As we mentioned yesterday, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón are meeting this week with execs from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Google to discuss ways wireless device manufacturers can help deter theft and eliminate the market for stolen phones. Today, Schneiderman and Gascón — along with attorneys general, district attorneys, chiefs of police, consumer advocates, and educators — have launched a nationwide initiative to bring this issue to the fore. [More]
samsung
Letter To President Gets Samsung’s Attention, Repaired Microwave
By 6.7.13
Laurence was disappointed that he dropped a few hundred dollars on a microwave, and didn’t get to enjoy it for very long. He isn’t sure exactly how long a microwave that cost a few hundred bucks should last, but figures it’s somewhere between “two years” and “forever.” Right? [More]
Reminder: Know What You’re Getting Into With Gray-Market Electronics
By 6.5.13
Ruby bought the international version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. She thought it was great…right until it abruptly died. Samsung tech support wouldn’t help her, so she sent a plea to the mailbox of Samsung USA president Y.K. Kim. The office of the president couldn’t support a product that Samsung USA didn’t sell, either. [More]
Samsung Scores A Big Win Against Apple With U.S. Trade Agency Ban On iPhone 4 Imports
By 6.5.13
Apple and Samsung go together like Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier — the two have been going at it over their various patents for smartphones and tablets for what feels like forever. Yesterday Samsung scored a strong hit against Apple when the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a ban against imports of the iPhone 4 and a variant of the iPad 2, saying that the devices violate one of Samsung’s patents. [More]
Samsung Thinks Women Would Upgrade Husbands Into Creepy Housework Robots
By 5.24.13 — Updated: 4.3.14
If you could upgrade your partner’s skills and abilities with a bit of hardware or software, would you do it? To promote their “Evolution Kit” that upgrades the processor and capabilities of their smart TVs, a Samsung ad imagines what would happen if humans had similar upgrade capabilities. In the ad, a woman upgrades her husband into a creepy and robotic super-capable version of Rosie from “The Jetsons.” [More]
SquareTrade Hurls Samsung Galaxy S4 At The Ground, Probably Denies Own Claim
By 4.30.13
Do you enjoy product reviews from our sibling publication Consumer Reports, but wish that there were more smashing? Do you love the classic “Will it Blend?” YouTube videos, but want to see items destroyed in more realistic situations? You’re in luck. The hard-working experts at extended warranty/protection plan provider SquareTrade conducted a publicity stunt series of tests on current top-of-the-line smartphones to see which was most likely to survive being dropped on a corner from shoulder height, dunked in water, and slid across a table. That last one is kind of anticlimactic. [More]
Galaxy S3 Owner Pens Love Letter To His Phone, Gets Samsung CEO To Pay For Out-Of-Warranty Repair
By 4.25.13
Vince sent a love letter to Y.K. Kim, the head of Samsung USA. No, he doesn’t have a crush on Mr. Kim. He is deeply in love with his Galaxy S3, and shared that love with the regional CEO of the company that brought it to him. Only his love has a problem. A pink discoloration on the screen. He was brokenhearted, and also doubtful about his future plans to buy an S4. [More]
Taiwanese Authorities Looking Into Claims That Samsung Paid Students To Slam HTC Online
By 4.16.13
The thing about online reviews is, they should be from real, actual customers — no matter the service or product. It’s a great way for consumers to discuss, dish, dis and otherwise express themselves, which is why Taiwanese authorities are investigating Samsung over allegations that the South Korean company recruited students to post negative comments about HTC phones on the Internet. [More]
I Lose A Really Useful Android Feature And Sprint And Samsung Pass The Buck
By 4.10.13
We often hear from users of various Android smartphones complaining that their carrier or their phone manufacturer is keeping them away from the latest version of the operating system. Mark’s problem is sort of the opposite of that. He has the very newest release, Jelly Bean, but was horrified to discover that a feature he finds very useful at work was quietly discontinued. He can’t get an answer out of Samsung or his carrier, Sprint, about who decided to remove this feature or why. He just gets sent back and forth between companies. [More]
Samsung Mini-Stores Coming To A Best Buy Near You
By 4.4.13
One day after Best Buy announced it was pulling the plug on its Geek Squad experiment with Target, comes news that the electronics retailer is partnering with another big brand. [More]
Samsung Replaces Blu-Ray Player That Won’t Play Perfectly Good Discs
By 4.4.13
Richard was unhappy with his Blu-Ray player. Some discs wouldn’t play at all. Samsung claimed to be on it and working on a firmware update as a solution to the problem, but have said that for a year now. What was a customer who just wants to watch some movies to do? His family couldn’t even watch “The Dark Knight Rises.” What horror! Richard flexed his complaining muscles and fired off a letter to Samsung’s Office of the President e-mail address. [More]
Samsung: If You Want Us To Fix Your MP3 Player, You Have To Fly To Hong Kong
By 3.25.13 — Updated: 5.8.13
The beauty of shopping online is that it’s easy to bring products from all over the world into our homes with a little bit of typing and a major credit card. The problem with buying from abroad, though, is that products for different markets don’t come with the same consumer protections. And sometimes you don’t know that you’re buying a product destined for a different market at all. That’s where Cassi’s cautionary tale comes in. From a small discount site, Cassi bought a Samsung MP3 player. Samsung tells her that it was made for the Chinese market and that if she wants them to honor her warranty, she has to fly to Hong Kong. Being a sensible person, Cassi does not want to fly to Hong Kong over a $200 MP3 player. [More]
Samsung Wants To Patch Up My Defective Phone So It Can Break Again
By 3.18.13
Alex has a Samsung Galaxy SII on AT&T, and his phone has one of the common defects of that model: it likes to randomly shut itself down for no reason. Instead of casting him into smartphone replacement purgatory, AT&T and Samsung are instead trying to divert him into repair purgatory. His phone will be totally fine after their repair, AT&T assured him. It wasn’t. He turned to Samsung and made his case to them. They were willing to repair his phone, but not replace it. [More]
It’s Totally Not Cool That My Fridge Stops Working And Tells The Wrong Temperature
By 3.8.13
When you spend more than two grand on a refrigerator, you sort of assume that it will keep your food cold. At least, Kim did. The fridge is less than a year and a half old. Whenever the power goes off, even if just for a few seconds, the refrigerator starts slacking off on its keeping-things-cold duties. The gauge says that it’s at the proper temperature, but it’s inaccurate. The refrigerator’s contents, including her infant son’s medications that need to stay cold and a large supply of frozen breast milk, thaw or warm. It’s happened four times since December. [More]
Samsung Advertises High-Definition 3D For TV That Lacks It, Hopes No One Notices
By 3.7.13
Emil has had a Samsung 3D TV for a few years, but didn’t try out the 3D functionality until recently. When he did, he learned that the set didn’t have the full, glorious, 1080-pixel 3D experience that Samsung had advertised when he bought it. He’s not the only one who has noticed this problem: lots of other TV fans have. So has the German legal system. [More]
Report: Samsung’s New Phone Stares Creepily Into Your Eyes So It Knows Where To Scroll
By 3.4.13
Ever since that scene in Minority Report (spoiler alert but really, it’s from 2002, so…) where Tom Cruise gets his eyeballs ripped out and new ones installed to beat an eye-tracking security system, I’ve been terrified of any eyeball-related technological advances. Enter Samsung’s new phone and it’s rumored “eye scroll” software. [More]
Perhaps You Would Like A Fridge With A Built-In Sodastream Or Hot Water Dispenser
By 2.15.13 — Updated: 4.15.15
Many of our friends and readers are big fans of the Sodastream, a device that lets you make your own sweet (or not-so-sweet) fizzy beverages at home. What if you could combine a refrigerator water/ice dispenser with the at-home carbonation technology of the Sodastream? Don’t rush to the patent office: Samsung has already introduced that product. It hits stores in April. [More]
Samsung’s Anti-Repair Depot Still In Business, Still Not Repairing Things
By 1.29.13
Fortunately for Todd, his experience with Samsung’s anti-repair depot isn’t as bad as some we’ve heard. He just keeps sending his wife’s Chromebook in to get fixed, and they don’t repair it. He’d like to get it back so he can return it to Amazon and get a computer that actually boots up, but the anti-repair staff can’t figure out how to authorize sending him his own computer back. [More]
