Have you ever heard of LeEco? Most people in this country hadn’t until today, when we learned that familiar television brand Vizio announced that it’s been acquired by the brand. The deal may mean more streaming content bundled in smart TV sets, and the spin-off of a separate company dedicated to mining data about what customers watch. [More]
consumer electronics
Macy’s Teams Up With Best Buy To Sell Electronics In Some Stores
By 9.8.15
Shoppers heading to Macy’s generally plan to update the items hanging in their closets, not the electronics littering their living rooms. But that could soon be changing, as the department store plans to house Best Buy outlets in several locations starting this fall. [More]
Americans Will Spend $34 Billion On Consumer Electronics This Holiday Season
By 10.3.14
What consumer items do you have your eye on this year? The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group for exactly what you think it is, says that our most-coveted gifts this holiday season are consumer electronics. Well, that doesn’t surprise anyone, but the CEA projects that we will spend $33.76 billion on electronics this year. [More]
Lenovo Is The “Moneyball” Of Consumer Electronics
By 5.8.14
We have an ongoing joke at Consumerist that Chinese consumer electronics company Lenovo is a massive anti-capitalist prank, not wanting to actually sell gadgets to consumers. Customer service issues aside, this week Bloomberg Businessweek speculates that Lenovo is more savvy than any of us might have thought, assembling a dream team out of cast-off brands and companies that no one else wants. [More]
Energy Star Introduces Stricter Rules In Attempt To Prevent Cheating
By 4.19.10
Last year the Department of Energy, which co-administers the Energy Star certification program with the EPA, admitted that it allows many companies to certify their goods themselves. That was somewhat worrying, but nothing like what happened earlier this year when government auditors successfully got ludicrously power-hungry designs approved for the Energy Star label. The EPA and Energy Department have responded by announcing a new, stricter certification process. [More]
By 5.23.08
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After a successful pilot program, Macy’s is putting fancy Japanese-style vending machines in 400 of its stores. They’ll sell things like iPods and cameras. Looks like Macy’s will have to add another list of things excluded from its not-very-valuable coupons. [Reuters]
By 4.14.08
../..//2008/04/14/blockbuster-has-offered-to-buy/
Blockbuster has offered to buy Circuit City for a little over $1 billion, with the goal of creating “a chain that could sell portable devices and entertainment for them, much like Apple Inc.’s stores.” [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
7 Lies You'll Hear From Salesmen At Electronics Stores
By 2.13.08
Future Shop is a Canadian consumer electronics retail chain. Charlie used to work there, and has now passed along the 7 most common lies he heard salesmen use on unsuspecting customers. Whether you have a Future Shop in your area or not, you’ll find these lies familiar.
Survey Says: Half Of UK Men Would Give Up Sex For 50-Inch Plasma TV
By 2.9.08
A British electronics retailer asked 2,000 men and women what they’d give up in exchange for a 50″ plasma TV, and according to them, “47 percent of men would give up sex for half a year.” Among women, the number drops to about a third who are wiling to forgo sex. We’re not going to pretend for a second that this study is in any way scientific, but still—six months? Seriously?
Great Idea: Website To Let You Share The Cost Of Fad Gadgets
By 1.25.08
David Pogue thinks the Pleo dinosaur is meh. He’s seen it all before with Aibo, and despite all the “it’s so lifelike!” ad and editorial copy devoted to it, the charm wears off pretty much the same day you buy it: “My surprise, though, was my kids’ reaction. They thought it was really, really cool—for the first half-hour.” He’s proposed a new website idea where you’d sign up for the latest Hot New Thing coming out of CES, Toy Fair, Macworld, etc., then pay an ever-shrinking percentage of the original sales price to own it when your turn came in line.
In MP3 Showdown, Winners Are iPod Touch And Sansa View
By 1.24.08
Okay, so it’s not like there aren’t 15,000 MP3-player reviews already on the web, but SmartMoney decided to jump on the bandwagon and rate five 8-gigabyte MP3 players. Instead of hard stats and lab tests, they handed the devices to an NYU music instructor and audiophile and asked him to walk around the city playing with them. The Apple iPod Touch—at $300, the most expensive of the lot—came out on top, which probably doesn’t surprise anyone, but the SanDisk Sansa View performed well too.
New Service Lets You Resell Your Old Gadgets At A Fixed Price—For A Fee
By 1.18.08
TechForward, a new company in Los Angeles, provides fixed buyback prices on used electronics like cell phones and iPods. The catch is you pay up front—it’s an added fee when you first buy the device—for the right to resell your gadget to them a year or two down the line, and the amounts they’re offering are usually dramatically lower than what you can get if you sell it yourself on Ebay.
Are The New Apple Products Worth Buying?
By 1.16.08
The dirty-sounding finance blog “Make Your Nut” works through the pros and cons of the latest Apple products, so that you can “make sure you enter into your purchases with eyes wide open.”
Buyers Beware: Current Blu-ray Players Won't Correctly Play Future Discs
By 1.12.08
After the past week, it seems more and more likely that Blu-ray will be the movie disc format of the future.
Creative Sends Out Crazy Support Email/Sales Pitch
By 12.27.07
A reader sent in this funny and bizarre customer support email from Creative—it’s a weird combination of broken English, pre-written paragraphs from macros (which, oddly, still have grammatical errors), Byzantine instructions for resetting and reformatting the broken device, and then five attempts to sell other products and services at the end.
Cutting Back On Features When Gadget Shopping
By 12.12.07
The next time you go shopping for a camera, cell phone, video recorder, or other gadget, you can save money by deciding what features you really need, and moving down the model line instead of up to the most feature-packed gizmo, writes SmartMoney. For example, “Only 31% of cellphone owners actually use their phone to take pictures, while only 15% browse the Internet, and less than 10% listen to music, download games or watch videos.”
Don't Buy Warranties For Your Gizmos, Says Consumer Reports
By 11.21.07
The executive editor of Consumer Reports spoke to Newsday about warranties and service plans for consumer electronics, and how it’s pretty much always an unnecessary add-on that you should avoid. The stories that make it to the Consumerist are usually the exception; in reality, it’s rare that consumer devices break before you replace them anyhow.
The Best And Worst Tech Gadgets Of The Year
By 11.21.07
It begins—the year end “best of” lists! If you’re gearing up for the gift buying frenzy that will begin on Friday, here’s a quick slideshow of some of the most inspiring and least impressive electronics in the marketplace right now.
