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After reports of discs bursting and spraying hot liquid, Tassimo recently announced a safety recall on certain espresso T-discs and BOSCH brewers. I own a Tassimo brewer and I've had a few discs explode into a mess of coffee grounds and hot water, but I had assumed that I was just putting the discs into the brewer wrong. I'm somewhat relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one experiencing this problem.

If you recently received or bought a Tassimo brewer, we'd suggest you check to see if your brewer is included in the recall and order a free replacement T-disc holder.

This recall effects TAS100x, TAS451x, TAS46x, TAS200x and TAS651 brewers with date codes FD 8806 through FD9109. Check the FD product code on the bottom of your brewer, and then enter the date code here to find out if your machine is included in the recall.

Some Gevalia and Nabob espresso drink T-discs are also included in the safety recall. Each lid and package has code information, which you should enter on the T-disc check page to see if it's included (you can only register once, but you can check up to five different packages). If your T-discs are included in the recall, you'll get a free package of T-discs (up to $11.99 in value). If you have multiple packages, you'll get a refund by cheque for the value of your recalled T-discs. There's a full list of answers to FAQs (PDF), so give that a read for full instructions and details about the T-disc recall.

Right now we're running a pretty cool contest for Valentine's Day! Basically, if you tell us your favourite love-themed song you''ll get an entry to win the Ultimate Valentine's Mixtape! Which, of course, is not actually cassette tape -- it's 2012, after all. Instead, it's a USB stick loaded with music and hidden inside what looks like a cassette tape.

In the spirit of the contest, I asked the team at the RedFlagDeals.com HQ for their favourite love song. (Some of our employees chose to interpret that as "please tell me your fifteen favourite love songs" so I wasn't able to include every submission.) Here's a list of some love songs that we love:

• All My Love - Led Zepplin
• All My Life - K-Ci & JoJo (multiple mentions)
• Your Song - Elton John
• Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden
• Suddenly - Billy Ocean
• Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
• I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston (multiple mentions)
• Two Atoms in a Molecule - Noah and The Whale
• Yellow - Coldplay (multiple mentions)
• At Last - Etta James
• To Be With You - Mr. Big
• Let's Stay Together - Al Green
• This I Promise You - 'N Sync
• Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx (multiple mentions)
• At Your Best (You Are Love) - Aaliyah
• Secret Heart - Ron Sexsmith

Now head on over and enter the contest! xo xo.

Back in November, I was really excited about the augmented reality holiday cups at Starbucks. Well, when I was catching up reading my blog subscriptions this morning, I found out that they've done it again!

Starbucks just released their Valentine's Day cups, which are cutely decorated with hearts and arrows. If you have an iPhone or Android device, you can download their cup magic app and use it to see the cup come to life. A few of us in the office tried out the app on my morning latte, and it looked a little something like this:

I didn't notice any other Valentine's Day-themed products around the store, so I'm not sure if you can interact with other items like you could in November/December. From within the app, you can also send virtual Valentine's to your friends. As an Android user, I was glad to see that they've released the app for both iPhone and Android this time around.

Have you tried this out? What did you think?

Today the internet brought reports that the online retail giant Amazon is planning to open physical retail stores in the US. The news is unconfirmed so far, but sources say they would focus on small boutique stores with products like Kindle as well as titles that have been published by Amazon.

To me, the move doesn't really make sense, at least in the way it's been presented so far, and I can't see the stores being that popular. (Although a customer service center, where you can bring your broken or malfunctioning Kindle and exchange it for a new one immediately sounds amazing. Amazon is great with returns on the Kindle, but you still have to call or email customer service and wait for shipping and all that.) From the sounds of it, Amazon would start with opening stores in the US, but if they came to Canada, would you shop there? Virtually everything I've bought at Amazon.ca in the last few years has arrived the next day. And since I don't have a car, that's a whole lot easier than schlepping to the mall and back.

It's worth noting that there was a rumour at the end of 2009 that Amazon was planning on opening physical stores in the UK -- and that, of course, was false.

With Valentine's Day coming up next week, we're all scrambling trying to think of date ideas for the 14th. So, in the hopes of making things a little bit easier for everyone, we asked our Twitter followers to share their ideas with us. Here are a few of our favourites:

Think you can do better? Share your date ideas in the comments section!

I've already outed myself as a Diane Von Furstenberg fan so it's probably no surprise that I'm really excited to hear that she'll be doing a new line....for Gap Kids! You can get a sneak peek at the line here. We see a lot of really really cute pieces in big bold prints. And, although I personally passed out of Gap Kid sizes about the same time I stopped being a kid, many of my petite friends are stoked to check out the pieces for themselves -- sizes go up to XXL, which is about equal to a S in women's sizes.

Prices will start at $23 in the US (and undoubtedly be a bit higher for Canada). It's due to hit stores on March 15.

Last summer, Banana Republic partnered with Janie Bryant, the costume designer for Mad Men, to create a collection of apparel inspired by the show. We in the RedFlagDeals.com office spent the majority of the month of June swooning over the pieces (and their affordable prices!), so I was excited to hear that Banana Republic announced that they are planning a second collection this year!

This collection will be designed by Simon Kneen and Janie Bryant. According to USA Today, the collection will be launching on March 1. This is probably the US release date, but Canadian stores were not far behind on the last collection!

Since Mad Men finally returns for another season on March 25, I'll definitely be picking up a few pieces from this collection to wear while I sit at home, sip Old Fashioned's and watch the premiere.

Recently I came across some fun financial literacy quizzes from GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca. The best series is called the Cranial Cash Clash. You get 30 seconds to answer each question, and at the end of the quiz you'll be awarded a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal. (Honestly, I would prefer a fourth option of no medal at all if you score low enough!) So far, there are three quizzes -- Debt Drama, Quest to Invest and Scam Exam -- with two more slated to appear at a later time. If you're feeling particularly money-savvy (or just particularly competitive!) you can sign in through Facebook and compare scores with your friends.

GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca is a creation of the Investor Education Fund, which is a Canadian non-profit. They've got some great calculators for things like RRSPs, Investment Recovery, Credit Card and Debt and Mutual Fund Fees. It seems like a well-produced site that's worth checking out.

RedFlagDeals.com forum member longitude was on the AirTrain at JFK International Airport when he found a lost Nikon camera. Without much time to spare between his flights, he took it with him hoping he could reunite it with the owner later. He assumed the camera owner was Italian, because the camera menu was in Italian. To start he opened a thread in the Off Topic Forums explaining that he'd found the camera and asking if anyone knew of an RFD-like forum in Italy. From there:

• Another RedFlagDeals.com member, YSLF, reposted the information on a JFK message board, where it was seen by the owner
• An English-speaking friend of the camera's owner created a RedFlagDeals.com to send longitude a private message saying she knew who the camera belonged to
• Information was exchanged to confirm that the claim was legitimate and....
• A very happy message was passed along from the camera's owner!

And now, of course, RFD forum members are opining on the cheapest and best way to get the camera back to Italy!

Every day here at the RedFlagDeals.com headquarters we keep an office-wide Skype chat running to share lunch plans, office chatter and cute pictures of our pets. Yesterday afternoon I came across this article in The Star and sent it to the group along with a couple of comments. (Namely, is this guy kidding? Who can't read roman numerals? Is that a thing?) The reaction was varied, although I'm happy to report that the majority of my coworkers have a reasonable understanding of roman numerals and felt, like I did, that this guy was either a moron or just trying to be controversial. And then there was the employee who saw XLIV and said, "isn't that...14? Wait no. 24? Roman numerals suck." (It's 44. L means 50, and X means 10. If you place a smaller number in front of a larger number, it means you should subtract it -- so, 40. And the same thing goes for IV -- it's five minus one. So: 44. This year's Super Bowl is XLVI, which is 46.)

I don't think there's any reason to break with the tradition of referring to the Super Bowl according to roman numerals, despite The Star columnist claiming that "the only American who understands them any more is Dan Brown" and that they're a "good clue" to tell if "a person is dangerously self-involved." Certainly, you're not at any real loss in life if you can't decipher them, but on the other hand, it's a simple system and knowing it might just come in handy at your next pub quiz (or, more importantly, the next time you need to impress a date).