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California has a new energy efficiency standard. The California Energy Commission voted 5-0 to approve efficiency regulations for TVs up to 58 inches.
These new standards will take effect January 1, 2011.
The new standards will only affect TVs sold in the state. Consumers will not have to buy new TVs to meet the standards.
These new regulations may make it more difficult to buy Plasma TVs in the near future as they use significantly more energy than LCD screens.
According to an LA Times article television manufacturers do not predict they will have any difficult supplying TVs that meet the standard.
Questions remain as to whether these new standards will increase the average cost of television set or have any effect on set quality or size.
California sets Energy Efficiency Standards for TVs
California has a new energy efficiency standard. The California Energy Commission voted 5-0 to approve efficiency regulations for TVs up to 58 inches.
These new standards will take effect January 1, 2011.
The standard will only affect TVs sold in the state. Consumers will not have to buy new TVs to meet the standards.
These new regulations may make it more difficult to buy Plasma TVs in the near future as they use significantly more energy than LCD screens.
According to an LA Times article television manufacturers do not predict they will have any difficult supplying TVs that meet the standard.
Questions remain as to whether these new standards will increase the average cost of television set or have any effect on set quality or size.
To find out more information and apply for the California Low Cost Automobile Insurance Program visit the Department of Insurance's website
Some basic facts/requirements about the program are:
You must be 19 years old and have been continuously licensed for the last 3 years
You must qualify as a "good driver"
You must have a vehicle valued for $20,000 or less
You must meet Income requirments
You cannot choose which Insurance Company provides the insurance
You cannot be charged extra fees
Costs can be as low as $265 per year in the San Diego area and payment plans are available
You must visit the Low Cost Automobile Program Website to apply
The Credit CARD Act, signed into law in May 2009 has been a source of contention since approval. The prevailing opinion is that the financial institutions that issue credit cards have been raising rates, slashing credit limits, adding fees, removing benefits, and canceling cards outright all ahead of the February implementation date of the Act.
Is every credit card company engaging in this conduct? Having any of them started to comply with the requirements of the Credit CARD Act? Is every card available being impacted?
Two recent studies, one performed by the billshrink.com, and the other by Pew Charitable Trusts both conclude that the major companies are not compliant with the Credit CARD Act despite months to prepare and change their systems. The reports detail that throughout 2009 banks have increased the purchase APR, balance transfer rates, and the penalty APR.
The October 2009 Pew Report, which surveyed over 400 credit cards, specifically details that 100% of banks issuing credit cards used practices deemed unfair or deceptive under Federal Reserve Guidelines, 99.7% of banks allow the issuer to raise the interest rates on outstanding balances, 90% of banks had penalty interests rates that could be triggered by late payments or overlimit transactions, and 95% of banks allowed issuers to apply payments in a manner likely to cause monetary injury to consumers.
The banks surveyed in the Pew Study include American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, HSBC, Target, U.S. Bank, USAA, and Well Fargo.
The billshrink.com report, which does not appear to be publically available, surveyed 150 credit cards and found that though banks are generally increasing rates and fees that the amount of the increases have varied. At the time of the survey (January to July 2009) American Express and Bank of America had changed their rates the least, while Capital One, US Bank, Discover, and Citi had changed their rates the most. The other credit card issuers evaluated in the survey were Chase, First National Bank of Omaha, First Premier Bank, HSBC, Orchard Bank, and Wells Fargo.
The Pew Report surveyed 12 Credit Union that issue credit cards in addition to the 12 banks. The report found that Credit Unions offered significantly lower APR rates than bank credit card, lower penalty fees, and were generally more compliant with the provisions of the Credit CARD Act. The Credit Unions surveyed were America First CU, Boeing Employees CU, Digital FCU, Golden 1 CU, Navy FCU, Patelco CU, PA State Employees CU, Pentagon FCU, Schools First FCU, Suncoast Schools FCU, Vystar CU, and Wescom CU. It should be noted that the not all of the Credit Unions surveyed are available to all consumers.
In addition to its survey, billshrink.com maintains a list of the consumer protections approved by the Credit CARD Act and notes which major credit card issuers are complying with the various sections. You can also check to see if your specific credit card complies.
This review is all about me. Just like everything else... It's a look at the new Motorola DROID Smartphone using the Android mobile operating system, available to Verizon Wireless customers, from MY standpoint.
This article is also, to some degree, not written for Geeks like me. Oh, there I go again. I hope that it won't make SOME of the assumptions about the reader that other online reviews seem to do.
My needs are simple. A reliable cell phone with full Microsoft Exchange integration, a keyboard (as opposed to a screen-based key pad), tethering, a Maserati, and a million a year. That's all. Actually, if you know me you know I couldn't possibly fit in the Maserat. I didn't get most of these things in the DROID. The million a year was a particular problem and I'm writing this from behind bars. Thank goodness for wireless Internet. It's not that it's a bad phone. But if your needs are like mine, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. Also, I'm a dedicated Verizon customer and, as such, I'm only interested in (and truly able to review) phones that operate on its CDMA network. The perfect phone for me might work on T-Mobile and I won't be buying it.
Here are the good points and a little background. First is that this phone uses a comparatively new and fairly compact operating system. Just as your computer uses Windows or MacOS or Unix to provide the user interface and to be a layer between the programs (aka applications or "apps") and the processor chip, so does your cell phone. The more basic cell phones don't have anything fancy. The smart phones have choices (in order of worldwide share as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system) like Symbian OS on Nokia phones (mostly in Europe), Blackberry's OS (on the RIM Blackberry, obviously), iPhone OS (on the Apple iPhone - I was surprised to see it having 13.7% market share [Q2 2009] & the #3 position), Windows Mobile (currently up to v6.5 on the Imagio and other models), Android by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, and WebOS (for Palm phones). As a capitalist I'm always glad to see new competition and the Android is an Open Source operating system giving programmers the greatest access to it and the phone's hardware. Many people think that iPhoneOS is Open Source - it's not but it does have an amazing base of over 100,000 3rd party programs (aka "apps") available for it. To create an app & have it run fully on the iPhone (and be available at the iPhone App Store) the developer must pay Apple Inc. a fee. Such is not the case for Android. Apps are available for the other OS's too but with them the developer has varying levels of access to the hardware and OS itself. Android stands to be a major competitor to all of these operating systems if it can build a following and huge library of available apps like the iPhone has. I'm rooting for the little, Open Source, guy.
I've been a Windows Mobile user since v5 and have been reasonably happy with it. As much as I'm a geek and I love cool toys, I'm not suffering just because WinMo doesn't have even close to 100,000 apps available for it. The iPhone also has an amazing human interface that nobody can "touch" yet - with your finger(s) you can not only move things around but you can use other "gestures" for ease of manipulation. But the iPhone has no PHYSICAL keyboard - after my underwhelming experience with the Samsung Omnia I've determined that my big fingers only work well with keys I can feel. So, I decided it was time to reassess and the only options with pull-out keyboards available to Verizon customers at this moment are the Droid and the HTC Touch Pro and Touch Pro 2. Which leads me to:
Second: the phone has a decent, backlit, pullout keyboard. There are phones, like my erstwhile Palm Treo and the Samsung Saga, that have "keys" on the phone - they're really just little tiny buttons and, while they're better FOR ME than an on-screen keypad, the keyboard is best. I had an HTC/Verizon VX6700 phone once and, while it wasn't stable and I dumped it, it had a fine pullout keyboard on it yet, unlike it, The Droid's keyboard is part of the main unit and the screen slides instead. I think this makes it better balanced in the hands.
Other positives:
Really, it's a Google Phone. Look at this list of Google Mobile Services: ANDROID MARKET™, GMAIL™, GOOGLE CALENDAR™. GOOGLE CONTACT SYNC™,GOOGLE LATITUDE™, GOOGLE MAPS w/STREET VIEW, GOOGLE MAPS™ NAVIGATION BETA, GOOGLE QUICK SEARCH BOX™, GOOGLE SEARCH™ BY VOICE, GOOGLE TALK™ and YOUTUBE™. It's Gmail centric - the first thing I saw when I turned it on was a wizard about setting up Gmail. Call me unhip but I don't use Gmail.
The nav app is excellent - like Google Maps plus - but unlike a true GPS unit it won't work when there's no coverage (the maps data is downloaded, not stored on the phone) so don't take it hiking in the boonies or on a long trip away from civilization. There's an optional car kit so you can use Google Maps while driving. It's absolutely amazing to see not only your route like on a typical GPS, but even photos of each turn and your destination, for extra confirmation that you didn't make "a left toin in Albakoikie or a right toin in Lajawlah" ( -Bugs Bunny). I could not find the very BASIC (that word again) information of my heading, speed, and coordinates.
But, as I said, I just need the basics. Exchange mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, as fully integrated as possible. A good browser. IMAP for my personal mail. Tethering for my laptop. Programmable buttons. Voice dial w/ audible feedback (which makes it much safer to use w/ a headset when driving). For those unfamiliar with it, Microsoft Exchange is a "Collaboration Server". This means it's based around email and contacts and calendars but it enables people working together to share these items as they see fit. Other examples, though arguably less evolved and definitely not even close to as heavily adopted by corporate users. The Exchange integration on the Droid is quite rudimentary and less than I require:
Other items that this phone is missing that are forcing me to return it to the ever-patient Franco at Imagineering Wireless (he must have spent two hours with me getting my accounts all moved around and getting the phone registered just so we could "mess" with it):
So, I guess it's going to be the Touch Pro 2. It's about the same price and got such good reviews that it sold out after it was first available. I hope they're still in stock. A review is promised when I've had time to play with it.
As you awaken to a lazy Saturday of family time, running errands, and watching college football you may want to put that all on hold as it is possible the House of Representatives -- YOUR representatives in Congress-- may be voting on a 1900-page health care reform bill that will affect your family's health and pocketbook for years to come. The bill -- HR 3962 -- picked up major endorsements from AARP and the American Medical Association (AMA) this week.
The legislation -- in its present form -- runs more than 1900 pages so if you don't have any other plans for the weekend, you might want to read through it and send your thoughts and comments to your Member of Congress. It's easy to do by e-mail. Even if the bill passes, there will be more much more to be done on the matter in Congress before passage of reform is accomplished, but it appears that some kind of national health care reform is likely to be approved before the end of the year. If you have an opinion about it, now is the time to express to those who will be voting on it.
USE THIS LINK TO EMAIL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS:
WARNING: SAN DIEGO WATER CUSTOMERS
IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE FORM NEEDED TO PROTEST THE WATER RATE INCREASE BEFORE 11/17/09,PRINT OURS OR, WRITE A LETTER OF PROTEST AND MAIL IT SOON: CITY CLERK, MAIL STATION NO. 2P, CITY ADMINISTRATION BLDG., 202 C STREET, SAN DIEGO, CA 92101. The public hearing is scheduled for 10:00 AM.
HOW TO PROTEST THE NEXT WATER RATE HIKE SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 17, 2009:
STEPS YOU CAN TAKE:
1) Notify your neighbors to make sure they fill out and mail their forms too
2) Use Email to notify others and include a link to this PROTEST FORM
3)If people don't have the form, write a protest letter immediately;
4) CALL YOUR COUNCIL MEMBERS --
Click on the individual councilperson's photo to get to his/her website for individual contact phone number
5) Show up at the NOVEMBER 17TH HEARING and HAND IN PROTEST FORMS there.
Try to find the 3rd class four-page flyer without an envelope from the City justifying another round of rate increases. Mine arrived Tuesday September 22nd; one of the busiest mail days of the week. It came mixed in with other junk mail including grocery store flyers and drug store coupons. It came with ads we usually throw away. The entire last page (page 4) of this flyer is the protest notice with the form at the bottom. Page 4 of the mailer says "You Can Protest the Proposed Rate Adjustment. If 50% + 1 person fills out the protest form and mails it in, the huge rate increase cannot legally be implemented.
Print our form, find your own or write a protest letter ASAP. The original 3rd class mailing says "NOTICE of Public Hearing sent by the City of San Diego". (Click on attachment to see the flier and form.) If you choose to protest the rate hike, make a copy just in case someone says your protest form never arrived.
NOTE: WHEN THE CITY IS COLLECTING OUR MONEY, BILLS ARE SENT OUT 1ST CLASS MAIL. WHEN IT BENEFITS THE CITY FOR US NOT TO RESPOND, IT'S SENT AS JUNK MAIL.
| Attachment | Size |
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| water-protest-form.pdf | 185.76 KB |
Applying for a loan is a tedious and often frustrating ordeal. The application requires a lot of information and the process may take a lot longer than you think it should. And now we are learning that you may be denied a loan for being a good consumer.
That’s right. For being a diligent consumer and dedicated to monitoring your credit report you may be denied a loan.
The problem? Fannie Mae’s automated underwriting system has been rejecting applications where there is a notation on a consumer’s credit report that he or she has disputed an account. A consumer -- despite validly disputing a debt under the Fair Credit Reporting Act -- is now being denied a loan.
In response to a Washington Post inquiry, see the article here, Fannie Mae explains that it does not actually reject the loan, but rather sends it back to your lender for manual underwriting. However, lenders rarely engage in manual underwriting. Therefore, you are basically going to be denied a loan.
This conduct is outrageous and it is even sadder than Fannie Mae wants to blame the lazy lender. Yes, the lender should do a manual underwriting, but Fannie Mae’s system should not be rejecting applications based upon disputed accounts appearing on a consumer’s credit report.
Such a practice appears to put consumers in a Catch 22. Dispute inaccurate information and get denied a loan. Leave inaccurate information on your credit report and get denied a loan because of the bad credit it causes.
What is the solution? One is to convince Fannie Mae to change its policy and two is to have lenders perform manual underwriting when the situation calls for it.
Consumers should not stop disputing inaccurate information on their credit report. A credit report needs to be accurate and the owner of the record is the only person who can validate whether the listed information is correct.
Unwanted messages! Is there anything more annoying? There is nothing worse than getting a text message from some company you have never heard of trying to sell you their latest product or service that you never wanted. It's even worse when someone sending you text messages phishing for your personal information. Perhaps the hardest part is for those who do not have unlimited plans knowing these burdensome texts are taking away from our text message pool or costing us 20 of our hard earned cents.
Take heart, however, there are ways to try and prevent these unwanted text messages. UCAN has created a new consumer resource detailing steps you can take with wireless providers to prevent these unsolicited texts. We also give a little guidance on the best way to complain about them.
Check out UCAN's new guide here.
If you're one of the unfortunate few SideKick owners who lost personal data when the huge Microsoft server farm hiccupped recently fate may be smiling on you. As per T-Mobile Forums:
Beginning [10/20/09], log into the My.T-Mobile website, where there will be a recovery tool to restore contacts you may have lost during the recent service outage. This tool will enable you to view the contacts you had on your device as of October 1.
Here's what Microsoft says, in a press release from earlier this month. It's a sad situation but one that we can all learn from: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Everyone of these poor folks should have been doing local backups as well as counting on M$. This goes for all of us and for all forms of electronic storage - if it's important back it up AND archive it.
Backups and Archives
There are two actions here with slight differences.
"Backing Up" something typically means having it available in case of a complete loss. Backups are typically overwritten with new data as it changes. A backup lets you reload all of your data when something fails, like a hard disk.
"Archiving" something means having various versions of those backups - these are backups that you save forever. An archive lets you go back and grab an earlier edit of something or an item you've deleted. People often make "snapshots" of their data once a month (whatever period is prudent for their work) and keep it offsite, maybe in a safe deposit box or at Iron Mountain. People who do backups by rotating a set up takes over the period of a month or so typically rotate OUT one of those tapes. It goes to the permanent storage location and a new tape replaces it. This also ensures that, over a year or so, all tapes get replaced with new ones.
Offsite Backups
With today's more ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections, offsite storage has become a popular way of backing up and archiving. Companies like Carbonite and Mozy provide a simple "client" (program) that sends copies of your files, over the Internet, at predifined intervals (or whenever changed). The up sides to this are:
The down side is simply TIME. You've got gigbytes of data and megabits of speed. Typically, when they first sign up for it, a business using a service like this must let all their data get sent to the service over a weekend or longer. Once it's up-to-date, only the changes to the data are sent which takes much less bandwidth and time.
Storage Devices
For businesses, companies like SonicWALL make appliances that do backups locally to a hard drive (so that people can have access to deleted files and for quick repair of damaged hard drives) AND send a customer-specified fraction of that data offsite (typically, stuff they could not live without if THE WORST happened, like accounting files, HR records, order data, etc).
Even a simple flash drive, an external USB/Firewire hard drive or a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive can at least provide backups of your files and even versions of them, if not the bennies of offsite storage. NAS is like an external drive except that it connects over your local ethernet or WiFi LAN. And since it's networked, every PC in your home or small office can use it. If you're tech savvy, you can create a simple NAS machine by using an old PC to run Windows, MacOS, or Linux - just stick it someplace out of the way and let it collect files.
It's a Cinch to Synch
I work from home. I am connected to a Windows server across the Internet. I store many of my files, including My Documents on that server. I also use Windows' Sync Manager to make them available to me when the Internet is down or when I switch to my laptop. Every time a file syncs to the server, an invisible copy is stored on my PC. If my Internet connection (or even the remote server) fails, I can use and even edit the "offline copy". Once it comes back up, Windows knows to update the server version with any changes made in the interim. If I edited the file on my laptop, the server will get this new version as will my PC. Since the originals are stored away from my home on this server, it counts as an offsite backup as well as a way to synchronize between multiple machines.
Major online presences like Google allow you to store files there. You can use free Google Docs to store files so you have backups and so they're available to you virtually anyplace. The downside is that you have to upload and maintain these files manually and they aren't encrypted.
A little known credit check that telecom and utility companies do among themselves may have a significant impact on your ability to receive services and whether or not a deposit will be required. The National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) is a member-owned database managed by Equifax. According to the NCTUE website, the database exchanges information on new connects and defaulted and/or fraudulent accounts among members. It also gives the companies access to consumers' current contact information on defaulted consumers, and provides treatment and collection strategies for alleged unpaid bills.
The twist here is that not only have you never heard of this company, but according to the latest issue of Privacy Times, NCTUE may be running afoul of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
According to the Privacy Times, it appears that some of the companies using the database may not be providing notices to consumers when the companies take an adverse action against a consumer based upon the information in the NCTUE database.
Neither Equifax nor NCTUE specifically responded to the Privacy Times inquiry as to whether it believed NCTUE was subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act or whether consumers have access to the information in their files and the ability to dispute and have corrected inaccurate or incorrect information.
What seems clear though is that the NCTUE should be subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act because it appears to be providing a consumer report within the statutory definition.
UCAN, therefore wants to know about your experiences.
Have you ever been denied service or charged a deposit based on your NCTUE file?
Has a telecom or utility ever sent you a notice that adverse action has been taken based upon your file in this database?
Have you ever requested to see your file from NCTUE or Equifax and did they give you access?
Having an accurate credit profile is a necessity today and any database that affects your ability to receive essential services such water, gas, electricity, and phone should be available to you.
The Privacy TImes is edited by Evan Hendricks. The referenced article "Is Little Known Database Subject to FCRA? Equifax, NCTUE won't say," is available in Vol. 29 No. 19 October 23, 2009 of the Privacy Times.
Utility Consumers' Action Network
Terms & Conditions
UCAN.org is made available by the Utility Consumers' Action Network to assist you in becoming what you always knew you could be, a consumer ROCK STAR! We take no corporate money, and are beholden only to you, the consumer. As such, the site is here for educational, advocacy, and empowerment purposes, as well to to give you general information and a general understanding of the law. Just remember this site is NOT here to provide specific legal advice. By using this web site you of course understand that there is no attorney client relationship between you and the Web Site publisher, UCAN. The Web Site should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state.
That said, get to digging on the site, inform yourself, speak your mind, and earn Watchdog Bones! This is YOUR site, and we mean it. So comment on any of the content, discuss the latest issues in the forums, file a complaint on a company with the fraud squad, and generally cut loose.
See our Privacy Policy and Copyright Policy, Some Rights Reserved
UCAN's affiliate New Media Rights is hosting a discussion forum on the future of media and journalism in San Diego. Join in on the discussion now!
How to protect your own blog or website from liability for user generated content
Is Youtube putting advertisements on user videos without permission?
Essential free and open software toolkit for consumers
How to find free music, images, and video you can use or remix in your own creative works
How to Listen to Music on the Internet for Free...Legally
How to make a Podcast... for free
Visit NewMediaRights.org
We are currently looking for blog posts from both attorneys and consumers. If you would like your work published on a site with thousands of daily visits, send a submission to tips@ucan.org.
Get personal assistance with your consumer complaint about a company by using our Online Complaint Forms. Or, call the Fraud Squad Hotline at (619) 696-6966!
Don't buy a cell phone without our Mobile Phone Plan Checker!
Register to get it FREE right now!
What are you packin? Is it anything like UCAN's new and improved Consumer Complaint Directory? If not, you should really pick up a copy. This thing is chock-full of hard-hitting consumer punch.
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