Bring Back My Equate Medicated Acne Gel!

Pardon the personal and embarrassing nature of this post. For years, I have used Equate: Medicated Acne Gel (10% Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Cream) which I purchase at Wal-Mart for about $1.86 and came in a 1 oz. tube with a pink label. For the last few months, I haven't been able to buy it at any Wal-Mart stores as it is always out of stock. After months of searching Wal-Mart stores, I found out that the product has been recalled due to a bacteria-tainted sample. Equate: Medicated Acne Gel, which is manufactured by CSI USA, Inc. of Gallatin, TN, and sold at Wal-Mart, Dollar General, and Kroger stores, was found to have the "Burkholderia Cepacia bacteria, which is also known as Pseudomonas Cepacia." Yikes! Apparently I'm not the only one who loves this product, and can't find it anymore. I'm glad CSI USA, Inc. has issued the recall on themselves, but I hope that they clean it up and get it back on the shelf soon before I get mistaken for a 13 year-old. (What? I have an oily T-zone, OK?)

Here is the content of the recall from the FDA's site:

PRODUCT
10% Benzoyl Peroxide Gel marketed under the following brand labels: 1) Equate Maximum Strength, 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Gel, 28g (Net Wt 1 oz); 2) Kroger Acne Gel, 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Medication, Net Wt 1 oz (28g); 3) DG Maximum strength, Acne Medicated Gel, 10% Benzoyl Peroxide, Net Wt 1oz (28g); and 4) Hill Country Essentials, Medicated Acne Gel,10% Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Medication, Net Wt 1 oz (28g); Recall # D-129-2009
CODE
All lots
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
CSI USA, Inc., Gallatin, TN, by letters on October 31, 2008 and November 13, 2008 and by press release on November 13, 2008. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
Product may contain the bacteria Burkholderia cepacia.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
741,314 units
DISTRIBUTION
Nationwide

(Sources: Aboutlawsuits, Acne.org, FDA)

Listen to Live Scanner Feeds Free on iPhone

Just a little tip here. In my previous post, I mentioned the Emergency Radio app for iPhone/iPod Touch. If you want to scan police, fire, and EMS action in your area, but don't want to pay $1 for the full version of Emergency Radio, you can visit the mobile version of RadioReference.com. You must have iPhone OS version 3.0 in order to listen.

Emergency Radio iPhone App Lets You Monitor Police, Fire, EMS Without a Radio Scanner

When I turned 13 years old, I got a CB (Citizen's Band) radio for my birthday. It was my first hands-on experience with radio communications (other than toy "walkie-talkies"), and since then I have been a radio fanatic. My radio hobbies have evolved over the years from CB radio to scanning/monitoring (I currently own a Uniden BCD-396XT) and later into amateur radio and shortwave monitoring. You can imagine my excitement when I learned about the iPhone/iPod Touch app Emergency Radio by EdgeRift, which allows you to tune in to live radio scanner feeds (police, fire and EMS) from all over the country. Emergency Radio pulls the live streams from ScanAmerica (Now part of RadioReference). While you can already listen to the feeds on RadioReference, having a slick and portable interface on the iPhone/iPod Touch is very handy and can be very useful especially if you are visiting a city and you want to find out what's going on.

The free version, Emergency Radio Lite, lets you listen to Chicago, Denver, Miami, New Orleans, and San Jose, while the full version provides access to over 1,000 frequencies. There are a handful of radio scanner apps available, but Emergency Radio has the highest rating (3.5/5 as of today). (Sources: Emergency Radio, Macworld)

OTOY Set to Revolutionize the Gaming Industry with Cloud-Based Gaming

This is amazing! A company called OTOY has developed a server-side technology that allows a user to play a video game through a web browser with super high quality (without any extra software or browser plug-ins). The technology is still being developed, but early previews show very playable, and fantastic-looking game play that could conceivably be played on any platform with a web browser. This technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the video game industry. The only concern here is the dependence on "the cloud." Since all of the processing takes place on a remote server, what happens when your Internet connection is down? Regardless, this technology looks very impressive, and could easily become a new source of subscription revenue for video game publishers. Take a look at the video demonstrations. Thanks Brandon! (Source: TechCrunch)

New Aluminum Unibody iPhone on the Way?

Kevin Rose, who has been pretty accurate in his predictions (specifically regarding Apple rumors), tweets today, "rumor: apple working on a unibody aluminum iphone (like the macbook pro)". A unibody aluminum iPhone/iPod touch would likely be less susceptible to getting scratched. And, one can easily see Apple extending the design further into a larger, tablet-like mobile internet device (according to rumors about Apple releasing some sort of larger touch device) in order to compete with the exploding net book market.

Get the Windows 7 Look in Windows XP

Are you diggin' on the Windows 7 taskbar and other features, but you are stuck on XP and unable to install the free Windows 7 Release Candidate? Well, now you can get the Windows 7 look and feel with ViGlance. A video demonstration shows how easy it is to install and get that handy Windows 7-style taskbar with task grouping.

If that isn't enough, use Desk Topmost for Aero Peek features, and Power Resizer for Window Snap abilities. Or, just download Windows 7 Release Candidate for free, which is good until June 2010. (Via: End User)

Apple Announces $99 iPhone 3G

Apple just announced the $99 iPhone 3G today at its annual World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC). The $99 iPhone 3G is the same iPhone model that existed up until this week, and is competitively priced with the Palm Pre and other similar touch phones. The new iPhone 3G S that Apple announced today is priced at $199 and boasts performance of twice that of the iPhone 3G, and features a 3MP auto-focus camera. (Source: Apple)

Apple Announces MacBook Updates at WWDC

Apple kicked off its annual World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) today by announcing updates to the MacBook line, featuring built-in batteries that last five years and apparently provide 7 hours of battery life. I suppose that after 5 years you could always just plug it in if the battery didn't hold a charge. MacBooks have been upgraded with faster processors, more RAM capacity (up to 8GB), bigger hard drives, and back-lit keyboards. The regular MacBook line includes only the white plastic MacBook ($999), and the MacBook Pro line now includes the 13", 15", and 17" aluminum unibody models. The MacBook Pro line also now features a built-in SD card reader--and it's about time! (Source: Ars Technica)

Tetris Friends

The Google logo today honors the 25-year anniversary of the wonderful game of Tetris. Upon clicking the logo, I found the awesome Tetris Friends site where you can play all manner of Tetris games online (10 different variations). You can even play Tetris 1989 in all its monochromatic glory! Oh how that soundtrack takes me back!

The Palm Pre

When you first run the Palm Pre, here is the video you see:

PSP Go Features Slide-Out Controls, Bluetooth

With 16GB of internal memory, Sony's new handheld gaming device, the PSP Go, will support Bluetooth (with possible voice chatting features), and will no longer supports the UMD disk format. Details on the PSP Go were recently leaked, and it is anticipated that Sony will officially announce more details at E3 this week. (Source: Electronista)

Mario-Themed Paint Job on Russian Car

Here's a sweet photo of a Mario-themed paint job on a Russian Lada car. (Source: Bowser's Blog)