Chantell bought a Droid and has been stuck in a hamster wheel of hell trying to get a phone that works. Her original Droid didn’t work, and that was replaced with an issue-plagued refurb. Now she either has to buy a new Droid or give up her phone while she awaits another replacement. [More]
Target Is Out Of PrePaid AT&T Cards, So How About Some WalkieTalkies?
By December 29, 2009
Reader David spotted this odd suggestion on Christmas Eve at his local Target. Not the most practical idea they’ve ever had, but then again: Target is crazy. [More]
This Verizon Store Provides Weird Repair Services
By December 21, 2009
Some Motorola Droid phones are having problems with the battery cover coming off too easily. That’s what was happening to Chris’ Droid, so he and his girlfriend brought it into a Verizon store in Pleasant Hill, CA. His girlfriend brought along her defective enV Touch for service as well.
When they left, Chris had a sticker stuck to the back of his Droid, and his girlfriend was told to stop wearing makeup because makeup ruins the enV Touch.
Recent Class Action Settlement Roundup
By December 13, 2009
Motorola handsets, cell phone ringtones, BP propane, Sony VAIO laptops, and the hormone replacement medication Estratest: if you purchased any of these items, you could be eligible for some recently settled class actions. Are you? Well, there’s only one way to find out. [More]
New Droid Ad Goes For iPhone Jugular, Misses
By December 8, 2009
A new ad for the Verizon Motorola Droid tries to savage the iPhone for being more concerned with looking good than working great. Does it work? [More]
Cheap Package Design Tricks People Into Dropping Motorola Droid On Floor
By November 23, 2009
The Motorola Droid is a sweet phone, but the box it comes in is a case study in bad package design. Where every other gadget these days comes in boxes with lids, or boxes designed to be opened in a specific manner, the Droid box can easily be opened so that the brand new phone falls to the floor.
Chart Compares Total Cost Of Ownership For Popular Smartphones
By October 30, 2009
You may think that buying an iPhone with AT&T service is an expensive commitment, and you’d be right. But as this chart from BillShrink shows, your total cost of ownership (TCO) for any of the latest smartphones is going to exceed 2 grand over a 24-month period. In fact, the highly-praised new Motorola Droid on Verizon works out to exactly the same TCO as the latest iPhone.
Meet the DROID, the Latest Chance For Verizon Owners To Express Their iPhone Envy
By October 29, 2009
Motorola and Verizon revealed the mystery device behind its iCan’t ad campaign — the DROID, a 3G phone with a 5 megapixel camera, its own app store, a 16gb memory card packed in and a QWERTY keyboard.
Study Rates Cell Phones By Radiation Emitted
By September 9, 2009
The jury is still out on whether cell-phone radiation is something consumers should worry about. Scientists disagree on whether the low levels emitted are enough to cause brain tumors or other health problems in the long-term. Nevertheless, the Environmental Working Group has analyzed radiation emissions from 1,268 cell phones to see how the levels stand up against government standards.
Morning Deals
By July 29, 2008
- Amazon: Lego sale. 50% off 8 Different Items
- Walgreens: 6 Sharpies for $2 (in-store only)
- eforcity: iPod/iPhone charging cable for $7.99 (down from $43.99)
- DealExtreme: iPod/iPhone charging cable for $3.46
- Woot: It’s a woot-off!
Highlights From Dealhack
- Best Buy: Dynex DX-LCD32 32-inch LCD HDTV $490
- Tiger Direct: Unlocked Motorola RAZR V3 GSM Cell Phone $100
- Buy.com: Kodak Z1285 12 Megapixel Digital Camera $90 Shipped
CEOs Who Lost Their Jobs Talk About What Went Wrong
By June 6, 2008
Fortune’s new article “Lessons of the fall” is interesting and entertaining for two reasons. First, it humanizes brings a human face to the usually remote CEO, in this case the exes at Motorola, Starbucks, and Jet Blue. But more important if you’re a wage slave who can admit to a little schadenfreude, it describes how each man was fired from his job. Former Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, who’s in his fifties, says the hardest thing was letting his mother know:
Motorola Flip-Flops On Flap Failure
By April 25, 2008
When reader Stuart bought his Motorola Razr V3XX, he was pleased with the phone but could not understand why the tiny flap covering the charger port was held in place by only 2 fragile plastic hinges. As if channeling the spirit of Nostradamus, Stuart made a startling prediction: This flimsy flap will fail. And it did. Twice. The first time, Motorola happily sent Stuart a new flap. But when the flap failed again 8 months later, Motorola unleashed a volley of red tape that left Stuart stuck. Stuart’s letter and Motorola’s response inside…
By April 4, 2008
2,600 Motorola employees got an early termination notice today, bringing the total number of Motoworkers disemployed in the past 15 months to 10,000. [Chicago Tribune via DSLReports]
By February 1, 2008
Motorola may stop making cellphones after all its customers bought iPhones and Samsung phones. [Bloomberg]
Phone Problems? Contact Motorola Executive Customer Service
By July 6, 2007
I went looking on Motorola’s website for a corporate office phone number without any luck, until Meghann pointed me to the company’s Google Finance profile, which listed the phone number. I called and requested to be transferred to Ed Zander’s office. After being queried as to the nature of my call, I was instead transferred to their Customer Advocacy group.
Motorola CEO: "I Love My Job. I Hate My Customers."
By May 2, 2007
A piece in the Wall Street Journal the other day about Motorola’s desperate search for a successor to the Razr reveals a “favorite refrain” of Motorola CEO Ed Zander, “I love my job. I hate my customers.”
Customizing the Motorola Vxxx
By April 27, 2007
Here’s a cool guide for hacking your Motorola Vxxx (x being a wildcard) so you can make it show the color styles, shutdown and startup animations, outer text displays, etc, that you want.
Time Warner And The Magical Smoking Modem That Is Entirely Your Fault
By February 26, 2007
I live in Columbus Ohio, and have been a Road Runner subscriber for about 10 years. We also have digital phone from Time Warner (TW provides the RR service in Columbus.) Our digital phone service went out on Monday morning. We called from a cell phone, and they sent out a tech this morning to fix it. He did. At around 3PM, 4-5 hours after he left, the Internet and phone service both went out (The Internet had not gone out on Monday when the digital phone went out.) I unplug the modem, plug it back in; standard stuff. It still won’t assign me an IP. I call them from my cell phone, and they confirm that it is out from their end as well. The person tells me that I can continue plugging it in/out just to test it periodically. I do. When plugged it in at 4:30, however, I hear a crackling noise, and see smoke. My modem has fried. Smells like crap, freaks my 9 year old brother out
