Dude, Where's my laptop?

Microsoft and AMD have given certain bloggers laptops for Christmas. (photo from Long Zheng)

According to Microsoft blogger Long Zheng, his Ferrari 5000 came with an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core 2GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM, AMD-ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics, and a 15.4-inch widescreen LCD. It also has a 160GB SATA drive, HD-DVD reader and burner, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. The system would cost approximately $2,299.

Vista Ultimate, the top of the Vista line, is expected to sell for $399 full retail, with an upgrade price of $259. - Yahoo

Some people have a huge problem with this. But truthfully, it's pretty commonplace for journalists. Newspaper reporters get free stuff all of the time. Music writers get music to review and get into concerts. Travel writers get free and/or discounted trips. So giving tech bloggers laptops to review isn't that big of a deal for me.

However, there is more to the story. More from eWeek,

One blogger, Marshall Kirkpatrick, is now reporting that since the free hardware story has been exposed to the light of day that Microsoft wants its laptops back.

The note from Coldiron read: "No good deed goes unpunished, right? You may have seen that other bloggers got review machines as well. Some of that coverage was not factual. As you write your review I just wanted to emphasize that this is a review PC. I strongly recommend you disclose that we sent you this machine for review, and I hope you give your honest opinions. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions I'm going to ask that you either give the PC away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews."

So, review it, then send it back? If they are product testing, then that is one thing. But, reviewing a product and asking for it back is very uncommon. However, most freebies I have gotten either end up in the trash after I have written about it or it is thrown in a drawer and forgotten about.

So should bloggers who review products reveal how they got the product to their audience? Yes
Should tech companies sent products to bloggers to get reviewed? Yes

More tech companies that want to take their products to market ought to do this, not less. The only issue is how we bloggers deal with it. I'm assuming my laptop is in the mail.