It was the Newton that was the last straw, says Gareth Branwyn. After reading the reviews and spending a huge amount of money on Apple's PDA, only to discover "it's just a piece of crap," he decided to start Street Tech, a magazine that turns a skeptical lens on technology reporting. "Hype has outstripped the reality of what technology can do. The way they're promoted, they sound like magical things that can do everything. They can't."
Street Tech, which launched Friday, is designed to be an irreverent but practical look at the hardware that real people use.
The zine is edited by Branwyn, zine luminary and author of The Happy Mutant Handbook, Jargon Watch, and Internet Power Toolkit, and created in part by developers Carton Donofio Interactive. Street Tech also has a roster of prominent tech culture reporters and zinesters - such as Tiffany Lee Brown and David Pescovitz - who take a decidedly non-fetishistic approach.
"It's like talking to your cool friend who knows about new products as opposed to reading a stilted review," says Pescovitz. "It's technology, but technology we can afford."
Affordable tech means that Street Tech aims to go beyond the press release feeling of some publications, and won't cover only bleeding-edge technologies. For example, they write about the PowerBook 100, which many people still actually own and use, providing tips on where to buy batteries, and how to keep it alive. The zine will also help teach "non-techno-weenies" how to fix their own computers, in the DIY section. A conferencing section provides a space for tech tip swapping.
"Street Tech is like that William Gibson idea 'street finds its own uses for things,'" says Branwyn. "Technology is used in ways the creators may never have foreseen."
