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In this week’s Staples Sunday ad in the centerfold, on the top right hand side, the following is stated:
faster than Wireless-G
This ad is for a Wireless N router (what happened to H-I-J-K-L-M?) It is a Netgear RangeMax Wireless N150 router, which is a fine product. I also believe Staples is a fine store, but sometimes marketing happens.
In an effort to entice the unsuspecting public into buying this product, Staples has thrown some facts out of the window. From the information contained in the advertisement you would be led to believe that you would have a faster speed on the internet. At this time that would be IMPOSSIBLE.
802.11g supports bandwidth up to 54 Mbps
802.11n supports bandwidth up to 100 Mbps
coverage with Wireless-G devices and better speed with Wireless-N devices.
Netgear KNOWS you wont surf any faster.
Even the newest service from Mediacom, OnlineMax provides 20Mbps. I am happy with the approximate 10Mbps I get at home now. So, no, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus. And you will not surf or email faster.
If a store cannot accurately fact check their nationally published advertisements, just what are they paying attention to?
Acceleration in the use of electronic medical
records may lead to an increase in personal health information theft,
according to a new study that shows there were more than 275,000 cases
of medical information theft in the U.S. last year.
Unlike stealing a driver’s license or a credit card, data gleaned from
personal health records provides a wealth of information that helps
criminals commit multiple crimes, according to Javelin Strategy &
Research, a Pleasanton, California-based market research firm.
Information such as social security numbers,
A key finding from the report is that fraud resulting from exposure of
addresses, medical insurance numbers, past illnesses, and sometimes
credit card numbers, can help criminals commit several types of fraud.
These may include: making payments from stolen credit card numbers and
ordering and reselling medical equipment by using stolen medical
insurance numbers.
health data has risen from 3% in 2008 to 7% in 2009, a 112% increase.
“The Internet Explorer team accelerated testing of this update due to the growing attacks against the publicly disclosed vulnerability (CVE-2010-0806), and the update has reached the appropriate quality bar for distribution to customers,” said Microsoft Security Response group manager Jerry Bryant in a blog post. “Releasing the update early provides Internet Explorer 6 and 7 customers protection against the active attacks and provides users of all versions of Internet Explorer protection against nine other vulnerabilities.”
I say since it was a publicly disclosed vulnerability how could they have released early? They released LATE. Perhaps a year or two years late. The arrogance of Microsoft never ceases to amaze me. So nice of them to take the time for a special release of an update for a problem that probably shouldn’t have existed to begin with. I, for one, will refuse to drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid.
It should not come as a secret to anyone that I do not like the way Best Buy does business when selling people computers. Their “salespeople” often remind me of a famous line from Shakespeare’s MACBETH: “Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,signifying nothing.”
Here is one example I have witnessed myself. Some of their staff, for instance suggest a gold plated USB cable. I have yet to find any proof that determines that a gold plated cable improves performance. Though it does improve a company’s bottom line.
So I do not view their corporation with anything but skepticism and apprehension. This past week’s add included some Best Buy Exclusives. A lot of these exclusives are the Dynex brand which is only sold in Best Buy stores. Exclusive? Absolutely. Solid reliable equipment? I would say the jury is still out on that.
So these statements are my opinion. Certainly I have witnessed some things in their store which I know to be either wrong or untrue, but that is still heresay, not proof. So rather than engage in a he said, they said battle, I have found some proof from an independent third party.
With Circuit City now out of the way as its major competitor in the U.S. consumer electronics retailing business, Best Buy is plowing along with little resistance. The Richfield, Minnesota-based company employs over 150,000 people and has over 1,000 stores in 49 states.
However, Margins are notoriously slim in the consumer electronics retail business, and Best Buy has been using its Geek Squad services subsidiary to help bolster revenues.
In its latest investigation, The Consumerist tackled Best Buy’s Geek Squad optimization services which retails for $39.95. During its investigation involving 18 Best Buy stores in 11 states, the publication looked to determine 1) What exactly is included in the optimization service, 2) How does Best Buy market the service, and 3) Is it worth it to the consumer to purchase the service.
The results were pretty much in line with what most tech heads would expect when it comes to services offered by Best Buy or similar big box retailers. The Consumerist found that one Best Buy rep promised that optimization would boost a new PC’s performance by 200%. In actual Consumer Reports testing, however, it was found that at least one machine which had been optimized by Geek Squad performed 32% worse than a stock, non-altered system — in fact, none of the optimized systems performed better than machines that were fresh out of the box.
So what exactly are these optimizations that are being performed? According to The Consumerist, Windows Updates were downloaded on machines, desktop icons had been cleaned up a bit, and some UI tweaks were done to make navigation “easier” for the consumer.
Even more telling were a few other issues that cropped up in the investigation. While Best Buy’s Geek Squad removed desktop icons related to trialware that is notorious for cluttering and bogging down new systems, the offending programs were still left installed. A power cord for one of the systems had even been left out of the box after the “optimization” was performed.
In addition, at least one reader was told that she could not buy a new laptop at the advertised sale price because all of the machines in stock had already been pre-optimized — and thus came with a price tag that was $39.95 higher — and there were no un-optimized machines in stock.
For its part, a Best Buy representative noted that the service “isn’t for everybody” and that “I would get optimization for my parents.”
Over the years we have seen a lot of computers that we can tell are from smokers. It’s not the smell, but the residue of the tar and nicotine left inside the computer, to the point that it can even discolor some cables. I would venture to say that smoking is not good for your computer, but than again neither is dust. But Apple has taken things to a whole new, possibly extreme, level.
Heads up, smokers: Lighting up near your computer is heresy enough that Apple says it voids your warranty should you need to bring a smoke-exposed computer in for repair.
Specifically, in at least two instances in different parts of the country, Apple has voided the warranty and refused to provide repair service on Macintosh computers exposed to environments where cigarette smoke has been present. Calling cigarette smoke residue (tar and whatnot) inside a computer a health risk and a “biohazard,” in both cases Apple customers have been denied service despite having time left on a valid warranty.
Apple is standing by the decisions, saying that repair centers have the authority to make decisions like this on their own, citing OSHA rules that include nicotine in a list of hazardous substances that could damage the health of someone exposed to it. (Consumerist, which digests the issue with its typical aplomb, adds that sucrose, talc, and calcium carbonate are all also on the OSHA hazardous materials list.)
Apple isn’t formally commenting on the issue or responding to media requests for comment, namely regarding whether there’s a threshold for cigarette smoke exposure beyond which a computer won’t be serviced. Is one cigarette too much? 200? The answer is probably far less scientific than that: If a technician doesn’t like cigarette smoke and your computer smells a bit smoky, it probably won’t get serviced.
I can understand the policy here, but Apple’s failure to mention this issue in its warranty materials is out of line. To leave consumers on the hook for repairing their multi-thousand dollar machine by themselves, without notifying them in advance that cigarette smoke exposure could void their warranty, well… sounds a lot like typical Apple behavior, to be honest.
We take absolutely no responsibility for any inaccuracies in the story below. It is copied directly from the linked website. If we find we have been duped, we will remove this post immediately.
I took the computer (PC), restore CD and power cord to Best Buy (Geek Squad) on 8/28/09. The employee told me that they charge $69.99 to Diagnose the computer; the employee told me that the geek squad would call me when they were done. I received a voice mail message from the geek squad 4 days later on 8/31/09. I went to the store and talked to the employee about the (PC). I was told that the Hard Drive was bad. I asked the employee what needed to be done to get the (PC) working again. The employee said, “The Hard Drive in your computer needs to be replaced”. I asked “How much will that cost?” I was told, $129.99 + $49.99 + $69.99 + price of a new hard drive. I was told hard drive price was around $50.00. (Copy of service order included with this letter) I told the employee NO THANK YOU and that I was not ready to spend that much on the (PC). I paid the $69.99 for the diagnostics and took my NOT WORKING (PC) home. I was OK with the $69.99 diagnostics charge at that time. That same night my next-door neighbor and I were talking about the (PC) problem I was having and he told me that his teenage son fixes his computer when it stops working properly. I asked my neighbor to have his teenage son look at my (PC) to see what he can do. I gave him the computer, restore CD and power cord. The (PC) DID NOT work properly anyway. Two (2) hours later that teenager came to my door with my WORKING computer. I asked the teenager how he fixed it and he told me that he formatted the hard drive 2 times in a row. He also told me that he had to do the same thing to his friends (PC) he fixed a few weeks before. He formatted the (PC) then turned it off rite away, restarted the (PC) reformatted again then installed the operating system. I spent 20 minutes checking out the (PC) then I paid him the $50.00 he wanted for fixing it and Thank him over & over again.