The Nook and Barnes & Noble's Super-Polite, Absolutely Awful Customer Service

The Consumerist, as always, is right on top of Barnes & Noble's recent Nook-related failings. Yes, people are still without their Nook, and yes, customer service woes are still running rampant at the fledgling eBook retailer. More »

Like a Frog in a Pot of Boiling Water, Camera Makers are Slowly Dying

Very nice article about the death of film camera makers. From Konica Minolta to Kodak, these folks are getting nailed left and right. That, however, is the way the cookie crumbles. For example, I was just talking to a friend who bought a 35mm Canon Rebel. He told me "This will be the last film camera I ever buy." While he had a point—it's a good camera and you can take good pictures with film—he eventually succumbed and bought a digital Rebel. While there's no accounting for taste and there is an immense body of work that proves that film is in many ways superior to the bit-fiddling that goes on inside a CCD, there's just no way to warrant the purchase of a film camera in this day and age, especially on the consumer side. More »

ESPN Phone Cheaper, On Way Out

ESPN's Sanyo 900 aka the MVP is selling for $99 and, well, who cares? The $499 video phone sank upon release and it appears that ESPN Mobile is either updating the line or dropping the idea entirely, as this newly cheap Sanyo is available "while supplies last" which in carrier-speak means "we have lots of these in a warehouse in Taipei and we don't have enough fire insurance to make torching the place worthwhile." More »