Mr. Perez writes, in response to our previous questions:
I would hardly say ‘unwilling’ – I responed on Wed and Thursday.
evil
Nvidia’s Perez: “They act as our ‘voice'”
By 2.6.06
Nvidia’s Derek Perez Responds
By 2.6.06
Prompted by our questions about Nvidia’s marketing practices, Public Relations Director Derek Perez sent us this response:
Hey Joel.
Did Nvidia Hire Online Actors to Promote Their Products?
By 2.6.06
About a week ago, The Consumerist stumbled upon claims made by various gaming websites (specifically, Elite Bastards and [Update: a poster on the forums at] Beyond3D) that graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia, in cooperation with the Arbuthnot Entertainment Group (AEG), had seeded various gaming and PC hardware enthusiast sites with pro-Nvidia shills. That is to say, that AEG would hire employees to create ‘personas’ in various gaming communities, slowly building up the trust of other members by frequent posting unrelated to Nvidia, to later cash in that trust with message board postings talking up the positive qualities of Nvidia’s products.
‘Broadband Scandal’: How the Phone Companies Screwed Us All
By 2.1.06
A new book called The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal claims to detail the variety of tax breaks and compensations offered to the Bell-spawned phone companies to build out our nation’s fiber-optic network—a network designed to bring 45-megabit per second connections into every home. We don’t know about you, but we are sending this text via a rickety old copper line, using the best 1-megabitish DSL connection Verizon has to offer.
T-Mobile Hikes SMS Price, Calls Old Price ‘Discounted’
By 2.1.06
Sam C. writes in with this heads-up for T-Mobile subscribers, especially those that use a lot of SMS:
Here’s a bit of marketing-speak for you.
Authors of StarForce Threaten Lawsuit Upon Criticism
By 1.31.06
Please excuse our breach of form this morning, but the Deals Round Up will have to wait, because we work up cranky and then the internet was full of stupid again. It seems that Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing discovered StarForce, the malignant copy-restriction curse suffered by many PC gamers, only to be threatened with a lawsuit after criticizing the product as “malware.”
QWK.net ISP Kicks Off Customer, Then Tries to Have Her Shut Down at New ISP
By 1.30.06
This one is a little hard to follow, but we think we’ve got it straight. Roughly, here is the sequence of events:
Dominoes Pizza Fires Driver for Being Robbed
By 1.30.06
Everyone has seen the signs saying, ‘The delivery does not have more than $20 in cash.’ Who knew that having more than $20 on hand was a fireable offense? According to The Roanoke Times, Christine Clayborne, a six-year veteran of pizza delivery with Dominoes, was fired after she was robbed on the job, because having more than $20 made her “look like a target,” she says. At least she’s kept a good sense of humor about the robbery:
Before she could respond, a man wearing a ski mask and crouched close to the ground sprayed her with a fire extinguisher.
Nettwerk Pays Legal Fees for RIAA-sued Teen
By 1.27.06
Man, the Canadians are just the superstars of taking on the RIAA. First, they sued the pants off of Sony BMG for the root-kit fiasco. And now, Nettwerk, a Canadian music label representing artists like Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Dido, Sarah McLachlan and a lot of other hot Canadian girls are paying the legal fees of one of those typical kids who’s being sued by the RIAA for downloading a song off of Kazaa:
Using Race as a Weapon to Sell Vitamins
By 1.26.06
What’s the fastest way to throw away customers’ good will? Try equating the wearing of turbans with terrorism. It seems that vitamin makers Nature’s Plus felt threatened enough by Illinois senator Dick Durbin’s proposed bill that would require vitamin makers to disclose any harmful side effects of their products. As part of the ‘Nutritional Health Alliance’ (NHA), Nature’s Plus sent the fliers labelled with ‘GET A TURBAN FOR DURBIN!’ to customers in a hateful mail campaign, complete with scary monster font.
Google Censors Its Chinese Service
By 1.25.06
Google has decided to open up a censored Chinese search service:
Google, famous for its “Don’t Be Evil” philosophy, is seeking to soften potential criticism by promising to inform Chinese users when search results are censored, something other China-based search services do not do. The decision to exclude results on sensitive topics such as democratic reform, Taiwanese independence or the banned Falun Gong movement has clearly been particularly difficult for a company dedicated to making information “universally accessible”.
Priceline Has Customer Arrested for Diligent Refund Attempt
By 1.25.06
Priceline.com had concert pianist Ronnie Segev thrown in jail on charges of harrassment after the upset customer called the company 215 times in an attempt to secure a refund for a $953 airline ticket he had never purchased. From The Post:
A judge later dismissed the charges, but not before Segev spent 40 hours in a Manhattan holding cell with hardened criminals who laughed at him, threatened him and tried to steal his fancy watch and sneakers.
B2.0’s “101 Dumbest Moments in Business” 2005
By 1.25.06
Join us as we read the Business 2.0 (on CNNMoney) piece, ‘101 Dumbest Moments in Business (2005),’ featuring old favorites like the Sony BMG rootkit scandal and Overstock.com’s Patrick Byrne’s famous “Sith Lord” investor call, as well as new gems like this:Speaking at an ad industry event in…
Urban Outfitters Rips Designer’s Panda T-Shirt
By 1.21.06
The Urban Outfitters design theft accusations just don’t stop. Molly Roth writes:
For the past year, I’ve been struggling to get my e-tee shop off the ground. Madapollam.com has 4 original t-shirt designs that I made myself. I’ve been using Myspace.com and Livejournal as avenues to advertise my site.
Urban Outfitters Rips Designer’s Cupcake T-Shirt
By 1.17.06
Online vendor Johnny Cupcakes sells t-shirts and other clothing for hipsters festooned with cupcakes. (A notion we entirely support, being given to a particular love for the tiny cakes.) Apparently Urban Outfitters asked Johnny Cupcakes for a few samples of his t-shirts to be considered for placement in their stores, something that would have certainly had great financial reward for both companies. Sadly, Urban Outfitters chose not to carry Johnny Cupcake’s products—or he chose not to go with them for some reason; we’re not sure—and never returned his samples.
Georgia Bill To Make Cell Carrier Contracts Less Restrictive
By 1.13.06
A Republican state senator in Georgia has filed a bill that aims to prohibit cell phone service providers from forcing customers to restart their contracts just to move to a new rate plan. The pandering doublespeak from the cellular service providers in this article is sickening.
Kristin Wallace, spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel. “In principle, Sprint Nextel believes the competitive wireless marketplace is serving its consumers well and that regulation of wireless service would be harmful to innovation and costly for consumers.”
Caran Smith, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said … “By limiting a carrier’s contract options, the state in effect is limiting a consumer’s flexibility to move to rate plans and take advantage of services that meet their wireless needs.”
We understand that to subsidize the cost of phones your carrier wants to lock you into a contract—really, we get it. But there’s no way to justify the inability to switch plans to suit your needs within your contract period. (Not to mention the inability to purchase your own phone independent of the carrier subsidy and use their service on a month-to-month basis without using pre-paid.) (Thanks, Erendira!)
T-Mobile and Cingular Call Records Available for Purchase Online
By 1.12.06
Lest you think your cell phone records were private—even if you are a high-profile candidate for the U.S. presidency—AMERICAblog has proved you incorrect by purchasing General Wesley Clark’s cell phone records for $89.95.
