When it comes to buying technology and gadgets, most of us ask around and then hope we took the right advice. Every year PCMag surveys its readers on various categories. In the category of Internet service provider, Cox come in as the top cable-modem provider, which was voted second only to Verizon’s fiber service, which isn’t available here.

Cox’s service ranked above average for speed, reliability, e-mail, customer service and technical support. It ranked about average for initial setup and fees.

The list ranked only two other providers operating in the Tucson area. Qwest DSL ranked about average in most all categories, except it scored above average for its fee structure and below average for speed. Comcast cable ranked significantly below average, especially in the area of fees, reliability and customer service. Its best score was in speed, where it was ranked average.

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Cox tops for phone

And the beat goes on. JD Power and Associates ranked Cox as the top phone service provider in the West for the seventh consecutive year. The research firm specifically cited Cox’s customer service, performance and reliability.

Cox’s top rating of 684 was followed by Qwest Communications at 657. All of the rest of the phone providers in the West fell below average.

Wildcats on Fox Sports 

With both the Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins walking a line between good and not-so-good in the Pac-10 football standings this year, next weekend’s game at Arizona Stadium is going to be limited to regional telecasts by the Fox Sports Net services in Arizona and the Los Angeles area. Kickoff for the game on Oct. 24 is set for 3:30 p.m.

Touring with Madden

Tucson’s Madden Media has landed the Arizona Office of Tourism (AOT) contract to produce the 2010 Official State Visitor’s Guide, along with the 2010 Professional Travel Planner’s Guide, eNewsletters and other online media sales.

This is the first time the AOT has combined all these activities in one contract with a single source. The bidding process required that all deliverables be provided to the AOT at no cost.

The new guide is due to be published in February. Madden Media has contracts providing for tourism and destination marketing to organizations in 40 states.

‘Freed’ from newspapers

Four people who had been capturing images of Tucson for the Tucson Citizen before the newspaper folded in May have launched their own firm doing the same thing as Azphotogroup — or, as they say in their announcement, they’ve been “freed.” The group consists of photographers Renee Bracamonte, Val Cañez and Xavier Gallegos, and videographer/writer Daniel Buckley. They’re offering their services on a freelance or contract basis. The website for Azphotogroup is www.azphotogroup.com/.

Journal’s print deal

Journal Communications, Tucson’s largest player in electronic media, has its roots in print and has signed a three-year deal that will keep its Milwaukee presses busy: printing 39 weekly publications owned by the Chicago Sun-Times serving northeastern Illinois communities.

Terms of the deal weren’t announced but the tallies for the suburban weeklies total about 156,000 copies a week, averaging 122 pages.

The company’s flagship newspaper is the daily Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In Tucson, the company owns ABC-affiliate KGUN 9, CW-affiliate KWBA 58/cable 8, radio stations Mix-FM KMXZ 94.9-FM, the Truth KQTH 104.1-FM, Mega Oldies KGMG 106.3-FM/104.9-FM and Sportsradio ESPN the Fan KFNN 1490-AM.

Almost 1 of 5 of us has cell phone-only

Almost one out of five of us in the Tucson region have cut the cord on our land line phones, according to an estimate by Arbitron Inc., the radio ratings people.

The Tucson percentage, estimated to be between 16 and 20 percent, is among the higher penetrations of cell phone-only users in the country. Two of the biggest groups of people who are cell phone-only users, according to Arbitron, are those in college and the military, and Tucson has both of those.

Arbitron conducted its research in the 151 markets where it conducts radio ratings using the diary sampling method and found that cell phone-only penetration ranged from a low of 5 percent in the Hamptons, N.Y., to the highest of 38 percent in Bryan-College Station, Texas.

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.