Thanks to scientists at Samsung and the University of California, San Diego, the next time you’re watching Jersey Shore, you won’t have to imagine the smell of spray tan, jagermeister and Axe body spray, because those scents could be right there in the room with you. [More]
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Google Teams Up With Samsung & Acer To Release Chromebooks In June
By 5.11.11
After the commercial success of its Android smartphone operating system and the growing number of people using its Chrome web browser, Google has announced that it has made a deal with Samsung and Acer to release a slate of PCs running the Chrome operating system. [More]
Samsung Achieves Exciting New Levels Of Excessive Packaging
By 4.15.11
Welcome to Illustrated Storytime with The Consumerist! Today’s picture book is by reader Joergen, who found the excessive packaging of his Samsung printer cartridges so egregious that he took step-by-step photos of the box-opening process. Then the opening of the box within the box. Then the opening of the box within that box. And then.. [More]
The Magical Chinese Hard Drive
By 4.8.11
A customer walked into a Russian hard-drive repair center complaining about his broken 500Gb USB-drive. He had bought it dirt cheap in China but it had a problem. If you saved a movie to it, it would only play the last five minutes. They opened up the case and found inside a 128-MB flash drive working in looped mode. It displays the correct capacity when you plug it in but when you write to it and run out of space, it just overwrites the old data. Two nuts make it feel like it has the right heft. Crafty, crafty counterfeiters! Caveat emptor, if the price is “too good to be true,” it is. [More]
Samsung Investigates Report Of Keyloggers On Its Laptops
By 3.31.11
Samsung is investigating after an IT consultant reported in Network World that he had found installed in two different brand new Samsung R series laptops he bought a keylogging program that could be used by someone remotely to capture his every keystroke. In response, a Samsung spokesman said, “We take these claims very, very seriously.”
UPDATE: Threatpost reports that Samsung says there’s no keylogger, the results were a false positive when an antivirus program mistakenly identified Microsoft’s Live Application multi-language support folder, “SL” folder, as StarLogger.
Netflix Tops Customer Loyalty List
By 2.9.11
The results of Brand Keys’ annual survey of customer loyalty have been released and in its first year of inclusion, Netflix came out on top of the list of all 528 brands, beating out reigning champ Apple. [More]
Verizon Good At Overbilling, Not So Much The Other Stuff
By 1.12.11
Elliot has been to heck and back with Verizon. His Samsung Rogue refused to charge, so he got them to replace it with a refurbished one. The “new” phone began randomly shutting off by itself. Elliot got Verizon to give him a full replacement, but they mailed it to his old address. After more shipping woes, he finally got a working phone. Then his bill arrives, about $1,000 higher than it’s supposed to be. [More]
Comcast, TWC, DirecTV And Samsung Enter Unholy Partnership Inside Your TV
By 1.7.11
Hate your cable set-top box? So does Samsung, apparently. They’ve cut deals with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV to offer various features that will allow you to watch TV either without a box, or access your cable subscription through an app on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. [More]
Samsung Blames Canada For Your Monitor Problems
By 10.15.10
Miguel writes that his Samsung monitor stopped working, but it has a 3-year warranty. He contacted Samsung to see if they could help him. They could not, but not for any mundane reason. Samsung insists that his monitor is from Canada, and they can’t provide warranty service to Miguel because he doesn’t live in Canada. Where did he buy his monitor? Um, a Sam’s Club store in Missouri. [More]
Sprint's Premium Data Plan For Samsung Epic Has Slower Upload Speeds Than Regular 3G Phones
By 9.20.10
Yesterday, the blog Explain the Fee noted that Sprint customers with the new Samsung Epic 4G, who have to pay an extra $10 a month for a premium data plan, are reporting upload speeds slower than phones they had 3 or 4 years ago–with upload limits seemingly capped at 150kps. [More]
Samsung Not Sure Where Its Samsung Apps Will Work
By 9.15.10
James wanted to buy a new Samsung Blu-ray player that could download and run Samsung Apps, which are widgets that can connect to the Internet or–in the case of the Hulu Plus app–stream video content. He tried to make sure he knew what he was doing before making a purchase, because his whole point for upgrading was to access Hulu, but he still chose the wrong player. Or did he? No, he did. Right? [More]
Steve Jobs: All Smartphones Have The Same Problem, But Here’s A Free Case
By 7.16.10
Mr. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has announced his solution to the iPhone 4 duct-tape-antenna-situation. Free case! Or a refund! [More]
Samsung Sues Journalist For Satirically Pointing Out That Its Chairman Keeps Getting Convicted Of Crimes
By 5.11.10
Did you know that the chairman of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, was convicted in 2008 for tax evasion in South Korea? Or that he was convicted in the 90s for bribing politicians? A British journalist, Michael Breen, wrote a satirical column in a South Korean newspaper last December, and now the electronics giant is suing him for libel. If found guilty, Breen could face jail time. [More]
SquareTrade Replaces Item Out Of Warranty, Almost Makes Extended Warranties Worthwhile
By 4.1.10
Like most readers of Consumerist, Adam is cynical about extended warranties. However, he writes that he had a surprisingly good experience with a SquareTrade warranty that he purchased, and wanted to share. [More]
Virgin Mobile Isn't Quite Clear On The Meaning Of "Playlist"
By 2.28.10
Jennifer writes that she bought a new phone, a Samsung Mantra, based on the features listed for the phone on Virgin Mobile’s web site. The problem is that the phone doesn’t actually seem to have the advertised features that led her to buy the phone in the first place. [More]
Firmware Update Borks Man's Samsung Blu-ray Player, Samsung Says Too Bad
By 12.18.09
Maybe manufacturers need to rethink how warranties work when it comes to firmware updates. Justin’s Samsung Blu-ray player recently alerted him that there was an update available, so he told it to proceed. What he ended up with was a dead player. Now Samsung says because it’s out of warranty for repairs he has to pay them $90 to get it working again. [More]
Samsung's Repair Service Can't Seem To Fix My Blu-Ray
By 12.8.09
Matthew raves about Samsung’s Twitter customer service (@samsungservice), but is incensed about the repair process itself, which he says has failed to stop his Blu-ray from freezing up like Sean Suisham. [More]
The Tale Of Lowe's And The Refrigerator From Hell
By 10.7.09
Reader Buddy has a lemon of a fridge that he purchased from Lowe’s with an Extended Warranty. The store keeps sending people out to fix the appliance, but nothing seems to work.
