about making money. Such assholes.
If they are good at all, they wouldn't need to copy and paste from press releases. Bah... they are just doing it coz they dun know anything! How can In.Tech paint them like geniuses?? Is this who we malaysians wanna be assoc. with?? So embarassing... Better they quit and go play with their toys. Hey... maybe we should check out their new pdaextreme site. Extreme cut + paste again??
Ermm... the review is ok so far. Their review for CM4 was just ok coz they didn't even play the game long enough to notice all the bugs. Man... They were very good a few years back. But now...
eh? noo.. my work has got nothing to do with in-tech. having said that, are there any in-tech staff in here
hey in-tech's review on graphics card sucks ok. they reviewed GF4 TIs on low end spec PCs. 3dmark score also 4 - 5k only and bablablablbalbalabla. i mean wanna do a review at least do one that properly reflects the card's performance ler. some ppl who don't know about cards may say....."eh this card doesn't perform much different from mine" but actual fact it's a lot of difference. their machines were previously P3 450. heck how to do card review on that? even a GF4MX can't be powered properly with that.
