Costco Return Policy Change

Electronics purchased at Costco now have a return policy of 90 days instead of forever. This went into effect yesterday to all California Costco's. But I think you can still return your electronics purchased before that. Costco's "laxed" return policy was the best, but I knew it couldnt last forever. I think what really hurt Costco was when it started to sell Plasma TV's. First of all, it was a new technology, so in the beginning there might have been a lot of defects or issues. Secondly, plasma prices are dropping so fast, that people are returning and buying. According to the article, "People had been returning TVs they had bought for $2,000 last year and turning around and buying the same TV for $1,200."

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80's cartoons

Ohhh man.This video brings back some good memories. I might be biased, but I believe that the 80's had the best cartoons ever. And I love and remember all of their theme songs. The video isnt comprehensive, but it has a lot of classics. Hopefully, someone will come out with a video of ALL the 80's cartoons. Good memories. Enjoy.

Tivo Series 3 HD

I recently upgraded my Tivo Series 1 to Tivo Series 3 HD. Nope I dont have HD programming. So why did I get it you might ask? Well, because Tivo made me do it.

Here was the deal (expired).

For a limited time, transfer your product lifetime service from a Series1™ or
Series2™ box to the new Series3™ HD for only $199. As an added bonus, we'll
keep TiVo service activated on your old box for another 12 months for no
additional charge.

My current Tivo Series 1 w/ lifetime subscription works perfectly fine. I've been using it for over 5 years now and I love it. But what caught my attention in this deal was the opportunity to transfer my lifetime subscription. Tivo recently retired their lifetime subs on all Tivos. You can no longer get a lifetime sub on a new Tivo. Also, you cannot transfer a lifetime sub to another Tivo box. So this would be my only opportunity to upgrade my Tivo box as well as transfer my lifetime sub in one shot. I dont think Tivo will ever offer the opportunity to transfer a lifetime sub again. In otherwords, this will be the only way to get a Tivo Series 3 with lifetime. But that $199 lifetime transfer fee hurts, especially when I originally already paid $299 for my original lifetime sub. Ouch. So that's how Tivo trapped me.

Why do you LOVE Tivo? - No one can beat the functionality and the user experience that the Tivo has to offer. It is smart, sexy, and simple. You've probably heard of the cable companies offering their DVR's, but everyone who has experienced them says that they cannot compare to Tivo. Tivo is truly one of my favorite tech gadget. Tivo really did an outstanding job when it comes to user interface. Its hard to think of anything to improve it even on my standards ;)

What are the main differences between Tivo series 1, 2, and 3? - A lot. Let's talk about the Series 2 first.

1. Series 2 has the networking functionality which allows you to network your tivo to your home computer which is connect to the internet. You will need a Tivo wireless adapter to wireless connect your tivo to your wireless router.



2. Once you have this connection, you can do several things.You can use TivoToGo which is the ability to transfer your Tivo recordings onto your computer. Once the videos are transfered to your computer, then you can do whatever you want with the video. ie. burn them on dvd.



3. Stream your mp3s and pictures to your TV and home theater system.



4. Update Tivo without using a phone line.



5. Use Tivo online scheduling. In otherwords, you can go to Tivo's website and schedule your recordings there. This is cool if you are not home and you forgot to record something. However, you must schedule the recording at least 1 hour prior to the show starting since the Tivo does the online update about once per hour.



6. Real time Traffic and Weather



7. Many of the series 2 are dual tuner which is one of my favorite features. It can record 2 shows at the same time. Therefore, you can also record a show and watch another show at the same time.

Onto to Series 3

1. Series 3 has all of the features above except for TivoToGo. This is very sad, but hopefully they will allow it in a future software update. I think Tivo ran into a lot of copyright issues so until they get those settled, no TivoToGo.



2. Can record in HD.



3. THX



4. More than enough space. 300 hours standard record time. 32 hours in HD.
   

So basically, Series 3 is much like the Series 2, but has all of the high quality sound and video capabilities.

So what happens to your Tivo Series 1 box? - So this box no longer has the lifetime sub. Tivo gives me a free year's subscription. But in order to use the box after a year, I would have to start paying the monthly fee :(

2007 Technology Wishlist

• Hi Definition DVD - I really hope that we come out with a single format, but unfortunately it doesnt look like its going to turn out that way since companies are starting to come up with dvd players that support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. But having 2 formats still hurts the consumers by causing confusion. I hope HD DVD prevails because Im getting sick and tired of all of Sony's proprietory formats, cables, interfaces, etc.
  
  
• Bluetooth iPod - An ipod or any mp3 player that uses bluetooth to connect to your car's speaker system. Seems obvious, but dont know what's taking them so long.
  
  
• More Wireless - We see it everywhere now, but we need more of it. At the CES 2007 show, Samsung unveiled a wireless plasma. All you need to do is plug the plasma in. No need to hide any wires. BMW and Mercedes have car keys whereby you can open the door and start the car without inserting the keys. You can just leave them in your pocket. Any wireless connection that eliminates a physical wired connection is a good thing. We also need wifi digital camera's whereby you can transfer all the pics on your camera to your computer wirelessly. No more usb cable.
  
  
• Smarter Cell Phones - There are many new fancy phones out there, but I think cell phone manufacturers need to get back to the basics instead trying to add as many features possible onto a phone. I use my phone mainly to place phone calls, but sometimes "fancyness" and "features" gets in the way. I miss my first Nokia phone which had no features but worked flawlessly. Its battery life lasted a week too. How long does your phone's battery last now? Anyways, I think the cell phones now are dumb. Yes, they look good, have color, and lots of features, but I just want to make a simple phone call! Hopefully, the iPhone will be the start of cell phones that are actually useful.
  
  
• Evite killer - Evite should change their name to eAds since they display way too many ads. Im getting sick of it. The ads are starting to get in the way of using the application. A big no-no. The ads are getting larger and larger in more in your face. You have to dig through the ads to try to use the regular evite functions. This tells me something. Either Evite is not doing so well and therefore, trying to get as many ads out there or Evite's marketing department is way too aggresive. In either case, its bad for the users and therefore bad for the company. I havent seen a good evite competitor, but once it happens, everyone will have no problems switching. If you know of another evite site, let me know. I already tried renkoo, it sucks.