The Motorola Droid has some nice features and does some tasks with excellence — for example navigation. Tell it to navigate to an address and it finds your geographic position and starts giving you instructions with the speakerphone on. You can pretty much use that feature with confidence.

Now for the bad news. The Droid is not holistically designed, which means it doesn’t act how you would expect, it doesn’t act consistently and it doesn’t feel reliable at all times. It doesn’t perform like its all there, so when using it, the user might miss that stable free and easy feeling. If you have ever watched someone exercise on a stability ball or a BOSU as opposed to a flat floor, that might be a good analogy here. Or simply put. You always have to keep an alert eye to see that it is doing what you expect it to do.

Here are the top ten examples of shoddy engineering. Probably fixable, but too bad the engineers and designers didn’t get it right the first time.

1. The battery cover falls off. Pull it out of your pocket and you just might be staring at the back of your battery. Then you go fishing for the cover in your pocket. Other times? You get out of your car or get up from a seat and look back to make sure you didn’t forget anything … you know how you do that? Anyway you look back to make sure you didn’t leave your keys or something — and there’s your battery cover to your Droid sitting on the seat of the chair. Hmmph. The best solution? Get a skin that covers the back of the device Get a case, like the Body Glove snap-on. But, and this is a big but. The Body Glove case infringes on the margin of the top row of the keyboard. So there is a little more effort required targeting the top row of keys while using the keyboard.

Read more from The Cardinal …

David Pogue, New York Times Tech Columnist: Verizon is absolutely pulling the strings on these false charges because they control the design of the phone — telling manufacturers of phones what features they want on the phone.

Complaints of so-called data charges that are fraudulently being added to your cell phone bill by your cell phone company. Watch out for shortcut keys for “Mobile Me” or “GetItNow” services from AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

David Pogue, New York Times Tech Columnist claims he received a tip from a Verizon employee that Verizon is creating these error-prone features on purpose.

Accidental repetitive hits of a button can bring a dollar-per-click — often unnoticed by cell phone customers, but bringing in extra income to phone companies. With 80 million customers and a good portion making the click errors or pocket dialing, etc. there is a potential for millions of dollars of extra income to the phone companies.

Verizon Wireless claims few people are committing the click accidents.

Charles E. Schumer, a senior U.S. Senator from the State of New York, serving since 1999. Last week Schumer became one of an estimated 30,000 Americans to make complaints about the robocalls with consumer protection authorities. He held a press conference to rail against the “robo-dialed harassment.”

516-858-7178
Remember this number. It is associated with the infamous car warranty calls.

If you answer, you will probably hear the following recorded message:
“This is the final call before we close the file. Press 1 to speak to a representative now about your vehicle. Press 2 to remove your name from the call list.”

You are better off never answering or just hanging up. People are reporting that when they press the number to be removed from the list, the calls still continue.

ROBOCALLS SUCK!
These calls are an effort to extract credit card numbers by selling fraudulent car warranty renewals, and have begun to go direct to cell phones.

The Federal Trade Commission reports the telemarketing campaign is one of the most aggressive it has ever encountered, with as many as 1.8 million calls placed daily. The bogus companies dialed every number in a given area code, including many numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Have you gotten phone calls or mail warning that the warranty on your car is about to expire? In fact, your vehicle’s warranty may be far from expiring – or it may have expired already. The FTC wants you to know that scammers are making calls and sending letters that may seem to come from your car dealer or manufacturer, but do not. If you have a question about your warranty, check your owner’s manual, call the dealer who sold you the car, or contact the vehicle manufacturer.

Go to this FTC page to file a complaint …

Here’s a great tip. Are you annoyed by unknown numbers appearing on your home phone or cellphone? Google the numbers or go to a website like whocalled.us, PhoneOwner.info or 800notes.com. You will find lists of phone numbers associated with robocalls and annoying other calls. Your best bet is to avoid calls on these databases.

Are you from the old school that believes that telephones should be extremely reliable at handling voice calls? If you are frustrated with so many features that you hardly use, you might just want you phone to work. Sometimes phones don’t work because features cause the phone, which is really a computer, to stall or crash or freeze. Perhaps it is not just the phone either. Companies now like to throw as much as they can down your information pipeline: voice, data/internet, television.

But what if all those features cause your voice service to be impaired? Is that acceptable?

Something interesting about U-verse in their terms of service (check out the bold below):

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT AT&T SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL INJURY, PROPERTY DAMAGE, LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF AT&T HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (a) USE OF THE SERVICES (WHICH INCLUDES EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, AND INSIDE OR OUTSIDE WIRING), (b) THE PERFORMANCE OR NON-PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICES, (c) THE INSTALLATION, MAINTENANCE, REMOVAL, OR TECHNICAL SUPPORT OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF SUCH DAMAGE RESULTS FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OF AN AT&T INSTALLER, TECHNICIAN, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVE, AND/OR (d) ANY INABILITY TO REACH 911 EMERGENCY SERVICES, ANY ALLEGED INTERFERENCE WITH ALARM OR MEDICAL MONITORING SIGNALS, OR ANY FAILURE OF ALARM OR MEDICAL MONITORING SIGNALS TO REACH THEIR INTENDED MONITORING STATIONS ALLEGEDLY AS A RESULT OF THE SERVICES.

Perhaps customers would rather forgo the extras, especially if they make it complex and difficult to enjoy simple pleasures like calling a friend or family member, or the police in an emergency. And what if your neighborhood U-verse crashes your neighborhood phone lines. Does that mean that fire alarm might not get through to the alarm office when that laptop battery you left on your couch ignites while you run out for Chinese food. AT&T isn’t liable if MTV interferes with 9-1-1. Oh, that’s right you can still sue the battery manufacturer.

You desgn your page in Dreamweaver and everything is looking good. But all of a sudden there is a line space on top of a graphic. The graphic is lower than graphics in adjacent columns. Or worse you can’t get the top line of text to line up from one column to the next.

The answer?

For some strange reason the Dreamweaver software injects <p> in your code. That’s right. It <p>’s all over your code, just when you don’t want it too. So if you see a stubborn line space, go into code mode, find that <p> and delete it … clean it out of there!

Incandescent light bulbs face extinction with a new Energy Bill. First … HDTV and digital television has been made complicated. Now light bulbs are complicated, too.

Under a new law, all light bulbs must use 25% to 30% less energy than today’s products by 2012 to 2014. The phase-in will start with 100-watt bulbs in January 2012 and end with 40-watt bulbs in January 2014. By 2020, bulbs must be 70% more efficient.

Incandescent bulbs last an average seven months, but fluorescent bulbs burn six times longer. It also saves about $5 a year in electricity costs, paying for itself in as little as four months. But some experts doubt that the fluorescent lamps really save money.

General Electric (GE) is developing an incandescent that’s 30% more efficient than today’s bulbs that is expected to debut by 2010. Earl Jones, a GE senior counsel, says it likely will cost more than current bulbs but less than a fluorescent.

Light-emitting diodes that cost much more, but last about 12 years, are also being developed.

The Compact Fluorescent Bulbs have their disadvantages. The fluorescent light bulbs don’t work with three-way switches, dimmers, and there are some complications with mechanical timers. Some electric timers have a small amount of electricity running through the product even when the lamp is off. This makes the lamp continually try to start itself, which causes the Compact Fluorescent Lamp to have a short life.

The Compact Fluorescent Lamps also don’t work properly with dusk to dawn fixtures. Dusk-to-dawn photocell fixtures contain a silicon chip that converts radiant energy into electrical current. Many photocells do this in a way that is incompatible with Compact Fluorescent Lamp circuitry, which will cause short life.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps can also interfere with a variety of devices, including televisions, because they use the same wavelengths. If you find that they interfere, move the Compact Fluorescent Lamp away, or plug the electronic device into another outlet.

More info …
American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE)

Westinghouselightbulbs.com