Recent Stories with tag phone

TechFlash sees afterimages of Webvan in Amazon's new Tote delivery service, but I can't help thinking of the gold standard: Kozmo.com couriers delivering lunch half an hour after I ordered it. Tote won't be quite that fast, but from a cost perspective, Amazon has one-upped Kozmo: the twice-weekly Tote service is free, and there's no minimum spend. (You do have to complete your order two days before the next delivery date.)

If you order something from Amazon and you'd like them to deliver it the next time they're delivering in your neighborhood (the delivery days are zip code-specific), they'll truck it on over. The first zip to get Tote is 98112. The Tote bags are weather-resistant and reusable, and one way you can reuse them is to return items if there's any problem. Get the Tote FAQs here. (Perhaps you'd like to order a discounted Kindle? Even the Kindle DX has a lower price.)

Meanwhile, today inaugurates 1) a City of Seattle ordinance mandating that all single-use food service packaging at restaurants and grocery stores be either recyclable or compostable, and 2) a fully operational battlestar Starbucks recycling and composting program that incorporates front-of-store waste, too (i.e., there are more bins out front).

You've probably seen evidence of this, since Starbucks has been rolling out the new program at its 90 Seattle stores over the past month. The city's goal is to keep 6,000 tons of packaging and compostable waste out of landfills each year. Starbucks' goal is to get front-of-store recycling into all company-owned locations by 2015. (Their paper cups will head back to the plant for a second life as paper napkins.)...

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First it was the Kindle. After Barnes & Noble knocked the Nook down, Amazon cut the price for the basic Kindle model (not the DX) from $259 to $189, which analysts nervously noted had to be close to Amazon's cost of production. Will they make it up on the back-end, in e-books?

Now it's Microsoft's Kin. Verizon has "quietly," says PC Mag, dropped the price of the Kin One to $29.99 with a two-year contract. A Kin Two is now $49.99. (Previously the devices were $99.99 and $49.99, respectively.) So far there are over 30 stories on this quiet price cut.

Starbucks and Boeing don't seem to sell anything that begins with "kin," but Nordstrom is selling the Kinerase "Ultimate Repair" Moisture System (a $146 value!) for just $95. It's uncanny.

Washington's House of Representatives has responded to a Senate bill making cell phone use a primary offense (that is, you could be ticketed just for that) by reassuring teens that their status as second-class citizens is secure. The Seattle Times summarizes the House bill, saying it:

...makes texting a primary offense, but use of a handheld phone by a driver 18 or over would remain a secondary offense. Teens would be barred from any phone use.

Now, it's true, teens are in general terrible drivers. For one thing, they're sleepy all the time. On NurtureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman write that "young adults are involved in 55% of the 100,000 fall-asleep crashes annually, even though they aren't even close to being half of the driving population."

Rep. Dan Roach

But one thing you don't see in legislators' quotes is a reference to data showing teens are any worse at driving while on the phone than terrible adult drivers. (They may use the phone more often.) What you get is Rep. Dan Roach proclaiming, "The libertarian in me comes out with these types of issues." That's the adult libertarian, I guess. Because creating a law that applies only to a minority would give strict libertarians pause.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt said, "I don't like the government being in all aspects of our business." Just teens' business. That is fine. Now the House and Senate have to come together on either the Senate's "That's it, no one gets to hold the cell phone!" ban or the House's "Meddling teenagers!" version.

It's tough out there for a teen. They're sleep-deprived, and they're broke. As Jon Talton points out, teenage unemployment has risen to a "scary 25 percent." Now they might have to sit in the car and watch mom and dad yap away on the cell phone, knowing if they did the same thing, it'd be one more thing that they could get busted for.