Recently in Buyer's Remorse Category

In an attempt to do something cool, I purchased a Nokia N95 from TigerDirect earlier today. They've been good to be in the past and have great deals.

If you bought an HD-DVD player from Circuit City and it's less than 3 months old, you can trade it in.  The news has been everywhere that Circuit City is offering a secret trade-in.  They'll give you a refund, in the form of a store credit, if you bring back your HD-DVD player and want to swap it for/towards a Blu-ray player.

 

Here are details from Electronic House

 

March 05, 2008 | by Gordon Jones

For those of you "lucky" enough to have purchased an HD DVD player from Circuit City in the last 3 months, the chain is offering a "do-over" of sorts. In what looks to be a somewhat secretive program (you have to ask for it) the City will take that hidef player off your hands and apply its original purchase price towards a new Blu-ray player. Of course, you'll be paying the difference, which could easily be a couple hundred if not more.

And before anyone asks, no, this offer does not apply to discs. That's what eBay is for.

 

A lot of other sites have info as well, and I'll post links to those articles at the end.  There's a part of me that wonders why Circuit City isn't hyping the trade-in offer.  I mean, obviously it represents an expense to them because they're extending a return period, but the commitment to doing right by their customers that they'd show by having a massive announcement about it would be staggering.  By going bigger they'd be able to make non-Circuit City customers aware that they're more pro-sumer than their competitors.

 

We'll see how it works out.  Until then, just like they did at Gizmodo, I'm going to put out the call -

 

Has anyone tried the trade-in?  How'd it work?  Let us know!

 

Links to other articles on the trade-in:

 

Elctronic House

Slash Gear

Gizmodo

engadgetHD

This is all over the place, but here are some specifics from Reuters

By Franklin Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc has decided to exclusively sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-Ray format, dealing what could be a crippling blow to the rival HD DVD technology backed by Toshiba Corp.

The move by the world's largest retailer, announced on Friday, caps a disappointing week for HD DVD supporters, who also saw consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc and online video rental company Netflix Inc defect to the Blu-ray camp.

In a statement on its Web site, Wal-Mart said that over the next few months it will phase out sales of HD DVD systems and discs. By June, it will sell only products in the Blu-ray format which was developed by Sony Corp.

 

This is indeed huge.  The upside is that the 7 people who bought a PS3 can already play Blu-ray discs.  Also, they tend to be cheaper than an HD-DVD.  For those of you who are wondering, both an HD-DVD Player and a Blu-ray will play your standard DVDs, so you won't be forced to re-purchase your movies.  You can to get the enhanced quality and features, but it won't be like when you dumped VHS and had to re-buy 20 years worth of movies.

 

Another tidbit that was brought to my attention is that Blu-ray discs have 3 formats right now, ranging from 1.0 to 2.0.  A 2.0 player will play all 3, but if you have a 1.0 player and a 2.0 disc you're out of luck.  HD has the advantage there because the players have an ethernet connection that allows you to reach out to Toshiba and get the latest firmware.

 

At this point in the game it seems like it's too early to declare a winner.  For me, I think it's too early to purchase either player.  Now, if you have the money or can get a really good deal, go for it (and let us know about it, of course).  But for what my opinion's worth I would say wait it out.  Sony says that 2.0 will be the final Blu-ray standard and if that becomes reality I'd say go get one.

 

As far as HD-DVD, I'm sorry, but I think it's dead.  Wal-Mart, for all of its perceived evils, is a powerhouse if ever there was one.  If they back (or in this case abandon) a product or technology, it's going to be felt.  And it isn't like they're "preferring" or "recommending" Blu-ray over HD.  They're totally phasing out HD-DVD.  As much as I love Toshiba (I just barely sold my 4-year-old Toshiba cell phone that was collecting dust) I just don't know how they can overcome Wal-Mart dumping them.

 

If you have any doubt over Wal-mart's power let me remind you about The Eagles.  Their last album, which had its initial release as a Wal-Mart exclusive, sold circles around Britney's wide-release comeback album. 

A few more things to think about while we're pondering the earth-shattering consequences of a MSFT-YHOO shotgun wedding...

• The consent decree that was extended for two (of the requested five) extra years by U.S. District Judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly (who, interestingly enough has served as chief judge of the FISA Court, the secret tribunal that approves special warrants to spy on suspected spies) only addresses how Microsoft's operating system software interacts with its' competitors application products, and how much documentation of things like APIs and file formats Microsoft is required to publicly disclose. It doesn't cover anything like search engines, advertising, web applications, or anything that has become important since 2001. In fact, one could probably (successfully) argue that Microsoft's inability to expand successfully after winning the browser war is because in a world where the browser and open standards are king, they haven't been able to leverage their desktop market share anymore. Even their browser has been to some extent rendered an avoidable annoyance by a Mozilla Firefox, ironically the descendant of Microsoft's most famous victim, and the reason for the whole antitrust suit in the first place...Netscape Navigator. 
• When Microsoft won the browser war, they shoved ActiveX down our collective throats. Not only did it turn out to be a non-starter for what could arguably be called the first generation (the beta?) of Web 2.0 (albeit a proprietary, slow version), but it turned the browser (and Word, and Outlook, and the entire Windows platform) into a security nightmare. ActiveX is the DNA of most modern worms, spiders, viruses and other things with names that evoke yucky creatures you'd rather not have on you.  Of course, since ActiveX sucked so badly, a whole host of companies were able to capitalize on the relative security and openness of AJAX, Flash and what have become the various browser-independent building blocks of Web 2.0. Google has been able to capitalize on this by building good Web applications that happen to feature tiny little contextual, even helpful ads. Not by being flashy and putting their name everywhere on your mailbox, messages or applications unless you paid up (like a few of their competitors do with their respective email services), but by trying to be useful, giving you a product and letting them make a buck. 
• I'll spell it out for you. Google Mail (Gmail) users don't have advertisements appended to their outgoing messages, but Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail users who don't pay a fee do.Speaking of Yahoo! mail...remember that this is an unsolicited bid. Also remember just over a year ago when Apple's iPhone was announced, the exclusive partner for iPhone's (relatively weak) push email service (which is far from BlackBerry quality, but I've said that before) was, and still is...Yahoo! 
• So, does anyone think Apple is going to keep going steady with Yahoo! when they're being acquired by Microsoft, when Microsoft, after years of sad efforts to make inroads in the handheld/smartphone/music player market just to  see Apple dazzle the world with iPod and iPhone would like nothing more than to throw a wrench into the works? All that talk about Apple and Google being the new rivals (thanks to Google's Android project) is over and done with. Apple will keep selling iPhone, but I'll bet that all those future iPhone (and current, since iPhone updates are made available to all) owners will soon be able to get some new functionality with Google apps pretty soon, especially with Apple releasing the iPhone SDK in the coming weeks.

Think about it: Microsoft and Yahoo versus Apple and Google. Anyone taking wagers?

Ok, I know that a lot of people make large purchases that may or may not be a great idea.  One of these dubious (potential) purchases would be Microsoft's of Yahoo!.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft Corp. made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo on Friday, a deal that could shake up the competitive and lucrative market for online advertising.The deal would pay Yahoo shareholders $31 a share, which represents a 62% premium from where Yahoo stock closed on Thursday.

 

 

CNN Money is saying that this will make Microsoft the number 2 service behind Google, but I have to ask; Who cares?

Yahoo! just laid off 1,000 employees this week.  They've been in a steady state of decline across the board.  A buyout would make Microsoft bigger, but I don't know about better.

 

This move seems very familiar.

 

Anyone remember when this one cell phone company bought this other one?  And then they lost millions and millions of customers, billions of dollars, a CEO and a few key execs?

 

I think that the Sprint/Nextel debacle (Woops!  I wasn't planning on calling them out) should have taught us something; you can't improve your company by simply buying another one.  Unless you're willing to address the underlying issues that caused you to fall behind the competition, that's where you're going to stay; behind.

 

UPDATE:

Microsoft has indeed bought Yahoo!.  I'm not very optimistic, but if for no other reason than the possibility of more layoffs, I hope that I am proven wrong.

(note: I'm posting this story here because I'm annoyed by all the happiness over yesterday's new iPhone "features" delivered by Steve.) Last January, I sat in a classroom at American University and ignored some boring speaker on lobbying in the EU while Steve Jobs held up the handheld device that would deliver us from evil, save the whales, end global warming, play music, read email, and iron my shirt. I immediately reached for my BlackBerry (then an 8700c) and thought "so what? No keyboard, no real email, could I ever use the damn thing and get work done?" I immediately was struck by how dumb Apple looked by partnering with Yahoo! (Yahoo???) to deliver "push" email capabilities "just like BlackBerry." Yeah, right. Ok, so fast forward to iDay. I had mothballed my 8700 for a work-issued Treo with GoodLink, letting me have real-time access to my office's exchange server, calendar, etc. For those of you who've never experienced real-time push and sync, it is the information equivilant of crack. I shit you not. In comparison to iPhone's email client, you simply cannot put the two side-by-side and expect to be satisfied unless you are willing to give up a whole featureset. Another series of events led me to switch to a different Treo, this one running Windows Mobile. Initially, I didn't hate it nearly as much as I thought I always would. The email client was good, it sync'd up with my exchange server, it didn't suck that bad at all. I spoke too soon. Never before had a phone turned me into a worse driver. Suddenly I was almost killing myself on a regular basis trying to answer calls. Not good, right? Back to the AT&T store I go. Ok, I gave up. I traded my Treo for a newly-reduced-in-price iPhone. I was actually excited. I even transfered all my music to it and stopped carrying my iPod. This was in September. Ok, so I hacked the shit out of the thing. Then the new firmware came. I held off until I could re-jailbreak it and upgraded, and hacked it again. But somewhere along the line, I realized I had the following problems with it, and hacking more just wouldn't solve them:

1. SMS has a really, really lame feature. No matter where you are, in a call, writing an email, etc, *BOOM* there it is. You can't escape it. You can't even end a call properly if you get an SMS in the middle of it. You have to hit "ignore" and then "end." It doesn't just go away.
2. The email blows. I mean really. Let's forget, for a moment, how I loathe HTML email for a second, and just look at the client itself. a) the formatting is all weird, with no way to tell how your mail will look on a normal screen. b) no push: this turned out to be a dealbreaker, people. Yahoo! just doesn't cut it, since honestly, 95% of people using Yahoo! mail are complete tools. Unprofessional to a T.
3. No GPS. Google maps is great, and driving directions are nice, but that doesn't do a damn thing for me when I don't know where I am. Yes, yes, I know there is a new location feature in the new firmware, but I had that as a hack from Navizon 4 months ago. It. Doesn't. Count.
4. No AIM. Why Apple dropped the ball on this I have no idea. Again, I had to install a jailbreak-hack to get this functionality. Why do I need to hack my phone to get a feature that every other phone I've ever owned has had? Come on, Steve.
5. I know this is stupid, but it's IMPOSSIBLE to use while driving. Yeah, I know how bad that is to complain about, but seriously folks, the less time I look away from the road, the better.
6. Battery life. I didn't think this would be an issue, but when I found myself needing the charge the phone before going to bed, I knew I was going to have problems. In contrast, my BlackBerry can go days without seeing an outlet.
7. The email really does blow. I'm one of those people who lives and dies my connectivity, and the bottom line is, iPhone 1.x doesn't make me feel connected to the world around me when I travel. It doesn't combine all my email into one inbox. It's too bad, really. I want to be in touch, not just have a cool web browser. I don't want to have to plug it into my laptop to sync the calendars. When I go away for a day or two, I want to leave my laptop at home. With the BlackBerry, I can do that. With iPhone, I felt like I had to take my laptop with me, just in case I needed to get something done.
8. Applications! Right now I have two web browsers, an AIM client, a Twitter client, Google Maps, TeleNav (awesome navigation software, talks to me like in-car navigation except I can take it with me), Google Sync (keeps my Google Calendar up to date with the BlackBerry, take THAT iCal), and a whole host of others. Apple hasn't released an SDK, and is only doing so grudgingly. I doubt they'll really embrace third-party apps like RIM has.

So, right now my iPhone is in mothballs, aka back in the box, awaiting the day when Apple offers me a software update that will let me do more than play with the damn thing. I'm sad. I like the concept, I just wish they had waited until they had a full featureset. I'm waiting for 2.0 now.