Consumerist
video
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blockbuster
You Will Probably Never See A Blockbuster SD-Card Kiosk
Here's an idea: When your top rivals are renting dirt-cheap DVDs from ubiquitous kiosks, or streaming thousands of films as a free bonus to customers who rent mail-order rmovies, what do you do? If you're Blockbuster, you start a trial run of kiosks that will allow consumers to rent DRM-protected videos on SD cards, and play them back using a proprietary box that will do nothing else. Yeah, that'll show 'em. More » -
above and beyond
Hyundai Replaces Car Destroyed In BMW Parking Lot Attack
About a week ago, a woman tried to park her BMW X5 in a gym parking lot in Thornhill, Ontario. For some mysterious reason, she instead drove over two other cars and sat on top of them for a few seconds, like a big game cat savoring her kill. Then she drove off.
One of the demolished cars was a 2004 Hyundai Elantra that the owner had just finished paying off, and on Friday Hyundai gave him a new car. More »
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video
How To Choose The Best Tires
The Consumer Reports Cars blog has posted a video on how to choose the best tires for your car. Here's one interesting trick we learned from the clip: how to measure tire tread depth using coins. More » -
funny
HSN Breaks TV, Showing Need To Firmly Attach Your Wii Accessories
This HSN presenter remembered to use his wrist strap when playing with a Wiimote, so good for him! Unfortunately, it turns out you also have to make sure any attachments are firmly attached. More » -
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advertising
Gee, Jay Leno Sure Does Like Talking About Products
Edrants.com recently edited together all the moments of Leno & guests dropping product names. Yes, this is just one episode's worth of product references. More » -
dell hell
Get Your Piece Of The Dell Fraud Settlement
If you live in New York and bought a Dell computer within the past few years, you may be eligible for compensation as part of the recent settlement between the company and the office of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Forms are due by December 15, and are, according to AG Cuomo, "as simple a claim form as 100 lawyers could write." In other words, you'd better get started now if you want to get one in on time.
Inside: Video - Cuomo and plaintiff Cary Lou Canfield lay down the law at Consumers Union earlier this week, and more info on getting some bucks from Dell. More » -
crime
Video: Guy Installing Skimmer On ATM
LiveLeak has posted surveillance video footage from earlier this month of a guy in Brazil installing a skimming device onto a bank ATM. The second half of the tape shows him being arrested and officials revealing the device, which just reminds us that the next time we use an ATM, we're first going to take off a shoe and hit everything on it like it's covered in giant ants. See the video below. More » -
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what would you do for a klondike bar
Video: Man Crashes Car Into Store To Steal Sex Toy
An Ohio man smashed into an AdultMart store with his car, picked up the sex toy he wanted — after picking up a more expensive model and dropping it — then sped off. And the store's security camera's caught it all on video. More » -
appetite killers
Video Shows Chicks Getting Ground Up Alive
Who can resist the lure of watching adorable chicks peeping all the way to the chick grinder? Not me. And now, having seen the illicit video, I can with certainty report that God is dead and humanity is a cancer. More » -
parody
Awesome People Film A Melodrama At IKEA
I've long thought that Ikea would serve as an ideal backdrop for a drama of marital discord and corporate intrigue and, now, finally, it is. David Seger and Paul Bartunek created "Ikea Heights," a short film shot entirely in a Ikea store in Burbank, California. It's worth noting that this is MUCH funnier than Ikea's own Ikea comedy. More » -
entrepreneurs
Revolutionize Your Butt With Winkers Jeans
Move over Snuggie, there's a new clothing-based innovation in town—and instead of hiding your curves under a human fumigation tent, this one turns your butt into fashion fuel and then sets it on fire! Best of all, if you want to be the president of the Winkers club and not just a member, licensing is available. Oh yes, of course there's a video clip. More » -
missing the point
Cable Providers Stream Shows Online, Require Subscriber Authentication
How are cable providers reacting to the threat posed by online streaming of shows? Forget bandwidth caps for now—how about online access to cable programs, limited to cable subscribers? More » -
timeshares
Alan Thicke Can't Save Tahiti Village Timeshare Company From Going Under
Even the hearty television presence of Alan Thicke couldn't help Consolidated Resorts, Inc., a company owned by Goldman Sachs that sold timeshares, from going belly up. An anonymous tipster emailed us yesterday to say that they "just laid off most of their staff, including all collections, customers service, marketing, information technology departments." And according to this insider, this is good news for consumers. More » -
fraud
Watch Out For Fraudulent ITunes Purchases, Whether You Have An ITunes Account Or Not
MyFox New York notes that some people are being hit with fraudulent charges on their bank accounts from the iTunes Music Store, or in some cases from a fake iTunes store. Earlier this month, a reader wote to us with a similar complaint:
More »I woke up this morning to an email stating I had made two $50 gift card purchases [on iTunes Music Store]. I contacted my bank and apple, then did a google search and found that many others had the same thing happen to them.
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unemployment
Out-Of-Work Adults Try To Nab Summer Lifeguard Positions
Some adults who are out of work are now going after classic teen jobs, says ABC News. In Florida, which has the fourth-highest unemployment rate of the nation, men in their 30s and 40s "have pulled on swim trunks in hopes of beating out the teenagers for a few choice positions as $9.37 an hour lifeguards." The report also says adults are trying out for jobs at places like Six Flags. All of this reminds us a little of this Kids In The Hall Sketch (see below) where a young boy finds a stray businessman and brings him home. More » -
qwest
Mystery Solved? Using OpenDNS Results In Glacial YouTube Downloads For Qwest Customers
Earlier this week, we posted an email from a frustrated Qwest customer who said he couldn't download YouTube and other online videos at a speed equivalent to the Qwest service he was paying for. Qwest wrote to us, and spoke to the customer, and swore they were not interfering with any download rates. Instead, it looks like the problem is with OpenDNS, a free service that usually speeds up downloading, but that seems to have an issue when it comes to certain video streams. More » -
qwest
Qwest Says It's Throttling Customer's Online Video Streaming, Then Says It's Not
Update: It turns out the problem is with OpenDNS, not Qwest. The original post is below. More »
