Product Review: Craig Electronics MP3 Player

Once again, apologies to my regular readers for not having written and/or posted anything recently. As some of you might know, I have been working on several books for the last year. Needless to say, I have been very busy.
I’m going to jump right into this posting’s product review. It is probably the easiest product review that I’ve ever written considering that I have absolutely nothing good to say about this product. This month’s review comes courtesy of Craig Electronics and what passes for their “quality” mp3 player.

I bought a Craig manufactured 2 gigabyte mp3 player from Amazon after reading a couple of good reviews of the product. However, I should have read further reviews because for some reason, positive Amazon listings of products tend to be the first one listed, while those warning would-be buyers of the more negative aspects of a particular product lag behind on the list. Whether by design or incidence, I opted to use my own platform here to warn those in the market for an mp3 player to stay as far away from the piece of garbage as possible.
From the moment I received this product, there were problems, the major one being that it simply did not work (yes, I purchased this product new, not “refurbished”). According to packaged instructions, purchasers should charge player for approximately 10 hours prior to first use—which I did (the player is supposed to be charged with the power switch in the “on” position). After about 12 hours of charging (I left it charged while I went to work during a 12-hour shift), I came back to the product expecting it to function. But sometimes, expectations often exceed reality. This product proved that in spades.
I then charged the product another 10 hours with the power switch in the “off” position, in the hopes that I might have bought the one version of the product that was somehow mis-wired. No go. No lit screen…nothing. After my frustration level shot past the maximum tolerance level, I then contacted the manufacturer’s customer service center for a remedy. I was told that I would have to send the product back to their service center along with $15 dollars to “fix” the problem.
Curious, I went back online to search other sites hoping to pick up more accurate and relevant reviews of the Craig 2 gig mp3 player. Did I ever learn that it pays to read as much as you can about an off-brand product, especially electronics. I found many similar reviews by disgruntled customers of Craig’s mp3 players. Luckily, Amazon was willing to provide me with a refund for the defective product. But I don’t blame Amazon, I blame Craig Electronics for impersonating a manufacturer of working consumer products. Don’t waste your money on this (or any) Craig-produced product.
So disappointed I was with this product that I'm going to convey upon it the first "Golden Turn Award" given away by Beyond Dollars & Sense.  Way to go Craig!  Please don't keep up the "good" work!

Product Review: Mennen's Speed Stick Vs. Arm & Hammer's Ultra Max

We’re all adults here. And since this particular posting might be considered somewhat touchie for some, allow me to say that we all tend to get that less-than-fresh feeling at sometimes inopportune times—and I’m not talking about feminine hygiene products. I’m speaking about getting the best bang-for-your-buck when it comes to deodorant.
One of the advantages of having a position which becomes occasionally labor intensive (read: physically-demanding) at times is that it tends to test the limits of the products we use to help us remain hygienic. Last week I learned—much to the dismay of my nasal sensitivities—the limits of a named-brand deodorant.
At the risk of sounding like a television commercial, I thought that changing from the brand that I normally use would cut my wallet some slack.

This is not to say that the brand that I normally used was bad (it’s actually far better to my downgrade), but trying to upgrade (to use the term loosely) to a better-known but cheaper deodorant was a bad decision. What I substituted for my regular far-superior brand was Mennen’s Speed Stick (it’s “Active Fresh” variety).

Speed Stick boasts slick television commercials—complete with the obligatory handsome male lead. But quite often, what sells a product is slick marketing, not the effectiveness of the product. And I found Speed Stick’s Active Fresh product to be anything but effective. At the end of my 9-hour workday, I smelled like I had spent a week in the “hotbox” on a Southern prison farm from the 1950s—not a condition you want to find yourself in on a hot August day. Speed Stick’s Active Fresh is not a product I would recommend if you are looking for all-day (or even effective) protection from offending yourself when you lift your arms.
On the hand, the deodorant that I kicked to the curb for this failed experiment in named-brandology, Arm & Hammer’s “Ultra Max” was and is the best-performing brand that I’ve used to date. I can both work and load a lot longer, without having to keep my arms down below head level! In fact, I’ve never had any issues with odor using Ultra Max. Yes, it goes on a little thick. But personally, I like “thick;” it kind of reassures me of being protected (call it “reverse-paranoia” if you will).  No, you won't smell like a field of lilacs in the springtime, but you will smell respectable around others.

The takeaway here is that slick advertisements and brand names do not what a good product make. My suggestion is to do what I did—throw out the Speed Stick and go with what works. Use a deodorant whereby you can get your money’s worth of good protection (and no…this wasn’t a paid endorsement).

Product Review: The Seagate FreeAgent Portable Hard Drive

As a writer and blogger of information, sometimes I find myself thrust into the role of informer, based on my personal experiences. Unfortunately, one of my experiences as a writer was rather costly recently of my attempt to exercise good sense, but having to rely on questionable resources. To be a bit more specific, I am speaking of my attempt to back up my files, including valued my manuscripts on external hard drive.
Because I had among other things, valuable writings and manuscripts for many projects I was working on at the time, I thought backing up my files would be a good idea. So, about a year and a half ago, I purchased what I thought was competently-functional external hard drive for my computer. I chose and purchased the Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive. Before doing so, I’d thought that I had performed my due diligence in comparing what I thought would be among the most popular market brands.

                                                   Seagate's FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
However, soon after I bought the FreeAgent—less than a year—the hard drive, along with all of my manuscripts and files crashed for no discernible reason. I never dropped or jostled the hard drive. I never stored it in extreme temperatures of otherwise extreme environments. It stayed in the same computer bas that I had kept my primary laptop, various flash drives, and other computer paraphernalia.
I frantically searched online to see if there was some kind of product recall which would explain this problem; there was none. What I did find however, was that other people who had purchased this device had similar problems. Not everyone, but enough to give me pause in regretting my purchasing decision.
Yes, this storage unit is light, compact, and ready to use. But many of the other online complaints I’d read concerning this device were eerily similar to mine; it either crashed or its performance degraded sharply in under a year in many cases. Although I had no problems initially with using the FreeAgent, it simply is not a reliable enough product for primary or even backup storage due to its short functional lifespan.
And customer service was not very helpful. Upon calling the company to complain and explore my options for saving my files, I quickly found that my options were limited to virtually declaring bankruptcy in paying for Seagate to try to retrieve my data, of buying a new hard drive (you’re correct if you guessed “one of similar or equal value”). And navigating the company’s maze-like website in order to secure assistance is as equally problematic at best.
I have two other hard drives—neither from this company—that work perfectly well. One, having a comparatively limited capacity of only 300 gigabytes has been going for the last 4 years. The other I purchased last year (750 gigs) and has continued to work, despite a bump or two.
While many of the customer reviews I'd read about this product revealed that other purchasers have had no particular issues with this product, I will say that most of those positive reviews tended to be recent postings, many within the past 7-8 months. I can only guess that as those users’ individual experiences with the FreeAgent Go becomes more jaded, their opinions will change more in line with my own. Based on my personal experiences (buttressed by the reviews and reports I have read), I can only caution you against purchasing the Seagate FreeAgent Go external hard drive.