Recent Comments:
SteelSeries WoW MMO Gaming Mouse makes wasting your life that much easier {Engadget}
Oct 10th 2008 3:50PM Too bad SteelSeries makes really crap drivers. After the Ikari (which is also rather uncomfortable as it's slanted to the left and not the right), I don't think I'd give them another shot.
Verizon prices Motorola Krave ZN4 at $149.99 {Engadget}
Oct 2nd 2008 6:01PM Well, count yourself lucky. In the last 2-3 years many companies have been investigated by various people and organizations including the FTC, Eliot Spitzer (when he was Attorney General) and others, from CA to NY. All, if not most, have settled. Some of the companies are Samsung Electronics America, AT&T/Cingular, CompUSA (hurt them pretty bad), Q.P.S. Inc, Soyo Inc, and InPhonic among others.
Cingular/AT&T advertised rebates but sent out Visa "rewards" cards instead of checks (without mentioning this), which were bogged down by long stipulations about use. A federal court in CA ruled against them and stated that the cards were worth less than cash or checks since they couldn't be used as freely (Faigman v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 2007 WL 2088561 (N.D. Cal. July 18, 2007).) . Meanwhile, InPhonic's rebate policy required claims to be filed between 120 and 180 days *after* purchase. They were investigated by the D.C. AG's office and went bankrupt. Then you have gems like these:
"Samsung Electronics America [...] agreed to pay $200,000 to 4,100 consumers who were denied rebates because they lived in apartment buildings."
"In September [2007], Dean Takahashi, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, discovered over 1,300 unopened rebate requests in the dumpster of a San Jose rebate-processing company."
"Last year [2006], a rebate company called Parago, which handles rebates for electronics retailer Circuit City, applied for (and received) a patent for its rebate-processing system. Parago described the system as specifically designed to induce a large amount of breakage [unfulfilled rebates]."
That's just a small sampling of the kind of stuff going on in this industry. And all this sounds legit to you?
Verizon prices Motorola Krave ZN4 at $149.99 {Engadget}
Oct 2nd 2008 3:33PM It's $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Since most rebates don't go through, it's really $200 with a 2 year contract.
Win a Magellan Roadmate 1400 satnav and 'Baja: Edge of Control' for the Xbox 360! {Engadget}
Sep 30th 2008 6:05AM Well, here is my hat. It is now in the ring.
Chevy Volt's powertrain and recharging clarified {Engadget}
Sep 27th 2008 2:39AM Not only that, but it's a common misconception that you should dump then fully recharge a Li-ion battery. That actually cause it to degrade faster.
Chevy Volt's powertrain and recharging clarified {Engadget}
Sep 27th 2008 2:34AM @Larryx3
Because that's not actually true.
"Contrary to some recommendations, these batteries actually last longest if the battery is not fully charged; fully charging and discharging them will degrade their capacity relatively quickly. Degradation occurs faster at higher temperatures. Lithium batteries degrade more while fully charged than if it is only 40% charged. [...] Degradation in lithium-ion batteries is caused by an increased internal battery resistance due to cell oxidation. This decreases the efficiency of the battery, resulting in less net current available to be drawn from the battery."
I stole that from Wikipedia because it words it better than I can.
Verizon training schedule hints at BlackBerry Storm / Touch Diamond release dates {Engadget}
Sep 26th 2008 2:24PM It's a separator thing.
Judge declares mistrial in RIAA filesharing case, sets aside $222,000 verdict {Engadget}
Sep 25th 2008 5:50PM One of the things that sticks out the most to me about these cases, is that the fine PER SONG can go up to $150,000 USD. Meanwhile, the actual value of a song is 1-2 dollars. So then, why is this not being heavily reported on and seen as a major step against this sort of lunacy:
"While the court does not discount plaintiffs' claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by plaintiffs. Thomas allegedly infringed on the copyrights of 24 songs -‐ the equivalent of approximately three CDs, costing less than $54, and yet the total damages awarded is $222,000 – more than 500 times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and more than 4,000 times the cost of three CDs." - Judge Davis
New Optimus Aux shots show a sexier vision {Engadget}
Sep 19th 2008 7:54PM Well, the price hasn't been released yet. However, the Maximus has 113 displays, and the Aux has 15. 113/15 = ~7.4. Then you take the price of the Maximus and divide that by 7.4, and you get ~250 bucks. So while that might not be the price, it looks like it will be in the 100-300 dollar range. Any higher and it would be a complete rip-off.
Microsoft's "I'm a PC" ad gently alights upon the airwaves {Engadget}
Sep 19th 2008 4:14PM Really? Refreshing? Not insulting your intelligence?
I'm sorry but I just don't see it. To me this comes off as manufactured outrage, similar to recent (and incredibly dumb) "lipstick on a pig" thing. They're trying to say "oh no, Apple is insulting PC users by calling them all dumb and ineffectual!" How is this refreshing, and how is it respecting your intelligence? It's expecting you to be dumb enough to buy into this staged outrage bit they have going on.
I would hope that people realize the Mac ads feature human representations of the computers, not of computer users. They're saying "Windows is boring and buggy, and everyone hates Vista!", which is harping on the use of Windows machines as office computers (ignoring the gaming aspect of Windows and the multimedia aspects, but not many people do that at work, and many adults don't really play games). And for those of you who think the MS ad is doing the same thing that Apple ads do, please tell me which one of your computers has a beard.
And to clear up any false ideas, I own 3 Windows based PCs and no Macs.
