Posted by sh1mmer on Oct 16, 2008 in
General Since I joined Yahoo I’ve been wearing a One bracelet. One stands for abolishing world poverty and making it possible for the world’s poorest people to better themselves. Having a constant reminder is a good thing. In the western world, London, or here in Silicon Valley we have it pretty easy. Today is blog action day and I’d like to talk to you about poverty.
It’s been a feature of politics for a long time to suggest that many of the world’s problems are insolvable. This is because many of the those solutions are not popular in the short term. In order to compensate for the treasury deficit of striking third world debt we need raise taxes. Raising taxes has, and I suspect, and will remain the easy target for opposition candidates. As such no politician is willing to attack these hard problems.
This means a large part of the solution has to be down to us, the people. We may not have enough sway over popular opinion to fix political short-termism. However, we can set an example and create calls for action for other regular people. Giving time or money to organisations like One is something that I suspect many people would find surprisingly rewarding.
The main thing I can tell you is in your life considering that helping others is worthwhile may be the most important choice you ever have. Until you’ve tried putting yourself in the service of other you can’t know how much of an impact it also has on yourself.
Posted by sh1mmer on Oct 7, 2008 in
General Yes, I’m posting 2 days in a row. Mostly because I’m pretty annoyed with the policy at Ultimate Ears. I spoke to someone on from customer service who was nice but reiterated their ridiculous policy.
I called them to see if they could upgrade my triple.fi 10s that are in for repair to triple.fi vi for my iPhone. I was told that unless I had bought them directly from Ultimate Ears this was not possible. Remember I bought them in the UK, so I wouldn’t want to buy them from their site to be shipped to the UK only to have to pay import tax. That would be silly.
The reason she gave was that she didn’t want to become “an iPhone wire supplier”. Since the wires only fit their earphones effectively the message is that people should buy the new models. Given that UE is a premium brand that sell high-end earphones I think this is a very poor attitude. I bought my earphones based on a recommendation of a friend on the quality of the customer service. Apparently it’s not as good as he thought.
It’s sad that I feel I have to write posts like this because their earphones are awesome.
Posted by sh1mmer on Oct 3, 2008 in
General My favourite headphone manufacturer are Ultimate Ears. They make my primary in-ear headphone the Triple.fi 10. These “in-ear monitors” contain no less than 3 driver and sound amazing.
In August it seems Logitech bought Ultimate Ears, which isn’t a bad thing in my mind. I’m sure a larger company will happily see them through the financial crisis. What does bother me though is that they have quietly reduced the lengths of all the warranties.
Right now my Triple.fis are with UE to be fixed. When trying to get a foam tip off the casing catches snapped. No problem, send them back, get a replacement pair. This is one of the reason I was willing to shell out the not inconsiderable money they cost. They came with a recommendation from a friend that UE were fantastic at dealing with customers. Mine have a 2 year warranty.
When I looked at the web site this week to see if they were going to support a model with a mic for my iPhone (they now have the triple.fi 10v, not that they will sell me the mic wire separately) I noticed that all the warranties are now 1 years only. That includes the custom moulded monitors which I think used to have a life time warranty, or at least 2 years.
I find it astonishing that Logitech expects people to shell out $400 for triple.fi headphones and $800+ for customs with such a short time to be able to get them repaired.
To contrast this all Shure headphones from the $119 SE110s to the $499 SE530 come with a 2 year warranty. I really hope Logitech renege and sort this out. I have been considering getting some customs from UE. I think I’m going to continue to consider for a while longer now.