DTV WATCH
What You Don’t Know About the DTV Transition Could Hurt You - Did you know that in less than a year only televisions that are “digital” will work without being hooked to a satellite or cable system? We are in what is known as the “digital television transition” period, when as of February 2009, all TV stations will end transmitting TV signals the old way – analog – and will do so only in the new way – digital.
TRAC is going to join the public education effort to help people through the transition and make smart choices as part of this transition. Most importantly, we want to prevent people from being ripped off by buying something they don’t need or something that might be obsolete in just a few years. We will be putting some helpful hints on our web site as well.
The Scoop -- Rip Off #1
Let’s start by talking about one of the biggest but least understood issues with the new digital TVs – built in obsolescence!
The new digital TVs are very much like computers. They are run or driven by software and what a digital TV can do today or in the future will depend in large part on whether the software in the TV can be upgraded, with a downloaded patch, like computers do frequently for software improvements. Unfortunately, only Sony is incorporating such consumer friendly capabilities in its TVs. So far, the other manufacturers are opting instead to feather their own financial nests by making TVs that are likely to be obsolete as soon as a new application or capabilities are introduced.
Here’s an example of that. The V-Chip – required by a 1996 law to be in all new TV sets – lets parents block out programs based on their ratings. In anticipation of the digital TV era, the Federal Communications Commission required that a new version of the V-Chip -- known as V-Chip 2.0 – be installed in all new digital TVs sold after mid-2006. This new chip can be reprogrammed to accommodate changing standards and new ratings. Unfortunately, most TV manufacturers have ignored the law, and built TVs without the new chip, despite the rule. With an upgrade capability for the whole TV, this problem could be fixed easily.
The point is that it is this type of capability that will make the new TV sets work better and last longer for consumers. A consumer outcry may be what is needed to get digital TV manufacturers to follow Sony’s lead and include an update capability in these sets. We are not saying that consumers should by only Sony digital TVs, because we know they can be too expensive for some families. However, the ability of a set to be automatically upgraded is an important consideration when shopping for DTV’s costing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
We hope to keep you posted on this and other issues as they arise.
Pew Cell Phone Survey Finds a Demand for Text and Camera Capabilities - More than half (58%) of cell phone or PDA owners have either sent or received a text message or taken a picture according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study. Of the ten features surveyed in the study, texting or taking a picture stood out as the two most popular, particularly among younger mobile device owners. The Pew study found that those between 18 and 29 years use text and picture features twice as frequently as those 30 to 49 years of age. Most phones sold today can send text messages and many have cameras included. Consumers who only want to pay for a handset with these two most popular features and no other add-ons may have a difficult time finding such phones. One option may be to use a pre-paid cellular company. These companies tend to specialize in handsets with few frills. For example the Motorola C261 offered by TracFone Wireless (not affiliated with TRAC) costs $29.99 before activation and any minutes are purchased. The handset offers camera and text messaging capabilities but does not include games, video, music, or Web browsing. With standard post-paid plans from the major carriers, finding a no-frills phone with only text messaging and a camera phone capability without mobile web and other features is even more difficult. One such phone, the Samsung SCH-u340 from Verizon Wireless is currently available free of charge with a two-year contract. The bottom line advice to consumers in search of basic phones with just the features they want is to shop around. It may not be easy to find these phones, but they are out there. To read the entire Pew Internet & American Life Project study by clicking here.
More Uses for Unlimited Night and Weekend Minutes: Child Monitor - As more and more cell phones plans come with unlimited night and weekend minutes, consumers are finding interesting uses for their unlimited minutes. One of the more creative ways to take advantage of all those free minutes is as an “in a pinch” child monitor. For example, when travelling, many parents prefer to book two hotel rooms – one for the adults and another for the kids. A neat way to keep an ear on them is to use your cell phone as a child monitor. Here’s how:
First, make sure that your cell plan has unlimited night and weekend minutes and that you have two handsets with speakerphone and mute capability on both. Put the first phone in the room where the children will be staying, activate the speakerphone and call the second handset. After answering the second handset in the parent’s room, put it on speakerphone as well and activate the mute feature. Check the reception between the two phones by having the kids make noises in their room and -- presto! Instant child monitor!
Consumers should be careful about where and when they use their cell phones as child monitors. We do not recommend using a cell phone replace a traditional baby monitor for consumers with younger children or infants, as a dropped call could leave you without the connection. Instead, think of it as a convenient way to keep track of the mischief older children could be getting in to in the next room when they are supposed to be getting ready for bed or taking a nap.
Tips for Keeping Cell Phone Batteries Charged - The battery life of today’s cellular handsets cell phones varies considerably, with some phones’ talk time lasting as little as 3.5 hours or as long as 9 hours when first purchased. These advertised usage times will diminish over time, and may not compensate for when wireless owners forget to charge their phone or cannot charge their phone for a longer period of time than expected. However, there are precautions users can take to extend the amount of time between each battery charge and the overall battery life of their phone.
First, make sure to turn off the phone when you are not expecting calls, particularly when in roaming mode. Searching for a signal drains battery life quickly. Second, don’t use the vibrate function unless it’s needed as this uses more electricity than an audible ringtone. Third, if possible, set the handset’s options to keep the display backlight on as little as possible. Fourth, avoid using a camera phone’s flash capability when it’s not needed. Fifth, if Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or GPS reception are not going to be needed, turn these features off. Finally, keep the phone stored at room temperature, when possible.
Consumers who don’t wish to take these precautions may want to buy a battery powered charger such as the “Clipper Gear.” The device provides around one minute of talk time for every one minute of charge time, and comes with four different adapters making it compatible with Nokia, Siemens, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson phones. To read CNET’s review of Clipper Gear, click here. For more tips on extending a cell phone’s battery life, click here.
TRAC IN THE NEWS
North Carolina Carriers Trying to Leverage Bundled Deals, Says TRAC - Telecom carriers in North Carolina were recently rebuked by the North Carolina Utilities Commission when they tried to get new rules passed that would allow them to disconnect all of the services a bundled subscribers uses when a customer is only able to make a partial payment on their bills. With consumers increasingly squeezed by hard economic times and as landline phone carriers competing with cable companies to offer bundles of high-speed Internet, wireless, television, and landline telephone service, the issue of what to do about partial payments is taking on increasing importance. The North Carolina Utilities Commission currently requires traditional telephone companies to keep telephone service connected, even if only a partial payment is made on a customer’s account. “It appears that carriers are seeking billing changes to get more leverage over customers,” said TRAC Research Director John Breyault in the March 10 edition of the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham) Business Journal. To read the full article, click here.
INTERESTING LINKS
FCC Main Page: http://www.fcc.gov
FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
List of State Regulatory Commissions: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
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