Back in January, the Federal Trade Commission filed a case against D-Link, a company that makes networking equipment and connected-home devices. It alleged that D-Link deceptively marketed its products as advanced and safe when they were vulnerable to attacks that range from stealing personal information to peeping through security cameras. This week, a judge dismissed three of the counts from the FTC’s case, noting that the agency didn’t present any consumers who were actually harmed. [More]
gadgets
Did You Get A Gadget For Christmas? It’s Time To Opt Out Of Mandatory Arbitration!
By 1.3.17 — Updated: 3.31.17
Did you receive any fun gadgets as holiday gifts? If so, it’s time to check over that user agreement most people usually ignore to see if you have signed away your legal rights, or if you still have a chance to protect your right to a day in court. [More]
8 Gadgets Devoted Solely To Spreading Butter On Stuff
By 6.16.16
You know what would make that bread better, that corn on the cob more delectable, that muffing more muffin-y? Butter. Yet apparently so many people have difficulty spreading butter evenly that multiple companies have come up with supposed solutions to this age-old problem. [More]
Got A Fitbit Or Other Gadget For Christmas? It’s Time To Opt Out Of Mandatory Arbitration!
By 1.6.16
Customers have filed a class action suit against Fitbit, claiming that the company’s Charge HR and Surge fitness bands don’t accurately measure users’ heart rate during vigorous exercise. We’ll keep an eye on the lawsuit and let you know if it goes anywhere, but it probably won’t, and that’s what got our attention. The users filed a class action against Fitbit despite signing (well, clicking) away their right to do so when they registered their devices. [More]
Should You Keep The Box For Your New Gadget? Maybe
By 12.29.14
We’ve already established today that when you buy a new gadget at a brick-and-mortar store, you should tear open the box before leaving to ensure that it contains the thing that you paid for. Once you get your new toy and its box home, though, how long should you keep it? That depends on a few factors. [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]
Amazon Still Not Interested In Reuniting Lost Kindles With Owners
By 7.24.14
Two years ago, we tried to reunite a Kindle left behind on a plane with its owner, and we didn’t succeed. The reader who found it didn’t trust the airport lost and found, and Amazon wasn’t any help. Even though Amazon knows full well who each Kindle belongs to, with their e-mail address and even their credit cards and billing addresses. That doesn’t matter, though. When Steve called about a Kindle that he found, Amazon told him to throw it away. [More]
From Gadgets To Diners: How To Make (Or Order) The Perfect Egg Every Time
By 6.28.14
I recently poached my first egg; sounds simple enough. And yet the amount of time I spent looking up how to do it, fretting over the steps and stressing over my inevitable failure almost made the whole thing not worth it. But when I posted a photo of that sucker on social media, the hefty number of virtual back-slaps I received made it clear that I am not alone in my fear of screwing up eggs. [More]
Fitbit Force Is An Amazing Device, Except For My Contact Dermatitis
By 1.13.14
Between Christmas and the New Year, lots of Americans strapped on a shiny new Fitbit Force and started to scamper around. It’s the newest iteration of the motion-tracking device, a wristband that records steps, altitude, and how much you move around while you sleep. Now many of them have taken off their wristbands, reporting a weird skin irritation near the charging port. [More]
Is The “Useless Plastic Box” A Best Buy Exclusive?
By 8.16.13
Earlier this month, some Best Buy shoppers in the L.A. area began noticing a peculiar new offering on their shelves: A Useless Plastic Box, or rather the “Useless Plasticbox 1.2,” all for the low, low price of $99.99. [More]
FitBit Wants Device I Found Back, Will Return It To Owner
By 3.26.13
We’ve covered the FitBit, a tiny movement tracker that syncs to computers and smartphones, on the site in the past, noting the company’s generous replacement policy. Fitbits have been dunked and lost, and the company still replaced them. But we’ve never heard of anything quite like what David heard back when he turned in a FitBit that he found. [More]
Dell Sends Tech To Break My Alienware Computer, Puts Off Fixing It
By 3.1.13 — Updated: 3.4.13
John has an Alienware computer. Dell owns Alienware. So Dell sent a technician to his home to fix his computer when one of the USB ports quit working. This tech proceeded to break his computer, and was possibly part of Dell’s elite computer-breaking tech team that we’ve written about before. [More]
More Nexus 4 Phones Plummet To The Ground, Smash Themselves
By 1.28.13
Google is always innovating. They’ve brought us the beginnings of a consumer fiber network, smart glasses, driverless cars, and even bringing donkeys back to life. One little-known Google project is the Nexus 4 smartphone, which is unlocked, shiny, and comes with its own field of gravity that pulls it to the ground, violating all known laws of physics. Or so our readers tell us.
Sorry, You Can’t Buy Nexus Devices With Your $350 Google Play Store Credit
By 11.19.12
Michael’s plan seemed like a really great idea at the time he hatched it. He wanted to make sure that he would have the money for a Nexus 4 set aside, so he purchased $350 worth of credit for the Google Play store. The phone’s available for sale there, so this made perfect sense. Until the phone actually launched. When he could finally get through to place his order, he learned that Play Store credit specifically couldn’t be used on Nexus devices. Oh, no. [More]
Fitbit Doesn’t Seem To Understand How Preorders Work
By 11.9.12
Andy was really excited about the new Fitbit One. He placed a pre-order back when the activity-tracking gadget was first announced, and waited patiently for the projected “early November” ship date. November began, and the new Fitbit began to show up on the shelves of virtual and real-life stores, but not in his mailbox. Why, he asks, does any random person wandering through Best Buy get their Fitbit before early orderers like him? [More]
Actually Read Your New Gadgets' Manuals: Leave Them In The Bathroom
By 12.22.11
Whether you’re receiving them as gifts or picking them up at a discount in the fabulous end-of-year sales, a lot of you will be acquiring shiny new gadgets in the next few weeks. A lot of gadget problems can be solved if you actually read the manual in the first place, but who has time for that when there are packages to unseal and exciting new buttons to push? A Redditor has a novel suggestion that solves this problem: you’ll have time while sitting on the toilet, so leave the manuals to your new devices in there. [More]
Apple Will Replace First-Gen iPod Nanos For Overheating Risks
By 11.14.11
If you have an iPod nano sold between Sep ’05 and Dec ’06, you could be eligible for a replacement under a new worldwide recall issued by Apple to deal with battery heating issues. [More]
Detect Hardware Trojans With "Singing Rings"
By 11.10.11
Researchers have proposed a new method for detecting trojan viruses embedded into hardware chips by using voltage detectors that “sing out” in a different frequency when they’re used on a tampered circuit. [More]
