Reader Patricia is angry and somewhat baffled by Target’s insistence that Target and Target.com are not the same company and its not a Target store’s problem if the website is messed up and tells you to drive 25 miles to buy something that isn’t in stock. [More]
internet
Charter Communications Rep Says Cable Companies Taking Over All Streaming Video On May 1st
By 3.16.10
The Charter Communications CSR who spoke with Dustin has some pretty astounding news about what’s on the horizon for all of us. It looks like starting May 1st, cable companies will have total, FCC-sanctioned control over streaming video and will take down all competing services. [More]
Comcast's Sarcasm Detector Is Broken
By 3.16.10
As this chat transcript shows, Comcast does not have the necessary bandwidth to detect sarcastic remarks. [More]
Track Free And Cheap Games For Your iPhone Or Touch
By 3.15.10
There are several apps on the Apple app store that help consumers track sales and free offers from developers, but you have to launch them and check in regularly. The website App Spy offers an automated price tracker for games (just games, unfortunately) that will send you an email whenever a price threshhold is reached. If you tend to be an app junkie, it can help save you money by letting you get your fix on the cheap good stuff. [More]
Test Your Broadband Speeds For The FCC
By 3.15.10
Last Thursday, the FCC started collecting information from consumers about the quality of their broadband service. If you’ve got a PC that can run Java, you can go to Broadband.gov and run the test now. (The FCC will collect your IP address and physical address, but not your name or email address, reports Wired.) If you’ve got an iPhone or Android smartphone, you can download an app to measure your connectivity and report it. [More]
Leaks: How Much It Sucks To Be A Comcast Customer Service Rep
By 3.12.10
Come, come hither. Step into the flesh of a Comcast customer service rep. Doesn’t it feel nice? Yes, yes. This is what it’s like to work for Awesome Cable Inc. Now you know what they go through, and tricks and tactics for dealing with them. Come my pretty, and let the Comcast mole teach you the ways… [More]
Insider's Guide To DIY Comcast Troubleshooting
By 3.12.10
Why waste another sick day waiting for a tech to never show up when you can troubleshoot it yourself? Tossed over the transom by some anonymous insider, here’s a how to on solving many problems with your Comcast internet, TV, or digital voice, like a big boy. [More]
Hey Online Shoppers, Please Don't Agree To Withdraw Negative Reviews
By 3.9.10
Jessica Palmer at the blog Bioephemera recently had a bad run-in with a bookseller on Amazon, which she talks about at great length in a post. The mistake she made, she says, was that she didn’t exercise due diligence in researching the seller for complaints, and she didn’t read through all the many reviews on Amazon to see if the negative ones demonstrated a pattern. But her bigger issue is that there’s still no way to shame a bad retailer the way local news stations do with local brick and mortar stores, which is why it’s so important to stick by your complaints once you make them. [More]
Comcast Still Unsure About The Whole 'Unlimited Usage' Thing
By 3.3.10
Yesterday, we posted an item about a reader who discovered that when a Comcast brochure promised “unlimited usage” of high-speed Internet, it in fact meant “limited, and you will lose service for a year if you go over again.” After the story hit the site, you would have expected Comcast to make sure that everyone at the company was on board about the exact definition of “unlimited,” but apparently not. [More]
No More Daily Show Or Colbert Report On Hulu
By 3.2.10
The New York Times is reporting that Viacom plans to pull its Comedy Central programming from Hulu next week because it can’t reach an agreement with the video site on compensation. In a post today on its blog, a Hulu executive notes that Hulu was “unable to secure the rights to extend these shows,” and that they’ll be gone as of 11:59 pm PST next Tuesday, March 9th. After that, you can continue watching them on TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com. [More]
Websites Offer After Death Services For Your Online Life
By 2.26.10
If you don’t want all your various online accounts left unattended when you permanently go off the grid, you can now hire several different services to clean up any loose ends–closing accounts, sharing passwords with survivors, transferring gaming accounts, and so on. Wired says they cost anywhere from $10 a year to $300 for a lifetime account, although after reading about this you may find it’s cheaper and more efficient to just add the necessary info to your will. [More]
Walmart Closing Down Vudu's Porn Channel
By 2.24.10
To no one’s great surprise, Vudu has announced that now that it belongs to Walmart it will be shutting down the adult section. No more streaming HD porn from Vudu, everybody. Their announcement after the jump. [More]
FCC To Unveil National Broadband Plan On March 17
By 2.23.10
While President Obama was busy attempting to get his plan for a national health care system rolling, those folks at the FCC announced they will unveil their National Broadband Plan — which will provide Internet access to 93 million Americans who can’t currently look at home videos of cats — to Congress on March 17. [More]
Blame Manufacturers For Annoying Hidden Prices Online
By 2.10.10
Have you been noticing more and more lately that no matter which online retailer you visit, you have to add the item to your shopping cart to see the price? Blame it on manufacturers, who are taking advantage of a 2007 Supreme Court ruling to be more aggressive about controlling pricing online, writes the New York Times. [More]
FBI Wants To Follow You Around The Internet
By 2.9.10
FBI chief Robert Mueller wants ISPs to track everything their customers do on the Internet, and keep those records for two years. The government plan would give the FBI access to “origin and destination information” for all users. Hey, at least they’re not doing it in secret and lying about it. [More]
Jack In The Box's Free Wi-Fi Experiment Ended. Did Anyone Notice?
By 2.9.10
Knowzy.com, the website that’s been tracking which Jack in the Box stores were offering free Wi-Fi, reports that the restaurant chain has pulled the plug. The Wi-Fi offer came with the installation of HDTVs that displayed ads in the dining area, but those are gone too: “In mid-2009, the TVs and the Wi-Fi began disappearing. By the time McDonald’s made their free Wi-Fi announcement in December, Jack had completely dismantled his Wi-Fi network.” [More]
Is Google Planning To Add Store Views To Google Maps?
By 2.4.10
A store in New York City called Oh Nuts, which apparently sells nuts and nut-based goods, told the blog Search Engine Land that someone from Google showed up and took a series of photos of the interior as part of an upcoming “Google Store Views” service. Google has officially said no comment, so I guess now it’s a waiting game to see if this shows up as an offshoot of Google’s street view offering, or if Oh Nuts reports in the next few days that they’ve had their entire inventory stolen by nut fiends who knew the layout suspiciously well. [More]
