Consumer news and opinion

Setting Splits on Your Garmin Forerunner 305… it doesn’t come out of the box recording splits automatically, but did you know it can be set to record splits?

I’ve owned a Garmin 305 since I did my Garmin 305 Product Review in March of 2010. It’s one of the best toys a runner can have.

Before owning a Garmin GPS tracking computer, I used to run predefined courses and then map them out on either Google Earth, Map My Run, and now, lately, if I do this any more, over on USATF America’s Running Routes.

To be honest, after a good run, the last thing you want to do is sit down and tinker on the computer.

So I snagged a GPS 305 back then because it was on sale for a ridiculous price on Amazon.com. Today I took a peek and today I noticed a Garmin or two on sale for around $180 at the time of writing this article. (Garmin GPS Watches on Amazon.com)

Since my introduction to my Garmin, I’ve been loving the premise of turning on my Garmin 305, putting it in the window sill until it catches the satellite signals, and taking off. This works out great because the watch needs a few minutes to find the sky and I use that time to load up my running fuel and water bottles. By the time I’m done with that, my Garmin is ready.

Plastic Bag Ban in San Jose, And Now Costumers Get Charged for Paper Bags

by Bruce Simmons on January 2, 2012

In an interesting state of developments, starting January 1st, 2012, a plastic bag ban is going into effect in different parts of the Bay Area. Specifically, in the city of San Jose, CA.

The plastic bag ban is angling towards keeping plastic bags out of the environment because there are many lazy people who can’t dispose of their own trash repsonsibly.

Now the rest of us pay for it. The dog owners who use them to scoop, people who use them as trash bags, etc., etc..

But along with the ban of plastic bags, it seems that now that you don’t have any options, stores are going to charge their customers money for using the paper bag option.

Which seems odd… since my presumption is that part of my cost of purchasing a product from a store involves paying them for their supply costs and store labor.

But now consumers are being charged an extra ten cents for something that’s part of their bill.

That does not seem right, that’s for sure.

Netflix Won’t Let Customers Clear Their Viewing History. Why Is That?

by Bruce Simmons on January 2, 2012

in consumer, product review

Netflix users have been asking since at least 2007, for the ability to clear or hide their “recent viewed” queue. And yet there are still no options for this? Why’s that? You would think with the clamor that Netflix would want to appease those for this long-running inquiry.

I’ve seen suggestions, but not logical ones.

I’ve been watching my brother-in-law tinker around with his Netflix account and the principle is pretty neat. But the more I see him tinker, the more I’m thinking that Netflix is not better than sliced bread. Most movies are not the newest and there’s an eclectic and cumbersome way to navigate their entertainment choices.

But what I’ve noticed is that as you create a viewing history, THERE IS NO WAY TO FILTER, HIDE or DELETE it.

Why filter, or delete the viewing history? The most common reason I’m seeing out on the web is if someone watches something of a questionable moral nature, they don’t want their friends, family, or more importantly, their kids to see this viewing activity. I get that.

The reason I’m focused on this is because I noticed that with my brother-in-law’s situation, his kids use Netflix to watch their movies, but they have access and are exposed to the entire viewing history of the account.

That doesn’t seem smart from Netflix’s side of things. They don’t seem to care that their customers are asking for a filter.

Consumer Product Recalls: Pampered Chef, Baby Strollers, Holiday Decorations

by Bruce Simmons on January 1, 2012

Below are some consumer product recalls that seem more critical than some others, due to the nature of the issues concerned. I key in on the number of incidents reported because of the defects or if they have something to do with the safety of your children.

Some of these product recalls involve personal home heaters, baby strollers, holiday decorations and a few other items of note. If you want more info on any of the recalls you see below, head off to the CPSC Product Recall Page and follow the notes or instructions for searching for the recalled product from below.

The Pampered Chef has recalled their Ice Cream Dippers due to what’s referred to as an impact injury hazard. And I assume that doesn’t mean that someone can thump you with it kind of warning.

They sold about 20k of them and the problem is that when the scoop (which is liquid filled) is exposed to warm water, the cap and seal can pop off with what they call substantial force. This is what is behind the impact injury hazard warning.

The Pampered Chef has actually received around 16 incident reports, some of which include damage to inside kitchen items and a few lacerations, bruises and such when the cap popped off the handle.

= = =

The Pottery Barn Kids is recalling their Madeline Bed Canopy because the connections on the posts of the top rails can come apart, causing parts and pieces to fall down.

They’ve had 33 reports of the bed coming apart, where one young person required stitches.

Twitter, Facebook or RSS Feed? Which Is Best for You? [Consumer]

by Bruce Simmons on December 28, 2011

After a bit of frustration with how some website owner/operators run their ancillary feeds these days, I find myself dropping all but their RSS feeds. It’s more about the lack of professionalism in the personalities behind the social feeds vs. a pretty basic RSS feed.

Read on and find out why I think, for some, RSS Feeds is the best way to follow a website.

In this day and age, every website owner/operator puts their content out in every possible fashion. They scramble to figure out every last trick that Google has for them and how to game it and rank well within that nebulous web ranking system. They also play on the human factor by using bait title tactics, report the news bites or generate interesting opinion pieces.

To get those pieces of work out, they use different venues for getting their content in your face. Some sites stick with the basics of Facebook and Twitter. Others pound out other venues for their regurgitated content.

For you the web surfer, you have to decide how best to spend your time, because your time is a pretty valuable commodity. Period.

Do you want just the info, or do you want to interact and feel like the web author is a human. And therein lies the sales pitch to website admins… to “engage” the community.

The average web surfer spends maybe around 90 seconds on a blog/website, skittering along looking for or at things that might catch your attention. If nothing does, you either move on or never land there.

And you have good reason for skittering through a website… In 2011, there were roughly around 150 million blogs out there. And you only have so much time.

Places Open for Business on Christmas Day [Consumer]

by Bruce Simmons on December 24, 2011

If you’re wondering what or what might be open on Christmas Day 2011, here’s a quick list that I’ve gathered.

Please remember, verify with a phone call before charging out… Any franchise location might have other plans for Christmas day!

What’s Open on Christmas Day:

Denny’s
IHOP
Starbucks
Waffle House

Probably Open

Safeway
CVS
Carl’s Jr
Jack in the Box

Blu-ray Disc Players on Amazon

SONY Blu-ray Disc Player: Initial Consumer Product Review Observations

by Bruce Simmons on December 24, 2011

in consumer, product review

This is an initial set of observations and a consumer product review of the SONY Blu-ray Disc Player, model BDP-S480.

This is not a technical review. This is a regular Joe kind of review. So keep that in mind as you read this product review.

The Sony BDP-S480 is a 3D Blu-ray Disc Player. I did not get it for the 3D feature. I am not a fan of most 3D movies so I’m not sure what I’d get out of it on a tinier screen, but the player fell within my price-range. And since 3D seems to be getting shoved down the consumer’s throat, well, I’m sure sooner or later I might be tinkering with the tech.

As anyone who knows me can attest to, I do my research. I hate buying blind. Plus I’m finally considering a BD player because studios are adding more features to the Blu-ray format products than the DVD version of their products.

With that said, I was on the hunt for my first Blu-ray player.

Initially I queried some peers who have BD players and the one thing I took away from my conversations is to visit the stores and check out the remotes. Apparently remotes can be bulky, non-intuitive or are just annoying.

Then I checked out some consumer review websites and got a feel for brand/models I was looking for and had narrowed the field down. One of the first things I noticed was that the store I hit up did not have remotes out with the shelf models. After looking at what was for sale, there were a couple of recommendations left for my choosing.

Health Warning: Don’t Use Your Untreated Tap Water With Your Neti Pot!!!

by Bruce Simmons on December 20, 2011

Consumer Awareness Note: Neti Pots seem to be all the rage. The premise of pushing water up my nose has been so revolting that I’ve not gone near the frightening little blue pot.

But I’ve also heard wonderful success stories from many friends and associates about how using the Neti Pot has helped or cured their allergies or other allergy-like issues.

But I can’t just bring myself to try one, even with my own allergies raging against this Bruce-machine. For the time being, I think I prefer to suffer than power-rinse my brain.

But now it seems, there might be a minor issue with the Neti Pots and it has to do with using your untreated drinking water out of your tap!

At this point, it’s been recorded that two people have died from brain-eating amoebas, in association with using their Neti Pots. And with that, doctors are now warning folks to not use tap-water with your Neti Pots.

The warning comes from Louisiana, where a 20-year-old man and a 51-year-old Louisiana woman died of encephalitis.

There seems to be a connection between the pots and the users tap water.

Is SOPA Really That Good For Everyone? It Doesn’t Seem So, Despite The Intent

by Bruce Simmons on December 20, 2011

Once again the many can thank the few for having potential freedoms taken away and/or restricted. In this case, I’m thinking about movie piracy, but this is not limited to just that one industry.

(This is a quickie article, shot from the hip, talking about the major outline points I’ve noticed about this SOPA bill. It’s not intended to be the end-all of anything, except my venting a little bit about movie piracy and the cavalier attitude digital pirates carry with them. I’ve provided source links at the bottom of this rant if you want further information from different sources.)

The SOPA bill is the Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as H.R.3261. (Which is getting voted for on December 21st, 2011.)

This bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011 and it basically looks to expand the long arm of the U.S. law and copyright holders in their abilities to fight the online trafficking and theft of copyrighted property, or copyright infringement.

SOPA would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders the ability to get court orders against websites involved or, more accurately, accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

I don’t have any issues with the spirit of this new bill. But there seems to be a lot of freedoms granted in the exercising of the protection of the copyrighted materials…

For instance, the potential ramifications from a website that is discovered to be facilitating copyright infringement (knowingly or not) can include

Barring advertising networks from doing business with infringing websites;
Barring search engines from linking to suspected sites:
Requiring ISPs to block access to suspected infringing sites.

This bill also makes unauthorized streaming of copyrighted material a felony.

And the peer-pressure aspect of this bill will give immunity to ISPs that voluntarily take action against suspected websites that seem dedicated to copyright infringement.

It Pays To Do Consumer Research, Because It Pays Yourself!

by Bruce Simmons on December 19, 2011

This is a consumer advice piece about how smart shopping can save you a lot of money, if done right. Read on and check out how I just saved almost $90 buying simple, ancillary items for my electronics!

If I were to be ask you if you would like have an extra $30 today, would you say yes? What if I asked you if you would want to have an extra $60 in your pocket? Would you say yes to that?

$60 can go a long way towards any number of things these days. Gifts for the kids, the wife, um, yourself… or even taking the family out to a nice dinner experience and knowing it won’t hurt the wallet too much because you literally have an extra $60 in your pocket.

Wouldn’t that be awesome? I think so.

Now what if I told you that you can actually give YOURSELF that extra $60? No joke! And no, I’m not talking loan sharks. I’m talking about forming consumer habits that can help you save that kind of money as a consumer.

Here’s my first example of saving that kind of money:

Here under my Consumer Bits column, I wrote up an product review of a Sony Bravia LED TV. Near the bottom of that article I made an interesting observation about the cost of peripheral cables for TVs or Blu-ray players.

I had noticed that while looking at TVs & Blu-ray players and such, that the HDMI cables that go between my TV and a Blu-ray player. cost anywhere from $45 to $75. But I knew from my own research that I could get the same type of cables on the internet for $2 and up.