| Product: EZ-CD Opener |
Company: MacTec Products |
| Web: www.cartsplus.com |
Phone: 800-MacTec-1 |
| Platform: Your hand |
SRP: US$1.50
Street Price: same |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
There's nothing that sticks in my craw more annoyingly than stupid, user-surly packaging: Tyvek shipping envelopes that can't be opened without scissors; express boxes with pull-tabs that break before they finish their job; toy and electronics plastic display packaging that must be brutally attacked with scissors or knives for far too many impatient seconds before they release their products. But of all of these gnarly designs, CD packaging is the most frustrating to me (probably because I open so many of them). WHY must this be so difficult? Why do so few CDs have the cigarette-type pull-tabs on their plastic wrap? And does that security seal along the top edge HAVE to be so hard to remove in one or two pieces?
But clueless design often presents opportunities for ingenious solutions. One such example is the EZ-CD opener, a cheap, simple device that simultaneously cuts through the CD wrapper and the security seal (or the older "dog bones") of CDs and CD-ROMs. One swipe and you can easily peel off the wrapper and usually get off the security tape with relative ease.
The EZ-CD is basically a tiny razorblade with a handle. The CD jewel box fits into a groove at the bottom of the opener and you zip it across. Even better than the tool and the under US$2 price is the fact that many record stores, CD duplicators and others are giving them away for free (with their logo on the side). We got a couple of them when my wife had some CDs manufactured. We want more! All three of us in the house now use them regularly, and like scissors and rulers, you can never seem to find one when you need it.
Until record companies care enough about you to make a CD package that doesn't require a Fort Knox-level assault to remove it (yeah, like that's ever going to happen), the EZ-CD is a handy little gizmo to have by your stereo.
- Gareth Branwyn [10/5/00]
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