Fire Hazard

Toasters Recalled by Hamilton Beach Due to Fire Hazard

December 16, 2011

Name of Product: Hamilton Beach classic chrome 2-slice toasters

Units: About 14,000

Importer: Hamilton Beach Brands Inc., of Glen Allen, VA

Hazard: When the toasters are first plugged into the outlets, the heating element can be energized although the toaster lifter is in the up or off position, which can pose a fire hazard if the toaster is near flammable items.

Incidents/Injuries: Hamilton Beach has received 5 reports of toasters being energized when first plugged into an outlet. There have been no reports of injuries or property damage.

Description: The Hamilton Beach recall involves model 22602 toasters. The model number is printed on the bottom of the toaster. The toaster has a chromed steel exterior, a front control panel with a rotary toast shade selector and function buttons arranged in an arc, a front removable crumb tray and “Hamilton Beach” printed below the control panel.

Sold at: Mass merchandisers and department, grocery and home center stores nationwide from August 2011 through November 2011 for between $19 and $34. Also, some of these toasters were sent to consumers as replacements for model 22600 toasters recalled in June 2011.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled toasters and contact the firm to receive instructions on how to obtain a free replacement toaster.

Electrical Shock Hazard

Motion Sensing Wall Switches Recalled by HeathCo due to Electrical Shock Hazard

November 23, 2011

Health Co, LLC is recalling about 75,000 Heath® / Zenith and Wireless Command® motion sensing wall switches because a small amount of leakage current passes through the electric circuit, including the socket, when the switches are in the auto mode and the light is off. If consumers fail to disconnect the power at the circuit breaker and make contact with both terminals inside the socket while replacing the bulbs, there is a risk of an electric shock.

This recall involves Heath®/Zenith and Wireless Command® motion sensing wall switches with model numbers listed below. The product replaces a standard household wall switch and is designed to turn off the attached lighting load when motion is no longer detected in the room. The products come in white or ivory. The brand name and model number can be found on a label located on the side of the switch.

BRANDMODEL Heath®-ZenithSL-6106-IV Heath®-ZenithSL-6106-IV-A Heath®-ZenithSL-6106-WH Heath®-ZenithSL-6106-WH-A Wireless Command®WC-6106-IV Wireless Command®WC-6106-WH Heath®-ZenithSL-6108-IV Heath®-ZenithSL-6108-IV-A Heath®-ZenithSL-6108-WH Heath®-ZenithSL-6108-WH-A Wireless Command®WC-6108-IV Wireless Command®WC-6108-WH

Sold at: Mass merchants, electrical distributors, hardware retailers and online retailers from August 2007 through August 2011 for between $20 and $25.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled wall switches and contact the company for a free wall switch replacement.

Arctic Cat Recalls Snowmobiles Due to Crash Hazard

Arctic Cat is recalling about 7,100 Arctic Cat Snowmobiles because the snow machines’ headlamp fuse can malfunction, which could cause periods of limited visibility at night. Arctic Cat discovered this condition during production testing of these models. There have been no reports of headlamp failures or injuries.

Description: The recall involves the following 2012 F, XF, and M model snowmobiles:

Model Name/Number FF800 LXR, F1100 LXR, F800 Sno Pro, F1100 Sno Pro/Limited/50th XFXF800 LXR, XF1100 LXR, XF800 Sno Pro High Country, XF1100 Limited/50th MM800, M1100, M800 Sno Pro, M1100 Sno Pro/Limited/50th, M800 HCR

Recalled snowmobiles can be identified by the last six numerals of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) in the following ranges: 105092 through 112175 or 800001 through 800033. The model name is located on each side of the hood. The VIN is located on the right side tunnel. The snowmobiles come in a variety of color combinations: Black, White and Orange, Black and Orange, and Black and Green.

Sold at: Arctic Cat dealerships nationwide from May 2011 through September 2011 for approximately $10,500 to $13,000.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using these snowmobiles and contact their local Arctic Cat snowmobile dealer to schedule a free repair.

Skype Sign-in Problems Knock Millions Offline

Skype Sign-in Problems Knock Millions Offline

Millions of Skype users were having trouble on Tuesday signing into the application, less than two weeks after the company published software updates for Windows and Mac computers to fix a similar problem.

Skype said it had identified the latest issue as a configuration problem.

"We've identified the cause of the problem, and have begun to address it," wrote Peter Parks of Skype just after 1 p.m. GMT. "If you've been affected, you should start to see improvement in the next hour or so. You shouldn't need to manually sign back in to Skype - it should reconnect automatically when it's able to do so. We apologize for the disruption to your conversations."

Skype's website said that more than 22 million users were online around 12 p.m. GMT. But a half hour later, the figure fell to around 16 million, then around 2.2 million by 1 p.m. GMT. Overall, Skype has about 170 million users. Skype officials were unavailable for an immediate comment.

Twitter was rife with comments from users complaining about the outage. Jokingly, many users referred to the company's recent acquisition by Microsoft for US$8.5 billion as a possible source for the problems. The deal is still subject to regulatory review, so as of yet, Microsoft is not involved yet in Skype's operations. The companies said it expects to have regulatory clearances finished by the end of the year.

"Microsoft bought Skype," wrote one Twitter user. "The entire Skype network is not working at the moment. Coincidence?"

On May 26, Skype released an update for Windows that fixed what it called "a corruption" that occurred in some users' systems. The issue was a shared.xml configuration file that prevented users from signing in to the application.

Skype followed up shortly after the Windows release by issuing an update for Apple's Mac OS.

Facebook Malware Scam Takes Hold

Facebook Malware Scam Takes Hold

  

A "worrying number" of Facebook users are sharing a link to a malware-laden fake CNN news page reporting the U.S. has attacked Iran and Saudi Arabia, security firm Sophos said Friday.

If users who follow the link then click to play what purports to be video coverage of the attack, they are prompted to update their Adobe Flash player with a pop-up window that looks very much like the real thing. Those who accept the prompt unwittingly install malware on their computers.

Within three hours of the scam's first appearance, more than 60,000 users had followed a link to the spoofed CNN page, according to Sophos Senior Security Advisor Chester Wisniewski. Facebook removed that link, but others are still being shared.

"The bad guys are rotating through scam pages trying to stay ahead of Facebook," Wisniewski said.

In a statement, Facebook said it was "in the process of cleaning up this spam now, and remediating any affected users."

 There are a number of ways that status updates could appear without users' knowledge. Their Facebook accounts could have been hacked, allowing a third party to update their status. It is also possible for scammers to exploit weaknesses in the social networking platform itself or in Web browsers to post a status update using JavaScript.

A representative status update shown in a screenshot on the Sophos blog reads, "U.S. Attacks Iran and Saudi Arabia. F**k :-( [LINK] The Begin of World War 3?"

Users who accepted the Flash player update prompt installed a fake antivirus tool on their computers. That tool would then alert them that their computer is infected with malware.

Problems With iOS 5

Problems With iOS 5

IOS 5 imposes a smaller limit on all your text messages

In iOS 5, Apple imposed a new 15MB limit on your Messages app, which includes all of the videos and pictures you've been sending others.

If you hit the limit, you have to spend time emptying out and deleting your texting conversations.

One reader informed us that this 15MB is actually a smaller amount than in previous versions of iOS, so even if you bought the 64GB iPhone 4S, you're stuck with the 15MB limit. Reminders only accepts locations already in your address book.

In the lovely Reminders app, your only gripe is that when you set up location-based reminders, you can only use locations attached to a contact in your address book.

Just because you want to be reminded to take out money from the ATM when you get to the airport doesn't mean we want the airport to be a permanent member of our contacts list.

 

   

iOS 5 demolishes apps and pictures during the update

You’ve  heard countless reports from readers, Business Insider staffers, and family members that iOS 5 updates demolished apps, pictures, contacts, and any variation of the three.

I’m not sure exactly how it happens, but apps, contacts, and photos seem to sometimes vanish during the iOS 5 transition.

Why can't you delete, or at least alter, Photo Stream pictures?

One of iCloud's premier features is Photo Stream, which pushes the most recent 1000 photos you've taken on your iPhone to all your other Apple devices.

What you can't do is delete photos once they've been uploaded to Photo Stream. This means that if you're sharing accounts with a significant other or family member, everyone has access to every picture each person takes.

You either reset the entire photo stream, or leave them all as they are.

iPhone 4S problem: Battery, now Siri; some users try DIY fixes

 

Apple has confirmed that there are iPhone 4S problems -- battery issues -- and that they will be fixed ... in a few weeks. Now adding to users' frustration: Siri, the voice assistant feature on the iPhone 4s is reportedly down.
Just a "small number of customers" have complained about the battery life issue, the company says, so they'll just have to swallow their frustration, find their own fix or stick close to electrical outlets.
A statement from Apple on Wednesday said "a few bugs" had been found that were causing the battery power drain, and "we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks."
Meanwhile, tech websites were reporting an apparent outage on Thursday. The new voice assistant feature went out about 11 a.m. Pacific time, No word yet on whether that has been fixed.
TechCrunch reports: "It looks like Siri is experiencing an extended outage, according to several tipsters, tweets, and our own internal tests." The site notes that the feature is a Beta product -- but such a highly touted feature that an extended outage is reason to sit up and take notice.
 while iPhone 4S users are awaiting their various fixes from Apple, they're apparently trying the DIY method for the battery issue
TechNewsWorld says "one of the minor fixes users have found success with is turning off the feature that automatically adjusts to new time zone." The theory is that the iOS 5 GPS feature is constantly trying to fix on the time zone that the user is in, thus sucking battery life.
"Corrupted contact data" may be at the root of the problem,  "Clearing the contacts data and re-uploading it has fixed the battery drain problem" for some.