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GameFly files further complaints against US Postal Service
Back in April, video game rental service GameFly filed a formal complaint against the United States Postal Service for supposedly offering preferential treatment and care to Netflix and Blockbuster parcels, and none to its equally fragile mailers. Now, GameFly is petitioning for information relating to "Netflix-only" drop boxes present in certain post offices. Though the USPS filed a directive to employees two years ago mandating that these boxes be taken down to avoid legal ramifications, GameFly presented photo evidence of Netflix slots remaining in two California post offices. GameFly has also continued its original complaint, claiming parcels from larger DVD rental services were being manually sorted to prevent damage and breakage. The USPS responded with a curt "all DVD mailers are not equal," and suggested that GameFly update its disc packaging to better protect its product. When asked for comment on the complaint, a GameFly representative said, "Unfortunately, we cannot comment as it is a legal matter." [Update: For visual aid, we've received the above image from a reader whose post office most certainly does sort Netflix and Blockbuster DVDs separately. He said they don't include GameFly DVDs because the rate at which encounter them "is much lower." Well, look at that.] [Via GamePolitics]
Chrysler aims to produce all-electric USPS pimpmobiles... er, minivans
Have a look at that sweet piece up above and just imagine your mail being carted around inside. Go ahead, we'll wait. If Chrysler has its druthers (and stays afloat long enough to make good on its good intentions), it'll soon be producing a fleet of all-electric Town and Country minivans for the United States Postal Service. The automaker has voiced its plans to apply for a federal grant in order to get things moving, though it will be looking to utility companies Duke Energy and ConEd to make it all come together. If all goes well, the vans produced will have a range of around 40 miles, though it's expected that they will have a gasoline-powered motor on board in case that last overnight package requires just a few more miles. 'Course, there's no guarantee that the application will result in a grant, but for all those who appreciate comedy, we can only hope it flies though in record time.
GameFly files formal complaint against USPS over breakage rates, preferential treatment
GameFly has filed a formal complaint with the United States Postal Service over breakage rates and preferential treatment for its competitors, reports Shacknews. The company claims that the USPS has "adopted a practice of manually culling out the DVD mailers of two high-volume shippers of DVDs, Netflix and Blockbuster, for special processing." The company states that when it requested the same treatment that it was denied.GameFly stated that in-transit breakage -- which it claims is about 1% -- still occur, despite the company's efforts to reduce that by using cardboard protectors and "tests with larger mailers." The company has also experienced "substantial rates" of disc theft, but the USPS has cracked down on that, with the arrest of 19 USPS employees. GameFly even changed its mailer color from bright orange to a very plain white years ago to reduce theft.When approached by Joystiq regarding the situation, GameFly responded with "no comment."
Netflix Blu-ray movies showing up cracked and unplayable?
That's the word, with a small but vocal group of subscribers claiming their discs are repeatedly arriving with small cracks on their outer edges. It's unclear what might be to blame, even with the extra coating to prevent scratches on Blu-ray, they could still be susceptible to automated mail processing machines, manufacturing defects or perhaps a spontaneous game of mail Frisbee. The Mars Box blog experienced this issue back in '07 with the disc pictured above, but in the last few months reports seem to be picking up again. It's really too bad those extra costs can't buy tougher packaging like the cardboard slips GameFly uses, but Netflix told Wired the problem is "infinitesimally small" and changing shipping wouldn't be cost effective. We know plenty of you rent your discs, let us know, have you been afflicted?[Via Hacking Netflix]Read - The Mars BoxRead - WiredRead - AVS Forum
Authenticators are going out, via USPS
We had heard that there were problems with the Blizzard Authenticator (a few people who'd ordered them had gotten their money refunded by Blizzard), but apparently there are at least a few going out. Mania got hers -- she says that it works great, that she has already associated it with her accounts, and that she's thrilled with her purchase.Not everybody is so lucky -- reader Tweaky emailed us to say that his order was supposed to go out UPS Next Day Air, but after it didn't show up and he had a tussle with Customer Support, he then found out it was actually going through the USPS and that it would show up late. No word on whether he's seen his yet or not. A few people commented on our last post that they actually had shipping returned to them, so maybe Blizzard originally planned to send some UPS, and then had to switch to a cheaper mailing method.At this point, Blizzard has the keyfob sold out on their website, and there's no indication when we'll see any more (soon, probably). It appears that not only did they vastly underestimate demand for the Authenticator, but that people are seriously concerned about the security of their World of Warcraft account. No other game company has ever offered anything like this before, but given the response, it could soon become a standard.
The US Postal Service wants your useless junk
The US Postal Service may soon become very relevant to a generation which seems increasingly disinterested in physical mail. The USPS is launching a pilot program in ten cities and 1,500 post offices which hopes to aid in the fight against electronic waste. Come rain, sleet, snow, or any other violent natural occurrence, the post office will now allow you to mail used printer ink cartridges, PDAs, MP3 players, and other small electronics to Clover -- a company which recycles the castoff hunks of metal and plastic -- free of charge. You can feel pretty good about utilizing the new service too, as Clover is a "zero landfill" company, which means they do everything they can to avoid making more waste. Now, if the postal service can just do something about these old TVs that need hauling...
GPS Letter Logger promises to keep tabs on mail
It looks like the United States Postal Service is considering all its options for how it handles mail in the future, with it even go so far as to commission a GPS tracking system from TrackingTheWorld Inc. Among other things, the USPS apparently required the system to be able to report the position of a piece of mail at customizable time intervals, record down time, and interface with Google Earth, not to mention fit in a standard size envelope. From the looks of it, it appears that TrackingTheWorld managed to meet all those considerations, producing a system that's just a quarter of an inch thick and the size of a tri-folded piece of paper. What's more, the system also boasts a microSD card slot that allows for "future extended tracking missions," and it includes a slim 1100mAh battery that promises to last for 20 hours in a timed configuration, or up to two weeks in "tilt mode," which only kicks the system into gear when a tilting movement is detected. According to the company, the so-called "Letter Logger" should be ready by February of next year, although it obviously won't be available to the general public. You can always build your own mail tracking system though.
USPS goes postal with R2D2 mailboxes
Who knew the United States Postal Service could feel the Force? In honor of Star Wars' 30th anniversary, these kick-ass R2D2-wrapped mailboxes will be replacing the old boring ones in post offices across the nation. Star Wars lovers / haters can say whatever they like -- we're just glad this has nothing to do with Jar Jar Binks.[Via Boing Boing]
Widget Watch: the Jack of All Widgets
The Jack of All Widgets widget could perhaps be better named as the Jack of All Searches. It allows quick access to what I would guess is around 50 different searches and services, including Amazon, gas prices, people searches, package tracking (including the only widget I know of that searches the USPS), lyrics, weather and more. It's description page at Apple's download site says it starts up Safari to display search results, but with my experience it simply starts your default browser.The Jack of All Widgets widget is freeware and available from Apple's download page.
Actress talks to gamer about WoW dedication
The guys at LiquidGeneration went a step beyond stalking an actress and actually scored an interview with the WoW-playing USPS ad girl.Felicia Day is best known in TV circles as the potential slayer "Vi" during the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but she also found a bit of notoriety as "Angie," the USPS-usin' woman for a Postal Service ad campaign. All we're interested in, of course, is her love of Ultima VII, Link (over Mario and Undead Warlocks), and 5 man Strat runs for her Level 60 Gnome Warlock.Maybe it's not the greatest revelation since Dave Chappelle showed some knowledge of the MMO, but many male gamers still manage to find a way of expressing shock that a beautiful woman (especially one who's found a measure of success in Hollywood) enjoys an online raid or two. We're just glad that an actress is willing to be upfront about her love of games--even she sometimes uses it to avoid talking about bad auditions.[Thanks, James]
