For several years, I have written at great length about the problems that arise when Consumer Reports tackles tech gear. Yes, the magazine has a stellar reputation, in large part because tested products are all bought retail, they don’t take ads from other companies, and don’t even allow those companies to quote CR reviews in […]

To some misguided pundits, Apple’s supposed “Antennagate” scandal last year is an episode they will never live down. Even though other smartphones exhibit signal loss if you hold them the wrong way, meaning that you manage to cover the antennas with those big bad bags of water we call hands, the iPhone 4 got the […]

I have been mighty critical of Consumer Reports and the way they cover consumer electronics. For some reason, Apple gets the brunt of their bad behavior, but I’m not about to suggest that CR has it in for them. The publication claims to be fair and balanced, mostly based on the fact that it’s run by […]

It’s part of the human condition to tell stories and, often as not, to embellish the ones you hear in the retelling. Sometimes you wonder how information conveyed orally passes on through generations supposedly without loads of changes. So here’s a little story: Years ago, the late comedian Steve Allen would occasionally conduct an informal […]