Verizon Wireless really screwed up the Samsung Tab with pricing and policy

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

First off, if you purchase from Verizon Wireless and decide that the Tab is not for you, you will be hit with a $70 restocking fee. If that’s not bad enough, if you return it after three days of having purchased it, you will not be credited back your $35 activation fee either. Oh, did I forget to tell you about that fee? Yeah, in addition to the price of acquisition, Verizon also throws a $35 activation fee onto your first bill.
The above would be bad enough, but it gets worse. The receipt that you get when you purchase the Tab has an estimated monthly bill on it. Since I opted for the $20 per month for 1GB, the first estimated monthly payment was a whopping $88.36!! Needless to say, this sounded alarm bells so I called Verizon Wireless to discuss it. Here’s what I found out:

The truth behind Verizon\’s pricing of the Samsung Tab…

Insteon devices are internally fused? (No, they are not!)

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Myth:

I have found that most, and possibly all*, Insteon
\”Bricks\” are fused internally.

The Truth:

This is not true. In fact, most INSTEON products
are not internally fused.

The ApplianceLinc, PowerLinc Modems, and PowerLinc Controllers contain no fuses. There are also no designed-in fusible links within the components or circuit board(s).  (Fusible links, means that an component is designed act as a fuse, for example, a resistor is designed to fail at 125% of load.  This way the manufacturer has the same protection of a fuse, but without adding another component).
Although, if a fault were to develop within the electronics, one or more parts would open and cut off the supply of current. On most of the INSTEON products, during the Intertek ETL (the safety lab) safety testing, the engineer intentionally creates a shorted conditions within the electronics or the attached load to observe what happens and that it does not catch on fire. We have never failed this test.
There is a fuse installed in the LampLinc modules that is not required by the ANSI/UL-508 (the safety standard used to cover this product). We added it to \’fail-safe\’ the product after we found customers sometimes overloaded the X10 LampLinc Modules (made from 2001 to 2005) with too many Christmas tree lights. The fuse will open at 60% above the rated wattage.
The full conversation is here, the details regarding the Insteon products is from jlockyer.

Dell knew about computer failures, hid info from customers

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

A lawsuit from 2007, has finally proven that Dell made efforts to conceal known issues in it\’s desktop machines…

For example, the Times says that Dell conducted a study in 2004 and concluded that a minimum of 12 percent of its SX270 Optiplex machines would have problems over three years (the same study also included the GX270). The company eventually raised that minimum expectation to 45 percent later that year, with the possibility of the failure rate reaching as high as 97 percent.

See the rest of the information at Dell knew about computer failures, hid info from customers.

Portal 2 delayed… (April 18th 2011)

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Valve has just announced that Portal 2 will now be coming out the week of April 18, 2011 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Valve today announced that Portal 2 — the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date — will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve\’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date.