Reports by Consumers

Harmony Remote's SST-768 universal remote control uses Smart State Technology, pioneered by Intrigue Technologies, to control your home theater devices through commands focused on activities rather than on the devices themselves. Just scroll through the Harmony's screen and click with the convenient thumb wheel to choose an activity such as "watch television" or "watch a DVD," then let the SST-768 figure out how to configure your entertainment system for your desired activity--you don't have to first program the device with complicated macros.

“…in the past firms have mostly resisted customer innovation or not known what to do with it. American farmers were lobbying manufacturers to make cars with detachable back seats as early as 1909. It took Detroit more than a decade to “invent” the pick-up truck. Even now, carmakers respond to customer modifications such as performance-exhaust systems by voiding the warranty. Within three weeks of launching “Mindstorms”, a build-it-yourself robot development system, in 1997, Lego was facing around 1,000 hackers who had downloaded its operating system, vastly improved it, and posted their work freely online. After a long stunned silence, Lego appears to have accepted the merits of this community's work: programs written in hacker language may now be uploaded to the Mindstorms website, for example.”

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261."

A few states and municipalities offer tax credits and other financial incentives to developers of green buildings or buyers of green products, such as efficient clothes washers and water heaters, that might go into such buildings. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Oregon are among states that offer significant green building tax credits. Also, a growing number of local municipalities offer incentives for green building.

In November 2001 the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of two State Farm customers who asserted that wrecked cars are worth less simply because they have been wrecked — no matter how expertly they're repaired — and that insurers are liable to pay the difference. Because of that ruling, all auto insurers in Georgia must now pay diminished value claims. In January 2002, Allstate settled a similar class action case in Georgia, agreeing to pay Georgia policyholders a total of $59 million for the diminished value of their cars repaired...

Albright says that in several flood-damaged cars his group has seen, a vehicle's entire electrical system was damaged and the insurance company did not total the vehicle. Instead, insurers paid for repairs to "substantial portions" of the electrical systems. "The problem is that this type of work is almost always done at a dealership, which identifies the vehicle in a nationwide computer network as a flood-damaged vehicle. The resale value of that vehicle immediately plummets to pennies on the dollar," he says.

While I'm on the thought of home entertainment and geekiness. I didn't buy an integrated home entertainment system. Each component, stereo, TV, DVD player, satellite/TiVo receiver were all acquired separately. I have worked at the connections and layout until its at the point where I only need 3 remotes and everything runs through my stereo, both sound and video. All of my video is digital except for the video game consoles (and I expect the next generation of them to be digital too). All of my sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and/or DTS running across...

Apart from the charities I have mentioned (of which there are so many more but I mentioned the ones here as an introduction) and writing to your local member of government, there are other ways in which you can reduce the amount of animal testing that goes on. By buying organic you are reducing the amount of revenue that goes to agrochemical testing on animals. Other ways include buying cruelty free cosmetics, household products etc. Investing your money in ethical companies/ financial institutions, although this is not always transparent with regards...

Nokia announced plans to patch the holes in their handhelds, and has now released details on when those updates will be available”.

Fannie Mae “provides financial products and services that make it possible for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families to buy homes of their own,” according to their website.

They have a lender search tool that lets you search the Fannie Mae-approved lenders by state.

On the balance, we are witnessing the demise of the PDA as a separate device. That is what the numbers show in the field of consumer electronics. Within a few years, those who can afford to purchase a PDA will buy a smartphone that can its special content into hard drive space provided by the networks.

Including a CD player in every car was probably a pretty good idea seven years ago, but that was before portable music playing devices became fashionable again. Remember those tape deck adapters you had to use just so you could enjoy your favorite CDs instead of hastily creating a bunch of mix tapes? Now in most cars you don't have access to a tape deck, and so the FM transmitter becomes the solution.

…Macs are less expensive. That’s not what you see in the PC press, but it’s reality. The explanation for that, besides dishonesty on the part of PC reviewers going as far back as 1984, is primarily that Apple’s product cycles resemble those of other consumer electronics manufacturers, not those of the PC industry.

Sony is supporting Blu-ray disc technology along with most consumer electronics makers including Samsung and Matsushita.

This colorful toaster will brighten up your mornings as you are toasting breakfast. With oozing personality, they are decorated in bright stripes, flowers and cowprint.

ZDNet has word that Tivo is in talks with Google and Yahoo over a deal that could bring search to TV.

One scenario that's been discussed would see TiVo partner with Google or Yahoo on a new service that would let consumers search for videos on the Web and then watch them on their television sets, according to one person with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second person familiar with the talks said TiVo has held talks with both Google and Yahoo about a potential equity investment, including the possibility of an outright acquisition.

I put off purchasing a TiVo for as long as possible, even in the face of the rave reviews of friends, because I feared it would increase my TV watching habits dramatically. That didn’t happen - the quality and not the quantity increased, but it did make TV watching feel like more of a chore and a responsibility; I worried that if I didn’t keep pace with the recordings, I would lose the chance to watch what I wanted. Still, I wouldn’t trade my TiVo for anything. It has become an absolute necessity, in the same way that once color...

On or around September 25, 2004, I registered my Kryptonite locks with their product recall program. (September 25 is when I first got email from them, anyway.) On November 14, I received email containing a “Trans. Id” number, and on November 20 they sent me a prepaid UPS shipping label. I packed up my two locks and shipped them the next day.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard cut fees for their recycling programs this week in advance of Friday's Earth Day observance.

Tech companies have come under growing pressure in the past few years to address the growing mounds of dangerous waste created by outdated computer hardware. Gear such as monitors and circuit boards are full of hazardous chemicals that can leach into the soil and groundwater if dumped into landfills. Groups such as the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative have successfully pushed computer makers to responsibly recycle more and more of their obsolete goods.

HP announced Thursday that it was temporarily cutting in half the fees it charges customers to recycle old computer hardware. The promotion runs though May 31 and works in conjunction with a rebate program that gives customers as much as $50 off the price of new HP equipment if they recycle old gear through the company.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) granted a petition for a new standard for home refrigerators in a letter released yesterday. The petition, submitted by a diverse coalition including state governments, utility companies, consumer and low-income advocacy groups, and environmental and energy efficiency organizations, requested that DOE commence a rulemaking to strengthen an existing national standard.

"We are very pleased DOE has granted our petition," said Steven Nadel, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). "DOE's action recognizes the enormous energy and dollar savings at stake in making home refrigerators more efficient."

"It is encouraging that DOE has granted our petition," said Mel Hall-Crawford, Energy Projects Director for Consumer Federal of America (CFA). "Refrigerators are a major consumer appliance. We look forward to a process that clearly looks at establishing strong, cost effective energy efficiency standards for residential refrigerators that will benefit consumers."

Manual transmissions are usually more fun to drive, cheaper to buy and maintain, and offer improved performance and fuel economy versus automatic transmissions. Yet many cars are only offered with an automatic, and their numbers are growing. This site has been created to entertain and educate dedicated standard shifters and the curious alike.

Interested in learning how to drive a car with a manual transmission? See the F.A.Q.. The buying guide lists all of the new cars and trucks that come with a manual transmission in the American market. In the press links you to a forum section on stories and articles about automobiles.

The campaign, “Recycle My Cell Phone” aims to make recycling cell phones, PDAs, and pagers as easy as recycling bottles, paper, and cans! It’s simple, easy and free to recycle your cell phone. Just go to the website and print out a postage paid mailing label; put your old cell phones, PDA’s, beepers and chargers into a box, tape the label on it, and give to your mail carrier.

The driving factor behind my wife’s purchase of the device was the large catalog of medical software available for Palms and the ubiquity of the devices in her hospital. She’s a medical student, and has seen the use of PDAs (mostly Palm) become pervasive enough for her to feel like she’s missing the boat if she doesn’t have one. She also wanted to be able to deal with her email and do some IM on breaks during her longer rotations.

It’s also worth mentioning the hypocrisy of AARP’s deriding diversified bond and stock investment as too “risky” in other ads, while at the same time profiting by putting its brandname on various investment funds of its own. AARP sells 38 mutual funds, and makes north of $300 million annually by such co-branding of financial products.

Sony is the main backer of Blu-ray Disc, a format that has picked up the support of many major consumer electronics makers, while HD-DVD counts NEC and Toshiba as its main backers. Both formats have been designed to hold high-definition movies, and both are being promoted as a replacement for current DVD-Video, which cannot support high-definition TV.

Broadcasters are reluctant to have their customers' screens go blank. Consumer electronics firms, on the other hand, are delighted to replace all those 284 million analog units with slick, flat panel and HD-ready digital sets. (The CE people point out that digital TV sales are booming, with some 20 million units expected in 2005, but a new digital divide is clearly on the horizon.)

Upstart automakers in China are making blatant copies of vehicles like the Honda CR-V and Nissan Frontier - and one company, Geely, is building small economy cars that look like three-quarters-scale Mercedes-Benzes.

Which is probably the most encouraging thing for western economies competing with the Chinese juggernaut. China is still a component producer rather than a finished product supplier. The Chinese don't have so much as a toehold in western consumer markets for any big ticket items. When we start seeing American showrooms being flooded with Chinese TVs and cars (because they're good stuff), then we should all commence serious worrying.

Did you ever want for the ability to turn your lights on and off. Have full control (Play, Stop, Pause, Menu) of your DVD player, TIVO, and High Def TV, all wirelessly from your PSP? If so, click on this link:

We found this blog entry on how to port your Tivo to Go programming to your PSP (scroll to near the bottom of the page to read your PSP requirements).

Spring clean with a conscience and recycle your old or unwanted cell phones for a good cause.

With the highest owner satisfaction of any 2005 model, according to an owner survey by Consumer Reports magazine, few Prius owners will part with their cars. But some will -- for a price.

Ad Age . Consultancy firm Accenture which claims on demand and ad skipping will cost the television industry $27 billion over the next five years. Additionally, the company reports 70 percent of DVR users already skip ads and that DVR penetration will hit 40 percent by 2009.

Ben Edelman knows a lot about the lawyers and money part. He’s a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard School of Economics and a student at Harvard Law, and a frequent commentator on Internet-related legal issues.

He wrote me this morning to comment on my post, in which I noted that when I downloaded and installed the Kazaa-Skype bundle yesterday, I obtained more than 2,500 adware files.

Ben sent a link to an artice he wrote, in which he notes that in their license document, one of the leading spyware hitchikers on Kazaa-Skype downloads fails to list anti-spyware utilities as an authorized means of removing their files from your PC.

He quotes: "You agree that you will not use, or encourage others to use, any unauthorized means for the removal of the GAIN AdServer, or any GAIN-Supported Software from a computer."

It all about me(TV). ipTV, P2P, PVR/DVR's, and VOD

Someday, ads will find their way into (or around) video on demand (VOD) or internet protocol television (IPTV) or digital video recorders (DVR). These non-linear television vehicles are also equipped to provide targeted advertising. One question is this: will advertisers use the context of the video to guess at who is watching or will it be necessary to use a demographic profile of the viewer to determine which ad is relevant?

This is an idea that transcends VOD, IPTV, or the DVR. In fact, even for digital cable today it would not surprise me if Comcast and Time Warner Cable started selling commercials to the set top box instead of to the show. In that way, no matter what each viewer’s tastes are or what mood they are in that night, the targeted message would still be shown.

Today we stopped out at the local Comcast office and traded in one of our digital cable boxes for the new DVR capable box. Got it all hooked up and activated in just a few minutes and have been happily pausing, rewinding and recording live TV all afternoon!

There are certainly things Tivo can do that this box from Motorola doesn't, but for $9.95 a month without having to buy a box up front, it's not a bad deal at all. I'm figuring this is our way to ease into DVR, after 6 months to a year of this we'll be ready to upgrade to the newest Tivo offering to get all the extra features.

ParkScan "is a project of San Francisco's Neighborhood Parks Council.It presents volunteers and the public with user-friendly tools to help monitor park conditions and help improve maintenance in San Francisco's neighborhood parks". Further "park groups and volunteer observers rate park conditions using handheld computers,specialized forms and digital cameras. Their observations help managing agencies improve park maintenance".

My theory? Bespoke everything. The tech pretty much exists to have anything and everything custom fabricated at a price nearly in line with mass-manufactured products. Once we move beyond micro-brands to designing, producing and consuming everything on a personal level, I suppose the only brands worth talking about will be which fab shops have the best pricing, turnaround, tech support and customer service.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to design their own socks and toasters etc, so there'll still be room for exceptional designs from people like Philippe Starke, or whoever. On the other hand, when 200,000 *have* designed their own toaster, I wouldn't be surprised to see open source and file sharing of product design specs flood the bulk of the market. Whether these will be free or just really cheap is up for grabs. Probably both.

One of the best means of avoiding exposure to house- hold hazardous materials is to use safer alternatives whenever possible. Included in this section are time- honored recipes and suggestions to help you make the switch toward safer household products. Ingredients followed by instructions will guide you through an array of easy-to-make, easy-to-use safer alternatives. Some ingredients recommended as alternatives are safer, but not nontoxic.These...

• Eighty-one percent of owners say they “like” or “love” using their TiVo/DVR, while 78% of owners say they “like” or “love” using their iPod.

Not to be outdone by frying pans that explode when you use them for frying, Nature's Finest Candles has issued a product recall because the candles catch fire when you light them.

This is not to be confused with birthday candles that catch fire and explode.

The company said its new Tungsten E2 will sell for $249 and is available now. The Tungsten E, which it replaces, was at the low end of its Tungsten series of PDAs, which were aimed at power users and enterprises.

Portable devices completely dominate - 90% of the students on campus have laptops, and 98% of the incoming class of 2007 purchased wi-fi equipped laptops. Wi-fi PDAs are everywhere. Someone at dinner at the conference actually complained about the poor connectivity on his Blackberry and was wishing for wi-fi instead! One generation from now, you will hear the phrase, "Daddy, what’s a desktop computer?"» »

» Location based services emerge - Students here are already running calendar applications that alert them of their next appointment based on their current location and estimated travel time. People can walk up to a printer and hit "print," with the computer automatically routing the job to the physically closest printer. At UCSD, students with PDAs can see each other walking around campus, projected on real time maps and offer to get together, go eat, etc..»

All major tax preparation firms do offer e-file, but “rapid refunds” and similar products (yes, as in financial products) are really just high-interest loans. Here’s how it works.

Identity theft is the new crime of the information age.

A criminal collects enough personal data on someone to impersonate a victim to banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions. Then he racks up debt in the person's name, collects the cash and disappears. The victim is left holding the bag. While some of the losses are absorbed by financial institutions--credit card companies in particular--the credit-rating damage is borne by the victim. It can take years for the victim to clear his name.

Unfortunately, the solutions being proposed in Congress won't help.

Most major gas or electric appliances such as refrigerators, washers and dryers require special servicing to ensure safe transportation. All parts should be professionally secured prior to transport. Gas appliances in particular need professional disconnection and reconnection.>

Customers earn points towards the purchase or lease of GM vehicles, and GM says more than 4 million GM cars have been bought or leased by Rewards customers since the card was launched.

Giving Hybrids A Real Jolt. Suggests that future hybrids will be mostly electric cars, for most day to day, in-city travel, and switch to gas power only on longer trips.

What if Opra invited Harry Potter and Pokemon on to her show to explain how to use a Macintosh, an iPod, Voice Over IP, Bluetooth, Skype, and Vonage? SURELY it would be a hit episode?