(Credit:
ESRB)
Straight from the No-Brainer Department comes a list of games that parents should not buy their children this holiday season. The New York Times has republished a collection of 10 titles deemed totally uncool for kids to play by the media watchdog group Common Sense Media.
While we're all for educating parents about the naughty video games their children want to play, we can't help but slap our foreheads at how obvious some of them are. Besides, all a responsible parent needs to do is stray away from the big fat "Rated M for Mature" logo on the box art of such titles.
We wouldn't disagree with any title on the list, but some of the suggested alternatives for these titles are a bit suspect. For example, replacing Modern Warfare 2 with Battlefield: Bad Company only brings the blood level down a bit--the war combat and violence are still present in Bad Company. We absolutely loved Uncharted 2, but there's plenty of gunplay and headshots in the T-rated blockbuster as well.
Ideally, we'd love to see parents become more involved in their child's gaming habits. The only way to make sure a game is right for the younger ones is to have Mom or Dad sit in on a few sessions.
Click over for the full Common Sense Media list of unfriendly titles along with their alternatives.... Read more
(Credit:
Tech Shout)
This is one of those products that really makes us wonder if some companies have too many employees--a situation that inevitably leads to solutions in search of a problem. Nokia may be suffering this workforce malady if its latest brainchild is any indication: a mobile phone that warns of approaching lightning. Yes, you read that right.
We thought we'd dispensed with this misguided idea in an item a month ago that cited (and mocked appropriately) a "personal lightning detector." But nay, apparently one of the largest phone makers in the world thinks this is a valuable feature, for it reportedly has filed for a U.S. patent on its own lightning-be-gone software.
Tech Shout says it could be an "indispensible safety device" for such outdoor activities as golfing and jogging. Yet we must ask, as we did with the "StrikeAlert" detector before it, is it so difficult to stay indoors in a thunderstorm?
Technology can be a funny thing sometimes. Just when we've finished carping about something--in this case the dearth of wireless home audio systems--someone comes along with a product that goes in the opposite extreme. Case in point: The "Plug & Enjoy" mini-speakers from Yanko Design.
(Credit:
Yanko Design)
These tiny speakers do precisely what their name implies, plugging directly into the wall for your listening pleasure. According to OhGizmo, they work this way: "Roughly the size of a power adapter, the speakers plug into any outlet and are designed to receive an FM signal from your stereo, iPod, cellphone or anything else that can be connected to an FM transmitter. Once plugged in you turn the front part of the speaker (which acts like a knob) until if finds the signal coming from your music player."
Unfortunately, the Yanko site doesn't provide any pricing or purchasing information, so we're not sure if this is an actual product on the market or only a concept. Still, we're happy to see that others are joining us in our crusade.
A California man is suing Motorola, claiming that it failed to warn consumers that using its Bluetooth headsets at high volume for long periods of time could be dangerous.
Martin Alpert filed a suit seeking class action status earlier this month. According to reports from Crain's and others, the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, alleges that Motorola had "actual and constructive knowledge" that its headsets "posed a serious risk of harm to consumers from noise-indiced hearing loss during the headsets' normal and intended use." The complaint states that Alpert "suffered injury," as a result of Motorola's "conduct," but it does not detail the nature of the damages.
Apparently, listening to anything above 85 decibels for longer than eight hours is bad for your hearing. At full volume, Motorola's H700 headset was tested at 82 to 106 decibels, according to a study by the American Speech-Hearing-Language Association cited in the suit. The lawsuit also contends that there's no way for consumers to easily tell exactly how many decibles are pumping out of the headset, so Motorola should stop selling 12 Bluetooth models until there is.
The HS830, H3, H300, H500, H605, H700, HS805, HS815, HS820, HS850, HT820 and N136 are advertised with promises of long talk time, the complaint says, without any accompanying indication that when turned up to full volume, using them for 10 hours at a time is a health hazard.
Mr. Alpert wants the money back that he spent on his headset, a warning label, and a noise meter to ensure this never happens to anyone. Maybe he really does have the good of consumers in mind. Or maybe he's just another one of those sue-happy Americans.
(Photo: Motorola)
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