Novel Bits is funded by a mix of sponsorship, distribution, consulting and course sales. Some of the companies that sponsor us also make the parts we write about. You should know that, and you should know exactly what it does and does not change. That is what this page is for.
Where money could influence what you read
Three relationships are worth knowing about:
- We sell a Bluetooth LE sniffer. Novel Bits is the North American distributor for RFcreations’ blueSPY. When we write about sniffers, we have a commercial interest in one of them.
- Chip vendors sponsor some of our content. Which ones, and what that buys, is below.
- We do consulting and training for companies in this industry, some of which make parts we write about.
Who has sponsored Novel Bits
Over the years, Novel Bits has published content sponsored by the following companies, listed in alphabetical order:
- Cloud2GND
- EM Microelectronic
- Hubble Network
- Infineon
- InPlay
- Nordic Semiconductor
- Raytac
- Renesas
- Silicon Labs
- Texas Instruments
This is a historical list rather than a statement about who sponsors us today. It covers sponsored blog posts, newsletter placements, sponsored social posts and courses. Display advertising is a separate arrangement and is not included here. We do not publish what any individual sponsor pays.
Training partnerships
Novel Bits is an official training partner of Nordic Semiconductor and Silicon Labs. That is a closer and more continuous relationship than a sponsored post, which is why it is named separately here. Nordic also lists Novel Bits publicly through its own partner program.
Both companies make parts we write about, including in ways that are unflattering to them.
What sponsorship buys, and what it does not
What it buys: a clearly labeled sponsored post, a newsletter placement, a sponsored social post, or a sponsored course.
Every sponsored post carries a line at the top, above the content, naming the sponsor. For example: “This post is sponsored by Nordic Semiconductor.” If that line is not there, the post is not sponsored.
What it does not buy: editorial control over anything else we publish. A sponsor does not choose what we write about elsewhere, does not review unsponsored work before it publishes, and has no say in how a competitor’s parts are described.
How we fact-check with vendors
We do contact vendors, and we want to be precise about what that means, because “we checked with the vendor” can describe two very different things.
What we do: ask a vendor to confirm facts about their own parts. A datasheet figure, a support status, a package dimension, a version number. That is sourcing, and it makes the work more accurate.
What we do not do: show a vendor a draft and take notes on framing, tone, or which findings to keep. That is editorial control, and it is the thing this page exists to rule out.
When we ask a vendor about their own parts, we send only the material about those parts. A vendor does not see our treatment of a competitor.
What we change on request, and what we do not
This is the part worth stating in advance, because it is much harder to decide once a named person is asking.
We correct, always: a factual error. A wrong number, a misread datasheet, a support status that changed, a part we placed in the wrong family. Send us the vendor document that shows it and we will fix it and date the change.
We do not remove: a sourced finding a vendor would prefer we had not published. If a vendor’s own documentation says a thing, and we quote it accurately and in context, that stays. Disagreement about what a document means is a conversation we will have in public, with both readings shown.
We do not claim our work is error-free. It is not, and a page claiming otherwise would be making exactly the kind of overclaim this page exists to rule out. What we claim is that an error is findable and fixable rather than invisible, which is why the next section exists.
Found an error?
Tell us through the contact form, choosing “Content Correction (Blog or Guide Error)” from the dropdown. The most useful reports include the page, the specific passage, and the vendor document that shows the correct value.
We would rather hear it from you than leave it wrong. Corrections are logged below with the date.
Related
Our disclaimer covers affiliate links and the limits of what we warrant about accuracy and completeness. This page covers who pays us and what that does and does not change.
Changelog
No corrections logged yet. When one is made, it will be listed here with the date and what changed.