Expensive extended warranties sold with electrical goods look set to fall under fresh scrutiny by consumer rights activists and the Office of Fair Trading - The Observer

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations - which came into force because of an EU directive at the end of May 2008 - prohibit the 'selling' of rights that people already have in law. But some consumer rights groups argue that extended warranties often do just this, playing on consumers' ignorance. Marc Gander, a founder member of the Consumer Action Group, believes many extended warranties trick consumers into buying insurance that offers them little or no better protection than they already have by law. 'Extended warranties are often an expensive rip-off,' he says. 'These goods are supposed to work for a certain length of time, so what a great trick it is to get consumers to buy an extended warranty in case a product goes wrong too early.'

The IR touch screen is a very well established, well proven, and reliable technology. Invented in 1971, the first "touch sensor" was developed by Dr Sam Hurst (founder of Elographics) in 1983 Hewlett-Packard's HP-150 was one of the first commercially available IR touchscreen PCs with a grid of infrared beams across the front of a monitor which detected finger movements.

Other touch technologies have been developed since including resistive and capacitive used in many hand held devices and the much later optical imaging technology.

There are some serious misunderstandings that reach me about the quality of sound systems in the classroom.

Unlike Hi-Fi systems where listeners are used to, and some obviously enjoy, booming bass sounds and higher pitched screaming guitars or the full range of an orchestra, the need to make the voice of a teacher intelligible to a classroom of young pupils requires very different sound qualities.

China’s vast export sector has been battered on several fronts recently according to the Los Angeles Times. Demand from foreign customers has slowed. The Renminbi is strengthening, making Chinese goods more expensive. Hourly wages are rising with additional pressure resulting from headlines about poor working conditions at Foxconn, the massive assembler of Apple tablets and phones.

Despite this, China has strengthened its position in the global supply chain. Already the world’s largest exporter, China’s share of global exports expanded during the recent global downturn, increasing to 10.7 per cent last year from about 9 per cent in 2008. When times are hard lower cost goods have a greater edge.

Some good news for cash strapped SMEs

The Chancellor will tomorrow confirm that Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander UK, and Royal Bank of Scotland have signed up to the government's National Loan Guarantee Scheme (NLGS), which will provide cheaper lending to businesses with a turnover of up to ￡50m.

Small and medium-sized businesses will from tomorrow morning be offered loans at 1 percentage point below these banks' standard lending rates, with about ￡5bn of government-guaranteed borrowing being made available in the first tranche.

Barclays and RBS are expected to be the biggest users of the scheme to issue ￡1.5bn each of government-backed bonds to provide the cheap loans to small businesses. Lloyds is likely to provide about ￡1bn of loans and Santander less than ￡500m.

Edis now provides an outsourcing service for school websites and virtual learning environments. We provide Moodle VLE with web hosting which is integrated into school websites. See more details of Moodle VLE here

Don't forget that you can get targeted enquiries by joining our supplier wall. This offer is open to sellers of our products and also Audio Visual Installers who may or not be selling our products right now . Contact us here to have your Logo and weblink added.

Demonstation kit of our Touch Screens, lifts and stands including a flight case with lift are now in the UK. Get in touch with Tony Mercer on +44 77956 35882 to arrange viewings etc The demonstration unit is in a flight case with a lift that only takes a few seconds to raise the screen and plug in a laptop - then it's Plug and Go - very easy to set-up. Ideal kit to take to demonstrate to schools and other customers. Please contact Tony Mercer here for more information or to arrange a demonstration etc

SEO and Link building are key to internet marketing success for any business. EdisAV has a very active team  involved in link building, e-mail marketing, website creation and search engine optimisation. We will very soon be providing low cost outsourcing of these services to schools and resellers of our products. Please contact us if you are looking for ways to increase your business and web traffic on the internet without paying a small fortune

Remote Control with Volume control and On/Off switch for EA015 Wall Mounted Active Speakers, Edis Cube and Edis Cube+ active speakers

This "Snap-in" remote control fits into the Fast-install faceplate. Simply cut off the wired remote control supplied with the active speakers and reterminate the wires in the module. Details here