Amazon users’ product reviews have helped guide millions of people as they researched various purchases, but sometimes they’re as entertaining as they are helpful. As such, Amazon recently compiled a list of the funniest product reviews on its site. “Helpful product reviews written by Amazon customers are the heart of Amazon.com, and we treasure the customers who work hard to write them,” Amazon wrote. “But occasionally customer creativity goes off the charts in the best possible way.” The site’s list includes some well-known items like the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer that drew some of the most widely reported funny comments, but there are also a few obscure ones you might not have seen before. Amazon’s full list is linked below.
Clearly, there are better ways to switch smartphone platforms. 25-year-old Travis Montgomery Snyder was arrested this week in Remington, Virginia after a police investigation into a local robbery led them to the man. According to The Washington Post, Snyder stands accused of a smash-and-grab robbery where the suspect broke a display case at a Springfield, Virginia wireless store and absconded with several iPhones. Unfortunately for the suspect, he also left his own Samsung smartphone at the scene. Fairfax County police reportedly traced the Galaxy phone’s subscription back to Snyder and then arrested him on Monday. “No word on whether he was seeking an upgrade,” The Post quipped.
With all the controversy over the NSA’s massive data mining operations, comedian Lewis Black has turned his eye toward two of the most potentially invasive new technologies that are primed to hit the market soon: Google Glass and Microsoft’s new Kinect sensor that can track your facial expressions. On The Daily Show this week, Black ridiculed a Glass promotional video that showed a woman looking at jellyfish in an aquarium who then asked Google to do a search for “jellyfish.” More →
Remember the Kin One and Kin Two? We don’t blame you if you have no idea what we’re talking about. Back in 2010, Microsoft (MSFT) released two home-built social-driven smartphones aimed at teenagers. Less than two months later, Microsoft axed the phones, presumably because they were so terrible. Wired has uncovered three never before seen focus group videos that reveal just how awful the phones were during testing — plagued with issues that Microsoft didn’t remedy when the devices launched on Verizon (VZ). In one video, a guy complains about the lag, the slowness of the camera, and the terrible touchscreen responsiveness and in another video, a user clearly has issues dialing phone numbers because the Kin Two’s touchscreen is so buggy. After watching these videos, you really can’t decide whether you should be laughing until your guts spill out or crying because Microsoft was so clueless. Thankfully, Microsoft saw the light and gave up on the Kin phones to work on Windows Phone.
What lies in the collective unconscious of the entire global smartphone consumer base? Google (GOOG) knows the most common questions people ponder in their private moments. Google sees our souls. And when you start typing a question in a Google search box, you see a fleeting glimpse of the collective mind. It’s rarely a pretty sight. More →
Windows 8 can initially prove tough for consumers to use when sober, so it’s no surprise that getting hammered on tequila doesn’t make it any easier. But the good people at Three Sheets Market Research decided they’d give it a shot (or several shots, more accurately) by feeding tequila to an active computer user and self-described “cyborg” named Jennifer and having her try out Windows 8. The results, needless to say, were rather blurry. More →
Public relations is a tough gig, and tech PR may be among the toughest due to the sheer volume of companies constantly fighting for coverage. Tech writers can get a hundred or more emails each day from PR companies hoping to get their clients publicity, so it is no easy task to concoct a pitch that draws interest. There isn’t a magic recipe for standing out in the crowd of PR flacks vying for coverage, but the best way to separate yourself from the pack and avoid wasting writers’ time and your clients’ money is often to simply pay attention. RadioShack (RSH), as it turns out, is very good at paying attention. More →
In an age where companies spend a great deal of time engaging with customers using social media, things can and do go wrong from time to time. Case in point: Samsung (005930) recently took to Facebook to ask its followers a simple question — “If you could only take one electronic device on a deserted island, what would it be?” The image of the Galaxy S III next to the question is more than just a bit leading, but sadly it didn’t help steer responses as much as Samsung hoped it would. More →
TBS talk show host Conan O’Brien generated some laughs this summer with his video mocking Samsung (005930) for allegedly copycatting Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and now he’s back at it with another video tackling Samsung’s iPhone envy. This time, Conan sends out a hapless intern to pick up an iPhone 5 so that he can do a hands-on demonstration, only to have the intern accosted and kidnapped by Samsung representatives who will presumably take the new iPhone apart and copy its every feature. The full video can be viewed below. More →
There’s only so much Apple (AAPL) can do to refine its iPhone. Yes, the iPhone 5 might appear boring because it takes the iPhone 4/4S design and gives it a growth spurt and trimmer chassis, but that’s the point; every Apple product is a refinement of the original. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel decided to see how people would react when handed an iPhone 4 that was being pawned off as an iPhone 5. As you would expect, the reactions are hilarious. There are really people who genuinely don’t know that they’re looking at a two-year-old iPhone.
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Well, the Finns have to do something with all those Symbian devices, don’t they? Parity News reports that Finnish citizen Ere Karjalainen smashed the world record for phone-tossing last weekend when he chucked his handset 101.5 meters (333 feet) during his country’s annual mobile phone-throwing contest. There’s no mention of exactly what model Karjalainen used to etch his name into phone-flinging record books, but his win seems highly appropriate given the epic struggles of Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia (NOK), which will attempt to make its comeback bid by unveiling Windows Phone 8-based Lumia smartphones next month. More →
Among the countless phenomena brought about by the Internet, comment trolls are undoubtedly among the most anomalous. These curious creatures make their way across the Web leaving a trail of unintelligible “flame bait” in their wake, often making it impossible for others to engage in intelligent conversation. We know them well. While most would be hard-pressed to find a use for these trolls, a pair of artist-coders have managed to turn the ridiculous hate-filled ramblings of thousands of YouTube comment trolls into a series of plays that are now available as eBooks. More →
