Customer ServiceeRegister
The Gadgetress ~ TV, mobile and Internet: Covering technology's monthly bill

Archive for the 'reviews' Tag

Verizon’s MiFi is handy portable hotspot if you can afford it

June 5th, 2009, 4:24 pm by

REVIEW: (Wow …  it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these …)

A day before I set off on a road trip to San Francisco, Verizon Wireless shipped me its new MiFi 2200 to play with. This portable Wi-Fi hotspot came in really handy for the long drive and later at the hotel, which was trying to get us to pay $10/day for Wi-Fi. 

Verizon "iPhone" - back.
Verizon’s MiFi personal hotspot sitting on top of an iPod Touch.

Now, I already have a broadband card, gratis the OC Register, which lets me work almost anywhere, like the car (but not while I’m driving, of course). The $150 MiFi trounces broadband cards for several reasons: There’s no need to install software (like my broadband card), MiFi isn’t accidentally bendable (like my broadband card), it causes no issues when it turns off (unlike my broadband card if I skip the “safely remove” step) and it shares its single mobile Internet line with everyone else in the car.

This looks like a sleek, black business card holder with a 20-card capacity. It’s actually a bit larger than a business card and slightly thicker than an iPod Touch (see photo). A button on top depresses to turn it on, while a mini-USB port on one side is used to recharge the removable Li-ion battery.

Verizon "iPhone" - Back, shows modem is on. Verizon "iPhone" Verizon's new MiFi 2200 hotspot compared to the iPhone.

It took several seconds, maybe five to 10, before the MiFi wireless signal was recognized by nearby computers, iPods and other Wi-Fi devices. But after the network showed up, we connected and started surfing in no time. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Review: Not all book scanners are created equal

April 8th, 2009, 3:22 am by

The Gadgetress is out on vacation this week. But here’s something special for those tuning in. Ed Schwartz, one of the guys answering your questions in the weekly Stump the PC Club feature, had a chance to play with another book scanner from Plustek. He reviewed one earlier for the blog – Review: Plustek’s book scanner scans pages cleanly. Today, he offers another extensive review on the Plustek V100.

The Plustek V100 lives up to its advertised feature of scanning pages from a book or a printed page and reading it back to you. If the material is punctuated correctly, the results are even better. For example, the V100 can read e-mail addresses correctly but has a problem with phone numbers punctuated with dots (213.344.5446) but has no problem when dashes are used as is typically the case.

What’s in the box?

The box contains the scanner and required cables plus a software CD and an Audio Instruction CD. The manual is a seven-page guide covering the bare essentials.

The scanner has an 18″ by 11″ by 4″ footprint and includes a power on/off switch. The scanner can be purchased online for as low as $509 excluding taxes and shipping. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Gadgets • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Ouch! Belkin admits employee paid for fake reviews

January 20th, 2009, 8:33 am by

Every consumer should read product reviews with a wary eye, especially when reviewers are anonymous. You never know when someone is astroturfing and getting paid to write a positive review.

A lot of Amazon reviews for Belkin products are now suspect after the Los Angeles company admitted that at least one employee gamed Amazon’s system to pay for good reviews. And Belkin products, which compete with those from Orange County’s Linksys, D-Link, Targus and others, are surely used by many here in O.C.

Exposed last Friday by The Daily Background blog, author Arlen Parsa detailed stumbling onto a query in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk system seeking positive views for money, albeit just $0.65 each. Parsa then linked the query to the LinkedIn profile of Michael Bayard, the business development rep. at Belkin. Nice job Arlen!

Anyhoo, story was more recently picked up by Engadget, Gizmodo, Slashdot, etc. before Mike Reynoso, Belkin’s president, apologized.

An employee also sent an anonymous letter to Gizmodo detailing some frightening practices, which Belkin has not confirmed: Gave reviewers custom firmware without bugs to disguise problems, encouraged others to write poor reviews of competitors’ products and faked certification logos. 

Authentic reviews are often hard to find and I have sent many a reader to Amazon since, it seems, actual users are writing about their experience.

I also wanted to reiterate how I do reviews, although I don’t do many anymore. When I reviewed products weekly for the newspaper, most often I would do a bit of research into what I wanted to review next. Some of this came from scanning a plethora of e-mail pitches from PR companies offering a product to review. If I did pick a product, the company sent it to me to play with for a period of time. After the review, I shipped it back to the company. Admittedly though, sometimes it took me months to get it back to them. And, for some reason, I have an abundance of cables at home that didn’t make it back with the original product (darn those unbranded cords!)

I do get products shipped to me unsolicited. I typically contact the company and ship them back or I donate them to my newspaper’s charity fund. I always tell companies to talk to me first before shipping something.

From the web:

Posted in: Gadgets • • • • | 6 Comments »

23 reviews of digital converter boxes

June 19th, 2008, 9:26 am by

For people who still use rabbit-ear antennas to watch TV, Consumer Reports just released its ratings for 14 models of digital converter boxes.

Digital converter boxes will help people take their old, analog TV into the next decade. Because after Feb. 17, 2009, major TV stations will broadcast only in digital so if you haven’t moved to a digital TV or digital service, your set will become obsolete and you’ll wonder what happened to all the channels.

I answered a couple dozen reader questions in the “Help parents survive the digital TV transition” story, plus there’s my “Guide to the 2009 Digital TV transition.”

But missing was advice on which converter box to buy. Unfortunately, I don’t have the staff to review the boxes. But Consumer Reports does. Currently, there are about 25 models of boxes available, all of which cost more than $50, according to the magazine.

Some highlights of the report:

The 14 models Consumer Reports tested are available for purchase either online or at stores including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, and Radio Shack and have been approved for the government’s converter box coupon program. Read Consumer Reports’ ratings HERE. The ratings are only available online, according to the company. Or try this link.

For more reviews, I scanned the web to find reviews done by consumers, tech reviewers and other sites:

Related stories/sources:

More digital TV transition news: Check out the Gadgetress Guide to the Digital TV transition. Latest headlines:

**If you got to this page from another site, check out the rest of the Gadgetress Blog, offering news and tips on saving money through technology. **

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | Comments Off

SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline