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Filed under: Cellphones

Not that we haven’t seen victories over SMS spammers before, but this one is sure catching a lot of attention due to the names attached. GSI Commerce and Timberland have reportedly agreed to “establish a fund of up to $7 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against them for allegedly sending unsolicited text messages to wireless telephone users in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.” The settlement has already received preliminary approval from a judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, and while the aforementioned firms vehemently deny any wrongdoing, they concede that taking this to court would be “burdensome, protracted and expensive.” More expensive than $7 million? Is that guilt we smell, or what?

[Via mocoNews]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We’ll be straight with you — we aren’t surprised one iota by this one. For those keeping tabs, Samsung’s slate of Blu-ray players have been plagued with issues essentially from day one, and while it has released a flurry of firmware updates over the years in an attempt to mend a variety of incompatibility issues, even its recent BD-UP5000 hybrid player is being axed early on after giving owners all sorts of fits. Apparently, one particular buyer isn’t taking things lying down, and has decided to file suit against the mega-corp alleging that it has sold “defective Blu-ray players” to consumers. According to the suit, Sammy was “fully aware of the defective nature of the player [BD-P1200, in particular] at the time of manufacture and sale,” and it also claims that the firm has “failed to provide a remedy consistent with the products’ intended and represented uses.” More specifically, the verbiage picks on the units’ inability to play back select BD titles, and while some fixes have indeed been doled out, we still get the feeling many consumers have been left dissatisfied. Needless to say, this outcome should be interesting.

[Thank, Nfinity and Prey521]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Gaming

We can’t say that we’re shocked to hear this — you know, considering just how long those Xbox Live holiday blues went on — but Microsoft is indeed being slapped with a class action lawsuit over the aforementioned outages. Reportedly, a trio of angered Texans are alleging that Microsoft didn’t abide by its own contract when network issues disallowed a good chunk of Live users from getting their fix over the past few weeks. According to the complaint, MSFT understood that the time of year would lead to increased activity, yet “failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers.” Of course, we’re betting the Redmond-based lawyers point out that clause about not guaranteeing any minimum level of service, but who knows, maybe we’ll all end up with two shiny new Arcade titles.

[Thanks, Andre and Ben]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Cellphones

So, you’ve got an outstanding ticket from talking while behind the wheel in Chicago, do you? Meet attorney Blake Horwitz, who is now likely to be the best friend you don’t even know. Reportedly, Mr. Horwitz is suing the city and claiming that arrests of citizens caught driving and talking were in fact illegal, and furthermore, he’s demanding that Chicago “dismiss any outstanding tickets and refund almost $2 million in fines collected since 2005.” Apparently, the actual law that prevents users from yapping and motoring requires that the city erect signs that instruct drivers not to converse while driving, yet such signs have purportedly not been posted across Chi-town. The devil’s in the details, we suppose.

[Image courtesy of ImportTuner]

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Source: Darren Murph

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While Mattel has been on a roll of late with swank new toys, the firm has apparently hit a rough patch after being forced to recall “millions of toys including 436,000 die-cast cars.” The wee roadsters purportedly “contained excessive amounts of lead,” and now a class action lawsuit has been filed that aims to force the firm to “pay for the testing of children who might have gotten lead poisoning from the toys.” Reportedly, representatives from Mattel were unavailable to comment, but the outfit’s CEO has stated that “the company’s more aggressive testing methods to uncover tainted toys may lead to more recalls” in the future.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Cellphones

Apple and its batteries just can’t seem to catch a break, eh? This go ’round, Sydney Leung has filed a class-action complaint that reportedly accuses “both Apple and AT&T of fraud in neglecting to inform potential iPhone buyers of the costs involved in maintaining a working battery for the iPhone over the course of the handset’s lifespan.” The angered individual and his legal team are purporting that the iPhone’s battery “lasts only 300 complete charges before depleting entirely,” and also argue that Apple and AT&T didn’t address this issue until after customers had made their purchase. Of course, Apple specs show that the battery in question is designed to hold a full charge for between 300 and 400 cycles, while still holding a majority of that charge afterwards, so unless Mr. Leung’s (and a few others, too) battery mysteriously conked out after that oh-so-critical 300th charge, we’re failing to see what ground he’s standing on.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Cellphones

Apple and its batteries just can’t seem to catch a break, eh? This go ’round, Sydney Leung has filed a class-action complaint that reportedly accuses “both Apple and AT&T of fraud in neglecting to inform potential iPhone buyers of the costs involved in maintaining a working battery for the iPhone over the course of the handset’s lifespan.” The angered individual and his legal team are purporting that the iPhone’s battery “lasts only 300 complete charges before depleting entirely,” and also argue that Apple and AT&T didn’t address this issue until after customers had made their purchase. Of course, Apple specs show that the battery in question is designed to hold a full charge for between 300 and 400 cycles, while still holding a majority of that charge afterwards, so unless Mr. Leung’s (and a few others, too) battery mysteriously conked out after that oh-so-critical 300th charge, we’re failing to see what ground he’s standing on.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Portable Audio

It looks like AllofMP3 founder Denis Kvasov will be evading any time in the gulag, at least for the moment. If you’ll recall, EMI, Universal, and Warner Music filed suits against the highly dubious MP3-portal’s founder after launching a whirlwind attack resulting in Mastercard and Visa pulling their services for the Russian-based site, and the eventual collapse of the pretty-much-illegal download service. The suit sought damages from the “entrepreneur” to the tune of 15 million rubles (about $590,700 US), but according to reports, a Cheryomushky District Court judge threw out the case against Kvasov, stating that a legal loophole allowing AllofMP3’s particular kind of online music distribution continued through 2006 — one year after Kvasov left the company. Of course, two more cases are pending against the mogul, so it seems likely we’ll be hearing a lot more on this in the coming days and weeks.

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Source: Joshua Topolsky

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