जनता का आदमी

This morning, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made a claim that net neutrality, which hasn’t even been in place for two years, has driven investment in U.S. broadband to historically low levels. However, the actual numbers given by the nation’s largest cable and telecom companies don’t appear to back this up.

Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Pai blamed net neutrality for causing uncertainty in the broadband market and declared that “uncertainty is the enemy of growth.”

However, many of the nation’s largest broadband providers have grown in the last two years.

Since Feb. 26, 2015, the day that the FCC voted to approve the neutrality rules, AT&T’s share price has increased by more than 20%, Comcast’s is up 26%. Verizon’s stock price is at the same level as it was, though it has fluctuated as much as 15% in either direction since then. Charter’s share price is up 40%, after the FCC allowed it to acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House in 2016. The only major broadband provider whose stock has fallen dramatically in the last two years is CenturyLink, whose share price has sunk around 50% in that time.

The real thrust of Pai’s anti-neutrality claim is that it’s hurt investment in broadband.

“After the FCC embraced utility-style regulation, the United States experienced the first-ever decline in broadband investment outside of a recession,” said the Chairman. “In fact, broadband investment remains lower today than it was when the FCC changed course in 2015.”

None of the companies we contacted — Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, or Charter — responded to our request for comment on the Chairman’s statement, so we just looked at the annual and quarterly earnings report for the industry’s biggest players.

In its most recent earnings report, Comcast — the nation’s largest broadband provider — noted that in 2016 year over year “capital expenditures increased 7.5% to $9.1 billion.”

Well, maybe those were investments in Comcast’s many non-broadband ventures like its NBCUniversal entertainment division or its theme parks? Nope.

The lion’s share ($7.6 billion) of that $9.6 billion went to the company’s Cable Communications division, “primarily reflecting increased investment in line extensions, a higher level of investment in scalable infrastructure to increase network capacity and continued spending on customer premise equipment related to the deployment of the X1 platform and wireless gateways.”

In case you were wondering, that $7.6 billion was an increase of 7.9% over the previous year.

Likewise, AT&T said it its most recent earnings that it spent $22.9 billion on capital investment in 2016, up from $20.7 billion in 2015. Granted, the 2015 number was slightly down from the $21.4 billion spent in 2014, but it’s higher than the $19.7 billion or $20.2 billion spent in 2012 or 2011, respectively, seeming to undercut Pai’s claims of historic low levels of investment.

Because of the massive merger with Time Warner Cable, there’s no apples-to-apples comparison to be made. However, Charter did spend $7.5 billion on capital expenditures in 2016, 85% of that on expanding and building out its network. That appears to more than the combined investment by Charter and TWC in capital expenditures during the pre-merger years.

Even Verizon, which has not seen the same growth as the other companies is spending more on capital expenditures than it did before the neutrality rules were put in place. In 2015, the year where Pai contends investment sunk to levels unseen outside of a recession, Verizon spent $17.8 billion on capital investments, more than in any other year since the U.S. came out of the recession.

Verizon’s most recent capital expenditures ($17.1 billion for 2016) are virtually identical to the amount spent in 2014, all of which is higher than the $16.2-$16.6 billion the company spent in the supposed glory years of post-recession investment.

Even CenturyLink, which has seen its stock price cut in half, managed to spend more in 2016 ($2.96 billion) on capital expenditures than it did in 2015 ($2.86 billion).

So maybe Pai was referencing capital investments by broadband backbone providers, those companies that connect all the disparate user-facing networks into one cohesive system? Again, the investment numbers don’t pan out.

Level 3 Communications, which is currently being acquired by CenturyLink, spent $1.33 billion in 2016, more than it spent in either 2015 ($1.23 billion) or 2014 ($1.25 billion). Cogent Communications spent $45.2 million last year, up from $35.6 million in 2015.

The numbers seen in these earnings reports generally jive with what many of these companies told investors at the beginning of 2016 — that they would continue to spend money on expanding and improving their networks.

So what is Pai’s justification for this claim? According to a rep at the FCC, the Chairman’s comment was based on data provided by USTelecom, the industry’s lobbying arm that is actively pushing for the FCC and Congress to roll back net neutrality and privacy regulations on broadband providers.

The FCC has not responded to our query as to why Chairman Pai would use data provided by industry lobbyists over the actual numbers these companies are providing publicly.

Pai also inexplicably claimed today that his decision to end the FCC’s investigation into “zero-rating” — the practice of not counting certain types of data against users’ monthly allotments — was somehow the impetus for the resurgence in unlimited data plans from wireless providers.

As The Verge notes, unlimited data plans really have nothing to do with zero-rating. For example, AT&T zero-rates DirecTV and DirecTV Now video streams for its wireless customers. That doesn’t make it an unlimited data plan (unless your entire data usage is DirecTV video). Similarly, Verizon doesn’t count streamed NFL games against data plans, but that’s not the same as an unlimited data plan. The fact that an FCC Chair doesn’t understand the difference — or is willing to gloss over this disparity — should be a cause for concern (for anyone who isn’t a telecom executive).

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

It takes a whole lot of beans to try to compete with Italian espresso in Italy, but Starbucks’ outgoing CEO Howard Schultz says his chain is finally up for the challenge.

Starbucks has some 26,000 stores in 75 countries around the world, but not Italy. Schultz says it’s time to enter that market with one of the company’s new high-end cafes, which will open in Milan next year.

“I didn’t think we were ready to come to Italy,” Schultz told The Associated Press. “I think Italy is such a special place. I am so respectful of the Italian coffee heritage and the Italian culture, and I think we had to earn that respect, opportunity, and I think over the years we got to the point that we are now ready to come.”

The cafe will also feature Princi baked goods and deli items as part of Starbucks’ partnership with the Italian bakery, which until now, only involved cafes outside of Italy.

Schultz will be spending much of his time focusing on the company’s line of upscale “Reserve” roastery locations after he leaves his post as CEO in April. The Milan cafe, he says, completes his “own dream and the circle of Starbucks.”

There are skeptics of Starbucks’ plan, naturally.

“We are happy the way we are,” a Milan coffee bar patron told the AP. “We don’t need to be invaded by American scenery. We already have McDonald’s and that’s enough.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

जनता का आदमी

A week after a South Korean court approved a warrant for the arrest of Samsung vice chairman Jay Y. Lee in connection with a bribery case, the executive and four others were officially indicted. 

The New York Times reports that Lee, who was arrested on Feb. 17, was indicted on bribery and embezzlement charges while four other senior executives — three that have resigned — were indicted for the same charges, but not arrested.

Lee initially avoided arrest last month when a court denied the prosecutor’s first warrant request, citing a lack of evidence.

The indictments come at the end of the South Korean special prosecutor’s 90-day investigation into a corruption scandal involving South Korea President Park Geun-hye.

Lee was first publicly tied to the case last month when he faced 22 hours of questioning related to his part in the scandal.

The case involves whether or not millions of dollars in payments from Samsung to businesses and foundations run by an associate of the President’s — Choi Soon-sil — constituted a bribe, and if Lee had any personal dealings with the contributions.

The prosecutor’s office alleges that Samsung’s contributions — including $17 million in donations to Choi’s foundation and millions of dollars worth of contracts to companies she ran or was involved with — were made in exchange for a decision by the National Pension Services to support a merger of two of the electronic company’s affiliates.

The merger was personally reportedly beneficial to Lee, as it eventually led him to take over control of Samsung from his father.

The Times reports that while Lee was charged with embezzlement and bribery, he was also accused of perjury stemming from claims he made in a preliminary hearing that he never bribed Choi or President Park.

He continues to claim that the millions of dollars in “donations” Samsung paid were coerced, the Times reports.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

While JCPenney recently announced plans to close more than 130 stores and offer early retirement to employees to cut its staff, the department store chain also has some good news. It is expanding appliance showrooms to an additional 100 stores for a total of 600, and adding more brands to its offerings.

Appliance sales have apparently been a hit, especially as Sears stores continue to close in malls across the country. The chain’s appliance sales have expanded from a three-state pilot project just over a year ago to 500 stores. Some stores even sell whole-house HVAC systems.

JCPenney got rid of its own appliance sections back in the ’80s, but now sees an opportunity in that business. It’s no coincidence that it’s expanding this business as it has a new CEO who previously worked at Home Depot, now a big appliance-seller.

“Appliances reinforce the ongoing strength of our growth initiative as we pivot our retail strategy towards non-apparel and growing categories,” CEO Marvin Ellison said during a recent conference call with industry analysts, TWICE reports. While JCPenney continues to do okay in apparel, especially with its investment in plus-size clothing, it’s clear to retail-watchers that consumers are fickle and apparel is not a good category of merchandise to depend on.

The continuing decline of Sears is one reason why JCPenney is expanding its appliance program so quickly. While it might seem like a terrible idea to follow a failing retailer into its signature business, the problems at Sears are complex, and Americans still need refrigerators and stoves.

“We share over 400 malls with a struggling retailer that was once dominant in this category and we have some in-house talent that understands this space really well,” Ellison explained during the conference call.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Being stuck in traffic for hours on end? Awful. Being stuck in traffic for hours on end with some tacos? Not so bad at all.

While drivers on I-5 in Washington were stuck in traffic for hours after a truck filled with propane tipped over, the operators of one taco truck saw an opportunity to set up shop, selling much-needed food to stranded commuters, reports The Seattle Times.

Motorists caught in a standstill on Monday included three employees driving a taco truck to serve lunch in a Seattle neighborhood. Their original plans put on hold indefinitely, the workers decided to open the truck for lunch anyway, right where they were.

Taco truck, stuck in Seattle’s big I-5 closure, opens for lunch anyway: https://t.co/RQicTXlZWm http://pic.twitter.com/KtI3FOHBUT

— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) February 27, 2017

“We are ready to serve food, everywhere,” the truck’s owner told the Times.

It’s a good thing, too, as there were plenty of customers ready to chow down in the middle of the traffic jam.

“I got out and was walking around, and I see this lady walking back to her car with a to-go box,” one driver, who was stuck for three hours during the closure, told the Times. She went exploring and found the taco truck open for business, so she figured she’d make the best of it, ordered food for herself and her husband, and went back to wait.

It sounds like a little food can go a long way in these trying situations: She says that despite missing a doctor’s appointment and her afternoon work shift, she wasn’t frustrated by the experience, noting that in this kind of situation, “You got to make the best of it, right?”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

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In a bid to get you in and out of stores quickly and efficiently, Walmart is turning to its digital offerings. The big box retailer plans to roll out upgrades to its mobile app that will allow customers of its pharmacy and money service departments to complete some transactions through their phones and pick up items at new, dedicated “express lanes.” 

Walmart on Tuesday announced that starting next month it will roll out the mobile upgrades to create a “faster, easier, and more convenient experience” experience for pharmacy and money service customers.

With the update, Walmart pharmacy customers will be able to refill prescriptions from their phones and use an “express lane” to pick up their order and pay electronically.

To get started with the online pharmacy services, Walmart says customers can input some information — such as scanning prescription numbers — into the app prior to coming into the store.

To complete the transaction, customers must come to the pharmacy counter, open their app and tap “prescription ready for pickup,” enter a PIN on their phone, scan a code displayed on the register, and then pick up their order in the department’s express lane.

A nearly identical paperless transaction will also debut in the retailer’s money services department, that allows customers to transfer money in stores each month.

Instead of filling out paperwork for money transfers, under the upgrade, customers will be able to enter data on their phones, go through the money services express lane, and scan a register code to verify the transaction and pay.

A receipt and reference number is then sent to the app and can be emailed or texted from the phone, Walmart says.

In stores that don’t have a Money Services desk, customers can visit the Customer Service desk to complete the same process.

The new features are expected to be available at all of Walmart’s stores by the fall.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

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Who knew all you’d have to do to get a lift into space is ask Elon Musk for a ride? ride? The CEO of SpaceX (and Tesla) says two private citizens approached the company — ostensibly wearing trench coats and carrying suitcases of cash — and asked to go on a trip around the moon. He’s planning to take them there in 2018.

He won’t be piloting the Crew Dragon spacecraft himself on the one-week trip, of course, but the ride will be privately crewed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX said in a statement on Monday.

Musk says the plan is to launch the Crew Dragon later this year and send it to the International Space Station in demonstration mode, with no humans on board. A later mission with crew is expected to fly in the second quarter of 2018.

Once Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX is planning to launch the two space tourists — who have already paid a “significant deposit” for their moon mission — “on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to the Earth.”

Lift-off will occur at a familiar place: Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral, which is the pad used by the Apollo program.

“This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the Solar System than any before them,” the company said in the statement.

SpaceX expects to conduct health and fitness tests and begin initial training later this year, saying that “other flight teams have also expressed strong interest,” with more expected to follow.

Of course, just because Musk is saying two private citizens are going on a trip around in the moon in less than two years doesn’t mean it will happen. And if you can’t make it to the moon in the next few years, don’t worry: Musk also has a plan to colonize Mars that you might be into.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

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Have you ever met someone and immediately thought “You look like a Heather,” and then it turns out they person is actually named Heather? While you might want to believe you have some kind of psychic ability, you probably don’t. Instead, a new study finds that under the right circumstances people can often correctly match names to faces based on social perceptions. 

The research, published this week in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that social perceptions can likely influence facial experience.

The study, based on eight experiments involving hundreds of people in France and Israel, explored whether or not name stereotypes can be manifested into facial appearance, creating a face-name matching effect.

“Both age and ethnicity play a role in our name and in our look,” the report states. “Our goal was to see whether the face-name matching effect could be demonstrated beyond these variables.”

Through this effect, a stranger is able to accurately match a person’s name his or her face.

In each experiment, participants were shown a photograph and asked to select the given name that corresponded to the face from a list of four or five names.

According to the research, the participants were able to match the name to the face 25% to 40% more accurately using a list of names rather than random chance, which had a 20% to 25% accuracy rating.

The researchers believe this result may be the effect of cultural stereotypes associated with names.

For example, in one experiment, the participants were given a mix of French and Israeli faces and names. The French students were better than random chance at matching the French names and faces, while the Israeli students were better at matching only Hebrew names and Israeli faces.

The researchers also wanted to know if face-name match could be replicated by a non-human. To do this, the researchers conducted two experiments with computers that were trained with a learning algorithm.

“If a face-name matching effect emanates from a person’s face, a computer should be able to learn it and make similar matches,” the researchers hypothesized. “This procedure also allowed us to significantly increase the number of stimuli, thus strengthening the validity of our behavioral studies.”

In another experiment, the researchers asked a computer to match 94,000 faces to names. The names were presented to the computer on a two-name to one face basis. In the end, the computer was able to correctly match the names and faces with a 54% to 64% accuracy.

“These results validate our theory that a match in the stimuli itself drives the face-name matching effects observed, and not any other possible behavioral bias of human participants,” the study states.

The improved accuracy of both the participants and the computer could be the result of people subconsciously altering their appearance to conform to cultural norms associated with their names, lead researcher Yonat Zwebner said in a statement.

“We are familiar with such a process from other stereotypes, like ethnicity and gender where sometimes the stereotypical expectations of others affect who we become,” said Zwebner.

Additionally, he notes that prior research has shown there are cultural stereotypes attached to names, including how someone should look.

“For instance, people are more likely to imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face than a person named Tim,” he says. “We believe these stereotypes can, over time, affect people’s facial appearance.”

Of course, the report notes that other factors can create shared face-name schemes, such as the literal meaning of a name or an association with a famous person.

“Converging evidence suggests that both faces and names separately convey social signals, eventually leading to a possible correlation between the two,” the report states. “Specifically, faces communicate information to the perceiver about a person’s identity.”

The report concludes that the association between faces and social perceptions could be a two-way street.

“The face-name match implies that people ‘live up to their given name’ in their physical identity,” the report states. “The possibility that our name can influence our look, even to a small extent, is intriguing, suggesting the important role of social structuring in general and naming in particular in the complex interaction between the self and society.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Most retailers are having trouble bringing in foot traffic, leading once-steady brands like JCPenney, Sears, and Macy’s to shutter large swaths of stores. Yet, those customers who continue to shop at brick-and-mortar retailers appear to be happier about the experience.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index has released the annual results of its survey for consumer sentiments about the nation’s largest retailers, and despite large-scale closings at Sears, Macy’s, and JCP, scores for each of them are up this year. Sears and Macy’s each improved by six points, and JCP enjoyed an eight-point bump. How could that be?

Scores rose even for retailers that announced drastic cutbacks to their store count and layoffs after the holiday season. Those were mostly department and discount stores. Macy’s rose six points, from 73 to 79, and announced that it would be closing 68 stores shortly after the holidays. Sears rose six points as well, from 71 to 77, but its parent company announced the closure of 150 Sears and Kmart stores at the beginning of the year.

During the holiday season in 2016, shoppers shifted a record amount of our shopping online. Maybe, the group that compiles the ratings suggests, shopping is more enjoyable when crowds are smaller. Participants were interviewed between Nov. 15 and Dec. 19, 2016, during the holiday shopping season.

While happier customers generally correlate with better business, it’s also possible that shorter lines and smaller crowds mean faster service and better-stocked shelves, leaving shoppers with more positive feelings about the stores they visit. This could also account for why shoppers give just about all stores higher scores for things like layout and cleanliness: It’s easier to navigate a store and keep it clean when fewer people walk in the door.

“As traditional outlets such as Sears, Macy’s and JCPenney shed properties, shoppers may experience better service in the stores that remain,” ACSI Managing Director David VanAmburg said in a statement. “Although this is obviously not ideal or sustainable in the long run, fewer customers mean shorter lines, faster checkout and more attention from sales staff.”

The Nordstrom drop is an anomaly, and can’t be blamed on the company’s political controversy after dropping Ivanka Trump products. The survey was administered during November and December of 2016, weeks before the First Daughter’s fashion line became an issue. It was around the time that Nordstrom was selling an $85 leather-wrapped rock as a holiday gift, but even a product that silly wouldn’t account for such a large drop.

Target’s score also fell slightly, from 80 to 79. It’s listed among the health and personal care stores with discount competitor Kmart and national pharmacy chains. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of customers who are dissatisfied with the pharmacy changeover.

Last year, Abercrombie & Fitch had the distinction of being the only retailer to score below Walmart. This year, it still brings up the rear among specialty retailers with a score of 76, but that’s four points ahead of Walmart, which, with a 72, has the lowest score of all retailers this year. Abercrombie & Fitch is still finding its way during a massive rebranding effort.

Sometimes, factors beyond retailers’ control affect how shoppers rate them: ACSI credits rising scores across the board for supermarkets to falling food prices more than to anything that the retailers themselves are doing.

If you’re curious about how your favorite retailers did, or want to read the analysis, you can download the report yourself at the ACSI site. The scores for different industries are updated throughout the year.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Like slices of buttered toast, cupcakes, and pans of lasagna, smartphones always seem to fall face-down when dropped. Third-party repair shops have popped up to help users when this happens, but using these companies while an Apple device is still under warranty has been a gamble until now.

Departing from Apple’s network of Genius Bars and authorized repair shops for services previously meant voiding one’s warranty. Let’s say that you bring your phone to a third-party repair shop after smashing the screen.

A few months later, the volume buttons stop working, and that’s when you learn that letting an unauthorized shop open up your phone means that you’ll have to pay out-of-warranty prices to get a repair of your phone.

Over the weekend, 9to5Mac shared a leaked memo to retail store employees that details a change to the company’s repair policy.

If the whole phone or the display has to be replaced to fix the problem, customers will have to pay the out-of-warranty rate to make up for leaving Apple. However, recent changes to AppleCare+ for phones mean that customers pay only $29 for screen repairs while the device is under its original or extended warranty. Perhaps that’s meant to discourage clumsier iPhone users from seeking out third-party shops in the first place.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

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Last week, FCC Chair Ajit Pai declared that he would halt the Commission’s new privacy rule before it kicks in on March 2. That last-minute decision is now under fire from within the FCC and beyond.

This privacy rule — delineating which user data an internet service provider can and can’t share without a user’s permission — stems from our old friend, net neutrality, which just happens to celebrate its second birthday today.

Two years ago today, the FCC voted to recategorize broadband so that it could be regulated more like a utility.

One of the side-effects of this decision is that privacy concerns about ISPs shifted from being the duty of the Federal Trade Commission to the FCC. And when the FCC finalized its version of these privacy rules in Oct. 2016, it created some new ISP-specific regulations that did not sit well with the telecom industry.

Basically, the rule says that ISPs must get users’ permission before they can share certain sensitive information with third parties. They must also give users a way to opt out of having their less-sensitive information shared with third parties. What rubbed ISPs the wrong way is that the rule only applies to service providers, not content providers.

They, along with a pre-Chairman Pai and his fellow anti-regulation regulator Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, claimed this is unfair to ISPs, glossing over the fact that the FCC can’t regulate content providers.

After the 2016 election, when it became clear that the winds of political change would be blowing through Washington in 2017, the telecom lobby filed a petition asking to have the FCC revisit and reverse the privacy rule… and the Title II reclassification along with it, eventually.

The industry has also been asking Congress to act to reverse the privacy rule, using the Congressional Review Act. That Act allows Congress to review, rule on, and reverse any piece of regulation put into place during the last days of the previous administration. It’s only been successfully used once prior to 2017, but has already been deployed twice by the Congressional majority during the first month of the Trump administration, with signs pointing to more uses coming.

Then on Friday, Pai issued a statement saying that he would be asking the Commission — himself, O’Rielly, and lone Democrat Mignon Clyburn — to vote on whether to adopt a stay on the data security part of the rule, which goes into effect on March 2.

If the Commission votes on a stay, it will almost certainly adopt one in a 2-1 vote. If the Commission does not vote on a stay, then Pai has — and will use — the authority to tell the appropriate FCC bureau to hold off. Either way, the rule will not be enforced.

Pai’s latest action has prompted an outcry from consumer and privacy advocacy groups, as well as from Senator Ed Markey (MA).

Markey, along with several other Senators, vowed earlier this month that if the FCC were to take action to reverse net neutrality, it would “unleash a political firestorm” the likes of which would make the record-smashing four million comments the Commission received over net neutrality in 2014 look “minuscule” by comparison.

He repeated the sentiment in a call with media today, pointing out that most consumers “are effectively captive to their ISPs,” having no real competition to choose from, and cannot simply change providers if they find their current provider’s privacy standards insufficient.

ISPs “can sell dossiers [of subscriber data] to the highest bidder without consent, and that is unacceptable,” Markey continued. “We cannot allow Republicans to put Big Broadband before competition, to put corporate interests before consumers. So let’s be clear about the ultimate goal here: Chairman Pai and his Republican allies in Congress want to do the bidding of Big Broadband … and will clearly try to do that through every avenue possible.”

Markey then vowed to “oppose every effort” by anyone who attacks broadband privacy, be it Congress or the FCC, adding, “we will rally millions of Americans to this cause. This is something that goes right to the heart of the 21st century, right to the heart of the relationship between Americans and the internet, and if the Republicans think that they will be able to roll back these protections without a huge fight, they are sorely mistaken.”

As to whether it will be Congress or the FCC that acts, however, that’s still very much up in the air. After his first FCC meeting as Chair, Pai demurred when asked whether he would rather the FCC dismantle its own rules or for Congress to do it instead, telling the press, “That’s entirely a decision for elected officials to make, and I don’t pretend to be in a position to either prescribe to them or even recommend to them what the course of action should be.”

MORE: How much control do you actually have over your private data?

The repeated rallying cry for opponents to the ISP privacy rule is that it’s not fair for an internet service provider to be treated and regulated differently than an edge provider — internet-based services like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and so on. Instead of the FCC imposing strict rules, the argument goes, instead regulation should be “harmonized” with the FTC’s standards.

The FTC, however, has expressed repeated support for the rule as-is. At the time the FCC voted to adopt the rule, then-FTC chair Edith Ramirez applauded the action, saying that the FCC’s rule “will provide robust privacy protections, including protecting sensitive information such as consumers’ social security numbers, precise geolocation data, and content of communications, and requiring reasonable data security practices.”

Ramirez, though, has since stepped down from the FTC. Maureen Ohlhausen is currently the Acting Chair, but has not yet delivered a statement about the FCC’s privacy rule.

However, FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn took the unusual step of issuing a joint statement [PDF] about the privacy rule, and FCC chair Pai’s method of backing away from it.

“Chairman Pai has created an unfortunate dilemma: accept a Bureau-level action that indefinitely unwinds key consumer privacy protections established by the FCC last year, or accept four business days (rather than the usual three weeks) to evaluate and vote on a decision that has massive ramifications for the security of private information held by broadband providers,” said Clyburn.

“I am very troubled by the news that the data security protections of the Broadband Privacy Rule will be put on hold,” the FTC’s McSweeny added.

“In an age of Internet connected everything, removing security requirements from broadband providers is needlessly dangerous for American consumers,” said McSweeny. “The rules the FCC adopted conform to long standing FTC practice and provide clear rules on how broadband companies should protect their customers’ personal information.”

“The outcome is clear,” both continued. “Chairman Pai is determined to take action that leaves consumers without a cop on the beat protecting their personal information from misuse by their broadband service provider.”

“This means no federal data security requirements whatsoever for broadband providers,” Clyburn and McSweeny concluded, calling it the “antithesis” of putting consumers first.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Takata recently agreed to pay $1 billion to close the books on a federal criminal investigation into its shrapnel-shooting airbags linked to 11 deaths, but the auto parts company — and several automakers — must still answer allegations that these airbags were a known problem long before the massive recall.

Today, attorneys representing victims of Takata airbags also accused Ford, Nissan, Honda, BMW, and Toyota of knowing about this defect for years and doing nothing about it.

The Detroit News reports that documents filed Monday in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida claim that the automakers knew the airbags could rupture violently, injuring occupants, but continued to use the devices in order to save money.

The filings are part of pretrial evidence-gathering related to dozens of lawsuits against Takata and the automakers.

According to the filing, internal documents from Ford, Nissan, and Toyota suggest that despite concerns over the safety of the devices, the cost of vehicle production influenced the decision to keep using Takata’s airbags, which have been found to explode with such force that pieces of metal fly at occupants.

For example, the New York Times reports that Toyota continued to use the auto part maker’s airbags following a 2003 rupture of an airbag in a vehicle that was undergoing lab tests. Despite this and the company’s “large quality concerns” about Takata and its “unacceptable” quality performance, the airbags continued to be used.

Internal documents reportedly show that in 1999 and 2000 Honda was involved in developing the ammonium nitrate used in the airbags. The propellant was eventually named as one of three contributors to the airbag ruptures. 

Ford allegedly decided to use Takata’s inflators despite objections from in-house experts who believed the propellant used in the devices was unstable. The filing also claims that Nissan began toying with the idea of adding a drying agent to the propellant in 2005, the Times reports.

With regard to BMW, the Times reports that the company also knew of the issues.

This isn’t the first time that automakers have been accused of failing to address the Takata defect before the first recall was initiated.

Last month, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office filed a lawsuit alleging that Takata and 15 automakers that equipped vehicles with the automaker’s airbags failed to protect consumers from the dangerous defect that has been linked to 11 deaths.

That suit, which names Honda, Ford, Toyota, BMW, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Nissan, FCA, Volkswagen, Audi, Ferrari, General Motors, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz as defendants, claims that the carmakers and Takata knew about and misrepresented the dangers posed by the airbags in the late 1990s.

The AG’s office claims that the companies violated the state’s unfair trade practices act by producing airbags that “were unreasonable and positively dangerous.”

To date, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 12.4 million total airbag inflators have been repaired or replaced, including 6.7 million driver-side airbags and 5.7 million passenger-side airbags have been fixed.

To find out if a vehicle is affected by the recall owners are urged to enter their individual VIN on NHTSA’s Safercar.gov/vin database.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Have you ever wondered how a retailer can leave a Bluetooth skimmer on a payment card terminal in its stores for weeks at a time? It’s harder to detect the devices than you might think, because crooks have their own places to shop for spare parts that snap right on a payment terminal and are hard to spot if you aren’t looking for them.

A security technician at an unnamed U.S. retailer sent photos of the outside and inside of the device to Krebs on Security for educational purposes after three of the devices were found in a store.

The skimmer uses Bluetooth to zap customers’ payment data in real time to either a second device hidden nearby or even someone sitting in a car in the store’s parking lot with a phone, computer, or tablet.

The way that store employees found the skimmer was pretty low-tech: They noticed that the buttons on the PIN pad were more difficult to press than usual. When they discovered the reason why, a sweep of the rest of the registers turned up two more.

There’s one detail that the crooks missed and customers passing by did, too: The plus and minus signs are swapped on the PIN pad overlay. To be clear, the skimmer is the device on the right.

The name of the retailer is censored, but you’ve probably seen these Ingenico terminals in use in dozens of stores. Worse, the retailer didn’t have EMV cards enabled at the time of the skimming incident.

We’d say that they show you what to look for, but as you can see there isn’t much that stands out as a way to tell the real terminal and the overlay apart.

READ MORE: Let’s Watch Some Promotional Videos From Makers Of ATM Skimmers

If a device doesn’t quite feel right, as people at this store noticed, let someone know. It could be a defective unit, or someone may have snapped a device over it to scoop up your payment data.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

When Keurig quietly discontinued its Rivo Cappuccino & Latte System in Dec. 2016, the company said customers would still be able to purchase Lavazza brand pods — the only ones the Rivo accepts — in its online store, as well as from a few other retailers. Soon after, however, customers started bumping into “out of stock” notices almost everywhere online. What’s the deal?

Consumerist reader John wrote in saying he’d heard Keurig has had supply chain issues, noting that all the caffeinated pod products for the Rivo have been out of stock for months at Keurig.com.

On Keurig’s site there’s a warning that at least one of the out of stock products is unavailable “until February 2017.”

While caffeinated varieties are also out of stock on Lavazza’s website and on BedBathAndBeyond.com, as of Feb. 27, there are still pods available in certain flavors on Amazon — albeit at a hefty price.

Keurig pulled the plug for Rivo late last year, but it sounds like it some customers never got the memo and only realized it once they were on the hunt for coffee pods.

“@Keurig has the rivo been discontinued?” a Twitter user wrote on Feb. 14. “Out of stock pods and brewer hard to find on website.”

In response to complaints that Rivo pods are out of stock in many places, Keurig has told some customers that it’s “still supporting production and we expect Rivo pods to be available for at least the next three years.”

Despite that, complaints have been circulating for months about the out-of-stock pods.

Over at coffee product review blog Coffee Stylish, readers started posted their gripes in December.

“It’s very difficult to find anything other than the no decaffeinated pods, my local Bed bath and beyond stated they can’t get any other kind shipped, is my only option to purchase online?” one reader wondered on Dec. 15.

“I hope they plan or giving the people who bought this maker their money back when they no longer make the pods,” another wrote on January 22. “They have been out of stock at Keurig for some time.”

“I’m with you,” someone else agreed on Jan. 30. “I have been PISSED for months now. No warning, nothing. Last I saw was ‘sometime in Feb’ they’d be back in stock. So I guess I have a $229 brick on my countertop now. Good luck finding pods online for even close to retail price. This isn’t right at all.”

“Please offer a full refund/exchange or at least reusable capsules to calm the angriness of some of us who stupidly bought the Rivo last year and can’t use it anymore,” an angry customer wrote on Feb. 11.

“I barely finished the coffees that came with it and just found out it’s now discontinued,” another reader wrote that same day.” WHAT?! Bed Bath and Beyond used to carry them but they’re took them from the shelf, Amazon is way too expensive, and Lavazza is out of stock.”

Others have noticed elsewhere on the internet.

“I got this Keurig Rivo in December of 2016 as a Christmas gift, and it still works great,” an Amazon reviewer wrote on Feb. 12. “However, Keurig has stopped productions of the Keurig Rivo and it’s pods. So now my awesome Rivo is becoming absolutely worthless.”

“I am extremely sad I had to read about the Rivo platform being discontinued on Facebook via a visitor post,” one customer wrote to the company on Facebook on Feb. 24. “To make matters worse the Rivo pods have been out of stock since December.”

Consumerist reached out to Keurig to ask if there were potential supply issues for the pods, and when the product would be back in stock. A company spokeswoman did not mention any supply issues, but said the pods are due back on Keurig.com on March 3.

We also asked whether or not customers had been informed of the company’s decision to discontinue the Rivo, and if not, what the reasoning behind that decision was. We will update this post if we hear back.

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by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

In recent years, the FCC played a key part in blocking the mergers of AT&T and T-Mobile, and Comcast and Time Warner Cable, while also using its regulatory leverage to place pro-consumer conditions on the mergers it did approve — like getting Charter to agree to not use data caps for seven years. However, the FCC will apparently give AT&T its wish and not even chime in on the pending merger of AT&T and Time Warner.

This is according to recently elevated FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who told the Wall Street Journal today that he has no reason to review the merger if it’s not brought to the Commission’s attention.

“My understanding is that the deal won’t be presented to the commission,” Pai told the Journal.

While FCC review of a merger involving AT&T (the nation’s largest phone service provider, and second-largest pay-TV provider) and Time Warner (one of the biggest players in pay-TV content, with channels like CNN and HBO) might seem like it’s destined for FCC review, AT&T has maintained that the combination of the two companies won’t involve any swapping of airwave licenses, so the FCC need not involve itself.

Time Warner recently sold one of the few licenses it does have — Atlanta broadcast TV station WPCH — to Meredith. The merging companies contend that the remaining licenses are not for broadcast but for services like satellite uplinks, that they say won’t need to be transferred as part of the deal.

If the FCC does not get the chance to vet this merger, that means that only the Justice Department looks at the deal. However, unlike the FCC review process, a DOJ review does not take into account the generalized question of whether a merger is in the public interest. It’s that aspect of FCC vetting that has allowed the Commission to place certain restrictions on mergers over the years.

As it became more evident that a Pai-led FCC was unlikely to pursue this matter, a group of U.S. Senators recently asked AT&T to explain how this merger could benefit American consumers.

AT&T’s response was a bit baffling, claiming that neither AT&T nor Time Warner “approaches the market dominance that both would need to hobble distribution competitors” or raise prices.

AT&T downplayed the size of its pay-TV reach by saying that it is the second or third most popular pay-TV provider in most markets. What the company glosses over is that DirecTV, because it’s not tied to pesky network infrastructure like cable or fiber lines, is in virtually every market.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

The brave retail archaeologists we call the Raiders of the Lost Walmart recently made a side expedition to Kmart, where they dug up a cache of sports-related gear that has apparently been sitting around, unpurchased for years — more than a decade in one instance.

Reader Steve was shopping at his local Kmart store in Arizona when he noticed something on a sale rack that isn’t all that unusual for a store in Arizona: The store was selling commemorative t-shirts from a game that the NFL’s Cardinals played. What was unusual was that the game was in October 2006.

“Why would anyone want a 11-year-old shirt celebrating two teams playing each other that both sucked that year?” Steve pondered. That’s a good question. The significant thing about this game is that it was the first regular season game that the Cardinals played in their then-new home, University of Phoenix Stadium.

Reader Joe found something similar in his local Kmart: A rack of U.S. Open t-shirts from the years 2011 through 2015, also marked down to $5, with no explanation.

Our best guess is that both the Cardinals shirt and the collection of U.S. Open shirts were hidden in a corner of the warehouses of their respective stores when Kmart made its decision to purge the warehouses and immediately put all merchandise out on the floor. If they can unload these shirts for $5 each when they were just taking up space for years, maybe it worked out in the end. Who, however, would buy them?

Returning to some more traditional Raiders of the Lost Walmart fare, Steven (not to be confused with Steve) noticed this Zune 120 hanging out on a shelf in the electronics department.

Following the dates on the price tags, it was marked down to only $229 back in 2009, then marked back up to $249 in 2016.

That is cheaper than you can buy the Zune 120 for on Amazon. People are still buying the devices, or at least still posting Amazon reviews for them. Bless you, Zune fans.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently recommended further limiting the amount of lead found in common cosmetics, that guidance didn’t extend to hair dyes that contain lead acetate. Now, a coalition of consumer advocates says the agency should reconsider its approval of the ingredient in hair dyes.

Earlier this month, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Working Group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, our colleagues at Consumers Union, and others signed a petition [PDF] claiming that lead acetate — the active ingredient in products like Grecian Formula that slowly darkens grey hair when used repeatedly — is a neurotoxin and carcinogen, and thus, shouldn’t be in hair dyes.

“We now know that lead is more dangerous, especially to children, and skin absorption is a more significant route than FDA thought in 1980,” Tom Neltner, chemicals policy director at EDF, said in a joint statement from the groups. “We also have evidence that when the dye is applied, lead spreads widely in the immediate environment. This puts more people, including children, at risk of unknowingly ingesting it.”

Tina Sigurdson, EWG’s assistant general counsel, points out that lead acetate can expose people to lead, which has been linked to serious health problems like developmental, reproductive and organ system toxicity, as well as cancer. Other countries have banned the substance already, she adds.

“It’s unconscionable that this potent neurotoxin is still used in a handful of men’s hair dye formulas. Lead acetate already has been banned in Canada and the European Union. It’s time for the U.S. to take action.”

The FDA approved lead acetate as a repeated use hair dye in 1980, noting on its website that “No significant increase in blood levels of lead was seen in the trial subjects and the lead was not shown to be absorbed into the body through such use.”

Products are required to bear the below label:

“Caution: Contains lead acetate. For external use only. Keep this product out of children’s reach. Do not use on cut or abraded scalp. If skin irritation develops, discontinue use. Do not use to color mustaches, eyelashes, eyebrows, or hair on parts of the body other than the scalp. Do not get in eyes. Follow instructions carefully and wash hands thoroughly after use.”

The groups call the warning label “vague,” pointing out that dyes are allowed to have lead levels of up to 6,000 ppm (parts per million). This, despite the fact that in 1977, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the sale of household paint containing more than 600 ppm of lead.

The petitioners say there have been major advances in science since the FDA’s 1980 decision, citing a study showing lead contamination from the hair dyes—especially on surfaces touched after using the hair dye like blow-dryers, combs and faucets.

The study found that those surfaces had up to 2,804 micrograms of lead per square foot. The Environmental Protection Agency said in 2001 that more than 40 mmicrograms of lead per square foot on the floor posed a hazard to children, note the groups.

“It’s been almost 40 years since the country banned lead from the paint we use on our walls, but the FDA still allows this powerful poison in the cosmetics that touch people’s heads,” said Erik D. Olson, Director of the Health program at NRDF. “There should be zero tolerance for use of lead in any product in this day and age.”

The agency will have to make final decision within 180 days. If the petition is approved, the ban would be effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

More than a year and a half after spending nearly $1 billion to acquire game-focused livestreaming service Twitch, Amazon’s finally doing something you’d have expected them to try sooner: Putting big “Buy” buttons on streams of some new games, so you can grab ’em while you’re watching ’em.

Games from more than 20 publishers, will soon be sold directly digitally through Twitch livestreams, the Wall Street Journal reports.

It makes perfect sense, when you think about it. Watching a live stream of someone playing a game on Twitch is entertainment, sure… but it’s also a perfect informercial. After watching a few hours of someone playing League of Legends, Overwatch, or whatever 2017’s big hit turns out to be, you may decide you’d like to give it a whirl, too — and putting the “buy” button right there with the video makes that, as the marketers like to say, frictionless for you.

It means you don’t navigate away from the video to shop, nor do you forget to go look up and buy the game — and it also means you don’t go price-comparing elsewhere. That’s all a win for Amazon.

It’s also a way for the streamers themselves to make some cash. Developers will receive 70% of the game’s sale cost, the WSJ reports (that’s in line with the cut debs get from selling games through Google or Apple’s digital storefronts), but Twitch will only keep 25% of the remaining 30% — and the 5% difference goes to the streamer whose page generated the sale.

That said, not every streamer can participate — and the ones who do, will be doing so whether or not they want to. The buy button will only appear on launch games being broadcast by the roughly 17,000 streamers in Twitch’s partner program, the WSJ explains. Those are the folks who are already set up to monetize their streams through advertising, and who have access to certain power-user and subscriber management tools. And those partners will not be able to remove the button when it appears.

It’s not just the titles themselves that are for sale, the WSJ adds; viewers will also be able to grab various DLC through livestreams, too. Really dig that new appearance pack the streamer is using? Click here, and it can be yours.

Amazon to Sell Game Downloads Directly From Twitch Streams [Wall Street Journal]

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

After 85 years in business, Family Christian is closing for good, shutting down all 240 of its retail stores.

USA Today reports that the company, which had stores in 36 states, decided to close after facing declining sales following its 2015 bankruptcy protection filing.

The Michigan-based company, which transitioned from a for-profit retailer to a non-profit ministry in 2012, blamed the closure on “changing consumer behavior and declining sales.”

“Despite improvements in product assortment and the store experience, sales continued to decline,” Chuck Bengochea, the company’s president, tells USA Today. “In addition, we were not able to get the pricing and terms we needed from our vendors to successfully compete in the market.”

The company, which employed about 3,000 people, said the only remaining option was to liquidate its assets, Christianity Today reports.

While the company hasn’t released a timeline for when stores will close, its online marketplace now features a prominent “All Stores Closing, Everything Up To 30% Off!” banner.

Family Christian began in 1931 as a bookstore and publishing house, and eventually expanded its retail footprint under the name Family Bookstores. By 2012, the company was owned by private equity firms and was sold back to Family Christian.

Christianity Today reports that the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015, noting that it owed more than $90 million in debts.

The company proposed a restructuring plan, but it was met with objections by publishers who claimed the terms unfairly benefited the owner of Family Christian. As a result, the company pulled the plans, sending the retailer to a liquidation auction.

However, a judge rejected the purchase and Family Christian’s creditors voted to sell to FCS Acquisition and keep the doors open. Until now.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Eleven months after NASA said it was working on a quieter, “low boom” supersonic passenger jet that could travelers around the world in a matter of hours, the agency says it has started testing the plane with Lockheed Martin.

NASA is testing a scale model of the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) X-plane that is 9% of the real plane’s size in a wind tunnel at its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the agency says.

During tests over the next eight weeks, engineers will expose the model to wind speeds ranging from Mach 0.3 to Mach 1.6 (approximately 150 to 950 mph).

“We’ll be measuring the lift, drag and side forces on the model at different angles of attack to verify that it performs as expected,” said aerospace engineer Ray Castner, who leads propulsion testing for NASA’s QueSST effort. “We also want to make sure the air flows smoothly into the engine under all operating conditions.”

NASA says recent research shows it’s possible for a supersonic airplane that, when flying faster than the speed of sound, will form shock waves that result in a ground level sound “so quiet it will hardly be noticed by the public, if at all.”

That booming noise is the reason why the now-retired Concorde was prohibited from flying over the United States. Flying at speeds in excess of 1,300 mph, the Concorde could make it across the Atlantic in 3.5 hours.

“Our design reduces the airplane’s noise signature to more of a ‘heartbeat’ instead of the traditional sonic boom that’s associated with current supersonic aircraft in flight today,” said Peter Iosifidis, QueSST program manager at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

NASA says it expects the QueSST X-plane “to pave the way for supersonic flight over land in the not too distant future.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Price-comparison ads at Wegmans will soon be getting a bit of a makeover following an ad watchdog’s suggestion that the grocer modify in-store displays in response to a Costco complaint that the low-cost price comparisons were misleading and false.

The National Advertising Division — an independent industry watchdog administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus — investigated the complaint leveled at Wegmans by rival Costco, finding that while the price comparisons were accurate, they should clarify that prices are subject to change.

Costco, in a complaint filed with NAD in early February, claimed that Wegmans’ in-store point of sale displays featuring a series of Wegmans’ products listed side-by-side with Costco products, falsely compared the prices.

In each case, the prices displayed indicated that the Wegmans’ products were less expensive. But Costco argued that the price displayed for the Costco product was often false and actually lower than the one displayed for the Wegmans product.

Costco also claimed that Wegmans’ comparisons were misleading because the smaller price comparisons were located under a large signs that read, “Who has time to comparison shop? We do. We check hundreds of prices each week so you don’t have to” or, “Don’t shop around town… Shop at Wegmans and save.”

According to NAD, Wegmans’ provided the watchdog with information on its process for developing in-store, price-comparison advertising, which includes weekly visits to competing stores.

NAD noted in its decision that Wegmans’ current competitor price-checking and posting was in keeping with precedent established by the Federal Trade Commission and NAD, and that one week was a reasonable period of time to check on prices to keep them current.

However, NAD did determine that Wegmans’ should include on the price comparison signs in a clear, prominent manner the date of the comparison shopping and a statement that the costs are subject to change.

NAD also recommended the advertiser compare prices of like items when both parties sell identical products. And where products are not identical, NAD recommended that the point-of-sale display either note that a comparison is not applicable or describe more accurately the products that are being compared.

With respect to the claim, “Don’t shop around town … shop at Wegmans and save,” NAD concluded that the phrase instructing consumers not to comparison shop, directly contradicts the recommended qualifier that prices are subject to change.

In a statement to NAD, Wegmans says it “appreciates, and will comply with, each of the NAD’s helpful recommendations.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

Grocery sales comprise over half of Walmart’s receipts, so it makes sense that the mega-retailer wants to keep its prices competitive. In at least 1,200 of its stores, though, the chain is reportedly slashing prices in an effort to give customers a reason to shop at Walmart instead of discount grocer Aldi and other supermarkets.

Reuters learned from sources at companies that supply Walmart that the retailer has launched price comparison tests at 1,200 stores in 11 states. The chain’s reported goal with these tests is to find the right price for popular items that will attract more customers and beat competitors, but still earn a profit.

Reuters went out and spot-checked stores in Illinois and Iowa, two states that are part of the price test. In all of the stores, they used a basket of basic items like tomatoes, bananas, milk, peanut butter, eggs, and pasta, and checked the prices of the imaginary basket against Aldi.

Shopping for all store-brand items, the wire service found that the total was between 5.6% and 10.3% cheaper at Walmart than at Aldi.

The supplier sources told Reuters that Walmart had called in its biggest grocery product vendors — companies like ConAgra, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever — for meetings last week. Among other topics, Walmart “demanded” a 15% price cut from the suppliers.

The company explained that another change will be in logistics: It has asked that suppliers ship Walmart’s orders complete and on time, which would let it keep items in stock, avoid unneeded re-orders, and take in an additional $1 billion in sales, benefiting everyone.

Walmart has been saying for the last year that it’s “investing in price” without spelling out exactly what that means, and made a statement along those lines in response to a request from Reuters. Consumerist contacted Walmart to find out more about these price tests, and the company said pretty much the same thing.

“We continuously look for ways to deliver savings to our customers – it’s part of our DNA,” the communications department told us. “As we’ve said previously, we’re investing in price. But we’re not in a position to share our strategy for competitive reasons.”

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

जनता का आदमी

Don’t like having to talk to a real, live person when you want to order food? You won’t have to if you’re visiting one of 1,000 Wendy’s locations with self-ordering kiosks.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, the company is planning to install the new kiosks in around 16% of its locations by the end of this year in response to demand from customers and franchise owners, the Ohio-based chain said last week during its investors’ day.

“There is a huge amount of pull from (franchisees) in order to get them,” David Trimm, Wendy’s chief information officer, said. “With the demand we are seeing… we can absolutely see our way to having 1,000 or more restaurants live with kiosks by the end of the year.”

It’s a win-win for the company: Younger customers get an ordering experience they prefer, Trimm explains, and the kiosks also reduce labor costs.

A typical store will get three kiosks for about $15,000, Trimm said, estimating that franchisees will make up that money in less than two years with a reduction in labor costs and increased sales. Higher-volume stores will get priority, and no franchisee will be required to install the machines.

Of course, if you prefer humans to robots, customers will still be able to order at the counter.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

There are number of things you can put in applesauce to give it a bit of a kick: cinnamon, brown sugar, but definitely not glass. Yet, Trader Joe’s is recalling its applesauce over concerns it might contain that dangerous, unwanted ingredient.

Manzana Products Co. Inc. announced Sunday in a notice posted with the Food and Drug Administration that it would recall three applesauce products sold at Trader Joe’s stores nationwide after determining the bottles might contain pieces of glass.

Manzana initiated the recall of the 24-ounce glass jars of “First Crush,” “Organic,” and “All Natural” unsweetened applesauce following reports from consumers who found glass in their products. It’s unclear if any of the customers were injured by the glass.

Affected products, which can be identified by the “best before” date printed on the top of the lid, include:

The company says that all jars of the potentially affected products have been removed from store shelves and destroyed.

Customers who have purchased the products should not consume them, and should return the jars to Trader Joe’s for a full refund.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist

जनता का आदमी

It’s been two weeks since Verizon’s surprise announcement that it was bringing back unlimited mobile data plans kicked off a huge flurry of activity, with all four national carriers introducing or improving their own offerings. But a point-by-point comparison of all four left many folks wondering: Is AT&T even trying? AT&T apparently wondered that too, and so is tweaking their plan once more.

Starting on Thursday, March 2, AT&T is dropping the prices on its unlimited data offering, and adding some features.

Today, AT&T’s unlimited offering begins at $100 for one line, then adding $40 per line thereafter. Subscribers who put four lines on their plan can receive a credit, knocking it down to $180 per month.

AT&T’s simplifying that, dropping the first line for Unlimited Plus to $90, then selling two for $145, three for $165, and four for $185. It’s also now letting customers use their mobile devices as portable hotspots, allowing customers to tether their laptops, tablets, or other devices to an internet connection via their phones. (Previously, it was the only carrier banning tethering on its unlimited plan.)

Though AT&T dropped its requirement that unlimited data subscribers also be DirecTV or Uverse subscribers earlier this month, it’s still trying hard to work that corporate synergy. Subscribers to Unlimited Plus get a $25 monthly credit toward use on DirecTV, Uverse TV, or the DirecTV Now streaming service.

As you would expect, any AT&T-owned TV you consume as one of their wireless customers is zero-rated — meaning it doesn’t count against the data cap you, as an unlimited data customer, theoretically don’t have anyway. That includes anything you watch through the DirecTV, DirecTV Now, or Fullscreen apps, according to AT&T.

AT&T is also adding a second tier of unlimited data service, called Unlimited Choice. Those consumers don’t get access to tethering or HD video streams, and their connection is capped at 3Mbps. (Your regular 4G LTE connection can run as high as 100 Mbps, and in many cities during peak hours averages around 15-30 Mbps.)

However, Unlimited Choice is $30 per month cheaper than Unlimited Plus, starting at $60 for the first line and running up to $155 for a set of four.

Both plans are available to any new or existing AT&T customer, the company stresses — yes, even the ones who just signed up for a new plan last week.

With those changes, a comparison of the highlights of all four major carriers’ unlimited plans now looks something like this:

	Verizon	AT&T	T-Mobile	Sprint
Cost for one line:	$80	$90	$70	$50
Cost for two lines:	$140	$145	$100	$90
Cost for four lines:	$180	$185	$160	$90
Possible throttling point:	22 GB	22 GB	28 GB	23 GB
Tethering included?	10 GB	10GB	10 GB	10 GB
HD video included?	Yes; by default	Yes; must enable	Yes; must enable	Yes, up to 1080p
E-billing required?*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto pay required?*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Extra taxes / fees?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
New or existing customers?	Both	Both	Both	New only

*Note: You can subscribe to many of these plans without using automatic debit or e-billing, but the prices will be $5 or $10 higher.

Each carrier — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint — does still apply different terms and conditions to their plans. Each also prices connections for wearables, cars, and tablets differently, and some specific offers may be promotional or a limited-time offering. So read offers carefully and check the small print if you’re planning to switch.

by prakash chandra via Consumerist