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I don't think that anyone was suggesting that they will pay $1000 for a child to have a phone. The iPhone SE sells for $150 - $199 brand new from bestbuy: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/at-t-prepaid-apple-iphone-se-4g...

I would argue that there IS something wrong with asking users to change their reviews.

If you're advertising & selling version 1 of a product, the reviews should be for that version. Enticing users with a newer or superior version shouldn't make them change the review for the version 1 item.

If a user does update their review, it should state that a replacement was sent that is better, yet different, and possibly provide a link to the better or updated item.

Like you mention, there are many almost empty cities, also called ghost cities. You can also argue that they are slowly being populated, but that doesn't equate with success.

They failed in that there was a huge investment to build them, but the expectations for these cities were never met. Additionally, there is tremendous upkeep or maintenance.

For example, those new roads are crumbling and require extensive repair work. Think of a road that is 5 lanes wide, but a 1 lane would suffice to serve all of the traffic. The unused portion will still degrade, even though it's not used.

It's kinda like buying a huge house before having children. You still need to fix, maintain and clean the extra square footage, even though it's not used.

Great artwork, but I'll never find time to actually read the 400-pages manual.

It comes down to a price.

These big shipping companies started out good, but with time things slid downhill. You don't start out with the goal of providing mediocre service.

The problem is if you want top employees, you have to pay top dollar. Amazon's shipping service company will probably start out good, but it may windup in a similar place once they start trying to "optimize" their shipping service.

They will cut cost, overwork existing employees, and try to extend the reach of their service. If they don't, you will be over-paying for "Amazon" services and many will look elsewhere when it comes down to paying an extra 5% or more for better service.

On the topic of feedback: You can provide feedback to shipping companies. I called FedEx and reported their driver for dropping 2 packages in a row (and damaging the contents). He came back 2 days later with the 3rd package, apologized, and read me back my report. You just have to be proactive and communicate with them.

I completely agree with untog. Apple's Airport device is so seamless that it's a pleasure to use.

What kind of firmware / security updates do you get with OnHub? Aren't firmware updates dangerous if everything is working perfectly (the possibility to introduce issues)?

Tesla has a service schedule it suggests:

https://www.teslamotors.com/support/service-plans

You will change your battery oil.

There was an interesting CBC News show on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e4CEm9yybo

The most interesting thing was that people were so used to the taste of the processed OJ that they preferred it to the fresh squeezed OJ.

This may be true, but you still want someplace to start when you buy or recommend products. With certain brands / companies, you can become familiar with quality, cost, design, etc. You don't want to waste hours upon hours researching when you need something.

Even though Anker may not provide perfect products + service every time, they may be a good place to start looking for an accessory.

There are some products where a return period of greater than 1 year makes sense: Seasonal equipment that you can't use regularly. You may buy a snowboard or similar equipment, use it once, and then put it away until next season.

If on the second use (greater than 12 months later) they break, it would be nice to be able to return the equipment for being defective.

Both at the beginning and at the end of the kickstarter video, the founder expressed how people don't think this sort of device can succeed.

Does this mean that there was a lot of resistance from investors and beta-testers?

Their subscription model is where they may make their money.

I completely agree. But I feel like in the very near future, content providers will start selling subscriptions to their service.

On a home we purchased, the house antenna that was mounted on the chimney picks up clear HD channels of the local stations that look wonderful.

Paying for TV doesn't make sense nowadays. If a home doesn't have an antenna on the roof, I would recommend it as an upgrade for anyone interested in the local channels.

This laptop is a niche device, it will not appeal to persons who want the most notebook for the price.

Personally I go to the Apple Store even if I know I am out of warranty because they will lay out all of the options you have. Sometimes they offer free services because of recalls

> having the ability to verify a PIN and the ability to reset the ‘tries’ counter, one can trivially check every possible PIN automatically until the correct PIN is found.

This is the key part for me. Being able to brute-force a pin is a huge vulnerability.

His phone has a flashlight built-in.

This story reminded me of an NPR story about the gold standard:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/01/16/376967946/episode-...

Agreed.

And many manufacturers offer an extended warranty on used cars. Buy a 1 year old "certified" car many times has a longer warranty than an identical new car at a lower cost.

I completely agree regarding the ease of setting up apple's routers.

I tried setting up a linksys router as a bridge, but it was a little bit tricky and required me to reset it once or twice before I got it setup.

A few days later I purchased an airport express for the airplay feature to connect it to my radio. I installed it at one location in my home and it was drop-dead simple to set it up as a bridge to the existing network.

The argument isn't whether or not you have a deadbolt, but rather that the technology used in the deadbolt will sway an insurance company not to pay the claim.

Using a bluetooth deadbolt can be compared to using a lock with medeco biaxial pins. The insurance company finds out that medeco biaxial pins are easier to break into with specialized tools and they deny your claim.

This is a moot point, so I would suggest an easier way to break in to your home that doesn't require advanced tech skills: use a rock to break a window ;)

Their costs are controlled at the scale at which they operate at.

A competitor may be able to offer something similar, but without the scale, their prices will likely be equal to or greater than apple's.

Insurance is designed to cover loss in case of accidents, natural disaster, etc.

You can't say your homeowners insurance won't cover you because your house burned down because you were cooking and you aren't a world-class chef.

One of the biggest mistakes apple made this year is introducing the base model with only 16GB of space. Even though I love my iPhone, I think this is a critical flaw.

TechShield appears to be installed on the framing of the roof.

This device is used on outside walls.

This service is probably aimed at people shopping online at least once a month.

It seems especially useful for regular shipments or products that tend to have large retail margins.