• aleph@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      That’s how it goes all too often with these settlements, sadly. Remember when Fox News got to settle with Dominion over the fact that they knowingly pushed election fraud claims that they privately knew to be false? They just paid their fine and went right back to business as usual.

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Oh wow, Razer was selling masks? Seriously? That’s wild, I must’ve missed that completely. What’s even wilder is that a bunch of people apparently decided that their best option for respiratory filters is, of all things, a gaming company. And one with a shaky QC history at that.

    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I was very interested in buying one; the details looked OK, and it wasn’t a use-once product like those flimsy blue face masks. This was early on when no end was in sight so it seemed like a decent move, and was at least interesting visually.

      I ended up not buying one since they took forever from announcement to actual public sale, and I’d talked myself out of it.

    • bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I think i saw the masks on display inside one of the casino lobbies in Vegas when I was there last year. It looked “fine” as an accessory unit, too tacky for most people, but i didnt think it was advertised as an N95.

  • CatZoomies@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I bought one of these masks for the novelty, as well as the influence to buy it during the Great Lockdown when not much was known about Covid and we were wiping down our groceries. By the time the product launched, we already knew how Covid spread and had a vaccine. Despite the advertising saying that it has N95 filters, it was clear that this was not an N95 product. Razer generically stated that it is not a certified N95 mask, but the advertising and product pages were certainly misleading and the FTC’s fine is valid and justified to protect the health and safety of consumers. I would not have used the Zephyr in place of my actual certified N95 masks.

    The Zephyr was heavy, but overall quite comfortable, but I never took it outside and wore it for something like a grocery trip (since I knew it was not an N95 mask, and masks were very divisive where I live in a Red State. The last thing I wanted was to potentially be attacked by an anti-vax/mask Freedom Lover). It was heavy, and the fans were loud - very loud. What was disappointing was that the production version did not come with the two features I wanted that were initially advertised: the sanitising case, and the voice amplifier. Imagine how much more fines Razer would face if they advertised an included UV case that came with blue lights rather than UV lights!

    I didn’t end up keeping the Zephyr, although I wish I did just to keep a small, unique memory of an uncertain and dangerous time. I do wonder if they could have launched this product sooner and certified it as an N95 mask, if gaming culture could make wearing masks when you’re sick popular. Selfish people might put aside their “freedoms” if they could look cool with gamer RGB and get attention from others (the motivation for selfishness). Of course the Zephyr would need to go through several years of revisions until it became culture.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I still don’t understand how nobody knew Covid was a respiratory disease. Even my parents were saying they wore gloves to the store and not a mask. I had 95s from doing work in the attic and sent them over to them. My wife was pregnant at the time and I had to beg her to wear one when we went to her checkups at the hospital. Not even the doctor was wearing one at the time and we got a lot of strange looks. By the time she had the baby they had strict rules in place, those first few months were wild.

  • fulcrummed@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    They actually just meant it was suitable for use with the Nokia N95 phone.

    Damn that was my favourite phone. sigh ‘Twas a simpler time.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    Note that n95 is the minimum grade for biohazard and industrial work. It meams it’ll get large particulates (like corona viruses) but not small ones and aerosolized oil (such as spray paint) will fuck your mask.

      • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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        6 months ago

        That still uses disposable filters. So maybe it reduces the amount of waste by 10%?

        Do we have one that has reusable filters? I mean a filter you can use for at least 10 years.

        • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I mean, use for 10 years by what metric? A woodworker is gonna block up that filter in a few months, someone who works in a hospice might get a few years, and triage nurses might burn through them in half that simply due to moving fast. Also I think 10 years might be a bit of a stretch in general, I’ve never known a mask filter to last that long in any model I’ve used

          • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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            6 months ago

            I’m referring to the pandemic. Use for 10 years by a nurse breathing average hospital air 40 hours per week.

            I want something washable, not disposable.

            • Kanzar@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              The 3m 6035 filter only has a replacement schedule for infection control reasons, implying the outside may become too contaminated.

              It was the original pandemic filter (there is a model up that does organic vapours too), marketed as being used for at least one pandemic wave.

              No filter will last 10 years of daily use, at some point even your washable car filters or cleanable air purifier filters clog up and break down. But these are very long lasting for what they do, and I can see someone being able to stretch them out to one every six months, if in a hospital setting.

  • inlandempire@jlai.lu
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    6 months ago

    I remember making fun of it in some discord, imagine spending so much r&d into some RGB gadget instead of contributing to research during COVID, the only certificates they had were for electrical products, none for health stuff

    This is from the E3 (or whatever that events name was) announcement

  • Gabu@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    The fact it uses clear plastic for the mouth has to be a crime, surely.

    • ObsidianZed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      The original point was to make it easier to understand people as you could actually see their mouth. A problem sure, but it solution it wasn’t.

      • Gabu@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Could you imagine a world in which both products catch on? I shudder just to think about it

  • snowsuit2654@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    This and xupermask are just cringe consoomer mush. It’s honestly shocking to me the trust that people put into celebrities and tech companies. Capitalists “disrupting” a regulated industry should be a big red flag.