Sony Mylo 2 Now Available [Sony]

Sony’s portable web surfing device, the Mylo 2, which has full flash support, a touchscreen and Wi-Fi connectivity is now officially available for sale. The first shipments will take place on Monday, but you can go ahead and orders yours now. Check out out our complete Mylo 2 strip down, and groping session to make up your mind whether it is worth the $299.99 asking price. [Sony Center]

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Comcast, Please Stop Bugging Me For Money I Don’t Owe You
At CES last month, I covered Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ keynote speech, in which he promised to improve customer service and “fess up” whenever anything’s their fault. The irony isn’t lost on me: Comcast’s been bugging me and my family…

At CES last month, I covered Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ keynote speech, in which he promised to improve customer service and “fess up” whenever anything’s their fault.

The irony isn’t lost on me: Comcast’s been bugging me and my family for money I do not owe it. It won’t stop billing for service cut off in December, and nothing we state stops it.

In December, we moved from a rental into our new house, just up the road. We called to have our cable service transferred. It was cut off three days before the scheduled date (imagine if it could do installations so promptly!) at the old place, leaving us without service until we moved into the new one.

The installer at our now home was professional, helpful and competent. The service quality is fine. However, Comcast is now calling every other day to try and collect payment for the original address, which it thinks it is still serving.

It’s billing us for the same service in two locations. Since we moved our old equipment to the new address as per Comcast’s instructions, it’s billing us for cable boxes and a modem that don’t physically exist.

We called first to ask what was up with the double billing. An agent called back the same day, and told us to disregard the bill it sent. Since then, however, three agents from its collections division have called, introducing themselves by asking if we’ll be paying them this day via debit or credit.

After explaining the situation at length each time, we’re always told that we won’t get called again, and that the problem will be resolved. Snap!

We’ve a few ideas why it won’t stop with the shakedowns: we kept our phone number from the old account, so maybe something got messed up with the transfer of service from one address to the other. One of the agents told us service was improperly discontinued “at the pole.”

It seems that Comcast is so institutionally screwed up that nothing it promises has any bearing on the windy currents of reality. No-one cares if you can ‘fess up if you can’t fix it.

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Fuji Adds to Camera Scrum
Fuji has its own contribution to the pre-PMA pileup of camera announcements, with at least a half-dozen new point-and-shoots. Most are pretty standard stuff, but the FinePix S100FS takes an interesting approach to the not-quite-ready-for-an-SLR end of the market. We’re…

Fuji has its own contribution to the pre-PMA pileup of camera announcements, with at least a half-dozen new point-and-shoots. Most are pretty standard stuff, but the FinePix S100FS takes an interesting approach to the not-quite-ready-for-an-SLR end of the market. We’re speaking 14.3z zoom, 11 megapixels and low-resolution light sensitivity up to ISO 10,000. You also get film simulation modes (mmm, Velvia!), extended dynamic range settings, RAW mode and a swivel LCD screen. It arrives next month priced at $800, putting it smack up against the low end of the SLR market.

For those of more modest means, Fuji also has a slew of new mid-range cameras, including the 12-megapixel F100fd (March, $380) and the 18x zoom, AA battery-powered (?!?) S8100fd (March, $400).

FUJIFILM UNVEILS ITS MOST ADVANCED CONSUMER MODEL TO DATE: THE FINEPIX S100FS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Verizon, AT&T Respect Your SMS Privacy [Privacy]

Verizon and AT&T have both gone on record saying they do not record SMS communications. The privacy debate is one that, understandably, gets emotions stirred, but you can all rest a little simple knowing the official stances of two of the major cellular networks.

Erica Sevilla, a Verizon spokeswoman, said:

I think people can feel comfortable we’re not storing information that can later be used against them. Unless you’ve something stored on your phone or on a recipients’ phone, it does not stay on our network for a long period.

AT&T stated they don’t store SMS messages beyond 72 hours, which are only kept for delivery purposes. In both cases, once deleted from the system, there is no conceivable way to check your text message communications short of physically going through your phone.

You might want to breathe a collective sigh of relief, but Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, seems to think otherwise:

“We trust so much of our communications and thoughts, even, to these third parties who are capturing this information and storing it in various ways. It’s time for us to consider it.”

Gosh, we just want our private willy jokes remaining private. After all, it’s not fair everyone knowing about Mark’s miniscule member. [AP]

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