Editorial Review Policy About Insanely Great Mac has been publishing Apple-related product news and reviews continuously since 1995. IGM is an independent sole proprietorship and owned in entirely by myself, Michael Flaminio. There are no financial interested in Insanely Great Mac by any other entity, and I am not employed or contracted by any company or individual related to the technology industry. Current and recent individual sponsors of IGM include Other World Computing, MacResQ, and Trans Intl. Submission IGM's beat is Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, and iPod products and services. Video reviews can be seen on YouTube, iTunes, TiVo, and Boxee by thousands of subscribers on their computers, on their mobile devices, and in their living rooms. If you have a product you would like to be considered for review, please email me to make arrangements. Evaluation Our methodology is to provide an overview of the product and test the product's claims, usually with a live demonstration. While IGM may provide personal opinions, opinions of value and feature-worthyness are often subjective. As a result, we try to envision how a product may be used and not limit our opinions to ourselves. Our goal is to prepare our audience for their own evaluation on their own needs and not necessarily rely entirely on our opinions. Any purchase decision is solely the responsibility of the purchaser. Products are reviewed for a period deemed appropriate for a proper evaluation. Due to the nature of the review process, opinions of durability are limited to the testing period. Note that products are often revised, sometimes many times and sometimes significantly, over the course of the product's life cycle. Reviews are only relevant to the product specifications, including price, at the time of publication. Occasionally follow-up reviews will be posted, but may or may not be directly linked from older reviews. Please check our archives for the latest reviews. Financial Our policies strive to ensure the integrity of the editorial process. Under no circumstances will payment be accepted for reviews or special consideration be given. If IGM publishes a paid endorsement of a product, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed at the start and end of the video or article. Furthermore, endorsements are accepted based on merit, meaning we do not endorse anything we would not recommend to our own friends and family. Advertising is likely to be embedded in reviews, and such advertising will have an obvious separation from the editorial content. Advertising may included banners or sponsorship announcements. Under no circumstances will a product be a paid placement without being clearly disclaimed as such. If a product reviewed comes from a current paid sponsor, IGM will disclose as such ether in the review or review description. IGM will indicate whether a reviewed item was provided for review, and by whom, or whether the product was purchased at retail (as of 10/2009). If you are interested in advertising, please see our Web and Video sponsorship opportunities. Products IGM will not sell any product provided for review. If not returned to the vendor, reviewed products will be stored for future comparisons, donated to charity, or given away either immediately or at a later date. Giveaways will be a random drawing contest or we may opt to give the product to another reviewer of our choosing. Under some circumstances the product may serve no use to anyone and will be disposed of properly. In short, typically we store a product until either it is not relevant for future reviews or boxes become overwhelming. Unless the product is of significant value, we ask vendors to not require a return. It is time consuming and we hope our review justifies the marketing expense. If the return of the product is necessary, please provide us sufficient time to review the product and for placement on our publication calendar. We also require paid return shipping. All return requests must be made prior to shipping to IGM. Providing a review sample does not ensure a product will be reviewed. If we deem a product is not of sufficient interest to our audience, we reserve the right to not publish a review. If prior arrangements were not made to return the product, please do not ask for the product to be returned. All correspondences will come from @insanely-great.com email address and from me, Mike Flaminio. All shipments will go to Michigan to either our PO Box for USPS or a street address for UPS/FedEx. There have been instances where some unscrupulous individuals misrepresented themselves to get free merchandise. If in doubt, please email me. Confidentiality Tech reviews are a competitive business and IGM strives to prepare reviews as close to product announcement or shipment as possible. We fully respect confidentiality requests for embargoes, non-disclosure, or similar editorial restrictions on unannounced/unreleased products. We have done this many times over the years and encourage companies to reach out to us on their upcoming products. Founder/Publisher Updated 05/07/10 |
