Consumers Archive

  • Two-week iMac rentals for $8.56 per day?

    Two-week iMac rentals for $8.56 per day?

    I noticed the fellas from PoketyPoke each carrying around an iMac box after the Digital Experience event at CES last week. “Wow, you guys really went all out,” said I. “Yeah,” said they, “Did you know you can rent an iMac for two weeks for $120?”

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  • EA planning massacre of online services for games that aren’t all that old

    EA planning massacre of online services for games that aren’t all that old

    Let’s say you’re a company that makes video games – sports games in particular – and you generate a nice recurring stream of revenue by putting out new versions of your sports games every year to coincide with the new seasons of each sport. But let’s also say that some of your customers don’t buy the newest versions because they’ve discovered almost endless replayability of the older versions thanks to online multiplayer features. What a pickle!

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  • This is the problem with being charged to receive text messages

    This is the problem with being charged to receive text messages

    Well it looks like my not-even-a-month-old new cell phone number is already out in the wild somehow. I received this unsolicited text message from a 718-area phone number, which Nicholas tells me is Brooklyn or Queens, New York (I'm in Boston).

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  • Computer makers’ tech support quality compared

    Computer makers’ tech support quality compared

    apathyLAPTOP recently pit the big computer vendors' customer service offerings against one another with two phone calls to each, one asking how to change power settings on a laptop and the other asking how to switch to an external monitor that'd been hooked up. Not that anyone who reads this site would ever, ever need to call customer support for any reason whatsoever, but at least you can tell your friends and family who to avoid.

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