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Chrysler ditching paper manuals, going digital

As cars become more complex, the accompanying user manuals have become proportionally thicker. These days, your average luxury sedan or SUV will often come with a vehicle manual, a navigation manual, separate safety systems manuals and pamphlets, and--in the case of hybrids--a final manual to explain how the powertrain works. That's a good deal of paper that will most likely only be referenced once or twice (if at all).

For its 2010 model Chrysler, Jeep, and, Dodge vehicles, Chrysler Group LLC will be ditching the bulk of its paper manuals and replacing them with digital DVD manuals. The automaker … Read more

Recover lost Android phones with Contact Owner

The thought of losing your Android phone can be quite frightening, but a free app from the Android Market can give you some comfort. If your lose your handset, Contact Owner will display your contact information on its lock screen.

Setting up Contact Owner is easy and only needs to be performed once. Simply launch the application, select a contact, and choose which information to display. You can pull the information directly from your stored contacts list or type it in manually.

Once the message is saved, it will show automatically each time your phone's lock screen is engaged. … Read more

Yelp gives business owners a public voice

In response to criticism that small business were largely powerless against negative reviews on Yelp, the community reviews site has rolled out a feature that allows business owners to respond to reviews of their establishments, whether good or bad.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a company blog Thursday that the free feature was rolled out Wednesday:

Last night we rolled out a highly anticipated feature that allows business owners to publicly comment on their reviews. Already we've seen a number of sharp-eyed businesses make good use of this new functionality to provide additional context around specific reviews for … Read more

Yelp: Businesses may publicly respond to reviews

Next week, Yelp is set to roll out a new feature that will allow business owners to respond to user reviews--both good and bad--of their establishments.

In an e-mail sent out to the service's "Elite users," one of Yelp's local community managers Don Bourassa said the service is being set up to give business owners a way to provide constructive feedback in a public forum, as the current system requires businesses to correspond with users through private messages.

"The goal is for all comments to be pleasant and useful," Bourassa said. "For example, … Read more

Fully Equipped: Stupid human tricks--no HD on an HDTV

The Leichtman Research Group recently conducted a phone survey that showed 18 percent of HDTV owners think they're watching high-definition shows, when, in fact, they're viewing standard-definition programming.

I'm not sure exactly what questions LRG asked and how it arrived at that 18 percent figure, but I can tell you that I spent part of my New Year's Eve this year confronting and rectifying a non-HD situation just in time to see the ball drop in Times Square in HD.

This is not the first HDTV I've rescued from the standard-def dungeon. It's happened … Read more

Stupid human tricks: No HD on an HDTV

The Leichtman Research Group (LRG) recently conducted a phone survey that showed 18 percent of HDTV owners think they're watching high-definition shows, when in fact they're viewing standard-definition programming. I'm not sure exactly what questions LRG asked and how it arrived at that 18 percent figure, but I can tell you that I spent part of my New Year's Eve this year confronting and rectifying a non-HD situation just in time to see the ball drop in Times Square in HD.

This is not the first HDTV I've rescued from the standard-def dungeon. It's … Read more

Warning: Use of this product may result in injury or death!

The warnings aren't exactly subtle. The very first page of nearly every manual threatens, in large type: "Caution. Risk of electrical shock" and "Heed all warnings."

These cautions are used without any sense of proportion or logic. For example, A/V receiver owners are advised: "To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock do not expose this appliance to snow, rain, dripping or moisture." So forget about poolside installation of your new 200 watt per channel receiver.

I liked this one, found on a single speaker surround system manual, "Do not touch hot spots during and immediately after use." I guess these warnings are used by the company's lawyers in cases of product liability, but do they work?

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I think we have proved beyond reasonable doubt that the plaintiff, Mr. Jones, willfully touched his Acme Z1000 speaker's hot spots, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of his pinky finger. The defense rests."

Here's one from an A/V receiver manual: "Use only with the cart, stand, tripod, bracket or table specified by the manufacturer, or sold with the apparatus. When a cart is used, use caution when moving the cart/apparatus to avoid injury from tip-over." Huh? So in other words, by placing your new receiver on unauthorized furniture, you're at some risk.

Then again, it doesn't say anything about dropping the 42-pound receiver on your foot when placing the receiver on a cart, stand, tripod, bracket, or table specified by the manufacturer. So there's a loophole. Let the lawsuits begin.… Read more

Russia Web site owner killed after arrest

The owner of an opposition Internet news site in Russia's volatile Ingushetia region was shot and killed Sunday after being detained by police.

Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the www.Ingushetiya.ru Web site, was arrested at Nazran airport in southern Russia after disembarking a flight, according to a statement by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Yevloyev was later found dumped on the side of the road, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head, the news site's deputy editor, Ruslan Khautiyev, told the Associated Press. Yevloyev later died at a hospital, Khautiyev said.

Yevloyev had angered the region'… Read more

YouTube's filters help copyright owners profit from pirated videos

Instead of just pulling down pirated clips, copyright owners are choosing to use YouTube's copyright filters to generate advertising revenue, Google said Wednesday.

Late last year, Google introduced a copyright identification system called Video ID, which tracks unauthorized videos. It enables a copyright owner to either block the clip, leave it up, or enable YouTube to sell ads against the material.

Google said on its blog Wednesday that copyright owners were choosing to turn a buck from unauthorized clips 90 percent of the time.

"It's clear to our (more than 300) Video ID partners that our technology … Read more