The 2009-2010 TV season is starting to wrap up, and audiences everywhere are starting to see the changes networks have wrought in their new lineups. The biggest of these upsets is the concluding or outright axing of shows to make room in prime time slots for new material. That said, here are the top 5 shows we at eDEXdeals are going to miss next fall.

5. Dollhouse

Oh, Whedon, why must you give your shows to Fox?
This one hasn’t exactly been a surprise, seeing as it’s been over for several months now. Still, it’s sad to see yet another Joss Whedon show go down in the flames of cancellation long before its time. Whether you blame a poor time slot (because who watches TV at 8 o’clock on a Friday night?) or just a lack of interest in general, Dollhouse was canceled after just two seasons. Hopefully Whedon’s next show will be on a network that knows how to market it.

4. Numb3rs

Math majors of the world, this one's for you.
The networks have seen a slew of FBI-related and general crime-related shows over the past few years, but none have stood out like Numb3rs. The basic idea: math genius helps his FBI agent brother solve crimes through practical application of math formulas. For five years, this show has given us well-rounded characters, snappy dialogue, tight plots, and a metric ton of math, all wrapped up in the lesson that it is both useful and awesome to be a geek. Even if we couldn’t understand half the mathematical jargon, we’ll still miss this show.

3. 24

Bauer. Jack Bauer.
As far as American icons go, 24 protagonist Jack Bauer is up there with the likes of Superman and Captain America. This Counter Terrorism Unit agent has been saving the world one day at a time for nine seasons, with each episode representing a real-time hour in what have amounted to nine very stressful days. We’ll miss being glued to the screen every week, waiting to see who will be kidnapped and what will explode next.

2. Lost

So much for tropical vacations.
If there’s one thing JJ Abrams knows how to do, it’s mess with the collective mind of his audience. Nothing showcases that talent more than Lost, with six seasons of plane crashes, polar bears, smoke monsters, “others,” and hundreds of questions, not all of which were answered on the series finale this past Sunday. We’ll miss you, Lost, if only because there’s no other show on the air that makes us scream questions at the TV quite like you did.

1. Law & Order

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups.
One of the longest running prime time dramas out there, Law & Order has been around for a staggering twenty seasons. Pulling stories from the headlines and showing both the criminal investigation and the courtroom process, Law & Order has been pulling in a strong viewership for two decades, despite time slot and casting changes. Unfortunately, it’s time for us to bid goodbye to this longstanding drama and make do with CSI and Boston Legal. We’ll miss you, Law & Order, and your highly iconic sound effects. Doink doink!

It’s breaking our hearts to see these go, but we’re more than willing to commiserate. What shows will you miss? Are you glad to see any of our top 5 leave the airwaves? Tell us!

Katherine

Deal of the Day: RCA 32-Inch LCD/DVD Combo HDTV, because if you're going to enjoy those last few episodes of your favorite show, you may as well do it in high definition and clarity.

This blog is becoming a chronicle of the downfall of computing giants. First Apple’s security failed with the loss of two-maybe-three 4G iPhone prototypes; now, Facebook’s security holes are multiplying, bringing the social networking juggernaut under fire.

The first massive holes in Facebook’s security happened Wednesday the 6th, when a bug in the “Preview my Profile” feature allowed users to see other users’ profiles – including supposedly private information, such as pending friend requests and current chat conversations. Facebook temporarily disabled the chat function and fixed the bug, maintaining that the security hole was a small one, not a large-scale security issue. Unfortunately, not all press is good press for Facebook, as news of the security hole added to the growing discontent over the site’s ever-changing privacy policy, which is currently longer than the United States Constitution by over a thousand words. Yeow.

Remember: quality, not quantity.
Security problems resurfaced on Tuesday, however, when George Deglin, a web security consultant, discovered a way to harvest Facebook users’ information from Yelp.com, Facebook’s “instant personalization” partner. A programming hole in the “instant personalization” feature, one of Facebook’s newest and least-loved additions that exports profile information to third-party sites, allowed Deglin to access users’ names, email addresses, friends’ email addresses, and other supposedly private details. Yelp and Facebook have since fixed the hole; however, Facebook has yet to fix the blows to its reputation.

Nice try.
Image courtesy of thereifixedit.com
In fact, the social networking site seems intent on simply making them worse. On Tuesday, the New York Times published an interview with Elliot Schrage, vice president of public policy at Facebook, in which Schrage answered a mere 14 of over 300 posed questions using corporate double-speak that required multiple readings in order to understand what he really meant. His answers boiled down to two basic points:

1. Facebook is sorry its changes confused people and it will attempt to simplify things in the future.
2. Facebook is not sorry it implemented the changes. Using Facebook at all is “opt-in” – nobody is being forced to use Facebook, or to fill out any of their information if they do so. “If you’re not comfortable sharing,” says Schrage, “don’t.”

That sort of attitude promises very little positive change in the future; in fact, it’s hard to believe that Facebook even cares about their users’ concerns over privacy. Either way, they’re certainly playing the part of concerned corporation: Facebook has scheduled an all-hands meeting for 4 PM this afternoon to discuss the site’s privacy policy. This may be coming just in time for Facebook, as an up-and-coming project threatens to usurp the social networking throne.

A new challenger appears!
Four NYU students have proposed a new network entitled Diaspora, which promises to be an inclusive social network. Think Facebook without security holes, privacy issues, and Farmville. Hoping to raise 10,000 USD by June 1st in order to begin the coding process by the beginning of summer, Diaspora has already raised 100,000 USD through its interim site, joindiaspora.com, as of this morning, an indication of just how discontent the general public is with Facebook’s shenanigans. (Another strong indication is the rising popularity of the search query “How do I delete my Facebook account?” on Google.) The programmers have stated their goal is to have Diaspora up and running in three months after that June 1st date, leaving Facebook a very short window in which to get its act together.

Have you opted out of Facebook’s privacy policy yet? Have you tried the long and complicated process required to delete your Facebook account? Are you going to stick with the land of Farmville, or will you head to Diaspora’s greener pastures? Let's hear it!

Katherine

Deal of the Day: Dell Latitude D820 Laptop, because you'll need a place to keep track of all these social networking shenanigans.

In the gadget world, Apple’s security is legendary. Nothing comes out that isn’t supposed to; nothing ever leaks; the public remains entirely in the dark until the scheduled release date of Apple’s next groundbreaking gadget. Apple security is simply impenetrable.

Then again, the Titanic was also unsinkable.

We all know how that turned out.
I’m sure most of you know what I’m already referring to: on April 19th, Gizmodo released a detailed rundown of Apple’s new prototype 4G iPhone, which was not scheduled to be released to the public for several more months. According to reports, Apple employee Gray Powell was street testing the new 4G iPhone and accidentally left it in a bar on March 18th, where it was found by Brian Hogan. According to Gizmodo’s telling of the event, Brian found the Facebook application on the phone, discovered that Gray was still logged in, and attempted to contact him. After failing to get a hold of Gray and supposedly being dismissed by Apple representatives he’d contacted, Brian began shopping the prototype 4G iPhone around to various tech blogs. (Keep in mind all of this was relayed from Gizmodo’s slant – we have yet to see Brain’s telling of the tale.) He finally sold the phone to Gizmodo for 5,000 USD, who then cracked it open, took pictures and video, and posted the story on their website on April 19th, a month after the prototype iPhone was originally lost. It was only after the story was released that Apple’s legal division contacted Gizmodo via letter, asking for the return of the 4G iPhone.

What’s become of all this? Currently there are no lawsuits taking place; however, California prosecutors have searched the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, citing two yet-unnamed “persons of interest” as the source of the probable cause needed to obtain the warrant. Brian has also lawyered up, admitting that he was indeed paid 5,000 big ones for the prototype iPhone but not telling whether his house was also searched.

For me, at least, this raises two pretty big questions. The first digs into the whole ethical aspect of the debacle. I don’t claim to know the exact legality of it all: I don’t know if it was illegal for Brian to sell the 4G iPhone, or for Gizmodo to purchase it, or for Gizmodo to put the review on their site well before the release date. I leave those questions to the lawyers: they went through seven years of college for a reason, after all. No, I question just what Brian was thinking. Trying to contact Gray via Facebook was a good move on his part; removing the phone from the bar, however, really was not. There’s a wonderful invention called a Lost and Found, where people who find lost objects turn them so that people who have misplaced their property can reclaim it. I’m fairly certain most bars and restaurants have one, given the tendency of intoxicated patrons to put their stuff down and forget about it.

It's brilliant! Brilliant! Genius, I tell you!
Why not leave the phone at the bar with the bartender, where its owner would likely come looking for it? Why not take one of a thousand other actions that don’t involve bringing the phone that you do not own home and selling it to the highest bidder?

Speaking of the highest bidder, I honestly can’t say I’m surprised that Gizmodo offered to buy the 4G iPhone. This is, after all, the same site whose parent company received a cease-and-desist letter from Apple in January after offering 50,000 USD for pictures or video of the yet-unreleased iPad and 100,000 USD for hands-on time with the gadget – which, at that point, would have had to have been stolen. Or lost in a bar and then sold. Take your pick.

While the story makes me wonder what on Earth happened to the ethical base of our society, I also have to question Apple’s security. Obviously it’s not impenetrable – any sanctioned field test comes with a certain amount of risk. For example, your device could be lost in a bar and resold for a comparatively small amount of cash to a tech blog.

Pretty much says it all.
Okay, I’m done beating that dead horse. Promise.

Of course, mistakes are made. Accidents do happen. The loss of the 4G iPhone was particularly bad in terms of security, but hey, nobody’s perfect. It may have prompted Apple to change a few things - possibly bump up the 4G iPhone release date by a few months - but, provided no large legal ramifications come of this, the backlash shouldn’t get any worse than it already is. After all, Apple has a habit of learning from its mistakes and the mistakes of competitors, and a mistake this widely publicized has likely provided a valuable lesson.

Which does not explain why a newer version of that same 4G iPhone prototype showed up in Vietnam this morning. There are also rumors of a third 4G iPhone prototype that made its way to China.

For a company whose security measures have been compared to those of the CIA, this is quite a ways for Apple to fall. I suppose we’ll all wait with bated breath to see the official explanation for this one. Either way, you can certainly bet that Apple is working overtime to plug its security leaks before the entire dam bursts.

So what do you guys think? Should Brian have acted differently upon finding the 4G iPhone? Was Gizmodo wrong to buy the iPhone prototype, or were they perfectly justified? What’s Apple going to do about all this? Let’s hear it!

Katherine

Deal of the Day: 10% off XBox 360 consoles and accessories. It's not Apple and it's not security related, but it sure is fun.

Years ago, when Yahoo chat rooms were cool and Netscape was still the browser of choice, there was a computer commercial extolling the virtues of a certain brand. The commercial showed two college students writing their final papers before graduation. The student with the brand name computer finished his paper, saved it, and went to bed. The student using the competitor’s computer finished his paper, tried to save, and started screaming as the computer went into the ever-terrifying Blue Screen of Death, deleting his entire paper. Cut to ten years later: the brand name student is working a business job with a corner window office, while the student with the competitor’s computer is washing said windows for a living.


Despite being aired over a decade ago, the spot brings up one very good point: just how dependent are we on technology today?

Think about it. A few years ago, to get directions to a given place, you’d look them up in the phone book and either call them on your land line and ask for directions from a given landmark or attempt to find them in the city map printed in the front of said phone book. Today, even looking them up on Mapquest or going to the company’s website to find directions is considered archaic: cutting-edge technology demands a smartphone or a GPS unit to give you step-by-step directions as you drive.

For another example people my age work with nearly every day, take writing papers. No matter how quickly you write, going at it longhand takes forever and leaves your hand cramped and hurting afterwards. Typewriters speed the process along nicely but are plagued by stuck keys, not to mention that a single misspelled word or missed comma requires retyping an entire page and makes the editing process long and arduous. Computers have revolutionized the very idea of writing: misspelled words are easily fixed or even corrected automatically, entire paragraphs and pages can be rearranged with a single click, and a writer can finish editing their work in its entirety before the first copy is printed.

Technology has made everything faster and easier. Listening to a device’s instructions instead of having to look at written directions while driving is safer for the driver and everyone around them. Word processing is quicker, easier, and more easily sharable than handwritten copies of a document. There is, however, one very ominous question looming over this commonplace dependence on digital devices: what if that technology fails?

I spy with my little eye a Blue Screen of Death.
If we’re to believe the commercial, then the short answer is to make a career out of washing windows. Those of us who would rather not hang hundreds of feet above the pavement every day or simply have marketable skills in other areas do what most everyone does when faced with a technological crisis in this modern day and age: head over to the local Best Buy or Apple store, talk to a member of the Geek Squad or a Genius, pay through the nose to get our essential little device working again, and attempt to stay calm during the process. It’s a discouraging little waltz; it’s expensive; it’s the reason people buy new electronics in the first place. After all, new products are guaranteed perfect, and refurbished electronics obviously had problems before and will have problems again, right?

Wrong on both accounts, actually. Not everything that comes out of the factory is perfect. For example, take the most common problem with the Xbox 360, commonly referred to as the Red Ring or the Red Ring of Death. A console experiencing this error will have red lights around the power button light up, indicating that the console needs service for one of a multitude of problems, ranging from failures in video output to audio errors to the console simply not working anymore.

That late night howl of agony probably came from your next-door neighbor when his XBox 360 did this.
A September 2009 survey conducted by Seattlepi showed the failure rate for Xbox 360s to be at 54%. That’s right: over half these consoles have keeled over and died because of errors inherent in the unit itself. Errors like this pretty much shatter the notion that every bit of machinery that rolls off the factory shelves is perfect.

Refurbished products, on the other hand, have an awful reputation. People regard them with the view that a product, once broken, cannot be repaired to any level of satisfaction. This is not entirely true: the quality of the repairs depends on the skill of the repairman. If the repairman has no idea what they’re doing, does an awful job, or fails to test the product before selling it, then odds are the product probably can’t be trusted. Give that same device to a skilled repairman who does a thorough job and tests his work before sending it out, however, and that device will work just like if not better than new. It all depends on the person doing the repairs and how well they handle the technology.

We’ve seen that our society is technologically dependent, and we’ve all known the heartbreak and horror when the technology we depend on in our everyday lives fails. How, we ask, do we keep it from failing? Aside from the common sense tenets of technology care – keep it dry, perform regular maintenance, and don’t drop it – the best way to prevent tech fail is to shop smart. Go to the people you trust, and if you’d like to save a few bucks and get the best quality for what you do spend, go to the people you trust to refurbish the technology you want. Find someone who knows what they’re doing, who consistently performs well, and who tests their refurbished tech to make sure it performs well. Guarantees and quick shipping don’t hurt, either.

Don’t know anybody like that? Well, I have a recommendation or two.

Have any tech horror stories? How about the time your dog chewed your TV cord, or your neighbor’s kid dropped your iPhone in the toilet? What about great tech service stories? Let’s hear them!

Katherine

Deal of the Day: Magellan Maestro 3100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator, for when Mapquest and the phone book just aren't working for you.

TECHNORATI CODE: KH9YY44995FU

Hello and welcome to the blog for eDEXdeals! This is our very first entry, and you know what that means: introductions and technical stuff. Don't worry, we'll make it fun and easy for you.

Company Overview

eDEXdeals is a major reseller of new and refurbished consumer electronics specializing in digital cameras, desktop and laptop computers, MP3 players, LCD monitor, accessories and more. With more than 29 years of history, Power Seller status on eBay, and impeccable technical and customer support, we are able to provide you with great products at highly competitive prices. We carry most major brands including Toshiba, Sony, HP, Dell, and more.

eDEXdeals was launched by DEX, a leader in Global Supply Chain Solutions for high-technology industries, to offer extremely affordable deals to consumers worldwide. With operations in the United States, Europe and Asia, eDEXdeals is a multinational retailer with a commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. To ensure a superior customer experience and deliver the best products to our customers, our engineering and technology specialists recertify and test every product to “like new”.

You can expect fast shipping times with more than 90% of our orders shipping the same day you place your order (orders placed before 6pm PST). Our representatives are available from 8:00am – 5:00pm PST at 1-888-678-9201 (dial option #6) to answer questions about any of our products or to help you complete your order.

About This Blog

This blog focuses on the more personal side of the company. Here, we’ll update you on recent events in the company, discuss technological news, and generally chat about whatever tickles our fancy. This is your space to get to know us better, so feel free to drop a line or ask a question in comments – we’d be glad to talk with you.