Free stuff
I was having a chat with a friend of mine who envies me my job as an editor at Macworld. "Do you get free stuff?" he asked. "And do you get to keep it?"
"Like what?" I asked.
"Computers! Printers! Hard drives! Neat gadgets! iPods," he said.
The answer is, not so much. Software, yeah. I'll get registration codes for games, for example, which is pretty much par for course. But for the most part, if I get hardware, I have to send it back. And there's a *lot* of stuff that vendors will ask if I want for review, and I'll turn it down, because it's not my "beat" or area of coverage.
"Wow, that must be a bummer," he said.
No, actually, it's not. It's a relief. Because as much as it might seem, superficially, like it would be great to get your hands on hardware, even if only for a month or two, it's a burden. Because you have to make the time to unpack it, test it, put it through its paces and see how it works, then send it back to the vendor. And there's no shipping room at my house, so that means I have to go down to the local Pak Mail and get the box sent out by Fed Ex or UPS.
As far as computers and iPods are concerned, that's a total non-starter. Apple is very, very stingy with hardware, so typically other people within the organization get their hands on new hardware before I do. And I don't exactly mind that, because it means *they're* responsible for doing first looks and reviews, not me. I have quite enough on my plate with my daily news reporting and game reviews to keep me busy.