I had a great experience selling an old phone to Gazelle. But it was a disaster for one of my readers.

Gazelle took a month to tell him they’d received an empty box, though he’d followed their packing instructions and used their label. Was it postal thievery or incompetence? Anyway, when he complained, Gazelle asked him to fill out a lost-or-stolen form. For neatness, he typed his responses. Time passed.  Gazelle said they rejected the form because it had to be handwritten. So he started over. This time the company ignored him permanently.

I tried to write to the company’s public relations department, but they no longer have one. So I wrote their customer service email address, but never got a response. “I will never use this company again,” the reader said.

About a dozen people on Reddit.com call Gazelle a scam. Many say their phones were either flawless or nearly so, but Gazelle cut the original offering price by 50 percent or more after receiving their stuff. One guy said Gazelle told him his Samsung phone was locked, but he had a receipt to prove it wasn’t.

The reader who wrote to me recommended The Buy Back Platform. They offered him $5 each for iPhones that were from nine to 13 years old. When they couldn’t unlock one because it was tied to his late mother-in-law’s iCloud account, they gave him $5 anyway.

It would help if Gazelle customers were told to send packages by FedEx instead of regular mail. Regular mail is iffy. For example, when I sold a phone on eBay, the buyer never got it and I never got paid. The tracking information showed the phone stuck in a Florida post office. After that, it disappeared. But I’ve had great success with FedEx. For example, I used them to send thousands of dollars worth of gold coins to JM Bullion, and the money showed up in my bank account just a few days later. Of course, it helps that JM Bullion is a reputable dealer.

Daily Dozen App

Why don’t our genes help us fit into our jeans? Why do we favor the caloric rush, the thrill of thousands of calories entering our bodies at once? We’re not cavemen anymore. Why haven’t we evolved?

That’s what someone asked me on Quora.com, the question-and-answer site. Here’s what I said: If humans weren’t attracted to sugar and fat, the sweetness of fruit and the deliciousness of nuts wouldn’t appeal to them. Without such foods in our diet, we’d be at risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia and more. In short, our delight in sweetness and fat isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. But a good nutrition app can help steer us toward healthy choices.

My favorite, “Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen,” is a free app for iPhone and Android. It gives you a checklist of the food categories you need to choose from every day. Tap the “i” for information next to any category. Then, as you look through the examples of foods in that category, tap “videos” next to any fruit, veggie, nut, bean or grain to find out about its superpower. Sweet potatoes, for example, are nutritional powerhouses that don’t cost much. More info at NutritionFacts.org. The site uses evidenced-based science and is run by Dr. Michael Greger, a board-certified physician.

Windows 10 Update

You can use Windows 10 safely well past its expiration date in October, thanks to three workarounds offered by Microsoft, including one I just found out about.

All cloud-connected computers get a one-year extension of security updates, which is great news for those who use Windows Backup to connect files to the cloud. Start by typing “Windows Backup” in the search box, then launch the program. It will back up whatever folders you choose. If you don’t want a cloud-connected Windows 10 computer, you can pay $30 or use 1000 Microsoft Rewards points for a one-year security update extension. I’ve earned over 20,000 points just by using Bing search and the Microsoft Store app, which offers free downloads.

AI Makes Up a Body Part

Google’s “Med-Gemini AI” model made up a body part by combining two existing features of the brain. Though the error appeared in a 2024 research paper, it was never corrected except in a blog post. Med-Gemini is part of an effort to use AI for radiology reports, electronic health records and clinical decision support. In medical schools, students are starting to learn to question AI results.

The Amazing Light Bulb

Aren’t you happy you switched from old-fashioned light bulbs to LEDs? According to ZDnet, LEDs can convert 95 percent of electricity into light, while incandescents convert only 10 percent. Also, incandescent bulbs use six times as much power for the same brightness. You’d replace your incandescent bulbs at least 20 times before your LED needed changing.

Internut

“This Tiny Nuclear Battery Could Last for Thousands of Years Without Charging.” Search on that phrase to read a ZME Science article about a battery that runs on a safer version of nuclear fuel. It’s the size of a finger and can fit inside common gadgets. Instead of lithium, it runs on radiocarbon. This breakthrough was presented by a South Korean chemist from the Daegu Gyeonbuk Institute of Science & Technology at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Filed under: AI, apps, business, environment, Internuts