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CPSC: China now in the spotlight in light of recalls 2007-08-06 10:14:56 According to the Toy Industry Association, 80% of all toys sold in the U.S. are made in China. With the recent massive Mattel recall of 1.5 million toys, legislators are feeling pressure from the public at large to put in place legislation that will protect the children of consumers. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y recently commented, “There’s a boiling point coming in the Congress, coming from the people of America saying we need to do better.” The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a federal entity that works to ensure the safety of many consumer products, currently does not have the authority to test products before they are distributed, nor do they have the manpower to perform needed inspections. According to a CPSC representative, the CPSC has been working diligently with the Chinese manufacturers to ensure that they understand that there are rules and regulations that must be followed in order to ensure the safety of consumers. The CPSC has previously i ...

Gold To Go Over $1000 Says World Gold Council Chairman and Newmont Mining Vice Chairman 2007-08-06 08:43:14 Apparently, gold prices are set to rise over $1000/ounce and the commodities bull market still has along way to go. The Chairman of the World Gold Council and the Vice Chairman of Newmont Mining, Pierre Lassonde, said that gold would have three zeros after the first digit, but he didn’t know what the first number would be. That mean that we could see gold prices well over $1000/ounce very soon. If this happens, other precious metals such as silver should also soar, with silver possibly going to $20/ounce. Pierre Lassonde was speaking at the Diggers & Dealers annual mining and investment forum in Kalgoorlie, Australia. Gold analyst Sam Kirtley of The Gold Prices Newsletter commented on this and said: “We think $1000/ounce is absolutely achievable taking into account the the crumbling US Dollar, falling gold production coupled with increased physical demand and geopolitical instability. We have been predicting $1000 for a long time and we fully believe that gold will not onl ...

Ron Paul is President of the Internet, Not the USA…Yet 2007-08-06 07:59:39 Ron Paul is a Republican congressman and a candidate for US President, if you didn’t know already. Ron Paul enjoys a good amount of support online and a number of people voice their support for Ron Paul in comments here at Product Reviews, but that’s is not going to get Ron Paul elected. Ron Paul needs votes, support outside of the internet and at the moment, he doesn’t have enough to run for President. Ron Paul has less than 2% of the vote among Republican candidates, and he was unceremoniously excluded from an Iowa debate in June organized by a tax watchdog group that happens to share his political views. Ron Paul has over 160,000 mentions on Digg.com, which is more that the next four most popular candidates put together. According to Alexa.com, Ron Paul’s website has a narrow lead over the Democratic candidates and is way ahead of his fellow Republicans. On Technorati, “Ron Paul” is the most searched term, beating “iPhone” and “Paris Hilton”. Ro ... Internet  President  Ron Paul

Aigo USB Drives, For Couples 2007-08-06 07:11:26 Are you looking for a great present for your other half? Perhaps something to spice up the relationship? Want a product that can light up the long gone fire inyour relationship? Look no further as the Aigo USB drives are here. These memory sticks do everything that normal USB drives do, everything that normal memory sticks are capable of. Except they come in two different designs, made for couples with geeky senses. No prices yet to be confirmed for the revolutionary device, nor has there been a release date. Stay tuned for more details on the Aigo USB drives and all your computing needs, here at Product Reviews. Written by Ryan for Product ReviewsIn Sections: Memory Sticks ... Usb

Microsoft Photosynth Software Shows Shuttle Pre-Launch 2007-08-06 06:44:54 Microsoft’s Photosynth software is basically an application that takes hundreds of photos of a certain landmark, object or building allowing it to be seen in a ‘3D view’ on the computer. Microsoft’s latest 3d model coverage is the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, before it launches. It allows you to move around, zoom in and view with great accuracy. It really is a great and innovative idea that I’m sure someone like Google will catch onto soon and make faster, simpler and easier to use. What do you think of the Microsoft Photosynth Software? Click here to try it out, providing you’re on a windows-only machine. Written by Ryan for Product ReviewsIn Sections: Software ... Microsoft

Electric and Hybrid Smart Cars: Fuel efficiency gone mad 2007-08-06 06:28:23 The Smart car is not known for its speed but what it is known for is its superb fuel efficiency, which is why we thought it was very strange to hear that there is to be an Electric and Hybrid version of this small Mercedes vehicle. The electric version will have a 41hp electric motor, which will be able to reach speeds up to 69mph and will have a range of 70 miles. Charging time for the electric smart car is about 8 hours, and that will cost you about $3 in electric. Do not expect it to break any land speed records, as the electric Smart will only get from 0-60 in about 19.8 seconds. But that is not what the little car is about, it is about helping our environment by having zero emissions. The Hybrid Smart MHD or Micro Hybrid Drive has a starter generator, what happens is when the Hybrid Smart car comes to a complete stop or just under 5mph, the gas engine switches off and the electric motor kicks in. The emissions on the Hybrid Smart MHD are thought to be much lower than that of the ... Hybrid

Samsung Claiming From Insurance due to Power Outage Damage 2007-08-06 06:14:37 Almost a day after the significant power-cut that the factory received, Samsung is going to “get insurance payments from a local insurer for the damage received during Friday’s power outage.” The current estimate of the figure that will cover Samsung’s damage is said to be roughly $40 million, which is huge, yet understandable considering their huge losses thanks to the blackout. Many analysts have predicted that it “would take weeks for the plants to reach full capacity,” which if is proven to be true, expect the same high prices and likely to remain constrained. The exact cause of the power outage is yet to be known, but after weeks of investigating I’m pretty sure the poor insurance company that’s paying Samsung will find out. Written by Ryan for Product ReviewsIn Sections: Computer Hardware ... Samsung

Sparkles ignition engine HCCI improves fuel-efficiency by up to 25% 2007-08-06 05:48:53 Researchers at MIT have been working on a new kind of Sparkles ignition internal combustion engine. The homogeneous charge compression ignition or (HCCI) is expected to improve fuel-efficiency by up to 25%. The new engine helps to increase fuel efficiency by achieving combustion with only compression of the air fuel mix and not the traditional way of using a spark plug. Mercedes-Benz, a world class leader in engine design unveiled their concept engine, the DiesOtto. It works much the same way as the HCCI engine; Mercedes tested this new engine design in an S-class saloon and achieved 39mpg. Volkswagen has also been working on a homogeneous charge compression ignition engine, but this engine requires a special synthetic fuel, unlike the Mercedes’ DiesOtto which runs on regular gas. Source Written by Peter for Product ReviewsIn Sections: Autos ...

JJ Abrams Cloverfield fanmade posters 2007-08-06 05:46:02 Circulating on the web at the moment are a bunch of fake manmade posters for the JJ Abrams monster movie Cloverfield. Some blogs have reported that these posters are real, we can truthfully tell you they’re not. The posters are really good though, and deserve to be shown on the web. If the fans can make something as good as this, just think what the real marketing guys at Hollywood will come up with! Most of the posters have anonymous creators apart from the last one (depicting the Empire State Building) which was make by unfiction forum user Conversed. Source Written by Lucy for Product ReviewsIn Sections: News, Film News ...

Watch Amanda Bynes in Sydney White Trailer 2007-08-06 05:36:15 Sydney White is the teen romantic adaptation of Snow white. The Movie follows Sydney, a 20-year-old college freshman who pledges her late mother’s once-dignified sorority, but finds a new home with seven outcasts and attempts to transform the schools misguided social hierarchy. Critics aren’t being very kind about this one, and I can kind of see why. The film is very limited in the audience it’s trying to reach and the story can’t really go anywhere. Amanda Bynes does what she does best in her comic girly role and the supporting cast aren’t all bad. The movie squeezes out as many laughs as it can and I must admit to giggling a couple of times at the trailer. The movies will hit theatres on September 21st 2007. Watch the trailer below Source Written by Lucy for Product ReviewsIn Sections: News, Film News ...

Nissan hopes Japan will embrace diesel powered X-Trail SUV 2007-08-06 05:32:33 The preferred fuel choice across Europe has been diesel for many years, it has been slow in the US but they are starting to embrace diesel as they have faced fuel price increases over the past few months. However drivers in Japan have never embraced diesel, but Nissan hopes to change that with the introduction of the X-Trail SUV which is diesel powered. The Nissan X-Trail SUV Diesel is expected to hit the market sometime halfway through 2008, this will be the first diesel powered Japanese passenger car sold locally since the 1990s. The Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI is the only diesel passenger vehicle in Japan at the moment, but with the introduction of the Nissan X-Trail SUV, and Honda promising diesel vehicles sometime in 2009, the Japanese could be set for a diesel renaissance. Diesel did not hit it off well in Japan as the exhaust levels of toxic nitrogen oxides and other pollutants were very high. Now we have clean diesel which should help the comeback of diesel in Japan. Source Written ...

Fake Steve Jobs Blogger Discovered 2007-08-06 05:31:56 For over a year now, the most geeky and high tech bloggers on the net have been trying to find out who the mysterious fake steve blogger is, providing them with humour and laughter every day. Well, we can now reveal the fake steve jobs is: Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine who lives near Boston. “I’m stunned that it’s taken this long,” said Mr. Lyons, when a reporter interrupted his holiday on Sunday to poke him about the Fake Steve situation. “I have not been that good at keeping it a secret. I’ve been sort of waiting for this call for months.” Now the secret’s out thanks to a news reporter from Boston. Having ruined the fun, what do you the Fake Steve will do? Well apparently, he’ll be enjoying the rest of his vacation for the next week or so and get back to writing his Fake Steve blog. Perhaps moving it to Forbes.com. Good for him, I say. Written by Ryan for Product ReviewsIn Sections: Computers, Mac News ...

YouTube Down: Service Unavailable, What’s Going On? 2007-08-06 05:15:21 The most popular video sharing website on the net, YouTube, has reportedly come up up with the error message of http/1.1 service unavailable, meaning that their server is down. What does this mean then? This could be for a number of reasons, the most likely being that there may have been some kind of internal mistake or error that lead to the website being out on hold for a while. Another reason as to why YouTube is down could be that too much traffic made it’s way to YouTube, which could not be handled, lead to it crashing internally. Personally, I doubt there is any kind of update running accross the site, due to the fact that they would be able to put up a message to their millions of viewers, informing them that the site is not running. Whatever the reason, YouTube was said to be down and noone knows why exactly. Why do you think YouTube was rumoured to be down? Stay with Product Reviews for the latest info on the situation and other computing news. Update: YouTube is up and ... Youtube

The Simpsons Movie Voted as One of The Best Movies of All Time - is it really THAT good? 2007-08-06 05:14:52 I went to watch the long-awaited Simpsons Movie last weekend and to be fair it was worth the wait. Packed with laughs and family fun the film has already been voted as one of the best films of all time. Although we didn’t get to see more of the film set in Springfield and many of the signature characters weren’t in the movie I don’t think it seems to matter. Films like this instantly have a built in fan boy audience to immediately vote the movie into the Internet Movie Database top 250 movies of all time list. Over time, however, as more people vote the movie generally falls further and further down the list. The Simpsons debuted at a respectable #33, but has since fallen to an 8.3 rating and ranked at #139th best movie of all time. That’s higher than classics such as Die Hard, Toy Story, The Princess Bride, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Trainspotting. Now, I liked the film a lot, but I wouldn’t have ranked it higher than Die hard or Trainspotting an ... Movies

Kicherer does impossible and improves Audi R8 supercar 2007-08-06 05:11:58 Car makers spend millions of dollars creating new cars for us to enjoy, some cars really do need to be improved but we was shocked to hear that Kicherer the German tuner wanted to improve the Audi R8 supercar. However Kicherer have done the impossible and made this fantastic car even better. Kicherer did not bother to improve the mechanicals as this was already perfect, instead they worked on the aesthetics and handling of the Audi R8. You can clearly see a new front spoiler, this helps to reduce front lift, and a new spoiler to the rear improves downforce. The rims have gone form 19-inch to 20-inch lighter rims, but what is the most obvious change are the cars new springs, so now the Audio R8 sits just 15mm high at the front and 30mm at the rear. It is not certain how much this will improve the handling, but I am sure that we will find out very soon. Source Written by Peter for Product ReviewsIn Sections: Autos, Supercars ...