NEW YORK, 5:31 AM, SAT JUL 19 | 19 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@consumerist.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

Creative

class action

Get Half Off New Mp3 Player In Creative MP3 Player Class Action

If you bought a Creative MP3 player in the past seven years, you may be eligible under a proposed class action settlement to get a new Creative MP3 player for 50% off or a 20% off certificate for anything at Creative's online store. The suit alleges that Creative marketed its mp3 players as having 7% more storage capacity than it actually had. Anyone who bought a Creative MP3 player from any US store between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 is part of the class. Claim forms can be found here. (Thanks to Kevin!)

backlash

Creative Backs Down, Reinstates Spurned Developer

Creative Labs heard your chest-beating across the internet and decided to reinstate spurned developer Daniel_K less than a week after booting him from their forums. Unlike Creative, Daniel_K issued drivers that allowed Creative sound cards to work properly under Vista, and even enabled previously crippled features. The drivers were downloaded over 100,000 times. The company thanked the developer by accusing him of "enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, [in] effect, stealing our goods." Even though he has been reinstated, Daniel_K is still pissed. More »

Here's how the Newegg email address was spoofed on the Creative forum over the weekend: Creative has a security protocol in place where you have to verify your email address before you can post. However, after you publish a post you can go back and change your address to anything you like. You won't be able to verify the spoofed address and therefore won't be able to post anything new—but anything you already posted will now display the spoofed address. Maybe you can get Daniel_K to fix your forum boards, Creative. (Thanks to Jawaad!)

backlash

Creative Sparks Customer Revolt When It Tries To Silence Third-Party Programmer

Creative's executive team will be coming in to quite a mess Monday morning, thanks to its VP of Screw Ups, Phil O'Shaughnessy. Friday morning, he posted a warning on the Creative customer forums that told programmer Daniel_K to stop writing his own drivers for their X-Fi sound cards. The cards still won't work on Vista over a year after the OS was released, because Creative hasn't released drivers for them—but by Mr. O'Shaughnessy's account, Daniel_K is "stealing" from Creative by making the cards work. Then the weekend happened. More »

error

Adobe's DRM Fails "Catastrophically."

In a stunning bout of honesty, Adobe's licensing subsystem would like you to know that it has managed to fail "catastrophically." More »

csrs

Geeks.com Sells MP3 Player Without Manual. CSR: "You won't need one."

Reader Sarah expected to receive a manual and software with the Creative Zen Micro she ordered from Geeks.com, but received neither. When she called to complain, a CSR told her the following:
"Oh, don't even worry about that. These are SO easy to use, you won't need a manual! I mean, if you had bought some cheap piece of Chinese crap, we would have had to supply a manual. But the Creative players are GREAT. You won't need one."
Sarah's full email, after the jump. More »

creative

Flyer's Rights Protest Involves Airplane Themed Tent, Smelly Portable Toilets

The Coalition For A Passenger's Bill of Rights cracks us up. They went to D.C. and erected an airplane-themed tent complete with smelly portable toilets in an attempt to recreate the feel of a real-life tarmac imprisonment. More »

creative

Creative Advertises FM Radio Recording, Kindly Revokes It

If you tell someone you bought a Creative mp3 player, chances are their first question to you is going to be, "Why didn't you just buy an iPod?" Pay these people no mind: they are Apple zealots and will burn in hell. After all, an iPod doesn't let you record FM radio on the fly, does it? 'Ey? More »

microsoft

Microsoft DRMifies Your Own Music

You might have caught the Zune swoon in the blogosphere last week. For those who didn't catch it, Zune is Microsoft's planned iPod-killer: a device that is as often nifty (built in WiFi that allows you to share music with friends on the go) as it is underwhelming (30 gig hard drive, max.) More »

mp3s

Pranking Solicitors Into Endless Telemarketing Loop

Creative Bastard blogger set up an extension on his phone line to route telemarketers to. It plays a loop of his voice being "highly interested" in the rep's offer, with the goal being to keep the t-marketer on the line as long as possible. More »

mp3

Creative Sues Apple, Claims They Created MP3 Menus

Could patent law be any more absurd? Perhaps we're on the wrong end of it, but it seems that the only tangible result of modern patent law is a string of nuisance lawsuits in which one company attempts to rob consumers of a product they enjoy by suing a company that has made an ostensibly similar competing device. Re: Blackberry. But now, Creative vs. Apple. More »

ipod

How DRM Affects Battery Life

With all the furor over DRM lately, CNet asked itself the simple question, "How does DRM affect battery life on your iPod?" As you might expect, the answer is — badly. More »

deals

Morning Deals Round-Up

• If you are actually going to buy an MP3 player that isn't an iPod, Best Buy has a promotion that gives you a free $50 gift card with the purchase—excluding iPods. The Sandisk Sansa 512MB player is just $100, for instance. More »