HP's buzzkill

We're taking back what we said. Earlier this week we gave some respect to HP for not freaking out over leaked photos and specs turning up on the web before they announced all those new iPAQs yesterday. Turns out we were wrong. Pocket PC enthusiast sites like iPAQ HQ are reporting that HP
has been making their lives very difficult by requiring them to sign an incredibly stringent agreement if they want to receive the latest iPAQ Pocket PCs to review. They have to sign a confidentiality agreement, agree not to spill any information before the official product announcement, and delete all "unannounced HP product information, including postings made by participants in the website or forum within 48 hours of the posting" or risk being kicked out of the evangelist program (which means no hook ups on reviews) and face possible legal action by HP.

We understand wanting reviewers to sign non-disclosure agreements (not a big deal, though we generally refuse to sign them ourselves) or divulge confidential information, but trying to squash all rumors and speculation about unreleased gadgets on user bulletin boards is absolutely freaking stupid and ultimately counterproductive. Most companies would kill for people to be interested enough in their products to spend hours scanning the Web searching for any morsel of news about them, and what HP doesn't understand is that anyone obsessive enough to care to know about a Pocket PC that won't be out for a few months is probably one your BEST customers and is likely to buy more of your stuff not less.
Kill the buzz and you're going to kill the enthusiasm for your products. It's fine if they don't want to send out early review units—that's their prerogative and they have every right to deny this to whoever they want—but we've got a problem with them taking a generally hostile position towards people who are genuinely excited about their products.