Common Paradox Tech Blog

We just got a troubling tip from a concerned Nook buyer. I say buyer because he still hasn’t received his Nook. He ordered the Barnes & Noble ebook reader on November 12 and the device was originally supposed to ship on November 30th. But you may recall that date was pushed back to December 11th

Frustrated by the delay, he successfully completed the cancellation process on BN.com only to get an email several hours later that stated his order cannot be canceled because it “has entered the shipping process” even though according to B&N’s own website, the Nook will not ship for another three days. Now that’s some bull.

Sprint customers, we’re coming up on that time of year where your carrier of choice likes to increase some of the fees on your account, allowing you to cancel your service without encouraging an early termination fee (ETF).  They did it back in 2008, at the beginning of this year, and it looks like they’re going to be doing the same next year. PhoneNews is reporting that Sprint customers are starting to see a notice on their bill explaining that the company will be increasing its Regulatory Charge to $0.40/line, and will be assessing an additional $4.99 fee on accounts with spending limits.

Here’s how it works: the increase of the Regulatory Fee and the addition of the $4.99 (see a breakdown of Sprint’s fees here) both constitute what is known as a "materially adverse change of contract", and per Sprint’s Terms & Conditions, that change of contract allows for the cancellation of one’s contract without incurring an ETF:

If a change we make to the Agreement is material and has a material adverse effect on Services under your Term Commitment, you may terminate each line of Service materially affected without incurring an Early Termination Fee only if you: (a) call us within 30 days after the effective date of the change; and (b) specifically advise us that you wish to cancel Services because of a material change to the Agreement that we have made. If you do not cancel Service within 30 days of the change, an Early Termination Fee will apply if you terminate Services before the end of any applicable Term Commitment.

The crucial part to using this clause is calling Sprint within 30 days after the effective date of the change (the date it begins to actually affect your bill), and specifically advising them that you wish the cancel services because of the material change to the Agreement.

While some are reporting that Sprint has allowed them to go month-to-month after invoking that clause in the T&C, be warned that there are no guarantees that everyone will get those same results and your mileage may vary. So no promises from us, but if you’re itching to get away from Sprint, this may be your shot.

Thanks to mikesm for the tip!

The U.S. press hasn’t been particularly kind to the Peek email device. It isn’t that it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do – email. The issue is more that people already have their phones to do this, and those phones can also deal with images, links to websites, etc.

But the Peek may just be the perfect device for Europe, and Spain’s FON is going to take a shot at distributing it here under the brand PeekFon.

FON CEO Martin Varsavsky hinted at the deal yesterday to me backstage at the Le Web conference in Paris. Here’s why he think the Peek is perfect for Europe – avoiding roaming charges:

Intel said today that it’s much hyped Larrabee graphics chip won’t be happening after all. The Larrabee GPU will exist only as a software development platform for the time being. According to Intel spokesman Nick Knupffer, "Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we hoped to be at this point in the project. As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product.”

The Larrabee chip has already been delayed repeatedly, so this news isn’t entirely surprising. There have been indications of trouble ever since Larrabee missed its original debut in 2008. A recent demo of the chip at SC09 highlighted lackluster performance one wouldn’t expect after such a long development. It would have been Intel’s first standalone graphics part in over a decade, but now is little more than a sore spot.

Intel gave no clear guidelines on when the SDK can be expected, just sometime in 2010. The cancellation of Larrabee has no bearing on Intel’s upcoming hardware graphics solution for the Atom “Pine Trail” chip. Pine Trail will have graphics processing integrated in the CPU. Oh well Intel, you’ll always have Atom. 

No. 24601 writes “A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave, due to a diagnosis of depression, lost her health benefits after her insurance provider found photos of her on Facebook smiling and looking cheerful at parties and out on the beach. Besides all the obvious questions, how did the insurance company access her locked Facebook profile?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Not to say “we told you so,” but we told you so. Google won’t be releasing its own Android hardware. Not now, not ever.

Head of Android development Andy Rubin states the obvious by saying it would be foolish for Google to “compete with its customers” who license the OS. In his own words, “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”

This is how licensing OSes has generally worked, with the PC and Windows Mobile. (But not with the Mac during the clone wars, which eventually ended in cancellation.)

As CNET points out, Google sometimes plays a part in designing phones. Apparently the hinge mechanism in the G1 was added at Google’s request. But that’s a long way from designing a whole phone.

Phones like the Droid were also rumored to have been developed with Google helping along the way. As long as the trend keeps up, I’m sure Google will be perfectly happy to let Motorola, HTC and others spread their OS like the sneaky little world-dominating thing it is. [CNET via Electronista]

While it’s probably not the first casualty of the Google GPS navigation bombshell, the fact remains—Microsoft is pulling the plug on their MSN Direct service on January 1st, 2012.

Fortunately, that is plenty of time for subscribers to the GPS information service to jump ship. You don’t even have to wait for your subscription to terminate—just shut down your service anytime before the end date and receive a refund for the unused portion of your service. Check out the MSN Direct page for the full details. [MSN Direct via Electronista]

newVideoPlayer(“/gizmodo-liftoff.flv”, 500, 375,”"); After yesterday’s launch cancellation, Ares I-X—the biggest US rocket since the Saturn V—has launched successfully. In case you missed it, here is the video of the whole launch, including the separation of its upper stage. Godspeed, Ares I-X!

Oh wait, you just died—as planned. Oh my, the fact that you were alive just seconds ago.

In February of this year, Adam Carolla, the former co-host of Loveline and The Man Show, was out of a job after his morning radio show, The Adam Carolla Show, was cancelled. Instead of wandering around waiting for his next gig though, Adam launched The Adam Carolla Podcast just three days after his cancellation.

The result? Over a million downloads in the first week, and it only grew from there. His show is now the most popular podcast on iTunes with millions of downloads every month.

His jump from the radio world to the social media world has been an interesting one, so were decided to sit down with Adam at the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas to see just how he built the show, what he thinks of social media, and…what his dating turn-ons are.

We hope you enjoy the interview. You may want to skip to about 3 minutes in if you want to skip Adam’s impromptu dating video (though it is hilarious). We covered a lot of different bases with the comedian:

Tags: Adam Carolla, interview, podcasting

Another alleged insider has starting spilling—flinging?—beans about Microsoft’s Pink project, enthusiastically piling the hate atop earlier claims that the project was under dire threat of cancellation, for sucking. This time, the rumors come via AppleInsider, and they get personal:

Roz Ho, Microsoft’s head of mobile experiences was “clearly incompetent” in her handling of the project, and “was not humble enough” to listen to her ex-Danger employees, who could’ve told her what she was doing wrong. And my favorite maybe-true bit? The origins of the “Pink” moniker

she was listening to a song by Pink (the singer) when she decided she was just the person to go one-up the Sidekick.

The sourcing is odd and the story occasionally contradicts the report it claims to corroborate—how could Pink be a tool to goad the Windows Mobile 7 team into action if it was kept secret from them?—and while it’s far from unbelievable that Pink, the project, could’ve been mishandled, or that Pink, the phones, could be kinda crappy, the conclusion that the project is dead just doesn’t match what we know we know. [AppleInsider]