Reports by Consumers

The other day, Brian told me that I shouldneed to get a Playstation Portable.

However, as Penny Arcade notes, the PSP suffers from a problem which is annoying gamers: dead pixels. Of course, Sony has responded to the gripes; but, I don’t know if I want to drop two hundred dollars on a game system that might have an annoying technical problem which will require my sending the unit to Sony and being without it for a month.

A buddy of mine just bought an iriver mp3 player and was having a hard time finding a compatible music download service. I figure if he had difficulty, then chances are there are a bunch of other people out there experiencing the same problem. So here's a list that will help out.

Many consumers have privacy concerns about radio frequency identification tags (RFID) that will eventually replace barcodes on products. For example, readers outside of a store could identify what you are carrying by picking up the tags’ signals. Now a UK company is promising to help consumers find and kill those pesky tags with their RFIDwasher.

Another device is the TagZapper — a small handheld device that “zaps” or deactivates RFID transmitting devices. Tagzapper has been developed by US-based West End Laboratories to be a light weight, handheld, device for deactivating RFID transmitting devices, preventing thus RFID readers from performing scanning and tracking of people or goods.

These products will be available by the end of 2005.

The service was previewed in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, showing how users can download specially formatted content to their PCs and then transfer it to devices running Windows Mobile software. For the final launch the service has been updated to allow subscribers to select specific content to be downloaded each day, Microsoft says. Users can also turn on an automatic deleting feature that vets files according to how long they have been stored on their PCs, it says.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced a multi-state agreement with one of the nation’s largest movie rental chains, settling allegations that it misled consumers in an advertising campaign.

Blockbuster, Inc. settled investigations commenced by 47 states and the District of Columbia and agreed to provide clear and conspicuous disclosures about its "No Late Fee" program and to issue refunds to thousands of consumers who have paid "re-stocking fees" or were charged the full cost of a video.

The Attorneys General alleged that the advertising campaign launched in late December 2004 was misleading because it failed to clearly disclose that, seven days after a movie or game’s return due date, the consumer would be charged its selling price if the item were not yet returned. Thereafter, if a consumer returned the rental, he/she would be credited for the selling price, but would be charged a "restocking fee" of $1.25 or more.

Armstrong International, Inc. now offers a complete line of Instantaneous Hot Water Heaters. The Flo-Rite-Temp water heater utilizes steam as the heating medium. It is designed for applications such as; change-houses, washdown stations, process water, hospitals, etc. Flo-Rite-Temp utilizes the feed-forward principle of control thus eliminating the need for temperature sensing devices normally associated with a storage tank type system. The blending valve mounts directly on the heat exchanger thus eliminating the need for connecting piping.

Source: Instantaneous Hot Water Heaters from Armstrong International Inc

If you choose to use a microwave oven, Consumer Reports magazine suggests you stay as far as possible from the oven while it is in operation.

Consumer Reports magazine, which calculates its own fuel economy stats, noted that its Toyota Prius hybrid test car got 44 miles a gallon in real world driving, not the city/highway rating of 55 mpg that the government reports.

Go Consumers Union/Consumer Reports Magazine for giving us all a good example of a way to creatively jump into the blogosphere! Looks like it's paying off for the the 69-year old nonprofit!

Late last year, Reigncom put out the iRiver H10, a five-gigabyte HDD model, after 10 months of research and development, to challenge Apple’s iPod mini. Weighing 100 grams and about the size of a business card case, the iRiver H10 can store up to 1,200 songs, 200 more than the iPod mini. It is equipped with a 1.5-inch color liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, so that users can look at digital pictures or read e-books while listening to music. At the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates named the iRiver MP3 player as an outstanding product. Reigncom says its primary goal is to break Apple’s dominance in the MP3 player market.

Piper owns a little business called Hawai’i Rainbow Worms through which she teaches composting workshops to her fellow islanders. Vermicomposting is about letting worms eat your kitchen scraps. Ever the tree-hugger, I’ve been wanting one of those big, plastic backyard composters for a year now, but have been reluctant to spend the 150 bucks to buy one, particularly in a year when I was too busy choosing bridesmaids’ dresses to bathe my dog or dust the furniture, let alone tackle any major landscaping projects. So I was excited to see how a real pro uses worms to turn used paper towels and papaya rinds into rich feed for plants.

Cingular Wireless and Redmond-based AT&T Wireless, which merged late last year to form the nation's largest cellular carrier, together had the worst complaint record in 2004, according to information obtained by Consumers Union and released yesterday.

What's more, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. had the worst complaint record for two consecutive years, according to the data, which was obtained from the Federal Communications Commission through the Freedom of Information Act.

The total number of complaints filed about wireless phone service increased 38 percent: to 29,478 in 2004, from 21,357 in 2003.

"The staggering increase in complaints is further evidence that reform is needed in the wireless phone market so consumers can get a fair shake," said Janee Briesemeister, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, in a prepared statement.

I decided to conduct an experiment. For five working days, I ordered out breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then for the same length of time I prepared all of my meals at home.

In neither case did I eat extravagantly. Dinner on Friday night of the “out” week, for instance, was two slices of cheese pizza ($4), and Friday of the “in” week was rotini pasta with marinara sauce and a salad ($2.42).

The difference in cost was remarkable. In the first week, I spent $83 for takeout and delivery. I spent only half as much to make food at home the next week.

Part of the reason was sales tax. I paid 8.625 percent on most takeout and delivery food but almost nothing for groceries, which are largely tax exempt in most states.

Now consider the irony of the situation. In New York City, Verizon is offering me the ability to buy internet telephony for $30/month through by DSL broadband connection, for which I'm paying $30/month. Now, if as a rational consumer, I now wish to disconnect my analog "old phone" line from Verizon, to save anywhere from $20-30 a month, Verizon is fully empowered under the new FCC rules to disconnect by DSL broadband and internet phone! Talk about a Catch-22 to make Joseph Heller proud!!

Sony has plans to use XMB across their line of consumer electronics products (such as some of their newer TVs) to hopefully create differentiation and hence product margin improvement in an increasingly hyper-competitive consumer electronics market. Can you imagine trying to sell your products at BestBuy? Here’s a row of 20 LCD TVs which all look pretty much the same. Take your pick… as the eye searches to find the cheapest one.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Friday recalled KitchenAid toasters after reports the heating element can suddenly self-start, posing a fire risk.

Whirlpool Corp.of Benton Harbor, Mich.,, was voluntarily recalling both the two-slice and the four-slice models of their KitchenAid ProLine Toasters.

Whirlpool has received three reports of incidents with the toaster unexpectedly self-starting.In one case outside the United States something on top of the toaster caught on fire, but there were no reports of personal injury or property damage.

The toasters, which were sold between August 2003 and January 2005, retailed between $250 and $300.

One Vonage customer has claimed that his calls have been blocked by Clear Wire, Craig McCaw’s fixed wireless start-up. Gerry Salemme, an executive vice president at the Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire, told Advanced Pipeline that “some technologies used by Vonage and other VoIP providers are problematic for wireless networks, versus a wired network.”. Salemme also confessed that he had not read his company’s terms of service. So one cannot take him too seriously. Vonage officials are clearly unhappy. However Clear Wire is not a phone company or a cable operator, so going to FCC isn’t going to help much. As a word of caution, since this is an isolated case, its time to take a little pause … after all one swallow doesn’t make a summer.

The principal expense in maintaining an Endless Pool is the cost of heating the water.

During installation, the pool should be well insulated. We recommend at least 2" of foam insulation board be added to most installations. For additional savings in colder climates, the pool can be super-insulated with up to 6" of rigid foam.

Unfortunately I don't have a "quick" fix for our health care situation. However there are in my view, two main structural problems with health care today, setting aside all issues of medial ethics for the nonce. The first is that the incentives of the current system are all structured wrong. Cost incentives are insulated away the consumer. For the insurance company it is only in the short term interest for them to keep costs down. Long term, for them the higer the costs, the better.

The second problem structural problem is rooted in our limited resources. We have far more capability in our medical technology than we can provide for each patient. Therefore we must ration our care. How? By lot? Or by ability to pay? But how we ration that care is studiously ignored by our politicians and most of our pundits.

Nearly half of all consumers plan to make their next television purchase a high-definition (HDTV) television set, according to a new consumer survey released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) today. The survey results reinforce CEA’s market research projection that total digital television (DTV) unit shipments will surpass analog television sales for the first time in 2005, based on the “digital tuner mandate” issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The first time that dollar sales of digital television surpassed analog television was in 2003.

I went to Electronics Boutique to pick up the PSP. Spoke to the same sales droid as I had on the phone, and she gave me the non-hockey-gamified PSP without a fight. Score one for consumer power! I’ve been playing Ridge Racer on it ever since I got home, and giggling at how ridiculously good it is. No matter how many pictures you see, even on the _box_, when you first take it out, your first impression is *inevitably* “holy crap, this screen is huge”. It’s everything the reviews say it is. I love it.

Nationwide, the cost of auto insurance is expected to rise by just 1.5 percent in 2005, the smallest increase in five years, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

The average cost for auto insurance nationwide for 2005 is estimated at $870, an increase of $13 per vehicle from last year, reports the I.I.I. The projected increase represents a continued slowdown from 2004, when auto insurance costs rose by just 2.8 percent, said Robert Hartwig, senior vice president and chief economist of the I.I.I.

“The price of auto insurance is increasing by little more than one-half the rate of inflation,” Hartwig said. “Many people who, for example, drive safe cars, have excellent safety records and good credit-based insurance scores may see their rates go down.”

Hartwig cited the declining number of auto accidents, safer cars, new auto theft technology and fraud-fighting efforts as key factors behind the trend.

Every time we come up with something we think is *so* cool, our trusty tipsters trump us. Today’s tip: the Vortex hand-crank blender, which some believe is a better product than the Lehman’s one we featured yesterday. We’ll leave that up to you to decide, but here are the Vortex’s vitals: compact add lightweight (it’s base stores in the pitcher for convenience), made of Lexan, two-speed gear system works as an ice crusher or a food processor, and an ergonomic hand-crank. Hee haw. Thanks for the tip Brian B! At $69.95, it’s cheaper, too.

The electronics retailer's new Vex Robotics Design Systems is actually more than just a neato $299 robotics kit for hobbyists. It's intended to fill a gap seen at Segway Inventor Dean Kamen's hugely popular FIRST national high-school science competition. For the uninitiated, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a now 16-year-old program that not only encourages high-school students to learn about science, technology, engineering, and robotics but engages them in regional, national, and even international robotics competitions that resemble major sporting events more closely than science fairs

By purchasing a used car you can save a lot of money. You could buy a model that you may not be able to afford brand new. However, buying a used car is still a bit of a gamble as there is no guarantee that the car has not been in an accident, has real mileage, and was properly maintained. There may be some hidden problems like a worn out automatic transmission, or engine problems that may not have been obvious when you test-drove the car. Here are some essential facts you should consider before buying a second-hand car so you won't regret your decision after your purchase.

Denise Bruner, MD, MPH, FASBP is a specialist in weight loss, and a fellow in the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. She shares one of the major reasons that weight loss scams flourish today: “We live in a society today that wants immediate gratification. This is reflected in our willingness to buy from those that promise ‘instant results’”.

The increasing obesity in our society, and hopes that weight loss can be achieved without lifestyle changes fuels the growth of frauds. Bruner states, “In the U.S., currently 61% of the population is overweight, and the numbers are going up. There’s a huge market out there for weight loss products. After all, it appeals to us to find out that you can ‘Lose 30 pounds in 30 days.’ We don’t want to have to deprive ourselves of our favorite foods, and want something that will ‘magically’ absorb the calories.”

As the technology behind RFID advances, the potential for privacy infringement does as well. A more recent development is a study which reveals that RFID already has the capability to determine the distance of a tag from the reader location. With such technology already available, it is not difficult to imagine a situation in which retailers could determine the location of individuals within their store, and thus target specific advertisements to that customer based upon past purchases. In effect, that store would be creating a personal log of your past purchases, your shopping patterns, and ultimately your behavioral patters. While such information gathering would be considered intrusive enough by many consumer's standards, the danger that such information could be sold to other retailers, (similar to the way such profiles are currently sold regarding internet commerce), could create potentially devastating information vulnerabilities. While some RFID critics have pointed out that the technology could lead to some sort of corporate 'Big Brother' there is a more widespread concern that allowing RFID to develop without legal restrictions will eliminate the possibility for consumers to refuse to give such information to retailers.

Sling Media, Inc., and Texas Instruments (TI) today announced that the companies are working together on the newly introduced Slingbox Personal Broadcaster, the groundbreaking product from Sling Media that won numerous awards at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show. This cooperative effort involves commitments to technology integration from both companies and audio and video technology from Microsoft Corp.

The Slingbox enables consumers to watch their TV programming from wherever they are by turning any networked laptop or desktop PC into a personal TV. The Slingbox redirects, or “placeshifts,” the TV signal from any cable box, satellite receiver or personal video recorder (PVR) to a viewer’s location and device of choice, whether in another room in the home or remotely with a high-speed Internet connection. An elegantly designed compact box that fits neatly into a user’s existing TV setup, the Slingbox will retail for $249 with no monthly service fees. The product is due to ship in the first half of 2005.

Aviva Insurance has announced that it is launching “pay as you go” car insurance in Canada. These types of programs, which have been launched elsewhere, are based on the notion that data collected by a “black box” installed in the car can, if the driver qualifies, entitle the driver to considerable discounts.

Tyler Hamilton reported on the program in The Toronto Star today - details on the Aviva program are in his story, details on others are here, here and here, and discussions of car manufacturer “black box” data collection are here, here, here and here.

Need a new car, or at least a car that is new to us. Saturday we found one that we liked & could afford. That model year has some reliability issues according to the research we did, so the sales guy offered us a bumper-to-bumper warranty & included it in a price that he quoted us.

Tonight we go back there to sign the paperwork, & the finance guy says that the sales guy is new & doesn't know what he's talking about, & that the included warranty is a manufacturer certification only, covering drivetrain only (not the gizmos that break) & that the full warranty we though we'd been promised would cost another $2000.

We walked, of course, but we're somewhat disappointed to have been baited and switched, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Based on my experience, if the sales person promises something, the cashiers should honor it......

Be gentle, I'm the new kid. Engadget Podcast.23 03.21.2005

The need to defend consumer's fair use rights, preserve innovation and redefine the nature of the debate over protecting intellectual property dominated the keynote presentations and panel discussions during the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) new IP and Creativity Conference: Redefining the Issue, held Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The conference attracted more than 200 representatives from the consumer electronics, technology, content creation, broadcasting, video game and cable industries along with top government officials.

The theme of the day was set in the opening keynote delivered by CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "The technology industry, the media and the policymakers, have given the content community a free hand in defining the issues of how technology affects creativity," Shapiro stated. "The content industry has been flexible, clever and ruthless in defining the terms of the debate. I submit it is time we recast the discussion and change the language of the debate."

We still don’t have a refrigerator. The second one that came proved to have case parts that extended beyond the width of our doorways and couldn’t be removed, contrary to what the salesman had told me when I went, tape in hand, to pick out a fridge that would fit. We “fired” that appliance store and are now proceeding with a new two-part plan. First, I’ll get my crowbar and remove some of the trim from the offending doorway so we get another inch or two of room. Second, I think we’ll try Sears. From what our next door neighbor told me, their installers seem likelier to attempt creative solutions to get appliances into rooms.

The Northeast ENERGY STAR Lighting and Appliance Initiative is a coalition of electric utilities and energy efficiency organizations that is coordinated through Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP), based in Lexington, Mass. Participants are committed to increasing education about and the usage of energy efficient lighting and appliance technologies including clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, room air conditioners, dehumidifiers, ceiling fans, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and interior and exterior light fixtures.

"The recognition of the sponsors of the Northeast ENERGY STAR Lighting and Appliance Initiative shows the value of partnerships in helping to increase the availability of and consumer demand for high efficiency products," noted Susan Coakley, executive director of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships. "We're very proud to work with the utilities and energy efficiency program administrators in the Northeast, and with the ENERGY STAR program, to help create a cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy system."

I’ve always found Martha extremely reliable. If you want to, say, clean your refrigerator, someone from her staff will have talked to several major refrigerator manufacturers, people who clean refrigerators for a living and representatives of refrigerator-cleaning products, did every available bit of reading on the subject, tried out different methods on a few dirty refrigerators, then sat down to write advice on the subject that would be difficult to improve on. And anyone who thinks this is counter-feminist is living in some dream world where refrigerators clean themselves.

It's not quite identical to the one in this picture -- it doesn't have turbo so there's no hood scoop, and it doesn't have the picturesque villa or lady -- but it's roughly the same body style, same color, and it has the big sunroof. Moreover, it's basically the same length as the little tiny Neon (which should make it easy to parallel park in Boston), the compartment in the back should be big enough for me to throw my bike in (and if not, it comes with a roof rack), and hopefully the mileage should be a bit better than the Neon was able to manage.

And everything works!

It would have been nice to get something that got better mileage, like a hybrid or diesel, but there's said to be a year long waiting list for the Prius around here, and -- I learned yesterday -- it's currently illegal to sell or register new diesel passenger cars in Massachusetts because they don't meet the California air pollution standards. So much for the french fries & curry bio-diesel daydream...

So, the Subaru it is, and if it holds up, it'll be the Subaru for at least another decade. W00t!

It'll be nice to have a car I actually enjoy for a change... :-)

The only problem with Nyko's decision to release an iPod accessory called the Universal Car Mount ($29.99) is the natural disbelief it inspires: it can't really be universal, right? It probably doesn't work with some iPod, or with some car? Thankfully, we were pleasantly surprised with the answers to both questions: it's a highly compatible and well-built iPod mounting accessory.

This is my Sunbeam toaster, still going strong after over a decade of toastie goodness. Happily handles crumpets and those big slices of bread from the delicious Vienna loaves I sometimes get at the bakery down the road. Yum.

Feel free to post a picture of your toaster… Link in the Trackbacks or comments.

But, my recent visit to eq-life sold me. Being the typical female consumer of a fairly high ticket item, I had:

* asked friends about their experiences with iPods,
* read stories like Michele's,
* done some research online,
* and talked with a few more friends, before I was ready.

The whole MP3 thing is new to me and I wanted to get lots of information and feel fairly comfortable that I would really use it (and make it worth the investment) before I handed over my debit card. It helped that there were no other MP3 players to distract me on the shelves at eq-life (editing product selection at retail stores is counterintuitive, but it really works for some women) and that the sales guy was right there to answer any last minute questions.

After moving to new house in Mountain View, I have to put heavy investment on Sony DVD Recorder, a boom box, toaster, vacuum cleaner, clothes iron and a thermometer for the house. I did not have the chance to research all the various thermometer & hydrometer sensor but I was at a sports shop and they are selling the Oregon Scientic Standard Thermo-Hygrometer with Clock for $39.90. It monitor indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity using wireless sensor. It has atomic clock with 2 alarm and display the min and max temperature and humidity.

My dad proudly told me the history of the toaster as if it were a St. Peter’s thighbone, and how amazed that after more than 30 years, it still worked fine. Sure it was a bit tarnished, but when my dad found that Sunbeam had decided to re-release this toaster (to capture some of the then-popular 50’s-retro demand), my father couldn’t resist and bought a new one. The old toaster was placed in a cardboard coffin and buried with our other relics somewhere in the garage.

About 4 months later, this new toaster broke, and we ended up resurrecting the old toaster from the garage.

Beth from Mutated Monkeys is looking for a car. She commented here that, "If I've learned nothing else today, it's that all of the cars I'm considering have some kind of downside."

She's exactly right. All cars do. Everything is a trade-off: reliability, economy, size, performance, equipment levels, price. So there's always a downside.

If it's big enough, it probably gets bad fuel economy. If it's fast, it probably isn't big. If it's cheap, it likely isn't well-made. And so on. It's a complicated matrix. No auto maker has managed to cover all the points. That would be the perfect car.

Of course, money is the one thing that can be traded-off for gains in all the other areas. Almost always. Some very expensive cars are spacious, fast, reliable, stylish and good in bad weather. Think Lexus LS430, for example. Not my first choice in that segment, but one I've never heard a bad word about.