Samsung’s answer to Siri, Alexa, and Cortana could soon be homeless: While the company continues to work on a smart speaker to house Bixby, it’s allowing customers to evict the artificially intelligent assistant from its dedicated button on their smartphones. [More]
update
Tesla Changes Autopilot Again, Restricts Driving To Posted Speed Limit On Some Roads
By 12.22.16
Tesla’s Autopilot has faced a slew of issues and controversies this year following the first fatal crash to occur while the semi-autonomous function was activated: from Germany asking the company to change the feature’s name to updates that included radar and driver enhancement safety checks. Now, the electric carmaker is making another change, rolling out an update that limits the vehicle to driving at the speed limit when on certain roads. [More]
Samsung Software Update Will Deliberately ‘Brick’ Remaining Galaxy Note 7 Phones
By 12.9.16
If you’re one of the few folks still using a recalled, potentially dangerous Samsung Galaxy Note 7, you need to find a replacement soon, as Samsung’s next software update for the Note 7 will render it useless. [More]
iPhone Owners Complain That iOS Update Drains Batteries Unexpectedly
By 11.28.16
A week after Apple admitted that some iPhone 6S batteries weren’t woking properly and agreed to fix the power source for free, the company’s latest iOS update has been found to unexpectedly drain device batteries in a matter of seconds. [More]
Tesla Supplier Says It Broke With Carmaker Over Autopilot Safety Concerns
By 9.15.16
In July, automotive tech company Mobileye, which had provided parts for Tesla’s Autopilot assisted-driving system, announced that it was ending its relationship with the carmaker. Now Mobileye says it parted ways with Tesla because Autopilot was “pushing the envelope in terms of safety.” [More]
Tesla Updating Autopilot Feature With Radar, Driver Engagement Safety Check
By 9.12.16
Two months after Tesla said its Autopilot feature wasn’t going anywhere amid a federal safety investigation into what part the feature played in the first fatal crash to occur while the semi-autonomous function was activated, the electric carmaker has unveiled a software update that it claims will better incorporate the use of radar, and which the company says could have prevented the May crash.
Apple Adds Organ Donor Registration To Health App
By 7.5.16
Most of us are probably fairly familiar with the idea of signing up to be (or not to be) an organ donor when renewing our driver’s license. Apple’s working to take the Department of Motor Vehicles out of the equation by pushing organ donor registration with its new operating system. [More]
Apple Sent Two Technicians To Investigate Music Download Deletions
By 5.18.16
When your Apple product starts acting up, maybe you go the Genius Bar, maybe you call tech support, maybe you just ask a friend for advice. Or maybe, if your blog post about Apple Music apparently deleting thousands of downloaded files makes national news headlines, two Apple techs come knocking on your door. [More]
Target Believes Porn That Played Over California Store’s PA System Come From An Outside Source
By 11.6.15
A few weeks ago, shoppers at a California Target received an unsettling surprise when the unmistakable sounds of professional coitus aired loud and clear over the store’s PA system. While an investigation into the incident continues, the retailer believes the pornographic audio originated from an outside source. [More]
One Month After Closing Stores For Plumbing Repairs, Walmart Actually Files For Permits
By 5.15.15
When Walmart closed five stores in four different states on the same day, claiming that they were shutting down due to unspecified “plumbing problems,” people became suspicious. Some citizen theories involve the military, and others involve the nationwide OUR Walmart walkouts that began at one of the California stores targeted for temporary closing. One piece of evidence was that Walmart hadn’t yet filed for permits for any of these urgent renovations. Well, now they have. [More]
Story Of The Returned $10,000 Walmart Debit Card May Be Hoax
By 2.25.15
Earlier today, we told you about the odd story of a man in Alabama who claimed to have found a Walmart prepaid debit card containing more than $10,000 on it, and who says he did the right thing by trying to return it to the store. However, the more we learn about this story the more questions come up. [More]
Chef Who Threatened Yelper Over Negative Review Issues Public Apology
By 11.3.14
We recently brought you the story of a restaurant customer in Cleveland whose one-star Yelp review of a new eatery led to the chef/owner sending the customer angry, threatening messages via Facebook. The Yelper subsequently told us that he’d received a private apology from the chef, but that the restaurant continued to mock him through its social media outlets. After weeks of not directly addressing this story in a public forum, the chef posted an apology late last week. [More]
More Info From Yelper Who Says He Was Threatened Over Negative Review
By 10.24.14
Earlier today, we told you about the apparent dispute between a Cleveland consumer and the chef/owner of a local restaurant who allegedly reacted to the customer’s negative Yelp review with a series of nasty, threatening messages on Facebook. Now that diner has reached out to Consumerist to share more of his side of the story. [More]
Can’t Remember Where You Parked? Google’s Here To Remind You
By 5.1.14
Apparently, we consumers can’t be trusted to remember where we parked. But have no fear, Google is here keep us from wandering around the mall parking lot aimlessly looking for our vehicles. [More]
Pizza Hut Wants To Hire Back Manager Who Refused To Work Thanksgiving
By 11.29.13
Earlier this week, a Pizza Hut manager in Indiana was all over the news for taking a stand against his bosses’ demand to open the restaurant on Thanksgiving — and losing his job in the process. Now the folks at Pizza Hut HQ are finally talking about the subject and say it was all a big misunderstanding. [More]
Golden Corral: Food In Dumpster Video Wasn’t Served; Father Of Employee Tried To Sell Video To Company For $5K
By 7.8.13
As we mentioned this morning, a video showing food sitting by the dumpsters of a Golden Corral restaurant in Florida has become an Internet sensation. Now the owners of the Golden Corral franchise featured in the clip are saying that all the food shown in the video was thrown out and the manager involved was fired. The franchise owners also claim that the father of the employee in the video tried to sell the clip to the company before it went public. [More]
JCPenney Says Coupon Code Users Can Only Get One Of Those “Free” Towels They Ordered Online
By 5.14.13
We told you last week about savvy online shoppers who realized that a JCPenney coupon code for $10 off purchases of $10 or more could be used to snap up a washcloth/towel combination that cost exactly $10. It also looked like the code could be used repeatedly, so some folks just kept ordering these items until JCP ran out of every possible color. But now the retailer is saying “not so fast” to customers who placed multiple orders. [More]
Customer Who Posted Olive Garden Receipt Says He Understands The Skeptics
By 3.27.13
Earlier today, we told you about a receipt posted by an Olive Garden diner whose meal was comped, and about all the doubters that came out of the woodwork to claim it was a fake. We weren’t sure — we certainly wouldn’t put it past a clever marketing department — so we asked the man who originally published the much-debated pic. [More]
