RadioShack declared bankruptcy last February and closed around 2,300 of its stores. Around 1,700 of the company’s stores didn’t close, though, and the Shack’s leaders want you to know that not only are they still around, but they’re making progress toward their goal of becoming a neighborhood electronics store.
The continuing existence of RadioShack stores is because of Sprint, which partnered with the retail business’s new owners to put mini Sprint stores in each RadioShack. One hidden benefit to this arrangement was that the stores no longer need to display, and employees no longer need to sell, smartphones from every major national carrier. That frees up space and attention to maybe sell some other types of electronics.
A writer for Popular Mechanics recently visited a RadioShack that’s finally stocked with the chain’s new assortment of merchandise, and he was impressed, noting that while the stores used to be “run-down phone purveyors secretly wanting to be Best Buys,” now they have more of the spirit of a neighborhood electronics store, and the do-it-yourself electronics kits that used to bring shippers to RadioShack in decades past.
You can’t by a TRS-80, or any computers at all, but you can definitely buy a soldering kit and other useful toys.
A married couple in Mississippi tell the Clarion-Ledger that they were given the boot from their RV park after the landlord learned that the wife is white and the husband black.
The wife, whose husband is serving with the armed forces in Afghanistan, said she rented the spot at the park on Feb. 28, and the landlord was very polite, even inviting her to church.
But then the next day, she said she received a phone call from the landlord.
According to the wife, he told her, “You didn’t tell me you was married to no old black man.”
“I didn’t think it was important or a problem,” she told the man, who allegedly replied, “Oh it’s a big problem.’”
She claims that the landlord told her that the members of his church, community, and family “won’t have that white and black shacking stuff.”
The wife says she tried to explain that she and her husband were not “shacking up” but were happily married. To which, she says, the landlord replied that it was the “same thing.”
She says she made repeated attempts to reason with the landlord, pointing out that her husband — a sergeant in the U.S. Army — had served this country for 13 years, but “There was no reasoning with him.”
Back in February, the long-troubled craft store chain Hancock Fabrics filed for bankruptcy for the second time in a decade. This time, there will be no reorganization. The chain planned to close 70 stores and tried to find a buyer for the remaining 185 that would keep the open and preserve thousands of jobs across the country. The winning bidder in yesterday’s auction in bankruptcy court was Great American Group, a liquidator.
If that name sounds familiar, you’ve probably come across the company while bargain-hunting in the past. Great American Group is part of what Consumerist once called a “notorious cabal” of liquidators known for garish signs, terrible deals, and taking the “all sales final” policy very seriously.
Liquidation sales start today, and include the chain’s website. In traditional liquidation sale style, the deals aren’t very good yet.
While the chain’s closing is welcome news to some of the nation’s 8-year-olds, it leaves fans of sewing clothing with fewer in-person shopping choices. While home sewing is making a comeback, things aren’t as they were when the chain opened and sewing one’s own clothes was a common skill and the more economical choice.
Hancock Fabrics last filed for bankruptcy in 2007, but since its re-organization has only posted a profit once, in 2009.
Better keep your pile of reusable shopping bags close at hand, Minneapolis residents: the city’s council just voted to ban all plastic bags from store checkouts and impose a fee on customers who opt to get a paper bag instead of bringing their own carriers.
Starting June 1, 2017, businesses in the city won’t be allowed to use plastic bags to pack up customers’ purchases, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, after the City Council voted 10-3 in favor of the ban.
The city is also imposing $0.05-fee on each paper bag given out as well. Or, businesses can donate $0.05 for every paper, compostable, or reusable bag they hand out, which will go to groups that organize litter cleanup.
Supporters of the ban said it will help change how people act, cut down on litter, and get the city closer to its green goal of zero waste.
“I am excited that we’ve landed on something,” the ordinance’s sponsor and one of the city’s council members, Cam Gordon, told the paper. “I know that the city isn’t united on it, but I also know that by and large, people are enthusiastic and ready to make this move.”
Exempt from the rule will be bags without handles that are used for things like produce, bulk products, frozen foods, flowers, baked goods, newspapers, dry cleaning, and prescription drugs.
Minneapolis joins cities like Seattle; Portland, OR; Los Angeles; Chicago; Cambridge, MA, and others who have legalized such bans. Hawaii is so far the only state that has a ban on plastic bags.
Most retailers use Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to kick off their biggest shopping season of the year, even if they also move the sales kickoff around a bit. For stores that sell home-improvement and gardening supplies, spring is their biggest shopping season. That impeccable logic led to the invention of Spring Black Friday, which we first noticed in 2013. It isn’t going away.
We’d like to say that this is a silly self-promotional yet self-effacing April Fool’s Day prank, but the trend of spring Black Fridays at home-improvement stores is a few years old, and appears on different days of the calendar. Nope, it’s real, and back for another season at Lowe’s.
Courtesy of reader Henry, here’s an e-mail solicitation that Lowe’s sent out today. Other home improvement stores will join in soon if they haven’t already. Last year, Home Depot had an entire Spring Cyber Week.
Once the spring planting season is over, there’s just a few short months until Black Friday in July begins at Target and other retailers.
While there are currently no federal limits on arsenic levels in most food, the Food and Drug Administration announced today that it’s taking steps aimed at reducing inorganic arsenic in at least one product, infant rice cereal.
The FDA says this is parallel to the level set by the European Commission for rice that’s intended for the production of food for infants and young children. It’s different because the EC standard addresses the rice itself, while the FDA’s proposed guidance concerns levels for inorganic arsenic in rice cereal products, the FDA notes.
According to the agency, the majority of infant rice cereal currently on the market either meets, or is close to, the proposed limit.
“Our actions are driven by our duty to protect the public health and our careful analysis of the data and the emerging science,” said Susan Mayne, Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “The proposed limit is a prudent and achievable step to reduce exposure to arsenic among infants.”
This is all well and good of course, if you’re an infant, but what about all those other rice products?
Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., executive director of the Consumer Reports Food Safety & Sustainability Center, weighed in on the FDA’s announcement, and asks that very question.
“While Consumer Reports is pleased to see that the FDA has finally proposed a limit on arsenic in infant rice cereal, and it is close to the level we recommended more than three years ago, we remain concerned that so many other rice-based products consumed by children and adults remain without any standards at all,” Rangan said, noting that it’s particularly true of children’s ready-to-eat cereals.
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“We believe the FDA can act swiftly to protect public health and set levels on these products based on the risk the agency has acknowledged in its announcement today, and we intend to continue to push them on behalf of consumers to do so,” Rangan said in a statement. “In the meantime, we continue to advise that infants and children diversify their diets and focus on alternatives to rice.”
The backstory: Since 2003, a site called BytePhoto.com has been allowing community members to upload photos to compete in “Photo of the Month” contests. This is not some huge Flickr or Instagram pic-sharing site. In fact, court records indicate that its a money-losing labor of love for its owners.
But in 2014, the site was sued by a New Jersey company called Garfum, which in 2012 was granted a patent that could liberally be construed to cover any sort of voting based on a selection of images.
Unwilling to pay the $50,000 “settlement” offer from Garfum, BytePhoto — later supported by lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation — fought back, claiming the patent is not some new invention or system, but merely transfers the generic idea of voting for your favorite photo from the real world to the virtual realm.
In other words, you can’t take an ages old idea — voting for your favorite from a selection of options — and patent the concept just because it’s being done online or on a computer. As such, BytePhoto filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the patent was unenforceable.
Facing the EFF’s legal experts and new Supreme Court precedent, Garfum (not to be confused with Eau de Garfunk, Art Garfunkle’s short-lived cologne that we just made up) dropped the case in May 2015 with a “covenant not to sue” BytePhoto, saying that the plaintiff had “run out of options.”
Having wasted the time of BytePhoto’s owners and the EFF, the battle then began for legal fees.
The defendants argued that Garfum had litigated the case “in bad faith,” but Garfum countered that BytePhoto had not actually prevailed in the lawsuit and should not be due any attorney fees.
Further, when looking at the merits of BytePhoto’s argument that the patent in question only covers an un-patentable generic concept, the judge concluded that this patent is just describing an abstraction — “ranking content by popularity and within a category” — and that “the requirement to involve an online database does not make the claim inventive.”
“[A]ny person with pen or paper could perform the same steps of the method claimed in the patent — tallying votes and organizing content based on those tallied votes,” explains the judge. “It is of no moment that the votes may be numerous or the amount of content to organize voluminous; the patent itself claims ‘a plurality’ meaning only more than one.”
With regard to Garfum’s behavior during the lawsuit, the court agrees with BytePhoto that the case was “not litigated in a manner showing confidence in a strong litigation position,” noting that the initial $50,000 settlement demand was quickly dropped by 90% to $5,000 then an additional 50% to $2,500, then dropped the complaint altogether after the defendant filed the motion to dismiss. The judge says this could be read as Garfum trying to get out before the patent was challenged.
Making things look even worse for Garfum is that BytePhoto rejected Garfum’s walk-away offer because BytePhoto was intent on getting the court to rule on the validity of the patent.
In explaining its decision to quit the case, Garfum said that “pursuing the case further did not make any financial sense in light of the low potential damages and that it did not have the financial wherewithal to engage in protracted litigation.”
But the judge says the timing of Garfum’s exit — immediately after the court decided to hear BytePhoto’s motion to dismiss — “makes it appear as though Plaintiff was running away from any decision on the merits.”
The judge also calls BS on the “run out of options” excuse given by Garfum.
“For Plaintiff to claim that it had no other option but to provide a covenant not to sue to avoid the
attendant consequences of bringing a lawsuit is at odds with the fact that Plaintiff is the one who filed suit,” explains the judge.
In total, Garfum is currently on the hook for just under $29,000 in fees for three attorneys involved in the case. That will increase slightly after the court accounts for the hours put in on the final documents related to the fee dispute.
This only represents costs for the work done by these lawyers since April of 2015. Had Garfum been required to cover the full legal fees, it would have been closed to $64,000.
Ever since April 1, 1922 when our print forerunner, The Consumerist Bugle-Gazette, ran an April Fools’ Day cover story that unwittingly — but accurately — announced the death of exiled Austrian Emperor Charles I, we’ve not tempted fate and avoided such tomfoolery. But others aren’t burdened by these ghosts of Aprils gone awry.
If you are paying any attention to the Internet today, odds are you’re aware that today is the day when companies try to prove their cleverness/drum up some brand interest with big announcements on April Fools’ Day. We decided to round up all those desperate attempts at relevance and stick’em in one spot, so you can get all those groans out with a single blow.
1. Quilted Northern: Bespoke artisanal toilet paper
Bathroom tissue products too mainstream for you? We can easily imagine a world of hand-pulped, hand-perforated, artisanally crafted toilet paper. Behold, hipsters, Rustic Weave.
2. White Castle: Nationwide Crave Case delivery drones
Jonesing for 30 White Castle sliders? The CrazyCopter is here to save the day — if it was a real thing delivering Crave Cases and not the chain’s April Fools’ prank. Don’t get our hopes up, man.
3. Royal Caribbean space cruises
For those who are curious about what getting norovirus in space would be like, Royal Caribbean has a fake answer! “Orbiter of the Galaxies, our first ever spaceship, will take its first guests to space in 2030. Combining features from our current fleet with space travel, prepare for an extraordinary holiday,” the company says on a site dedicated to the space-age prank.
4. Google Cardboard Plastic
Why be so literal when it comes to virtual reality? Google’s prank product will offer users a clear view of… reality. Like, real reality, as in the opposite of virtual reality. Someone is probably trying to buy this right now.
5. Cornhub, fulfilling hot corn addicts everywhere
Pornhub knows how much its users love having a searchable site for all their porn needs, so why not appeal to all those corn fans out there with an online destination for the hottest corn action?
6. DoorDash hires doggy delivery staff
What’s better than getting food delivered to your door by a nice human? Getting it dropped off by a Corgie. DoorDash taps into the collective desire for cuteness with DoggyDash, featuring doggie delivery.
“Their keen sense of smell can recognize all your favorite restaurants, meaning unparalleled order accuracy every time,” DoorDash says. “And by delivering each order with a friendly face and a wag of a tail, we know they’ll leave you begging for more.” Again, don’t toy with our emotions, people.
7. Sally Beauty pet “pawducts”
Speaking of dogs, Rover’s paws are looking a bit ruff lately. Sally Beauty has the perfect line of fake products for your pooch this April Fools’ Day. Our favorite? “You Not Stanky Now,” the best name for a fake pet product we’ve ever heard.
8. Alaska’s capital city renamed in deal with Mattel
Juneau, AK will be no more under the terms of an agreement with Mattel to rename the city Uno, after the color-and-number matching card game. Except that it’s April Fools’ Day, so nothing will actually change.
“We sort of thought, ‘How do we go wild for UNO and what’s something we can do that’s wild?'” said Ray Adler, the company’s director of global games in a press release. “And we looked to the great outdoors.”
9. Hulu launches a dating app
Maybe you’ve heard of “Netflix and chill,” but Hulu wants to take a more proactive approach in involving itself in your dating life with its romance app, HuluDatr. A fake approach that takes into account the TV habits of successful marriages, since compatibility in that area is an important part of any relationship.
“HuluDatr is the revolutionary free new app that Hulu viewers can opt-in to that will transform the way soul mates find one another,” the streaming video company says on its site.
10. Airbnb launches Lairbnb
Hey, heroes and evildoers! Do you have a lair sitting around empty, waiting for just the right scheming genius to occupy it? Check out Airbnb’s new fake service for lair owners in need of renters to provide them with a little extra cash.
11. Real Ghostbusters proton packs
Sony is toying with Ghostbusters‘ fans emotions with this real-life proton pack to catch ghosts. It’ll be available July 15, which just so happens to be the same date the new Ghostbusters flick lands in theaters. Ah, the classic marketing stunt in April Fools’ Day clothing.
12. Realtor.com pet home listings
If your dog or cat is looking for that perfect furr-ever home, Realtor.com has the fake service for you. With addresses like “Hairball Lane” and “Best Friend Drive,” it’s quite clear that your furry friend won’t be moving into their own pricy pad anytime soon.
13. GrubHub introduces new Grüber app
Need a ride somewhere and want to smell someone else’s lunch at the same time? That’s weird, but GrubHub has you covered with its new fake app, Grüber, which “will allow people who love both the smell of food and new cars, and the delight of a car showing up the moment they need transportation, to hitch a ride with Grubhub’s restaurant delivery drivers.”
“When riders get in the car, they will enter a world of sensory delights. The faint smell of someone else’s food, controlled by our patented ventilation system to ensure the perfect balance between food fragrance and new car smell, will fill the car with the perfect scent,” GrubHub’s announcement reads. “Concurrently, the food’s presence will keep the seat next to the rider warm and the sample-sized snacks will ensure that riders are never hungry.”
14. Esurance offering election insurance
Every election year, some folks start to grumble about how they’ll move out of the country if their preferred candidate doesn’t win. Esurance is here for you, in the way that any other company announcing news on April 1 is, with election insurance.
“This unique (bipartisan) coverage will protect your home for the next four years if your preferred candidate loses the presidential election and you choose to leave the country,” the company says.
15. Lyft wants to help prank your pals
Lyft is offering free “prank” rides for customers in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. It involves forcing your friend to get in a car with you — and the driver is in on the whole thing.
“Want to get in on the prank action? Start the shenanigans with the tap of a button,” Lyft says. “From 11 AM – 5 PM this Friday, you can request Lyft to come play a prank on one of your friends.”
16. Zipcar Selfie Driving
Zipcar is admitting it’s obsessed with its customers, with a new hoax campaign that uses selfies to match customers with just the right car, based on their expressions and other mysterious algorithms. Bad hair day? “Tinted windows comin’ at ya,” Zipcar’s video says.
17. OpenTable’s lickable taste tests
As if it’s not already gross enough to think about what germs you touch on your phone with your hands, Opentable’s April Fools’ joke would have customers licking photos on their phones to taste a restaurant’s food before they arrive.
18. Groupon deal for professional cat readers
Because it knows everyone loves to pamper their cats, Groupon has a fake offer that will get feline fans purring with happiness until they realize that no one will actually be reading aloud to their cats.
“We’ve hand-picked expert feline readers who are skilled at delivering a gripping tale to your friend with a tail,” Groupon says. “Imagine the blank stare of pride in your cat’s eyes when she hears the inspiring story of the lion, Aslan, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Or the unblinking gaze of total excitement as she puzzles out the whodunit plot of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.”
19. Lexus’ Velcro safety solution
This one’s pretty simple. Velcro on person, Velcro on Lexus car seat, driver stays put. It’s not real though. Is anything real today? We’re not entirely sure at this point.
20. YouTube introduces Snoopavision
Sure, you could watch a video on YouTube the regular way… or you could watch it and ANY other videos in 360 degrees with Snoop Dogg! Or YouTube is punking us, because it’s April 1. Dammit, YouTube. Make this real. Just this one.
21. Gmail’s attempt at a mic drop
And then there’s Gmail’s April Fools’ Day gaffe, which it was busy apologizing for before the day had barely begun: a “Mic Drop & Send” button that would insert an animation of a Minion from the Despicable Me movies and mute any replies to that email. When people accidentally hit that button instead of “send,” confusion ensued and Google pulled the plug.
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Volkswagen’s diesel-engine vehicles haven’t exactly had a great few months, what with federal regulators finding that 500,000 of the vehicles contain “defeat devices” that cheat emission standards. Issues for the cars continued this week as the carmaker announced it would recall 91,000 Passat TDI sedans over fire concerns.
VW will recall about 91,000 model year 2012 to 2014 diesel-engine Passat sedans because wiring under the vehicle can corrode, overheat, and potentially start a fire.
According to a notice [PDF] filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, improperly assembled wire seals in a connector of an underbody sensor may allow water to corrode electrical terminals.
This can lead to an electrical short with the possibility of overheating at the electrical connection, and cause the Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL) in the vehicle to illuminate.
In rare cases, overheating of the electrical connection could result in a fire underneath the vehicles, VW says.
The carmaker tells NHTSA that the issue was first discovered in November 2015 when the production plant reported overheated electrical connectors and isolated underbody fires in the vehicles. Further tests were performed in January and a defect was determined to be present in March 2016.
VW says that owners of affected vehicles will be notified in June and dealers will replace the connector with a new one that is properly sealed.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, the outbreak of Listeria in bagged salad mixes is now officially over. Contaminated salads sent 19 people to the hospital, killing one patient, and made an unknown number of other people sick. How did the greens get contaminated? Was there a problem with the Ohio facility, and is it still shut down? We don’t currently know.
While the outbreak happened in a Dole processing facility, Dole packages greens for numerous store brands, including Kroger, Walmart, Aldi, and Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws. These were all eventually recalled, though the recall didn’t occur until random testing turned up Listeria bacteria in lettuce packaged at the plant. The pathogen was matched to Listeria that had made people 19 people sick enough to be hospitalized in cases dating back to October of 2015.
Food Safety News is waiting for the results of a Freedom of Information act request for the report on the FDA’s post-outbreak inspection of the Dole plant in Ohio.
There’s a difference between a dumb April Fools’ Day joke that isn’t funny or doesn’t trick anyone, and an April Fools’ Day joke that makes people angry and results in a $517 billion company having to apologize.
Only hours into its 2016 April Fools’ fun, Google had to pull the plug on its latest goof: A “Mic Drop & Send” button on Gmail accounts.
If pressed, this button inserted an animation of a Minion (from the Despicable Me movies) dropping a microphone on the conversation. More importantly — and annoyingly — it muted any replies to that email.
The functional button seemed like a fun way to seemingly assert your superiority in a discussion, but it turned out to cause just a few problems for Gmail users.
Not everyone noticed the new feature, which was placed on an orange button next to the normal “Send” button. Thus, Gmail users around the world were inadvertently dropping the mic on bosses, professors, loved ones, potential employers, and many others.
Gmail Mic Drop: “We’ve defaced some of your messages and hidden the replies, and you probably have no idea why! LOL, April Fool!”
Users expressed their concern and dissatisfaction that the button was actually functional on Google’s product forum starting soon after the joke hit the web.
“I just completed [a] questionnaire via e-mail for a JOB and accidentally hit the send + mic drop button!!! GOOGLE I WANT THIS FEATURE TURNED OFF!!” one Gmail user wrote.
“This is stupid and has no business on an email. It should be optional,” another user said.
Google responded to the outcry, disabling the feature and apologizing any trouble caused by the prank.
Still, some people were sad to see the annual April Fools’ joke end so soon.
@google Forget what the haters say about the mic drop feature. Bring it back!
The number-one complaint we get from Consumerist readers is “You guys just don’t have enough ads on your site! Where are all the pop-ups, roll-overs, pop-overs, auto-play videos, and page-crashing ad units that make surfing the web so dang enjoyable?” We hear you, we do; we just don’t have the staff to sell all those ads you want bogging down your browser and tracking you across pages and platforms. And even if we did, those pesky jerks at the FCC are trying to rob us — and consumers — of more options to be marketed to, and commodified by, our Internet service providers.
For those coming late to the game, when the FCC reclassified broadband providers as utility-like “common carriers” in 2015, it meant that the Federal Trade Commission no longer had privacy-related oversight on the industry. So recently the FCC began the process of filling that gap, voting to merely move forward with the process of drafting privacy regulations.
Cohen, taking yet another break from all that wonderful diversity work, argues — reminder: this blog post was published on March 31 so it’s not an April fool’s joke — that it’s “competitive startups” like Comcast, and ultimately the consumer, who will be hurt by these rules.
He accuses FCC Chair Tom Wheeler — himself a former frontman for the cable and wireless industries — of “inexplicably” targeting ISPs with the privacy rules.
Perhaps Mr. Cohen needs to look up the definition of “inexplicably,” as Wheeler and others have explained numerous times that consumers have a right to privacy, and the FCC has the authority to regulate broadband providers.
Cohen also claims that ISPs “have been responsible stewards of consumers’ privacy for decades,” without mentioning previous efforts by Comcast to block or throttle customers from accessing certain content, and how the broadband industry is once again fighting to overturn net neutrality rules so that it can block and throttle with impunity.
Telling a broadband customer which sites they can and can’t visit is as much of a privacy violation as a telephone company deciding who you should be allowed to call.
The real problem, argues Cohen, is that these new privacy rules — which, again, do not even exist yet and are currently nothing more than a series of possible questions to be investigated and asked — could prevent Comcast from being a disruptive force that competes with Google or Facebook in the ad network.
“The unfortunate result of the FCC’s extreme regulatory proposals will be more consumer confusion and less competition,” writes Cohen, without explaining how in the world consumers might actually be confused by the fact that their ISP could possibly be restricted from tracking and reselling users’ browsing data without permission.
He calls for a “uniform and consistent privacy regime,” but really means “we want to be able to do what Google and Facebook do,” when what many consumers really want is for all of the above to stop invading their privacy.
Interestingly, both Cohen and the FCC commissioners who oppose these privacy rules have been eager to cite a March 18 memo [PDF] from the Electronic Privacy Information Center that criticizes the Commission for only going after ISPs. What they gloss over is the fact that EPIC memo is explicitly in favor of regulating ISPs’ data collection; it just just believes that focusing on ISPs still leaves most of the bad actors in play.
Cohen repeatedly beats the drum that ISPs are only a small part of the privacy invasion problem and that they do nothing more nefarious than other online companies. But if Comcast and other ISPs are doing so little tracking and reselling of customer info, why then are they putting up such a big fight about the mere possibility of being told they might have to follow some rules?
Because they want to do more.
AT&T is already blatantly using customer data in markets where it offers its GigaPower fiberoptic service. To entice customers to make their browsing habits available to marketers, the company offers a nearly 30% discount off the price of service, while charging top dollar to those who want to retain some shred of privacy.
Cohen contends that the FCC regulation (even though it doesn’t exist and will probably be challenged in court for years if and when it does get enacted) “places a thumb on the scale of competition in the online advertising marketplace in favor of the entrenched incumbents.”
And what wondrous new advertising units would Comcast be able to provide with the help of data gleaned from customers (full disclosure: I live in Philadelphia and have no real choice but to be a Comcast customer)?
“One example of the extreme nature of the FCC’s proposal and how it would negatively impact competition and consumers relates to cross-marketing of our competitive products and services to existing ISP customers,” writes Cohen. “Under the FCC proposal, Xfinity Internet customers could miss out on learning about lower prices for taking bundles of services like Xfinity Home Security.”
That’s right — Cohen is arguing that the FCC should scrap its plan to regulate ISPs’ data collection so that Comcast can sell you more Comcast services.
And besides, writes Cohen, industry lobbyists have already sorted out this privacy thing. In early March, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, American Cable Association, USTelecom, CTIA, and the Competitive Carriers Association outlined what they call a “framework” [PDF] for what the FCC should consider:
“(1) transparency; (2) respect for context and consumer choice; (3) data security; and (4) data breach notification.”
But apparently “transparency” does not include the core idea of the FCC’s proposal — giving consumers the right to opt out of being tracked.
Will the FCC rules put an end to broadband privacy concerns? No. But saying that the rules aren’t worth pursuing because they won’t eradicate privacy invasions is like arguing that there’s no point in having traffic lights because people still get into car crashes.
For those times when your Android smartphone isn’t clutched safely in your hand or resting at an accessible distance nearby, you may experience moments when you’re unaware if you’ve just received a text or missed a phone call. Microsoft says it’s going to ameliorate any uneasiness you may feel by funneling Android phone notifications over to PCs running on Windows 10.
At Build 2016 yesterday, Microsoft laid out its plans to send notifications about missed calls, messages, and other things from Android phones to Windows 10 PCs, reports The Verge.
To accomplish this, Microsoft is using its Cortana app for Android to link the devices. Cortana for Android will develop a user notification store in the cloud, which will let notifications mirror onto a Windows 10 PC, The Verge explains.
If you’re using a PC and receive a notification, you can reply to it using your computer instead of pulling out your phone, or dismiss it. The feature will also work with Windows 10 Mobile devices as well, but iPhone users will be left out of the fun.
The new feature is slated for a “future version of Windows,” Microsoft says, which means we could see it as early as this summer with the anticipated Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
Incorrectly positioned airbags, heaters that can cause a fire, and parking brakes that can fail. Those are three things you probably don’t want to occur in your vehicle. But for thousands of Ford owners it’s a possibility and the carmaker has issued three recalls to fix things.
Ford announced Thursday that it would recall 48,300 vehicles for a range of safety issues.
First up, the automakers will recall 37,905 model year 2015-2016 transit vans equipped with airbags that may not work properly.
According to Ford, the side-curtain airbags may be positioned incorrectly. In the event of a crash, the airbags may not deploy correctly, increasing the risk of injury to passengers.
The company says it is unaware of any injuries or accidents related to the issue. Owners will be notified and dealers will inspect and adjust the side-curtain airbags to correct the position.
The second recall involves 5,500 model year 2015 to 2016 Lincoln MKC and model year 2016 Ford Explorer SUVs that may contain block heaters that can overheat and possibly start a fire.
Ford said it’s aware of two reports of underhood fires in Canada, but is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the issue.
Owners will be notified of the issue and dealers will replace the heaters with an updated design.
The final, and smallest, recall covers 4,800 model year 2015 to 2016 Ford F-650 and F-750 trucks that may contain a broken parking brake cable connector clip.
In some vehicles, the parking brake connector clips were not manufactured to the correct specifications and could break – resulting in unintended movement of the vehicle and increased risk of injury, Ford says.
The company says it is unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the issue. Dealers will replace the connector clips.
Unfortunately, we don’t all carry little elves on our person who can administer a hefty poke when we need to snap to attention. State Farm is working on a way to solve that issue with a patent for a wearable device system that can alert drivers who might be nodding off, distracted, or intoxicated behind the wheel.
The insurance company has dreamed up a wearable computing device capable of alerting drivers with a physical nudge or maybe a vibration, if the person is showing signs of being ill-prepared to drive, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The system could also take a look at patterns in your trips over time and then make suggestions, like “drinking a caffeinated beverage shortly before operating the vehicle at high impairment times,” the patent said.
Users would receive information and alerts through smart watches, wireless headsets, computer-enhanced glasses or clothing. The patent lays out a system of optic sensors to catch things like nodding heads and how long it’s taking you between blinks, which would then be used to calculate a drowsiness score.
“As our industry and the needs of our customers continue to change, State Farm strives to be a leading innovator within the insurance marketplace,” a spokeswoman told the Tribune. “As part of this process, it’s important that State Farm protects its ideas through patent filings, and the patent process allows us to further research ideas to determine how we can better serve our customers, as well as improve vehicle safety.”
She declined to comment on whether information collected by the devices, like the drowsiness score, would factor into customers’ insurance rates.
While State Farm and others in the insurance world are looking into such technology, it’s not like the industry is the first to venture into wearable territory, which is also a somewhat murky territory when it comes to privacy concerns. An insurer tracking drivers’ physiology could be a tough row to hoe.
“While no one is against making distracted driving less frequent, State Farm has its work cut out for it getting its policyholders to accept sensors that collect very personal — physical and physiological — data,” Donald Light, director of the North America property and casualty insurance practice of financial technology consulting firm Celent told the Tribune.
Federal airline regulations require that carriers must either give most passengers a 24-hour window to cancel tickets without penalty, or allow travelers to put tickets on hold for 24 hours before being charged the airfare. Of all major U.S. carriers, American Airlines is the only one that doesn’t offer the cancellation option, resulting in costly confusion for some travelers. But AA says it is ditching that policy and will begin offering the 24-hour cancellation window instead.
American chose to change its policy on 24-hour holds after passengers continually called the airline confused about why they were unable to cancel their flights within 24 hours of purchase, The Washington Post reports.
According to the Department of Transportation’s regulations, as long as a customer books a non-refundable ticket at least seven days ahead of the scheduled departure, an airline is required to offer one of two options: allow that customer to change or cancel the trip within 24 hours without penalty, or hold that reservation at the current price for 24 hours without payment.
Unlike nearly all the other domestic airlines, American subscribed to the Department of Transportation’s 24-hour hold guideline, and that proved to be confusing for many travelers.
“Up until now, we’ve done it a little differently than other airlines,” Josh Freed, a spokesperson for American, tells the Post. “Reasonably enough, people assumed the policies were the same.”
The airline says it will phase out the 24-hour hold, but that travelers booking flights through its website can still use the option for now. Additionally, passengers using reward miles to book flights will still be able to use the 24-hour hold for the foreseeable future.
Last year, Consumerist reported on one passenger’s run-in with the sometimes confusing rule. Reader “B” discovered the policy the hard way after booking and trying to cancel a flight on American Airlines within that 24-hour period.
While part of the confusion came because the airline followed the lesser 24-hour policy, it also involved American’s display of the option: the “hold reservation” selection is included with other payment options, like “Credit/Debit Card,” and “PayPal.”
“I wouldn’t normally consider a ‘hold’ a payment option,” B. told Consumerist at the time, “and given its credit card-like symbol and location on the far right I just ignored it like I would ignore a specialized type of credit card that I didn’t have.”
In the end, B. filed a complaint with customer relations and was refunded for his ticket.
Here’s a full (updated) list of airlines’ 24-hour hold/refund policies:
Earlier this year, public health advocates criticized a University of Maryland research program for taking money from a beverage company and then claiming in a press release — with no reviewable data to back up its assertions — that this company’s chocolate milk product could improve cognitive skills of athletes who’d suffered concussions. Today, the university is admitting that maybe this was not the brightest idea.
Just a quick catch-up for those who missed the previous story. There’s a program called Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) that teams up state school researchers with local companies. In Dec. 2015, MIPS sent out a press release claiming that a new brand of chocolate milk “helped high school football players improve their cognitive and motor function over the course of a season, even after experiencing concussions.”
Scientists and public health advocates reviewed the press release and shredded MIPS for putting out a largely fact-free, “boastful release touting vague neurological benefits of a specific chocolate milk.”
For example, while MIPS researchers used a cognitive function test with 36 different measurements, the release failed to specify which of these metrics actually showed improvement.
And instead of releasing the study or publishing it in a peer-reviewed journal, MIPS only made the press release public. A number of organizations — including Consumerist — asked to see the study on which the release was based, but MIPS declined to make it available.
But even though the researchers weren’t willing to share their actual study, they had no problem using it to market this product. The press release even included a statement from a local school superintendent who declared, “Now that we understand the findings of this study, we are determined to provide [the chocolate milk] to all of our athletes.”
In response to the criticism, the University quietly formed an ad-hoc review committee to investigate whether anything inappropriate had occurred. That committee has now released its findings [PDF] and though it found no wrongdoing on the part of the beverage company that sponsored the study, MIPS is nonetheless returning the full $228,910 in funding that it received from these backers, “out of an abundance of caution and to remove any perception of conflict of interest.”
In touting the chocolate milk — whose brand name we won’t mention — the lead researcher on the study actually included endorsements in company press releases, saying “Our data suggest that athletes may be ready faster and better for the next game or practice if they drink [this brand of] chocolate milk.”
The school’s review committee found such quotes “troubling,” even if they did not violate any written University policy.
“[I]t is surprising that a tenured faculty member would think that product endorsement is appropriate,” writes the committee in its findings.
The committee also criticized this study for not being an attempt to improve or develop a product, but to validate a specific brand. In fact, in applying for the MIPS program, the beverage company explicitly stated its intentions when it wrote that “Having research underway at the University of Maryland gives our business and its product credibility.”
Moreover, the committee raises the question of why the study tested this chocolate milk brand only against brands recommended by the sponsoring company.
Internal review during the study itself questioned why the lead researcher — a biomechanics expert — was in charge of this study, as he did “not have any experience in nutritional/supplementation research.” Likewise, the project itself was “missing numerous elements that would make this effective in concluding anything that would be useful to the company or to the state of the literature.”
The committee concluded that the project “appears more like a service agreement than research aimed at generating and disseminating new knowledge” and that there were “simply too many uncontrolled variables to produce meaningful scientific results.”
Additionally, the committee recommends that no press release should include even a preliminary conclusion until after the data has been peer-reviewed and, under most circumstances, accepted for publication.
“We have already begun work with our conflict of interest committee to make appropriate changes to conflict of interest policies and training programs for all applicable research and administrative personnel,” says the University in a statement. “While we have every reason to believe this was an isolated incident, any deviations from accepted practices in the responsible conduct of research cannot be tolerated. Any potential sanctions against faculty or staff involved in this matter would be considered, by policy, confidential personnel matters.”
The trouble with “lifetime” warranties is that they often leave out an important detail: whose lifetime? That’s what a homeowner in California wonders now that her windows are bending away from them frame and generally failing at being windows. Now she can’t find the company that installed $25,000 worth of windows in her home only 9 years ago, or the company that actually manufactured the windows.
The homeowner did what people in Sacramento traditionally do in this situation: she called consumer reporter Kurtis Ming at the local CBS affiliate. She wondered what she should do now that her windows were bending, and the “lifetime” warranty was a big selling point when she had them installed.
The company promised to stand behind the windows as long as she owns or lives in her home, but the contact information that she had for the manufacturer, Superior Engineered Products, led nowhere.
In her case, there was good news. The company that installed her windows had gone out of business, but the manufacturer actually didn’t. They had merged with another window company, and the new owners were actually honoring warranties… or at least said that they were when a local news station came calling.
Just three weeks after crashing Marriott’s party and throwing billions of dollars in the ring to take over Starwood Hotels — the operator of brands like Sheraton, St. Regis, Westin, and W — China’s Anbang Insurance Group packed up its bids and decided to go home, leaving Marriott and its $13.25 billion to be crowned the merger winner.
The consortium issued a statement Thursday that simply blamed unspecified “various market considerations” for the decision.
Following Anbang’s decision to back out of its bid, Starwood said its board of directors continued to unanimously support the existing merger with Marriott to create the largest hotelier in the world.
“We continue to be very excited about the combination of our two companies and are committed to completing this deal in an expeditious manner,” Bruce Duncan, Chairman of Starwood’s Board, said in a statement.
As it stands, Marriott’s deal to buy Starwood is valued at $13.25 billion, with $9.7 billion coming from Marriott stock and $3.6 billion from cash.
Marriott first agreed to purchase Starwood for $12 billion in November 2015 in a bid to create the world’s largest hotelier.
That deal was put into doubt five months later when it received an unsolicited takeover bid of roughly $13.2 billion from Anbang. Days later, Marriott came back with a $13.6 billion deal, that Starwood again agreed to.
While relatively unknown in the U.S., the company previously purchased Hilton’s flagship Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan for $1.95 billion in Oct. 2014. More recently, Anbang acquired the Strategic Hotels & Resorts portfolio, which includes luxury properties under the Loews, Fairmont, InterContinental, and Four Seasons brands.
While we’re used to companies trying to slip in an April Fools’ Day story and have it reported as real on this day every year, Krispy Kreme is taking another tack. See, it really is offering customers a free doughnut today, but the reason for doing so is still of the “Hardy har har, I see what you did there,” variety.
This year’s doughnut harvest was um, especially plentiful, so there are extra doughnuts that need eating, Krispy Kreme explains, ostensibly while trying to keep a straight face.
“The Doughnut Harvest yields hundreds of thousands of bushels of doughnettes — each one carefully nurtured from a doughnut seedling, then individually selected by our master doughnut growers at the peak of freshness—which are then brought into our shops for final glazing or hand-decorating,” the company said in a release.
“This year, on account of the unusually fair winter, the Doughnut Harvest was especially bountiful,” the chain said, which is where you come in. “Now, for the first time, the surplus is so great we are inviting guests everywhere to join us in celebration.”
To help with this doughnut overload, customers can come in today, April 1, and receive one free glazed original doughnut. While you’re there, you can “experience first-hand the harvest tradition which, until this year, was a celebration reserved only for growers and their families.”
Right, we get it, a doughnut harvest, what a joke! Doughnuts don’t grow in the ground! As far as we know, there’s no requirement to laugh at the chain’s humor in order to get the deal, so again, free doughnuts are up for grabs. There is a list of locations that are not participating today, so you should check that here before you go.
Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.
Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.
It’s been nearly two years since Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the development of the Model 3, the high-end electric vehicle maker’s first venture into more affordable automobiles. Aside from that price point and claims about being able to get around 200 miles to a single charge, not much else has been disclosed until tonight’s long-awaited press/sales event.
In front of an adoring crowd in California on Thursday night, Musk finally pulled the covers of the Model 3, confirming the $35,000 base price, and saying the vehicle will have at least an EPA-rated 215 miles on a full charge.
“These are minimum numbers,” said the CEO. “We hope to exceed them.”
The company began allowing customers to register for the Model 3 last night. Putting your name on the list for the car will set you back $1,000 but Musk claims that more than 115,000 people have already signed up to get theirs, whenever it’s released.
So when will that be?
That’s a good question. At first, Musk confidently stated that customers will be able to take delivery next year, only to then hesitate and — with a nervous titter — clarify that “I do feel fairly confident that it will be next year.”
In terms of features, Musk says that the goal isn’t to make a car that averages 5 stars across the various automotive safety categories, but which earns a 5-star rating in each category. Additionally, Tesla’s “Autopilot” software — which warns against things like side collisions and assists with with parallel parking and lane-changing — will be standard on all Model 3s.
Tesla also says the Model 3 will be a speedster, with the base version accelerating from 0-60 mph in fewer than six seconds, and higher-performance editions that can go faster.
“At Tesla, we don’t make slow cars,” boasted Musk.
The Model 3 will seat five adults. Since there is no large combustion engine eating up space under the hood, Tesla was able to compress the dashboard and give more legroom to the front seats. Musk also claims that the rear window design — a large pane of glass that extends over the passengers’ heads — makes backseat driving a more tolerable experience.
Like the Model S, the Model 3 will have both front and rear trunks. Musk says that the new vehicle will have more cargo capacity than any gas-powered car of the same size.
“Can you fit a 7-foot-long surfboard on the inside?” asked the CEO to himself. “Yes you can.”
All Model 3 versions will also be Supercharger compatible, meaning they will be able to power up quickly at one of the company’s hundreds of branded charging stations. There are currently more than 3,600 of these Superchargers worldwide, with the plan to double that number by the end of 2017.
Earlier this month, in a hurried legislative process, North Carolina lawmakers passed HB2, a bill that overrides and prevents local governments from establishing anti-discrimination rules against gay and transgender people. This morning, advocacy groups delivered a letter to NC Gov. Pat McCrory signed by top executives from more than 100 companies, all calling for the state to repeal the law.
The letter [PDF], organized by the Human Rights Campaign, was signed by CEOs of major tech and online companies (Facebook, Reddit, Google, PayPal, eBay, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Intel, Yelp, among others), retail and hospitality (Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, Starwood Hotels, Marriott) — and perhaps most importantly to North Carolina, banks.
Both Wells Fargo, which has a major corporate presence in Charlotte, and Bank of America, which calls Charlotte home, signed onto the letter.
It was a Charlotte city ordinance that would have allowed transgender people to use whichever public restroom they identify with that spurred the state legislature to pass HB2. The new state law overrides any local laws that provide anti-discrimination protections for people based on sexual preference or gender identity.
“We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law,” reads the letter. “The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business. This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development.”
The businesses contend that HB2 will only complicate matters for North Carolina businesses seeking to recruit employees to move to the state. Similarly, it will hurt the state’s tourism appeal, argues the letter.
“Discrimination is wrong, and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country,” concludes the letter. “As companies that pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming to all, we strongly urge you and the leadership of North Carolina’s legislature to repeal this law in the upcoming legislative session.”
This morning, HRC President Chad Griffin, Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro, and transgender advocate Candis Cox-Daniels traveled to Raleigh to deliver the letter to McCrory.
According to the HRC, the governor initially refused to meet with Cox-Daniels, but eventually relented.
“In our meeting with Governor McCrory, we made crystal clear that HB 2 is discriminatory, shameful, and needs to be repealed immediately,” said Griffin. “We also called on him to continue to meet with LGBT North Carolinians in the days and weeks prior to April’s legislative session. The question Governor McCrory faces is a simple one: will he seize this opportunity to show true leadership, or will he allow North Carolina to remain on the wrong side of history? This law is doing extraordinary damage to the state’s economic prospects, its reputation, and most importantly, it’s LGBT community. The nation is waiting and watching to see which path he will take.”
Sgro says they asked McCrory to not only repeal this law but to work with lawmakers to draft a piece of statewide legislation that provides “comprehensive non-discrimination protections including sexual orientation and gender identity.”
LGBTQ rights advocates are currently suing the state to overturn the law. Earlier this week, NC Attorney General Roy Cooper — who is also currently running for governor — said he could not defend the law, which he called a “national embarrassment,” because it runs counter to his own agency’s anti-discrimination policies.
