Bloggasm

Colbert Low: My name is Colbert Low

I am the first Malaysian blogger to join an international blog network at Weblog Empire and we are now part of b5media as of 31 Oct 2005.

I am the editor for The Gadget Blog and I do reviews on cool new gadgets and related stuff. I also guest blog at Realtechnews.com and ohGizmo.com when I have the time.

The b5media.com Blogging Network that my Gadget Blog is a part of, was founded by the 3 greatest blogger right now. And we are growing like MAD….With over 150 blogs now!

Duncan Riley
Darren Rowse
Jeremy Wright

We’ve even been featured by big gadget websites like Realtechnews.com, Gizmodo.com, OhGizmo.com, theGadgetizer.com, Treehugger.net and Engadget.com, etc since June 2005.

Simon Owens: Whenever companies are working on new forms of technological gadgets, how much time do you think they focus on the look and style of an object compared to the technological aspects of it? Have you ever purchased a cell-phone or other technological device almost soley based on its look?

Colbert Low: Look and style does play an important factor. I guess they probably come out with it first and only then add in the functions. They probably spend the same amount of time designing it and adding features to it.

Simon Owens: As a gadget blog do you get a lot of press releases from technology companies? What do you think of blogs that simply print press releases without original content?

Colbert Low: I do get swarms of emails from PR agencies and newsletters every week. I try to sort them out every Friday as I do have a full time job as a Linux System Engineer too. I guess it’s important to add some comments to those press releases as some of them are quite bland and blogs are supposed to be more human-like and not regurgitate out the same old press release. If blogs do that, then we are moving backwards to the dinosaur age of text browsers.

Simon Owens: I noticed that you’re part of the Gadget Blog Network (run through blog-ads). How did you become part of this network and how well has it worked in regards to selling advertising for your site?

Colbert Low: It has been great at filling up the empty spaces on the blog and we do get around 2-3 ads running every month. I applied for it and got approved a few days later. Guess it’s easy for a blog that’s part of a bigger network and it’s a great advertising revenue generator for blogs. The BlogAds team is simply superb.

Simon Owens: What are some of the most innovative gadgets you’ve highlighted in the past few months?

Colbert Low: From the ridiculous to the innovative ones, I’ve seen a lot on the web and it’s great to get some real live demo units sent to me. Just need to do some spring cleaning later as I will be moving to a new house.

Water-cooled Xbox 360.

Kingston U3 Data Traveler Thumb Drive

SureFire L2 LumaMax Flashlight

Gamepark GP2X-F100 Linux Game Device

Simon Owens: Out of all the gadgets you highlight, how many of them do you get to test out first-hand?

Colbert Low: I do get some sent over to my place in Malaysia and its great to be able to keep them to show off. So far, I think I have amassed over 50 gadgets/demo sets and there are more to come.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

Colbert Low: engadget
gizmodo
cellphone9
ohgizmo
Akihabara News