Online Shopping Return Policies and Dealing with Customer Service

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Now that Christmas has come and gone, and the excitement of all you, or your kid’s gifts have leveled off, is everything exactly what you or they wanted? Well, if you’re picky like me (so close Mom, love it anyway), then what do you? Many times things are bought online, and it’s hard to find out what to do with your unwanted gift. What are your options? What are the secrets to getting what you want? Andrew Schrage is just the man to ask.

Andrew Schrage is a co-owner of the Money Crashers Personal Finance site. He has an economics degree from Brown University, and previously worked at an investment fund based out of Chicago. He has a passion for all things financial and feels there is an educational void when it comes to personal finances.

Week In Review Links

• Cuomo Announces $785 Million NY State Grants, Meager Funds for Tech
• Apple’s Holiday Shutdown Puts Rush on App Developers
• Carrier IQ says “We Are Not Under Investigation”
• Intel’s emergency maneuver in mobile
• AT&T Brings 4G LTE To New York

Black-eyed peas to start the year off right

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This week, we bring you our 2010 GovTech coverage after a new Week In Review that includes a CES Kick-Off with Robin Raskin – find out more on the SHOW PAGE.  It’s our first show of the year, but we have luck on our side.

Most people from the south just accept black-eyed peas will be there at some point on New Year’s Day.  It is supposed to be lucky.  Sounds like a wiley turn of the century marketer with too many beans and snake oil.  But if finding out historical what-nottery is your thing, there are some links below with plenty of people telling you how it really started (ie what each read on Wikipedia).  I am sticking with the wiley marketer.  I am not sure how it started, but I can’t argue with tradition – especially when said tradition includes hog jowl for flavor.  If you don’t know what a jowl is…you probably do not want to know.  What does all of this have to do with anything?  Nothing much.  It just looks better when the boss clicks through to make sure the website is being updated if there are more words.  So, let’s all just keep real quiet and keep reading…you’ll get your tech fix. And that’s how the first World War really started. Thanks, Grampa.

Since 1967, The Consumer Electronics Show has wowed us and showed us the technology we would covet over the next year.  The show started in New York but migrated to Las Vegas after a period of two shows per year – one in the east and one in the west.  With whirlwind product cycles, the Internet, virtual conferences and shrinking T&E budgets, CES has done quite well to keep attracting the crowds.  A few notable debuts at CES include the VCR in 1970, the Laserdisc in 1974 (yes, SEVENTY FOUR!), HDTV in 1998 and many more… including a 10 year anniversary of the Xbox’s 2001 debut. Happy Birthday, Xbox!

Related Articles

• Vegetarian Black Eyed Pea Recipes for the New Year (eatdrinkbetter.com)
• Happy New Year, Almost: New Year’s Around The World (woot.com)
• Happy New Year! Here are some good luck tips for the New Year. (summitcounty.wordpress.com)
• Your best recipes for welcoming 2011 (salon.com)
• Fayetteville to host annual New Year’s Day dinner (charlotte.news14.com)

Always have a contingency

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Our conference coverage continues this week when we air Tom’s visit to the 2010 Contingency Planning and Management EAST show at NYC’s Javits Center.  Commissioner Bruno from the NYC OEM and Amy Herman took time to speak with Tom at the early November event.  Find out more about their work and other guest on the SHOW PAGE.

We are still taking suggestions and feedback for 2011.  What topics are important to you?  What topics can we dive into that are still alien to you?  We pride ourselves in devoting 3/4 of our show to in depth interviews with guests.  While most news outlets bring you tech appetizers, we cover a topic from soup to nuts.

Next week, we are going to close the year with our FLASH conference coverage.  We have a contingency if that doesn’t work out… like related news to keep you busy while we try to find that audio file…

Related Articles

• STEELE Executives Present “The Role of Security in the Continuity Planning Process” at CPM East Conference in New York City (prweb.com)
• Seevian Solutions Joins the National Retail Federation (prweb.com)
• 2011 Honda Contingency Program Announced (motocrosspress.blogspot.com)

We’ll never tell…

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Ok, we will tell.  2010 brought some great guests to TechTalk.  So many, we have some great conference coverage from the last couple of months bring the year to a close.

This week, we are excited to bring you a new Week In Review followed by our coverage of this year’s INTEROP NYC. Check out the SHOW PAGE for more info.

As for the rest of the year, we will air coverage from Contingency Planning and Management 2010 East, Federal Alliance of Safe Homes (or FLASH) and start 2011 the same way we started 2010 – with our NY Government Technology Forum coverage from the Brooklyn Marriott.

That’s all we can tell you for now.  We don’t want to spoil the surprise.

We’ll be on Sunday at 5pm EST and 3pm MST on 1100 KFNX.  Click the logo on the right of the page to visit KFNX and try out the live stream so you are ready to go.

Tis the season – to be Mary

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Mary!? That’s my name!

There are many classic holiday stories that mean different things to different people. Over the next weeks, we will have time to reflect on those cherished stories and traditions with friends and family.  First up on the list is Thanksgiving…

Along with Thanksgiving comes the holiday shopping season and Black Friday, so we have Keith Shaw on this week to talk about NetworkWorld’s gift guide, 2010 Cool Yule Tools.

For a link to the full guide and to find out what Tom and Keith will be covering, check out the SHOW PAGE.

Don’t forget that Santa is watching and that we will be on at 1pm EST this weekend on 1100 KFNX.

Related Articles

• Black Friday deals to draw 138 million shoppers (money.cnn.com)
• Tightwads and spendthrifts: A Black Friday tradition (esciencenews.com)
• More US shoppers at malls Black Friday weekend-NRF (reuters.com)
• ‘Tis the Season to Be Creative (hollabackhealth.com)
• More shoppers forecast for Black Friday weekend (reuters.com)
• UPDATE 1-More US shoppers forecast for Black Friday weekend (reuters.com)
• ‘Tis the season (advancedreporting.wordpress.com)

Brand Buzz, Holiday Head’s Up & Outlook Foundation

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Ever feel like your floating in brand purgatory?  Not sure what your customers want or how they really feel about your products and services?

One good way to get a brand buzz? Surveys.  Find out more about using surveys on this week’s show with Chelsea Bucoy from Zoomerang on the SHOW PAGE to generate buzz for your brand.

Head’s up – Next week is our annual show with Keith Shaw from NetworkWorld.  Just in time for the holiday shopping season to start on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we’ll have Keith on to help you satisfy all those technophiles on your list …or make your own list of what you have to have this year.

And finally, we also wanted to let you know about:

Computer Outlook Talk Show Announces Foundation to Repurpose Computers to Under-Resourced Children and Families of Deployed Service Personnel

Non-Profit Outlook Foundation’s mission to repurpose cast away technology into the hands of those who need them most

Computer Outlook Talk Show announced the launch of the Outlook Foundation, a non-profit organization created to refurbish and repurpose computers; providing them to children whose economic background prevents them from having equal educational opportunities, as well as to deployed US service personnel and their stateside families in an effort to help maintain communication with loved ones. Beyond helping children and our service families, Outlook Foundation will also use its resources to reduce the amount of hazardous technology waste in landfills by recycling remaining technology through certified organizations.

Take a load off & check-in

This week, our show with Chris Hulls on The Trend in Geolocation Applications will air on KFNX.  If you can’t get to your computer, go ahead and download the show from the [SHOW PAGE].  As you might remember, we had a little trouble getting the show on the radio when we first tried a couple of weeks back.

Tom is on vacation, so we will run a previous show next week.  Enjoy the show with Chris Hulls this Sunday and have a great Labor Day!  We’ll be back on September 19 with our good friend, Gabe Goldberg.

December 6- ‘Tis the Season

This Sunday, our annual guest, Keith Shaw, stops by to tell us what is hot for 2010. Specifically, he points out certain products that are going to be top sellers for ’10 and what all they can do.

Keith Shaw is the Cool Tools columnist for Network World Magazine and its Web site, networkworld.com He has been obsessed with gadgets since the 1970s, and has been in technology journalism for more than 10 years. This is also the 10^th anniversary of his Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide, which highlights the best gadgets and devices for the holiday season.

It airs SUNDAY on KFNX-1100 at 5 pm EST/ 3 pm MST in the Greater Phoenix Area and can be streamed LIVE at this same time from this link.

Don’t miss the show and come back on Monday for the Week In Review portion of our show.

Thanks for the support!

Holiday Cards for Recovering Soldiers

When doing your holiday cards this year, take one card and send it to the following address. If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these wonderful special people who have sacrificed so much would get. When you are making out your card list this year, please include the following:

A Recovering American Soldier

c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Avenue,NW

Washington, DC 20307-5001

Check back tomorrow to download/listen to the show. Have a great week.

Spoiler Alert – We have some great shows to end 2008

Not only will Dick Davies be on this week to enlighten all of you on Web 2.0, we have stuffed November and December’s schedule like mom’s Thanksgiving turkey.

Next week, Michael Clark from Microsoft will talk with Tom
about Software & Services. More on this early next week.

Holiday Gift Guides in December – Tom will bring you two weeks of cameras, cellphones, handhelds, laptops and every other item on the geek’s list who is near and dear to you.

The Gadget Hound, Ben Patterson for Yahoo! Tech will join us in December to let us know his picks for the season. Our TechTalk staff has also put together some reviews …it is a tough job but someone has to test all the new software, hardware and gadgets.

Keith and his pals at NetworkWorld published their gift guide not too long ago. He will be on the show to tell us about it and other gift ideas, but it is ok to peek. For all of you that get tired of words without pictures, here is some TV to hold you over until you get back to hulu. NetworkWorld does their Week In Review on Friday to keep you up to date until Sunday.

There will not be a quiz, but keep an eye out for the CES Preview, RoboLegManbot from Honda & The Mars Lander tweeted its last tweet before freezing to death due to Martian winter temperatures. The twitter account has since been deleted…too bad. Would be nice to leave up. I am sure it lives on somewhere.

11/14 Week In Review from NetworkWorld.tv

For those that made it this far, rumor has it TechTalk is going to team with CNET to start your 2009 “Listen to every TechTalk this year” resolution off right. Tom also privied the producer to some exclusive interviews from some prominent NYC IT professionals. If you are good and listen every week, we might air them before Christmas. We might make them available here only. We like to keep you guessing…and I have to ask Tom.

We’ll be on the air this Sunday, 11/16 at 3pm in Phoenix and 5pm in NYC ….noon in Hawaii, and 7am Monday morning if you are in Tokyo. Sorry, Craig, we are on at 11pm in Budapest. It is okay if you get the show from the archive. Thanksfor the clock, iPhone. Watch out iPhone, it looks like there is a Storm a brewin’ and it will be here next week!