CVS Misprices Meds, Offers Refunds If You Say Please

When CVS discovered that prices listed for brand-name drugs on its SilverScript Medicare site were mistakenly displayed at about 4% less than the drugs were actually being sold for, the company quickly fixed the glitch, according to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal. But what happened to customers who saw the “low” prices and [...]

This Is Where Stinky Drywall Comes From

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has released the names of the top manufacturers of stinky, dangerous drywall, which emits high levels of hydrogen sulfide (the source of its stinkiness). According to the agency, drywall from the manufacturers, all based in China, emitted hydrogen sulfide at levels up to 100x greater than samples from non-Chinese manufacturers. [...]

Indoor Tanning Quadruples Risk Of Skin Cancer

Think that tanning bed is safer than the evil ol’ sun? Not quite. A new study from the American Association for Cancer Research has determined that frequent use of tanning beds can quadruple your risk of skin cancer. But, hey, you’ll look great, and isn’t that the first step to good health? Consumer Reports Health [...]

Internet Turns Bullsh*t Detector On Facebook CEO

Yesterday afternoon, while everyone else was cheering about how Facebook’s supercool new privacy settings were going to bring about world peace and end hunger, Marshall Kirkpatrick actually took the time to listen to what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to say about the changes, and noticed something interesting: Zuckerberg, as Kirkpatrick put it on ReadWriteWeb, [...]

Cosmetics Retailers Tell You That Looking Good Makes You Healthy

Research conducted for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores has revealed that in order to be healthy, you first have to look really hot: “The first stage of health and wellness is beauty,” said researcher Thom Blischok, during an event on “Redefining Health and Beauty Care for Untapped Profit Potential.” Blischok, of SymphonyIRI Group, [...]

Government Investigating Apple On Music Practices

The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Apple, to determine whether the company used its position as the nation’s largest music retailer to unfairly influence music labels. Apple allegedly told labels not to offer exclusives to Amazon.com, and punished those that didn’t comply by dropping marketing support on iTunes. According to The New York [...]

Redesigned Hot Dog Breaks Apart When Eaten

Just three months after the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a call for a redesigned hot dog that would be safer for small children to eat, Eugene D. Gagliardi, Jr. — the food designer who invented Steak-umms and popcorn chicken — has come forward with a solution. His patented hot dog has eight slits [...]

Don’t Bring Firearms, Knives or iPads To Yankee Stadium

When the Yankees lost two out of three games to the Mets last week at New York’s Citi Field, iPad owners could have tweeted about it, watched replay videos or switched to another game (an option many Yankee fans would have liked) using the device’s big, bright screen. When the two teams have their rematch [...]

iPhone 3GS Now $97 At Walmart … 4G Coming Soon?

Walmart has dropped the price of the iPhone 3GS to $97, which is $2 less than Apple charges for the older 3G model. The move has fueled speculation that Apple plans to announce the next-generation iPhone at its developers conference next month. They may as well. It’s not like anybody’s going to be surprised to [...]

iPhone 3GS Now $97 At Walmart … 4G Coming Soon?

Walmart has dropped the price of the iPhone 3GS to $97, which is $2 less than Apple charges for the older 3G model. The move has fueled speculation that Apple plans to announce the next-generation iPhone at its developers conference next month. They may as well. It’s not like anybody’s going to be surprised to [...]

Facebook’s Zuckerberg: We “Missed The Mark”

Echoing (or is that just endlessly repeating) comments made by his minions last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said that the company “missed the mark” with its complex privacy controls, and vowed to give users a “simpler way to control your information.” In a Washington Post column, Zuckerberg repeated statements that the company would [...]

Zappos Eats $1.6 Million In Pricing Snafu

Zappos-owned e-commerce site 6pm.com had a little pricing problem this weekend: A glitch in its system marked down every product in the store to $49.95. By the time the problem was fixed, the store had lost $1.6 million. So, did Zappos cancel the orders or charge the customers the “correct” price for their goods. Nope. [...]

Congress Putting Genetic-Testing Companies Under Microscope

While Walgreens may have voluntarily chosen not to sell home genetic testing kits in the face of an FDA investigation, its action has brought attention to the entire for-profit testing industry, and others may not have the luxury to quietly shut down on their own. A congressional committee is looking into the business, and could [...]

Best And Worst Places To Buy Tech Gear

PC World has compiled a list of the best and worst places to buy a range of gadgets, including digital cameras, laptops and printers. While many of the results may not be surprising (Amazon ranked at or near the top in almost every category), there are a few interesting wrinkles, including a Best Buy victory [...]

Worst Phone Ever Wants You To Help Sue Apple and AT&T

Tired of dropped calls? Want to do something about it? If you’re an iPhone user, Worst Phone Ever wants you to send in your dropped call logs, with the goal of starting a class-action lawsuit against Apple and AT&T after it’s collected enough of them. The site provides information to help you find your dropped [...]

Wait Until You’re Dead To Pay For Your Funeral

You’re gonna die. Why make your family suffer even more by burdening them with the cost of your funeral? That’s the pitch made by companies that try to get you to pay for your funeral years in advance. But, in most cases, you’re better off putting your money into normal savings accounts or life insurance [...]

Starbucks Sponsors Contest To Create Green Coffee Cups

Not content with offering discounts to customers who bring in their own travel mugs, Starbucks has now thrown its weight behind “betacup,” a contest to “eliminate paper cup consumption through the design of a more convenient alternative to the reusable coffee mug.” Some of the ideas submitted so far include a hemp-based cup (we have [...]

Court Upholds Your Right To Cheap Fast Food

The King hath won the latest round of a battle with upstart serfs, as a judge ruled that Burger King has the right to set maximum prices for some menu items. However, the indentured servants, er, franchisees that sued the chain over its value menu, are still planning to argue that the pricing system was [...]

Apple Finally Drops “I’m A Mac” Ads

Apple has finally caught on to something many of us have known for years: John Hodgman’s befuddled “PC” is far more appealing than Justin Long’s smug “Mac,” so the “I’m a Mac” ads aren’t really very effective at converting PC-users to Mac fans. Well. maybe that’s not the official reason, but the company is still [...]

FTC Shuts Down Bogus Credit Card Robocallers

Three companies that made claims that they could help consumers reduce their credit card interest rates — and then charged fees of up to $1,590 — have been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission. “The last thing debt-ridden consumers need is to be deluged by illegal robocalls – especially when all the calls are [...]

Apple Store Now Willing To Accept Hard Currency

A day after refusing to take cash from a customer who wanted to purchase an iPad, Apple has reversed course and is now willing to accept Federal Reserve Notes backed by the U.S. government. “We want to make sure it’s as fair as possible for people to get iPads,” said Apple Sr. Vice President Ron [...]

Facebook May Simplify Privacy Controls

Facing mounting criticism that its privacy settings have become overly complex, Facebook is now considering changes “for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from.” It’s unclear, however, whether the planned changes will provide more options for users who don’t want to share certain information, or just make the existing choices [...]

Do Not Tase Wendy’s Clerk For Getting Your Order Wrong

A worker at a Wendy’s in Daytona Beach, FL, narrowly avoided being zapped with a taser after getting a customer’s order wrong. According to police reports, the alleged assailant, Melane Asia Reid, “brandished a pink stun gun” and chased Jason HIll around the restaurant, until the manager threatened to call the police. Jason Hill, the [...]

Do Not Tase Wendy’s Clerk For Getting Your Order Wrong

A worker at a Wendy’s in Daytona Beach, FL, narrowly avoided being zapped with a taser after getting a customer’s order wrong. According to police reports, the alleged assailant, Melane Asia Reid, “brandished a pink stun gun” and chased Jason HIll around the restaurant, until the manager threatened to call the police. Jason Hill, the [...]

Pantone Hotel Lets You View World Through Rose (15-1626)-Colored Glasses

We know how it is. You get to the hotel, turn on the lights in your room, and — gasp — instead of the soothing Rose Dust (14-1307) you expected, the walls are painted a hideous shade of Butternut (18-0830). And those sheets — are they really Fuchsia Red (18-2328)? If this has happened to [...]

Pantone Hotel Lets You View World Through Rose (15-1626)-Colored Glasses

We know how it is. You get to the hotel, turn on the lights in your room, and — gasp — instead of the soothing Rose Dust (14-1307) you expected, the walls are painted a hideous shade of Butternut (18-0830). And those sheets — are they really Fuchsia Red (18-2328)? If this has happened to [...]

NY AG: SmartBuy Scammed Military With High Prices, Illegal Credit

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a lawsuit against SmartBuy and a group of related companies that allegedly “scammed members of the military” by selling them electronics and other products at markups of up to 325% of the original retail prices, and then “financed the sales” illegally through undisclosed credit lines linked to [...]

How Steve Jobs Blew $10 Billion

So, you bought a house right before the property bubble burst? Got out of gold a year ago? Invested in Pets.com back in the 90s? Well, guess what? No matter how many dumb investment decisions you’ve made, they likely pale next to a little mistake Steve Jobs made a few years ago, which cost him [...]

How Steve Jobs Blew $10 Billion

So, you bought a house right before the property bubble burst? Got out of gold a year ago? Invested in Pets.com back in the 90s? Well, guess what? No matter how many dumb investment decisions you’ve made, they likely pale next to a little mistake Steve Jobs made a few years ago, which cost him [...]

Rapping Your McDonald’s Order Is Not A Crime

A Utah teenager who was arrested after rapping his order at a McDonald’s drive-through was found not guilty of disorderly conduct,after a judge ruled that his behavior was not threatening and didn’t create any unreasonable noise. The judge didn’t rule on the skills of the teen, who was attempting to imitate the YouTube classic “Fast [...]

Airfare From Atlanta To Vegas Is … Sorry, Too Late

How much will it cost you to fly from Atlanta to Las Vegas? Don’t bother checking; by the time you do, the price will have already changed. According to a new study from Yapta, the fare for flights between those two cities has changed 2,472,916 times so far this year, or once every six seconds. [...]

What Does “Hot Fried” Windows 7 Taste Like?

Just in case the legendary 7-layer Windows 7 Whopper wasn’t enough for you, Microsoft has introduced “Hot Fried 77,” the Windows 7 restaurant, featuring 7 Windows-themed dishes. And beer. However, if you’re looking to grab a quick bite of hot fried Windows, be prepared to travel fast: The restaurant is in Taiwan, and is only [...]

Fake Pilot Flew Passenger Jets For 13 Years

Thomas Salme was working in maintenance at Scandinavian airline SAS, when he decided he wanted to move up into the cockpit. So, he did what any clever and ruthless crackpot would: He practiced on a flight simulator until he thought he was ready to fly, and then printed a fake pilot’s license at home. He [...]

Is Gold Fever The Next Bacon Bubble?

Gold prices may be setting new highs almost daily, but to commodity traders, the shiny metal is just another line on a graph. And it’s a line that’s starting to look very familiar to some traders, who see a pattern similar to one that played out recently with hogs. Prices for pigs flew to new [...]

Do Not Even Try To Escape Starbucks

The Seattle’s Best onslaught was just the beginning. Starbucks is ramping up efforts to make sure that, wherever you go, there it is (not that the brand was particularly difficult to come by before, but whatever). This includes making its Via instant coffee more widely available, and selling flavored coffee in supermarkets, all to bump [...]

Financial Reform Bill Blocked Again

It’s deja vu all over again: For the second day in a row, Republicans blocked debate on the financial reform bill. Once more, the vote was 57-41. And, once more, Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska broke ranks and voted with Republicans against the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the bill up [...]

Senator To Goldman Sachs: “Why Did You Push A Shitty Deal?”

We don’t normally put expletives in our headlines, but when a Senator says the word nearly a dozen times in an open hearing, who are we to argue? And, we have to admit, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) certainly makes a compelling case when he reads back Goldman Sachs internal emails and concludes that the company’s [...]

Financial Reform Bill Stalls In Senate

With a 57-41 vote, Senate Republicans blocked debate over the White House-supported financial reform bill. The Democrats needed a 60-vote “supermajority” to avoid a Republican filibuster threat. Democrats plan to reintroduce the bill as early as tomorrow. Senate Democrats believe that anger over financial scandals can turn the tide in their favor, while Republicans see [...]

Police Seize Gizmodo Editor’s Computers

Police on Friday seized several computers from the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, after they were granted a warrant allowing them to confiscate property that “may have been used as the means of committing a felony.” The warrant specifically mentions that officials are looking for information about the iPhone 4G, a prototype of which [...]

Middle-Aged Women Rule Online Marketplace

Unlike meatspace malls, you can’t scope out the other shoppers when you’re browsing the online aisles. But thanks to this handy infographic from Permuto Discoveries, the truth is out: virtual malls are dominated by middle-aged white women with household incomes of $65K. Yeah, it’s Paramus without the blue laws. Actually, the real news in the [...]

Get Full Access To NYC Subways For $27

Want to save a few bucks next time you visit New York City? Pick up one of these handy keys that can open the entrance to every subway gate and turnstile in the city’s transit system for just $27. Just be ready to be locked away without a key if you get caught, since the [...]

FTC Protects Your Privacy, But FCC Rules At Hoops

In a wide-ranging interview, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz spoke with NPR’s On the Media about the agency’s role in protecting consumer privacy, fighting back against deceptive marketing practices — and about Leibowitz’s weekend basketball games with Federal Communications Commission chief Julius Genachowski: “Julius has been schooling me on the basketball court for some [...]

McDonald’s Logo Makes You Impatient And Impulsive

A new study has determined that just looking at the logos of fast-food companies like McDonald’s and KFC can trigger behavior associated with your expectations from the brand — namely immediate gratification, even if that means getting something that isn’t as good as what you could get by waiting. Participants who looked at fast-food logos [...]

Survive The Apocalypse In Luxury For Just $50,000

Forget that musty fallout shelter your grandfather dug in the backyard. If you want to make it through the next zombie attack, earthquake or nuclear war in style, just write a check to Vivos, a California company that’s trying to build a network of swank shelters across the country. For $50K and up, you’ll get [...]

Eat Your Double Down At the KFC Yum! Center

Sick of hearing about the KFC Double Down yet? If you’re not, and you live in KFC’s home town of Louisville, KY, you’ll soon be able to order one — and pretty much anything else from KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut — in the KFC Yum! Center, a $238 million, 22,000-seat facility scheduled to [...]

What’s Going On With Retail Medical Clinics?

Retail medical clinics — you know, those little offices in places like Walmart that promise to treat minor ailments in the amount of time it takes to check out on the express line — have been around for a few years, but haven’t exactly won over tons of customers from the neighborhood GP. Now, it [...]

Uniqlo Paying Record $300 Million For Fifth Avenue Spot

Retailers around the country may be shuttering branches and going out of business, but New York’s Fifth Avenue is apparently recession-proof. Setting a record for a New York retail lease, Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo will pay $300 million over 15 years for a spot on Fifth Avenue and 53rd street. Bloomberg points out that the [...]

Tic Tacs Or Tobacco? Study Says Camel Orbs Look Too Sweet

When is a tiny, mint-flavored tablet that dissolves in the mouth not a breath mint? When it’s a Camel Orb “dissolvable tobacco” pellet, that’s when. And that has health advocates — who worry that children may mistake the nicotine pills for candy — smoking mad. According to a study published today in the journal Pediatrics, [...]

Smaller iPad Coming Next Year?

If the 9-inch iPad is an enormous iPod touch, what does that make the rumored 7-inch version? An iPad mini? The iPad Portable? Or maybe just the product Apple should have made in the first place, since it will come at a lower price point and won’t require a special jacket just to carry it. [...]

Smaller iPad Coming Next Year?

If the 9-inch iPad is an enormous iPod touch, what does that make the rumored 7-inch version? An iPad mini? The iPad Portable? Or maybe just the product Apple should have made in the first place, since it will come at a lower price point and won’t require a special jacket just to carry it. [...]

iPhone 4.0 Software: Multitasking, Billions Of Ads, No Porn Store

Apple honcho Steve Jobs today unveiled the latest version of the company’s iPhone operating system software, which adds long-awaited multitasking functions, so that you can finally listen to Pandora and check email at the same time. The new OS will also include the iPad’s iBooks app and an email app that will let you manage [...]

Is Financial Reform Too Confusing For Most Journalists (And Consumers)?

With financial reform likely to be the next big target of the White House, NPR’s On the Media worries that the topic could be too confusing for most journalists to really understand well enough to explain to the American people. And this includes journalists who do this all day, every day. Adam Davidson, who covers [...]

Kraft To Cadbury Workers: Leave Pension Plan Or Take Pay Freeze

Mac-n-cheese king Kraft Foods, which acquired British chocolate maker Cadbury earlier this year, isn’t wasting any time when it comes to flexing some American-style corporate muscle. According to the Financial Times, Kraft has warned 3,600 Cadbury employees that they’ll face a three-year pay freeze if they don’t agree to “voluntarily” opt out of the company’s [...]

How Should You Charge Your iPad? Even Apple Isn’t Sure

In tests done earlier today, Consumer Reports learned that the iPad’s included USB cable won’t charge the device when it’s plugged into a Windows computer or some Mac peripherals. And Apple support personnel contacted by Consumer Reports confirmed that the only official way to charge the device is via AC outlets. Too bad this advice [...]

Boxing iPad Takes On The Kindle

You don’t have to go very far to find plenty of videos of iPads being unboxed. But if you want to see an iPad in a boxing match with an Amazon Kindle, there’s only one place to go: the streets of New York, where these two dudes battled it out to entertain the masses waiting [...]

The Consumerist 2010-04-03 09:54:13

The Consumer Reports science geeks are testing the iPad right now. Have something you’d like them to check? Tell them about it here.

Poll: Which April Fool’s Product Should Become Real This Time?

Last year, demand for ThinkGeek’s April Fool’s Tauntaun sleeping bag was so intense that the company began selling it for reals. This time around, the site is taunting visitors with a “Want these products for real?” survey. We, however, don’t want to limit our wish-fool thinking to one site, so we want to know: Which [...]

Poll: Which April Fool’s Product Should Become Real This Time?

Last year, demand for ThinkGeek’s April Fool’s Tauntaun sleeping bag was so intense that the company began selling it for reals. This time around, the site is taunting visitors with a “Want these products for real?” survey. We, however, don’t want to limit our wish-fool thinking to one site, so we want to know: Which [...]

Glowing Cash Could Help You (And Muggers) Find The Right Bill

If you’ve ever had trouble identifying different denominations when digging through your wallet in the dark (or under other circumstances when you might find yourself visually challenged), Jaesik Heo’s concept for luminous paper money may just, er, fit the bill. Of course, the telltale glow could also alert anybody else in the vicinity to the [...]

Government Mortgage Relief Plan May Buoy Underwater Homeowners

A new program announced by the Obama Administration today could help homeowners whose homes have declined in value by offering new government-backed loans and getting lenders to reduce the principal owed on homes whose values have fallen by at least 15%. The catch? Investors who own existing mortgages won’t be forced to participate in the [...]

Google Data Explorer Makes Pretty Charts From Depressing Numbers

Google Labs recently unveiled its latest toy, the Public Data Explorer. The tool adds visualization features to Google’s public data search engine, letting you make charts and graphs like this one, which overlays unemployment stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on a U.S. map. Colorful and cheery, right? All those lovely pale green circles [...]

New Polaroid Film On Sale Today

If you’ve been hoarding packs of expired Polaroid film while waiting, not very patiently, for the day when you could once more buy new versions, it’s time to open the fridge. The Impossible Project, the team of diehard instant-film lovers that vowed to bring the format back to life, starts selling new film today. When [...]

HDTV Popular With Octopuses, Jury Still Out On Squid

Marine biologists studying octopi have begun using HDTV to simulate prey and predators, relying on the sharp onscreen images to trick the animals into responding as if they’re actually under attack or on the hunt (when basketball is on, they reach for breaded shrimp and Hebrew National franks). According to the Journal of Experimental Biology, [...]

You’re Not Ready To Resume Your Spendthrift Ways

We keep hearing that the recession is over, but every new consumer survey seems to confirm one thing: With unemployment rates high and home values low, most consumers aren’t exactly in a rush to open their wallets again. And according to one new survey, many of you are even embarrassed about the way you used [...]

Senate Bill Adds Consumer Protections; Advocates Want More

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled a 1,336-page financial reform bill today, as consumer advocates warned that it doesn’t offer enough to protect the public and concentrates too much power in the Federal Reserve, and bankers complained the bill would “confuse consumers and businesses.” No wonder Dodd’s quitting his job. Introducing the Bill, [...]

Rhapsody Announces New iPhone Feature With Video iPhone Users Can’t See

If you’re an iPhone user and received an email from the Rhapsody music-subscription service today, you got to check out a video demo of the service’s upcoming music-download tool. That is, unless you check your email on your iPhone. Turns out the video, on Rhapsody’s Facebook page, is in Flash, which iPhones don’t support. But [...]

Gerber Machete Recalled Because It Could Cut You

Gerber Legendary Blades is recalling 149,000 machetes in its Gator line, because you could slice your hand open if it slides across the blade. Yeah, we kind of imagine that’s one of the things you’d want to watch out for if you’re carrying an 18-inch blade that’s razor-sharp on one side and saw-toothed on the [...]

Don’t Let Your Battery Charger Expose Your PC To Hackers

If you’re using the Energizer Duo battery charger, and have connected it to your PC to check the charge levels of the batteries, you may have inadvertently exposed yourself to a program that could give hackers access to your computer. The charger has been discontinued, and Energizer recommends removing the software along with the file [...]

Poll: Are You Ready To Give Up Desktop Apps For The Cloud?

Google’s head of European online sales, John Herlihy, recently prognosticated that in three years, “desktops will be irrelevant,” and everyone will work on mobile devices and store their data in the Internet “cloud.” That would be good news for Google, but what about you? Would privacy concerns, limitations of mobile widgets and web apps or [...]

Michaelsoft Binbows Is Japanese For “Get A Cheap PC Here”

We have no idea who first posted this picture, but just to set the record straight, the sign is using a bilingual pun on the Japanese word 貧乏 (binbo) which can be translated as “poor.” It’s apparently promoting a store that sells cheap PCs and computer parts, though we do kind of like the sound [...]

Wonka To Launch Premium Chocolate With Golden Tickets

The Willy Wonka name has been used to market candy for almost 40 years, and in all that time the Wonka company has yet to introduce anything as interesting as Fizzy Lifting Drinks or Invisible Chocolate Bars, instead subjecting consumers to Laffy Taffy and not-very-everlasting Gobstoppers. Now the Nestle-owned brand is going upscale, with its [...]

Chili’s Texas Cheese Fries Named Worst In America

The killjoys at Men’s Health are out with their list of the worst French fries in America — based on how toxic they are, rather than on relative yumminess — and have crowned Chili’s Texas Chese Fries the deadliest. We suppose it has something to do with the cheese, ranch dressing and bacon that accompany [...]

Cashmere Toilet Paper Cheaper Than Wiping With “Luxury Knitwear”

Just in case Charmin isn’t doing it for you anymore, UK retailer Waitrose has come up with what it calls a “super soft cashmere loo roll,” designed to “put a smile on your face.” Um, no matter what we’re using when we’re doing our duty, it’s unlikely to make us smile. Waitrose calls the product [...]

Self-Auctioning Black Box Will Set You Back At Least $6,858

Artist Caleb Larsen’s latest creation, A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, isn’t likely to appeal to traditional art collectors, who tend to like to hold onto their purchases for a little while. That’s because Larsen’s black cube is programmed to try to re-sell itself as soon as a new owner takes posession — and buyers [...]

Did Apple Really Sell 10 Billion Songs On iTunes?

Apple’s breaking out the Champagne over the 10 billionth song downloaded from iTunes, which turns out to be “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash. Yeah, mazel tov, Apple. Thing is, most of the media are reporting that Apple’s sold a billion songs, and that’s simply not the case. Why? Oh, just a little [...]

American Airlines May Be Hit With Record $20 Million Safety Fine

Remember last year, when American Airlines grounded thousands of flights to catch up on safety inspections? The Federal Aviation Administration does, and according to reports, may be about to hit AA with a fine of as much as $20 million, which would be more than double the previous record safety fine of $7.5 million, which [...]

Too Much TV Can Kill You

It might seem obvious that spending extended amounts of time sprawled on the couch in a semi-vegetative state, chomping on an endless bowl of Cheesy Poofs and expending only the minimal energy required to occasionally flick a button on a remote can’t be healthy. But scientific research has confirmed what your mother told you: spend [...]

FBI Wants To Follow You Around The Internet

FBI chief Robert Mueller wants to ISPs to track everything their customers do on the Internet, and keep those records for two years. The government plan would give the FBI access to “origin and destination information” for all users. Hey, at least they’re not doing it in secret and lying about it. The FBI says [...]

Macmillan E-Books Will Now Cost $15 On Amazon

After refusing to sell any Macmillan books or ebooks for three days, Amazon.com today gave in to demands by the publisher that it start charging $15 for Macmillan ebooks, rather than Amazon’s customary $9.99. In a statement, Amazon warned that customers might “rebel against such a high price for books that cost far less to [...]

Consumer Reports Un-Recommends Recalled Toyotas

Consumer Reports has temporarily dropped its “recommended” tag for Toyota models that have been recalled due to potential accelerator-pedal problems. According to CR Auto Test head David Champion, these are “fundamentally good cars,” but CR felt that it had to drop its recommendation “until the accelerator problem is fixed.” Added Champion: “The instances of sticking [...]

Swiss Govt Says Tax Cheats Can Stay Anonymous

The Swiss government has reneged on a deal with the U.S. to disclose the names of American customers of UBS who may have stashed their cash in the Swiss bank to avoid taxes. Two Swiss courts said that the deal violated the country’s secrecy laws and could not be enforced. According to The New York [...]

AT&T: Our Service Is Getting Better, Really

AT&T may have tried to slow sales of the iPhone in New York to avoid putting additional stress on its overtaxed network, but in the company’s earnings call today, the talk was all about how things are getting better. In slides shown to investors, the company pointed to service improvements in New York and San [...]

New BofA CEO Makes Less Than Ken Lewis, More Than You

Bank of America’s new CEO, Brian Moynihan, didn’t bother to ask what his salary would be when he accepted the job late last year. In fact, he’s been working for almost a month without knowing how much he’s getting paid. Maybe he assumed he’d get a deal like predecessor Ken Lewis, who earned an annual [...]

Is The State Of The Union Good For Consumers?

The Obama Administration has been promoting its financial reform proposals almost since the inauguration, and most of the administration’s plans, including the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, have wide support among consumer advocates.So, how are consumers doing, and what did the President say last night that might be good news? The Seattle PI’s [...]

The iPad Is A Giant, $499 iPod Touch

Apple’s Steve Jobs finally introduced that iPad the whole world has been talking about for the past two centuries. What can you do with it? Watch movies. Read ebooks and news. Send email. Play games. All from a shiny multitouch display. Right, the same stuff you can do on an iPhone (except make calls, but [...]

It’s Not Too Late To Join The Apple Drinking Game

Yes, we know it’s the middle of a work day. But we also know you’re probably switching between Consumerist and your favorite tech news site right now, hitting refresh over and over, as you wait to see what new gift His Steveness has bestowed upon mankind. Might as well have some fun while you’re doing [...]

Infomercial Smackdown: MagicJack Talks Trash About NetTalk

MagicJack inventor Dan Borislow is pissed. And who can blame him? After all, he’s made a fortune selling a plastic dongle that lets you make calls over the Internet for $20 a year, and now he has to deal with upstart competitors like NetTalk, which is offering unlimited lifetime calling for $99. What does Borislow [...]

Nexus One @%&#! Censors Voice-To-Text Messages

Early adopters of Google’s Nexus One phone just can’t catch a break. First, some of them overpaid. Then customers reported iffy 3G connectivity. And at least one had problems getting a dead phone replaced. It’s enough to make you scream obscenities at your phone. Don’t bother. Google has included an odd feature as part of [...]

Don’t Ask Geek Squad To Reset Your Password

Two not-very-sharp thieves walked into a Chattanooga Best Buy toting three PCs, and asked one of the resident Geeks to help override the passwords on the boxes. Instead, the Geek, who had heard that a local school had been robbed the previous night, tried logging in, and saw that the username on the PCs was [...]

Verizon iPhone Coming In Two Days … Two Months … Two Years

Is wishful thinking driving dozens of telecom pundits to conclude that Apple will announce that the iPhone is coming to carriers other than AT&T this Wednesday? Or are they just tired of reporting the same tired iTablet rumors? Regardless, the internets are in a frenzy about the potential for a non-AT&T version of the iPhone, [...]

Big Bankers Will Only Pay Themselves $40 Billion In Bonuses

Three top Wall Street financial firms, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, plan to cut the bonuses offered to their top executives, as part of an effort to show that they’re willing to cut back on what the White House recently called “obscene” compensation. For 2009, the three banks will award themselves just [...]

Protein Shrink Ray Hits South Beach Cereal Bars

Some of Kraft’s South Beach Living cereal bars have been reformulated, and the new label boasts that, in addition to a “new lower price,” the bars have “twice the protein of the leading cereal bars.” That might be true, given that most cereal bars are made up of little more than corn, rice, corn syrup, [...]

Botched Parental Controls Let Kids Check Out iPorn

The software that controls Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch includes parental controls that are meant to block kids from buying porn apps. And it works. Sort of. While kids whose parents use the software to protect their iPods can’t purchase any of the App Store’s billions of “babe” apps (App Store porn is largely of [...]

Have A Beer With Your Burger At New Florida Burger King

You can get beer at Burger King outlets in Germany, Singapore and Venezuela. In Japan, you can even get some whiskey with your Whopper. And, now, the U.S. becomes the latest country where you can really have it your way, at least in one “Whopper Bar” in Florida’s South Beach. According to USA Today, the [...]