Is Intel Being Misleading In Their Centrino Pitches?
At Techdirt, we've certainly been critical of Intel for muddying the marketing message for WiFi by trying to take it over with their own Centrino branding. Consumers don't want to have to worry about WiFi vs. Centrino (or the fact that they're sorta, but not exactly, the same thing). However, we didn't think they were lying in their presentations. ZDNet's David Berlind takes Intel to task for being untruthful in a pitch about Centrino. However, reading over his list, it really doesn't seem that bad - and we're usually pretty quick to point out when companies are being misleading. The biggest complaint is with the idea that you can "secure" a wireless network by making sure all of your traffic runs over VPN. No, of course that's not completely accurate but it is a hell of a lot more accurate than some of the other ways people claim you should "secure" your WiFi access. Using a VPN certainly does wipe out most of the "my data is getting stolen" risk. The other "untruths" are simply marketing lines, which aren't that bad. They claim Centrino machines will work in places that are labeled as "Centrino" approved. Of course, wireless connections aren't always going to work, but I don't think it's an outright lie. There's certainly an awful lot of misleading information out there about wireless that deserves to be brought to light. Overall, though, this pitch from Intel doesn't seem that bad.
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