Siemens takes beta-testing public

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Here's an interesting development - European electronics company Siemens is apparently recruiting customers to beta-test a new line of phones, and to report their trials via public blog, so that everyone else can see how the new phones are working as well. Siemens will apparently collect the comments via aggregator to use on improving the final product; beta-testers apparently get a free one when they're released, to thank them for being part of the trial. There seems to be some confusion, however, over just who's eligible to take part (Europeans versus Americans, current customers versus new ones); the Aperto weblog has the latest. (Thanks to Gizmodo for originally bringing this to my attention.)