How mad does this make you? It’s the digital equivalent of the street vendor saying “For you…..fifty dollars.”

Most American consumers don’t realize Internet merchants and even traditional retailers sometimes charge different prices to different customers for the same products, according to a new survey. The study, “Open to Exploitation,” found nearly two-thirds of adult Internet users believed incorrectly it was illegal to charge different people different prices, a practice retailers call “price customization.” More than two-thirds of people surveyed also said they believed online travel sites are required by law to offer the lowest airline prices possible. The study, expected to be released Wednesday by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is the latest to cast doubt on the notion of sophisticated consumers in the digital age.

“It said 87 percent of people strongly objected to the practice of online stores charging people different prices for the same products based on information collected about their shopping habits. “I don’t think people understand this is being done,” said Willi Stabenau, 23, a musician in New York who participated in the survey. “We don’t let ourselves be tracked that way in any other facet of our lives. Why would you want that to happen while you’re shopping?”

“The Internet empowers careful shoppers to conveniently compare prices and features across thousands of stores. But it also enables businesses to quietly collect detailed records about a customer’s behavior and preferences and set prices accordingly. Changing prices is generally lawful unless doing so discriminates against a consumer’s race or gender or violates antitrust or price-fixing laws.” Source AP via Yahoo News

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Talking on a cell phone is about as much fun as jamming a pack of cards against your head. The angle rarely works, the phone heats up, and those little headsets jumble up too much to be of use every call. So, what if you could have the solid comfort of a traditional phone handset, and still go cellular?

That’s the concept behind the Hulger P*Phone. Last week we covered a company that was putting cell phones into authentic rotary dial telephones, but this week, it looks like you can use just the handset and get by as well. Innovative? Source: Hulger via Gizmodo

PC cultist that I am, I have to admit that I had my eye on a Mac Mini until I went to see one in a store and was shocked by how heavy and burning hot it was. Meanwhile, a little known company called AOpen is planning a PC version it has code-named Pandora. Read on:

“No, it’s not a Mac Mini. It’s AOpen’s new Pentium-M based Mac Mini lookalike, codenamed Pandora. Unveiled at Computex 2005, this tiny product is yet another AOpen effort to take advantage of the powerful formerly mobile Intel CPU in the desktop space. A fully integrated system incorporating wireless LAN, the Pandora was brought to prototype form in just a month, according to Joseph Hsu, a Technical Manager at AOpen. It uses a single blower fan that turns on only when needed. The aluminum casing was warm but the fan was not running when these photos were taken in the hot tradeshow room. A pearl white enamel painted version was also shown at AOpen’s private suite display. Look for a Sept market release date.” Source: Silent PC Review

Why bother house hunting in a potentially crime-infested neighborhood when you can check online and research every assault and robbery at every address, thanks to Google maps and a little programming ingenuity. ChicagoCrime.org built this site to catalog every crime by date and type and location. Why knew that phone threats were so prevalent? Check it out here.

What my mother would have done for this product back when my sisters and I were young….sneaking ice cream was an art form we perfected: how to get enough out without making it look obvious. How to open the freezer and not make a sound. We were experts! Todays kids (and greedy sneaky roommates) won’t have it so easy thanks to the pint lock, a simple locking device that keeps the fiends away from your cream.

My only question…why would Ben and Jerry sell such a device? I can see why it would be popular, but isn’t an ice cream company hoping to get you to drain pints faster and faster instead of protecting a limited supply? Something to ponder….Souce: Ben and Jerry’s Via Gizmodo

Who hasn’t dreamed of the Cone of Silence, especially in today’s land of cubicles and cellphones? In my office I can hear the guy next to me right down to his keyboard taps and sighs. Thanks to a new product called “Babble” the days of overheard conversations may be history.

“Two people in an office here were having a tête-à-tête, but it was impossible for a listener standing nearby to understand what they were saying. The conversation sounded like a waterfall of voices, both tantalizingly familiar and yet incomprehensible. The cone of silence, called Babble, is actually a device composed of a sound processor and several speakers that multiply and scramble voices that come within its range. About the size of a clock radio, the first model is designed for a person using a phone, but other models will work in open office space.

“The voice scrambling technology used in Babble was developed by Applied Minds, a research and consulting firm founded by Danny Hillis, a distinguished computer architect, and Bran Ferren, an industrial designer and Hollywood special effects wizard. Babble, which is intended to function as a substitute for walls and acoustic tiling, is an example of a new class of product that uses computing technology to shape sound. Already on the market are headphones that can cancel extraneous noises and stereo systems that can direct sound to a particular location.

“The system will be introduced in June by Sonare Technologies, a new subsidiary of Herman Miller, the maker of the Aeron chair, as part of an effort to move beyond office furniture. The company plans to sell the device for less than $400 through consumer electronics and office supply stores.” Source: NY Times

This is the last thing I wanted to do a Project Notebook series on: but it just happened. I got a letter in the mail informing me that my credit info was stolen and that I should protect myself. I cannot tell you what a chill that sends through you.

Luckily, so far nothing has been tampered with that I can see, but the first thing you should do is cancel the card that was associated, and then set up a fraud alert that will trigger a phone call if anyone tries to pose like you and sign up for a loan or line of credit, etc. Here are the numbers:

Equifax
To order your report, call: 800-685-1111 or write:
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

For Fraud Alerts, call: 800-525-6285 and write:
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Hearing impaired call 1-800-255-0056 and ask the operator to call the Auto Disclosure Line at 1-800-685-1111 to request a copy of your report.

EXPERIAN
To order your report, call: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) or write:
P.O. Box 2002, Allen TX 75013

For Fraud Alerts, call: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) and write:
P.O. Box 9530, Allen TX 75013
TDD: 1-800-972-0322

Trans Union
To order your report, call: 800-888-4213 or write:
P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022

For Fraud Alerts, call: 800-680-7289 and write:
Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634
TDD: 1-877-553-7803

To get a Free credit Report: Click Here

Here’s hoping you never have to face something like this. If you got something similar in the mail, please share more tips so we can all learn.