The most hype-filled shopping day of the year will soon be upon us. Here’s a roundup of alternately eye-opening, quirky, and confounding facts and figures about Black Friday 2011.
smartphones
Are You Being Spied On While You Shop?
If you hit the mall on Black Friday, you could be under observation. Don’t look behind you, though; a signal emitted by your cell phone could be sending information to receivers that log your path from store to store. A pair of …
Jonathan’s Card: The Starbucks ‘Get a Coffee, Give a Coffee’ Social Experiment
The “take a penny, leave a penny” concept works pretty well at diners and convenience stores. But what if, instead of pennies, the currency being shared was digital, and the payments were made by mobile phone? That’s what one …
Simple Hacks to Cut Your Cell Phone Bill in Half
How much do cell phones really cost? Here’s one indication: The average household pays $350 annually—solely for wireless taxes and fees.
The Big List of Consumer Curiosities
Here’s a compendium of interesting, sometimes weird, sometimes surprising factoids about consumer spending, housing, modern family life, and more.
Is AT&T’s First Prepaid Smartphone a Good Deal?
No long-term contract is required on the LG Thrive, which AT&T will begin selling in mid-April. The upsides here are that there users are charged for actual usage—not via a steady monthly bill—and there are no worries about early termination fees. As for other charges associated with the phone, there are plenty.
It’s a Deal: All T-Mobile Smartphones Offered for Free
On Friday, February 11, and Saturday, February 12, T-Mobile is allowing customers to walk away with any smartphone of their choosing for free—provided they sign up for a two-year service contract, of course. The phones offered include the HTC HD7, Samsung Vibrant, and the T-Mobile myTouch 4G.
Smartphones: Unlimited Data Plans Often Mean Unnecessarily High Monthly Bills
When Verizon announced it would be selling the iPhone, a certain breed of consumers were overjoyed with the prospect that they’d soon be able buy an iPhone without an AT&T contract, and without the restrictions of an AT&T limited-data plan. Verizon iPhone customers should be able to pay a flat $30 all-you-can-eat fee for data. But, in …
Cheapskate Wisdom … About Why Wireless Bills Are Different Than Other Bills
“There’s no water faucet in my house that I could turn — intentionally or accidentally — that would lead to a $68,505 bill for the month.”
What Happens When Three Savvy Shoppers Hit the Mall, Smartphones in Hand
During a six-hour shopping excursion in Dallas-area malls, three shoppers armed with three different smartphones—Android, Blackberry, iPhone—scan, search, and take advantage of every app under the sun on a two-prong online-real world quest for great gifts and the best prices. What do they find out? While smartphone-enhanced shopping …
How SmartPhones Level the Playing Field for Shoppers
Comparison shopping has never been easier. Forget about store circulars, let alone physically going to multiple stores to scope prices. With a smartphone and a price-comparison app, scouring the competition is as easy as entering a single store and punching in an item’s model number or scanning the bar code, then waiting a few moments to …
Coming Soon to Cell Phones: Faster Speeds and More Options, Along with More Fees and More Confusion
“You could be charged based on usage or by speed difference, or you could do both. There are no definitive answers here.”