Wells Fargo to sell online 'vaults'
Wells Fargo to sell online 'vaults'
SAN FRANCISCO -- Recognizing not all banking customers want a safe deposit box, Wells Fargo & Co. plans to sell online vaults as a secure and convenient alternative for storing vital records.
When the service rolls out this summer, Wells Fargo believes it will be the first major U.S. bank to offer an Internet alternative to the safe deposit boxes that have been an industry staple for decades.
Because it can't store jewelry, cash and many other precious assets, Wells Fargo's online version isn't likely to replace the traditional safe deposit box. It's more likely to replace shoe boxes and home filing cabinets, said Jim Smith, who oversees the bank's Internet products.
Called "vSafe," the service is perfect for storing digital versions of birth certificates, wills, driver's licenses, passports, family photos and other important documents, Smith said.
Customers will be able to retrieve the documents from any computing device with an Internet connection -- a major advantage for frequent travelers.
Always on the lookout for new sources of service fees, Wells Fargo will charge nearly $180 per year for its biggest online safe. The planned monthly fees will be: $4.95 for 1 gigabyte of storage: $9.95 for three gigabytes; and $14.95 for six gigabytes.
Those costs could discourage many customers from using Wells Fargo's online vault, given that several major technology companies, including household names like Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., already offer some Internet storage space for free.
Wells Fargo hopes its 156-year history of helping protect customer assets will give it a marketing advantage among people who have been reluctant to entrust Web sites to store important information online.
Cowardly robot steals the show
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A robot with a cowardly streak took top honors at a conference on human-robot interaction in Amsterdam with antic displays intended to mimic human phobia.
Attendees at a competition this month of seven teams from technical universities around the world voted the "Phobot," designed by a team of students from the University of Amsterdam, their favorite.
When first exposed to a fear-inspiring object -- in this case, a menacing larger robot -- the Phobot retreats and then spins in circles. It overcomes its "fear" by getting comfortable with small robots and working its way up to large ones -- mimicking the psychological principle of "graded exposure."
"This robot is there as a sort of buddy to help a child having any kind of actual fear, doing it step by step," said team member Ork de Rooij. "The child would say, 'Hey, not only am I scared, but this robot is also scared, so maybe we can help each other.' "
The jury's prize -- and second place in the popular vote -- went to "Pot Bot," a device that monitors potted plants and determines whether they need water or sunlight. Its sensors find the strongest available light source, and it then signals people with that information using two handlike front panels.
Dell denies reports of bad flash drives
NEW YORK-- Dell Inc. denies an analyst report claiming 20 percent to 30 percent of laptops with so-called solid-state drives are being returned.
Solid-state drives, though expensive, are seen as the next big advance in laptop computers because they're durable and light. In a solid state drive, the spinning platter of a conventional hard drive has been replaced by memory chips.
Dell offers Samsung SSDs as an option on its laptops for $600 to $899 extra. The latest Apple Inc. laptop, the MacBook Air, can also be bought with an SSD, for about $1,000 extra.
Avian Securities analyst Avi Cohen said last week Monday while reporting on the return rates that hardware failure rates on SSDs were 10 percent to 12 percent, compared to 1 percent to 2 percent for traditional hard drives. Still other customers are returning SSD-equipped laptops because they don't provide a speed advantage, Cohen wrote in a research report.