Of course, if cheap PCs aren't your thing, no problem. Dell's still got you covered. Maybe you'll be interested in a $4,000 Laser USB Mouse. It promises Windows 7 compatibility. And a power adapter will set you back just $709.99.

Correlation isn't causation, but as DailyTech postulates, it seems, well, possible that at least one disgruntled employee decided to tweak a few prices here and there to cause havoc. Now whether or not it's your duty, in interest of helping a fellow man down on his luck, to scour Dell for unnoticed deals and place futile orders quickly...that's your call. [SlickDeals and DailyTech via CrunchGear]

The recall, which covers virtually every roman shade and roller blind in the country, was prompted after a series of tragic strangulations—about eight over the last ten years, along with over a dozen injuries—were blamed on the blinds, which the children can become entangled in. In case you're like most other human beings and don't know the technical name for the thing that hanging in front of your windows, here's what Roman and roller shades look like:

On both types, it's the hanging drawstring that's most dangerous to tots. On the Roman shades, the strings running down the length of the fabric can be safety hazards too.

It's a recall prompted by some no-doubt horrible tragedies, and I'm sure the Consumer Product Safety Commission wouldn't have negotiated a recall this massive unless there was a real risk here, but in a video breaking down the various dangers of these blinds with the chair of the CPSC, ABC somehow managed to make this Very Serious Thing seem ridiculous. I quote:

Any loop is the enemy of children.

Recall all loops! This is the only solution. [ABC]

(No, the punchline isn't, "I'm using a Mac instead of a PC! *rimshot*")

I, like many, many other iMac owners, am typing on a screen that has a cold color temperature up top and a warm temperature at the bottom. In other words, pure white goes from icy blue to jaundiced yellow. See what I mean:

Those are cropped photos from a screen test taken with the same white balance settings on my dSLR. In other words, the greys and whites should match. Clearly, they don't.

At first, I didn't notice. The gradient occurring over a 27-inch monitor is surprisingly subtle. But once you see the problem, you cannot unsee it.

What's upsetting isn't simply that I got a bum computer. It's that a LOT of iMac buyers are getting bum computers with, not one, but a myriad of potential flaws.

• Cracked screens
• Jaundiced screens
• Flickering screens
• DOA computers
• Strange, high-pitched frequencies (that one tipped to me by an Apple Store employee)

And this color temperature test is extremely simply to run. Any idiot can see the issue when using a calibrating image—I've personally proven that point. So there's no excuse as to why Apple isn't catching this defect, which doesn't seem to possibly arise through shipping, straight off the assembly line. My iMac should have never shipped to me in the first place.

I've asked Apple exactly what's going on with iMac production and why QA testing is missing issues like jaundiced screens. They haven't gotten back to me, but it appears Apple is cognizant of the issues, as they've delayed future 27-inch iMac shipments (even though 21-inch systems seem to be having issues, too).

Still, what about all those iMacs sitting under the Christmas tree since Black Friday, aging beyond their 30-day no questions asked exchange window?

Apple did not respond to that question, either. (OK OK, they didn't respond to any of my questions.)

However, on the phone with technical support arranging my exchange (which is promised to be "expedited," but will still take 2-3 weeks), I was surprised that Apple specifically asked whether I felt the jaundice issue was "functional" or "cosmetic." I considered that should the consensus goes to "cosmetic" and Apple labels it so, such a designation could vastly alter return rights. But an Apple Store guru informed me that it shouldn't make a difference. However, they did say:

"It sounds like they may be gathering data to come up with a repair extension plan for iMacs. Apple does that when certain units have larger than normal failure rates."

Not that we couldn't reach that revelation on our own.

[Thanks Vic for showing me the (yellow) light!]

Geez. What the hell is Microsoft using to punish misbehaving Xboxes? This thing looks worse than the one attacked by a crazy chick and a golf club. But we're certain that if Nic contacts Microsoft and shows them these photos of his naughty Xbox, they're sure to send him a replacement. Possibly even one that works. (Provided, of course, that this damage wasn't caused by Nic when he got the unit back, unrepaired, or by yet another nutty girlfriend.) [Flickr via Nic H]

And now that you voted, click here for the big reveal!.

"Once we complete our investigation, we will provide detailed guidance on how to prevent or address these issues."

Security software maker, Prevx, first reported the problem surrounding the November 10 update, and has created a tool to fix the issue if you're affected: [Prevx via PC World and TechFlash]

Here's the quick version: employee asks for a Livestrong donation, guy declines, employee charges him for a donation anyway. The customer has been calling and asking for a refund, but all Radio Shack personnel keep telling him to waste gas driving back to the store to get his dollar back.

Yes, it may just be a dollar, but it's called a donation for a reason. Make sure to check your receipts when you exit the Shack, it smells like RS employees are getting some sort of kickback for getting Livestrong donations. [Consumerist]

The call sounded painful from across the house. The first 10 minutes, it was clear she was talking to a robot. Then it was clear she was either talking to someone very stupid or someone very unfamiliar with English as she kept repeating "no, I just want to know if I can swap out my 6 cell battery for a 3 cell battery." She must have said it 50 times over 90 minutes. Someone even admitted to trying to make a commission off of her by selling her a new battery. That battery would have cost half of the price of a brand new netbook. In the end, customer service didn't do anything to help her. It's been years since I've needed customer service, so maybe everyone PC company is this bad now, but I hope not. If you have any horror/pleasantly surprising stories of your own, please let me know in the comments. [Boingboing, image from preemo at deviant art]

A very long, detailed account over at tom's hardware lists your stereotypical, horrifying buying experience. The money is sent; the package doesn't arrive; an email is sent; a bullshit email is sent back. The email cycle repeats with choice phrases from the company contact like "Get out of my f***ing life!" and "Make this world war III or handle this in a civil manner."

Of course, it's not just this one story, but the many since that have surfaced like it (tracked down by tom's hardware and in our own comments) that force us to pull our recommendation. Needless to say, companies often treat us more sweetly than they treat you, but those instances can be tough to predict. [Tom's Hardware]

$1,000,058.98...I'm not gonna lie. It's tempting. [Amazon Thanks Naked Fish!]

We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix.

And yeah, it's obvious that it is a pretty rare bug, since you'd have heard about this bug on day one if it wasn't.

That's the average life span of the 125—and counting—dead Apple Time Capsules at The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register. And all the users who registered those dead pieces of plastic and metal are saying that's not enough. I agree that the figure seems too low. But then again, like Matt Buchanan just said when he heard about it: "They're all using shitty Hitachi hard drives that aren't actually server grade, so color me less than surprised."

I say they all have a point. [Time Capsule Memorial via TUAW]

While it's possible Nicholas is just building up static and shocking himself, he says it happens "everywhere," and that when he used his friend's MacBook for a week, he went electrotherapy free. It's rare, but he's not entirely alone in his account.

The most often suggested solution is to stick to using the three-prong adapter, plugged into a grounded outlet. That won't help Nicholas so much, since he says it happens on battery power, too. Besides getting Apple to finally replace MacBook or wearing gloves, do guys have any possible solutions for Nicholas?

The Benjamin-a-year plan entitles the user to a service rep to come out next-day, no matter where on the planet you are—provided it's somewhere reasonable, we'd assume. The tech guy came by his office and fixed exactly what was wrong, basically doing an in-house call that Apple stores, even with their notoriously decent service, couldn't match. I mean, in-house? And they even ignored the fact that he put Linux on there instead of his original Vista?

He does some caveats on his experience with IBM/Lenovo as a whole, and you can check that out over at BB. [BoingBoing]

I'm sure you get stories like this all the time, and I'm sure the news is old (Xbox 360s break, they suck, haha), but this isn't so much a story about an Xbox being broken as it is a story about Xbox support failing to repair and identify the problem after a few months and three repairs. I can't get anyone at Microsoft to even apologize for them messing up over and over time and time again, so I thought I'd take to the internet to see if anyone wants to write about a true Xbox Support horror story.

I'm 25 years old, work in a professional office building as a newspaper designer, am married, have a son and am not very dumb.

Xbox got four red lights back in July. My Xbox is still under warranty, but warranty doesn't cover four red lights. I happily send them $100. [Ed note: 4 red lights is code for a missing AV cable, but can be caused by other issues. 3 red lights is the famous RRoD and is covered by the warranty.]

Four weeks after putting in the repair order, the Xbox was sent back fixed. It is now August. It took four weeks for the repair to complete in part because of shipping problems, including five boxes being delivered to my door and two instances of undeliverable addresses. Really, the repair only took a week. Getting the correct box to my house took three weeks.

Three weeks after I got it back, on August 27, I got three red lights about ten minutes away from beating Shadow Complex with 100% items found.

About 2 weeks after repair was ordered, Xbox was returned to me – three red lights remained.
About 2 weeks after repair was ordered, Xbox was returned to me – three red lights remained.
About 2 weeks after repair was ordered, Xbox was returned to me – three red lights remained.
(that's not a typo. I sent it in three times, and it was sent back still broken three times)

It is now October. I took to Twitter to rage about Microsoft and a friend asked me if I checked the lights on the power supply. No person at any point in this repair process going all the way back to July has ever asked me or told me or hinted about or mentioned the light on the power supply indicating the power supply might be faulty. I checked it, and the power supply was orange. I'd bet the very first time I got the three red lights, this might've been the problem. Why no one in the process, after the Xbox came back to me "unrepaired," asked me to check the power supply I do not know.

After much convincing, a new power supply was ordered sent to me by Microsoft. It arrived after a week. The male power supply didn't fit into my female Xbox port. Apparently, Xbox has used a few different kinds of power supplies over the years.

Today, October 7, the new power supply has been ordered and might arrive in 2-3 weeks (they have to process the request, 7 days they say, and then ship it, 5 days. Add weekends off and time to deliver, and it'll be 2-3 weeks).

So after all that, I've been able to play my 360 for about three weeks total since July... Am I at fault? Maybe 1% of this is my fault – I could've looked online for more reasons the three red lights might happen, at which point I would've found out about the power supply problem… but still, that's no excuse, because it isn't my friends job to fix my console, it is Microsoft's job, and they have failed.

Andy Phifer
Houston, Texas

I don't think anyone can blame Andy for not self-diagnosing his Xbox issue. Anyone who's dealt with any sort of technical support before knows that nothing gets the operator riled up more than a valid self-diagnosis. These calls are heavily scripted to cater to the lowest common denominator.

But when that script clearly can't diagnose a common problem (more than once) and the customer is punished for months because of it, I mean, come on. Given Microsoft's apparent fundamental troubleshooting flaws at work in this story, we have a tough time believing that there's only one "Andy" out there. [Image]

UPDATE: Looks like Microsoft stepped up to the plate to take care of Andy. Since his story hit the web, he's received tech support call with the full white glove treatment.

Here, the touch controls are 100% intact; the problem is that the bottom majority of the screen is completely washed out in a bright, white filter.

Study the clip at 28 seconds in. You'll see that the display is working fine before the white mask flashes back in. While OLED engineers in the audience can feel free to correct us, we think there's a strong possibility that the problem is software-based (and thereby firmware-fixable through a patch). But obviously, make Microsoft give you a new Zune right away if you're encountering such an issue.

But some deeds shouldn't go unnoticed, like this cardboard computer case, or the smelly sock fix to make RockBand drums a little quieter.

There, I Fixed It takes user submissions of the most inspired fixes-and the utter brain farts-and the result is a catalogue of impending disaster that's perfect for a few minutes of cyber-slacking. Get back to work. [There, I Fixed It]

There are two components to this. One, manufacturers calculate with extreme thoroughness how long to make their warranties so they don't have to repair a bunch of products for free. Two, it's your brain that makes you remember that one time that something broke outside warranty.

"It's really connected to two things: regret and memory," says Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational. A gadget that dies a day out of warranty will piss you off a lot more than one that soldiers on until after you've lost the certificate. And years later, you'll probably remember it more acutely, too.

[Wired]