Freitag, 8. September 2017

CFPB Asks Education Secretary DeVos To Not Give Up On Protections For Student Loan Borrowers

A week after Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos essentially broke up with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ending the agencies’ agreements to work together to root out bad players in the student loans servicing arena, the CFPB is firing back, accusing DeVos of misunderstanding just what the Bureau does.

In a letter [PDF] sent to DeVos on Thursday, CFPB director Richard Cordray called for the agencies to “engage in constructive conversation” about how they can work to better serve and protect student loan borrowers from bad actors.

“There is plenty of work for each of us to do, but I believe we can generally do it better by working together,” Cordray wrote.

Late last week, DeVos accused the CFPB of not living up to its end of agreements established in 2011 and 2013, by doing too much to hold loan servicers accountable.

According to the memorandums, the two agencies are to “collaborate to ensure coordination in providing assistance to and seeing borrowers seeking to resolve complaints” related to their student loans.

The Secretary claimed the Bureau overstepped its authority by taking enforcement actions against student loan servicers and collectors, rather than simply passing those matters on to the Education Dept. to handle.

Additionally, the notice accused the CFPB of failing to abide by its agreement to provide the Department with all complaints related to federal student loans within 10 days of receiving the grievance.

The Bureau’s Job

Cordray notes in the letter that he believes the Department’s decision to end years of formal cooperation combating student loan fraud is based on DeVos’ misunderstanding about the Bureau’s responsibilities and the actions it has taken related to student loans.

Under Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB, the agency has the power to “implement, and where applicable, enforce federal consumer financial law.”

“Just as the Department administers and interprets the Higher Education Act, the Bureau does the same for federal consumer financial law,” Cordray writes.

To that end, the CFPB has an obligation to create rules, and take action when it comes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibition on unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices.

And you know which companies and their actions are covered by each of these regulations? That’s right, student loan servicers.

Enforcement Actions

Cordray says that the Bureau has followed its mandate to ensure compliance with federal laws, and that means taking action against shoddy student loan servicers.

For instance, in January, the CFPB sued the largest student loan servicer in the country, Navient. The Bureau claimed the company cheated borrowers out of repayment rights. The company responded to the complaint two months later, noting in a filing to dismiss the lawsuit that it was under no obligation to help student loan borrowers.

Prior to that action, the CFPB has opened investigations into other servicers, including Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Discover Bank.

In Aug. 2016 — a month before the whole fake account fiasco broke — Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $4 million in refunds and penalties over allegedly illegal loan servicing practices that increased costs and unfairly penalized certain borrowers.

In Citigroup’s case, the Bureau was looking into the company’s payment processing and servicing policies related to borrowers who have a difficult time making payments. Citigroup stopped servicing loans in 2011.

In July 2015, the agency ordered Discover Bank and its affiliates to pay nearly $18.5 million in refunds and fines for, among other things, overstating amounts due on student loans and failing to notify borrowers of their rights.

None of these enforcement actions — and many others — are “inconsistent with the Dept. of Education’s directives, or conflicts with our shared goal of protecting student loan borrowers,” Cordray said.

Complaints

According to DeVos, the CFBP — which is by definition an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector, including student loans — failed to pass along borrower complaints against servicers, and instead addressed the issues itself.

This, DeVos claims, confuses borrowers, as the Dept. of Education is supposed to work with “federal student loan borrowers to ensure that their issues are addressed within the rules applicable to its program.”

Cordray writes that DeVos’ accusations were a shock to the Bureau, as the Dept. had never “expressed any concerns” about the memorandums or handling of federal student loan complaints.

“The Bureau’s complaint handling plays a key role in furthering our joint mission of serving students and borrowers by providing an efficient means for consumers to voice their concerns and hear from their servicer,” the letter states.

And, as we’ve previously reported, borrowers are doing just that. The Bureau has released a number of reports highlighting a steep increase in the number of consumer complaints related to student loan servicing.

For instance, the Bureau released a report in April that found student loan servicing complaints had increased in every state.

According to the report, the Bureau received 3,284 complaints during the first three months of 2017, a 325% increase over the 773 complaints received during same time period only a year earlier.

As of April 1, the Bureau says it has handled approximately 44,400 student loan complaints from consumers since it opened this complaint portal in Feb. 2016.

All of these complaints and the servicer’s response, Cordray writes, are shared with the Dept. of Education in “near real-time.” In fact, Department staff has accessed the CFPB’s complaint database nearly 80 times in the last three months.

“In short, I do not understand the claim that we have violated the [memorandum] by not forwarding complaints, when we make them available to Department staff in near real-time,” the letter states.

As a result, the Bureau is confident that it has followed the memorandums and not exceeded its authority.

“When all of us act together as partners, using our different authorities, and bringing different sets of expertise to the table, we are generally more effective,” Cordray wrote.


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Probiotic Supplement For Babies Recalled Due To Confusing Directions

Sometimes people take directions too literally. It’s in case of that that Garden of Life, LLC, is recalling a probiotic supplement made for babies.

If caregivers follow the directions on the package very literally, infants taking the supplement could choke.

What to look for

The product in question is from the Dr. Formulated Probiotics line,and comes in a 1.9 fluid ounce bottle. The expiration date for affected products is Dec. 2018.

Product Name Lot Number Exp. Date
Baby Organic Liquid
UPC No. 58010 12073
5487617 12/2018
5487717 12/2018
5487817 12/2018
5500817 12/2018

The ingredients in this product are fine, the company explains in its recall notice, and if the products is administered correctly, there’s no danger to babies using the supplement. It’s supposed to be mixed with formula or breast milk and then given to the baby using the enclosed syringe.

It’s only if anyone tries to feed it to a baby without diluting it first that they might encounter problems, since the liquid is thick. One caregiver who tried this alerted the company to the problem with its directions, which don’t make clear that the liquid has to be diluted first.

What to do

If you have the product and want to return it, return it to the store or website where it was purchased. If you have questions about the recall,contact the company at (866) 211-9058 or Babyorganics@gardenoflife.com.


by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

The Juicero Was A Terrible Idea That Became A Money-Losing Business

No matter how much you like cold-pressed juice, it was hard to make an argument for actually buying the Juicero, a WiFi-connected juicer. When the product first went on the market, it cost $699 for a machine that turned proprietary, barcoded fresh fruit and vegetable packets into juice. Now Juicero is going out of business, and these machines will likely become pricey doorstops.

Seemed like a bad idea at the time

Let’s back up, since you may not have heard of the Juicero. It’s a cold-pressed juice machine, but with a catch: The machine only worked with Juicero’s own packets of diced produce, which in turn only worked with Juicero’s machine. If a packet was expired, the WiFi-connected juicer wouldn’t let you use it.

There were two arguments for this, other than creating an indefinite revenue stream for Juicero the company. First was ease of cleanup: It’s much easier to clean and maintain a juicer that doesn’t actually come in contact with or crush the produce. Second, Juicero wanted control over the produce that customers used, ensuring that they used only fresh and organic fruits and vegetables in pre-determined recipes.

Founder and original CEO Doug Evans explained in an interview with Recode that the device used WiFi to make sure that produce was fresh.

“For me as a consumer I want to know where my produce is coming from, I want to know when it’s packed, and I want to know when it’s expired,” he explained. “So inside of the Juicero press there’s a scanner and on every pack of produce there’s a QR code… it’s making sure the produce is not expired.”

But having a barcode-controlled juicer meant that customers couldn’t throw in, say, even fresher spinach and carrots from their own garden or community-supported agriculture share.

As if the idea of DRM-controlled fruit and vegetable packets weren’t already ridiculous enough, reporters at Bloomberg pointed out that you don’t need the device to extract juice from the packets. The mechanism that extracts the juice is actually in the packet, even though the company talked up the juicer itself as extremely powerful.

This was a product for people who don’t take their juice too seriously, yet somehow also take it seriously enough to receive proprietary produce shipments and pay $700 for a juicer.

There was a market for this product, but it was a small one. Whole Foods stores incorporated them into DIY juice bars, and some Le Pain Quotidien restaurants added them as an easy way to sell pricey cold-pressed juice to customers. LiveNation put machines in its offices, like an incredibly health-conscious break room Keurig.

How did this even get funded?

Investors in Silicon Valley thought that Juicero was an awesome idea. It was similar enough to successful products like Nespresso, Keurig, and even Dollar Shave Club: Customers make an initial purchase that leads to indefinite purchases of supplies from the company.

“Investors are very intrigued by businesses that combine the one-time sale of hardware that ends up leading to repeat purchases of consumable packages,” one investor, who didn’t fund Juicero, explained to Bloomberg.

The company drew investors like the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Google parent Alphabet, and basketball star Kobe Bryant.

Foudner Evans also started the well-regarded “boutique health food store” Organic Avenue, and was so devoted to plant-based and raw nutrition that he reportedly ridiculed workers at Juicero who ate dairy products, and briefly would only let traveling employees expense meals at vegan restaurants. Evans later stepped down as CEO and has now even resigned from Juicero’s board.

The end

The company made pricey products with a limited market, and didn’t actually make money. The company lowered the price to $400 and offered refunds on machines after Bloomberg’s story about hand-squeezing packets, but was still losing $4 million per month at the end of this year. New potential investors backed out after the Bloomberg story.

Juicero announced that it would be closing just as reporters and businesses across the country prepared to shut down for the Labor Day holiday. It will give customers their money back if they want refunds.

“Creating an effective manufacturing and distribution system for a nationwide customer base requires infrastructure that we cannot achieve on our own as a standalone business,” the company says in its “goodbye for now” message on its website. “We are confident that to truly have the long-term impact we want to make, we need to focus on finding an acquirer with an existing national fresh food supply chain who can carry forward the Juicero mission.”

The intellectual property, like patents, could be valuable, and the brand has some happy customers. Whole Foods or its new parent company Amazon would be an obvious candidate to acquire the company, or another organic restaurant or grocery chain. Will that happen? We’ll keep you updated.


by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Cisco Live 2017: Cisco Application Centric Container Networking Demo


This demo is about Kubernetes integration with Cisco ACI. This integration allows Cisco ACI to provide a ready-to-use, secure networking environment for Kubernetes. The integration maintains the simplicity of the user experience in deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications while still offering the controls, visibility, security, and isolation required by an enterprise. Learn more at http://cs.co/600980KZB
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Cisco Live 2017: Application Centric Hybrid Cloud Demo


This demo shows how Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is integrated with Cisco CloudCenter. The Cisco CloudCenter™ solution is an application-centric hybrid cloud management platform that securely provisions infrastructure resources and deploys application components to more than 19 data center, private cloud, and public cloud environments. Cisco CloudCenter application-centric and policy-based hybrid cloud management is an excellent fit with Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI™) and policy-based network management. Learn more at: http://cs.co/600580KpR
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Cisco Live 2017: Cisco UCS Big Data and Analytics Solutions Demo


Boost staff productivity. Improve big data and analytics solution performance. Drive efficiencies in IT operations. Increase competitiveness by decreasing time to market. This demo covers multi-phase analytics, analytics at the edge, analytics in the data center. Learn more at: http://cs.co/600580Kzc
by Cisco via Endless Supplies .De - Brands

Target Slashing Prices On Thousands Of Items As Amazon Heats Up Grocery Wars

As Amazon heats up the grocery store wars with new discounts at Whole Foods — which has been bringing in more shoppers since the companies became one — Target is fighting back by promising to cut prices on thousands of items.

The company announced on Friday that it’s cutting prices on a slew of items, including cereal, paper towels, milk, eggs, baby formula, razors, bath tissues, and thousands of other products.

Instead of focusing only on sales or promotions, Target says it’s trying to “cut through the clutter and provide guests with everyday value, while continuing to offer additional savings on the right products at the right times.”

To that end, Target has eliminated more than two-thirds of its “price and offer call-outs,” which just means any signs or labels touting specials or deals.

Mark Tritton, Target executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, says the company spent months looking at everything it sells, “with a focus on offering the right price every day and simplifying our marketing to make great, low prices easy to spot.”

At the same time, Target isn’t doing away with promotions all together, he adds.

“We want our guests to feel a sense of satisfaction every time they shop at Target,” Tritton said in a statement. “Part of that is removing the guesswork to ensure they feel confident they’re getting a great, low price every day.”


by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Southwest Flies Plane Full Of Houston’s Homeless Animals To California Shelter

Dozens of animals stranded in Houston shelters following Hurricane Harvey are now awaiting new homes in San Diego after Southwest Airlines stepped in, flying an entire plane full of displaced animals and volunteers to their new city. 

Southwest Airlines announced that it had teamed up with Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego to assist Houston’s Operation Pets Alive! (OPA) shelter in moving more than 60 cats and dogs.

The animals were in Houston shelters when Harvey hit the city last month, and then temporarily housed at OPA. However, the shelter needed to move the animals in order to make space for pets whose humans are currently displaced from their homes.

“These are the silent victims,” Mike Arms, President of Helen Woodward Animal Center, said. “Operation Pets Alive! has taken in an overwhelming number of orphan dogs and cats who had inhabited [Houston] shelters before the storm and were suddenly facing euthanasia simply because they had no place to go.”

That’s when Southwest stepped in. Offering to transport an entire plane’s worth of animals to San Diego’s Helen Woodward Animal Center.

Linda Rutherford, Southwest Airlines Chief Communications Officer, said that by partnering with the shelter the airline was extending hope to Houston.

“Our employees care so deeply for our customers and all those impacted by Hurricane Harvey, including our sweet little four-legged friends,” she said.

Upon arriving in San Diego, the animals received medical care and will eventually be available for adoption.


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

EpiPen Maker Allegedly Failed To Investigate 171 Complaints Of Non-Working Devices

The manufacturer of Mylan’s emergency allergy treatment devices has been accused of failing to investigate hundreds of complaints over three years that the EpiPen and EpiPen Jr. failed to work properly, a failure that resulted in the deaths of several people.

That’s according to a U.S. Food & Drug Administration warning letter sent last week to Pfizer subsidiary Meridian Medical Technologies, the company that manufactured the emergency allergy treatment devices for Mylan.

What’s more, the FDA claims that Meridian actually detected issues with the auto-injectors but failed to adequately address the devices’ failures.

Related: The Cost Of A Life-Saving EpiPen Has Increased 400% Since 2007

Instead, it took the company three years to issue the recall of EpiPen and EpiPen Jr. devices that misfired during life-threatening emergencies. And even then, the company may not have recalled all affected devices.

A Lot Of Complaints

According to the FDA warning letter, Meridian received 171 complaints about EpiPens that failed to activate between 2014 and 2017.

The complaints involved a plethora of issues related to the devices, including that the auto-injectors failed to activate despite users following the device’s directions, as well as issues related to the device spontaneously dispensing epinephrine prior to use, leaving no medication available when an actual attempt to use the injector was made.

However, the letter alleges that Meridian failed to adequately investigate these complaints, some of which included “situations in which patients subsequently died.”

For example, Meridian received a customer complaint in April 2016 that an EpiPen failed to activate. Meridian opened an investigation into the complaint the following month, finding that the device in question contained a defect.

Instead of examining its entire reserve of samples to determine the extent of the defect within the same lot, Meridian concluded that the defect was infrequent and that “no market action would be taken.”

No Disassembly

The FDA claims that the April 2016 complaint was not the only time in which Meridian failed to properly investigate issues with the EpiPen. Of the 171 complaints the company received, it did not disassemble “the vast majority” of the units in question.

When FDA investigators visited Meridian, a site quality lead said that while disassembly is necessary to detect defects, the company’s policy was not to disassemble products unless approved by management.

Related: Public Outcry Hasn’t Actually Decreased The Price Of EpiPens

However, the company did not provide the agency with additional information for “failing to disassemble the vast majority of complaint samples you received over nearly three years,” even though Meridian “concurred that disassembly would have been necessary to determine” if a defect was present.

Alleged Inaction

The FDA claims that in Feb. 2016 Meridian discovered a failed component in some of its devices.

The component in question ensures that the auto-injector properly fires and delivers the intended dose of epinephrine.

While Meridian rejected the two lots of injectors because of the issue, it did not examine any units from the associated lot to determine if other products were affected by the defect.

“You instructed your supplier to undertake a full investigation and corrective actions regarding the firing defect, but continued to manufacture finished products using other lots of the same component while the supplier’s investigation remained open until October 2016,” the letter states.

Additionally, the company did not investigate whether or not the defect was related to component failures mentioned in the hundreds of complaints it had received from consumers.

Although Meridian eventually recalled the specific lot of injectors and told the FDA that it had worked with the supplier of the deformed part to address the root cause of the defect, it came too little, too late, according to the FDA.

“Your response is inadequate,” the letter states. “You did not explain why your own investigations failed to identify the scope and frequency of the component defect, or why you had previously concluded that this component defect occurred too infrequently to warrant a market action.”

Looking For Answers

With the letter, the FDA requires Meridian to provide a comprehensive review of invitations and create plans for patient safety and assessing the quality of EpiPens that might already be in the hands of customers.

“Correct the violations cited in this letter promptly,” the FDA letter states. “Failure to promptly correct these violations may result in legal action.”

The company has 15 days to a provide a response to the FDA.

Pfizer said in a statement to The Washington Post that it is “very confident in the safety and efficacy of EpiPen products being produced” by Meridian.

Additionally, the company said it has no information that links product complaints with any patient deaths.

Despite the letter and failure allegations, a rep for the FDA tells The Post that the agency “was not aware of defective EpiPens currently on the market.”


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Cisco Live 2017: Policy Based Services Automation with ACI Demo


Learn about the newest offerings and different ways you can integrate your L4-L7 services into your data center. This demo will show how you can add your firewalls and load-balancers to provide a full application centric infrastructure, among other capabilities of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). To learn more, visit: http://cs.co/600680Gkw
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Cisco Live 2017: Cisco ACI Multi-Zone Demo


The ever-increasing adoption of Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) as pervasive fabric technology makes the need of interconnecting separate ACI fabrics very common for Enterprise and Service Providers. This is due to the fact that various business requirements (business continuance, disaster avoidance, etc.) lead to the deployment of separate Data Center fabrics that need to be interconnected with each other. As it will be clarified, depending on the chosen deployment option, those fabrics may take the name of “Pods” or “Sites”. To learn more, visit: http://cs.co/600980GRD
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Tomb Raider: The Dagger of Xian (Tomb Raider 2 Fan Remake) - 1440p 60FPS+ Gameplay - 1080 Ti FTW3


Gameplay capture of Tomb Raider: The Dagger of Xian, which is a Tomb Raider 2 Fan Remake using Unreal Engine 4. There is a free demo available now at http://ift.tt/1Z8wDZs Captured using NVIDIA Shadowplay on EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 running in realtime, with Ultra (max) quality settings. Mild overclock of +50MHz on the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3.
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No, You Can’t Keep A Hammerhead Shark In Your Basement Pool

We know it might be tempting to make your own Sharknado at home, but not only is it illegal to keep certain exotic sharks in a pool as pets, but it’s not good for the big fish, either. That’s why officials in New York have removed a bunch of sharks from a resident’s home after finding them in a DIY aquarium in the basement.

Department of Environmental Conservation officers executed a search warrant at a Lagrangeville, NY, home last month on a tip that the home might be hosting illegal wildlife.

In the basement of the home, officials found seven live sandbar sharks, two dead leopard sharks, and a dead hammerhead shark in a 15-foot aboveground pool.

Wildlife Conservation Society staff, as well as workers from the Long Island Aquarium caught the sharks, took blood, measured and tagged them, and then transferred them to a special truck outfitted with plastic tanks. They were then “escorted” to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead to recover until the investigation is closed.

Investigators believe the sharks were being bred for sale to private collectors. It’s illegal to fish for sandbar sharks or own them on the east coast without a special permit.

And in case you’re wondering, no, this kind of discovery is not normal.

“I’ve seen crocodiles, snakes, some stingrays, and I know there was another case that they had alligators,” Dutchess County SPCA officer Kimberly McNamee told CBS2. “No sharks.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a shark losing its life in an aboveground pool: Back in 2013, Kmart was forced to apologize after a white-tipped shark died in a backyard pool the retailer had set up so it could use the fish in a commercial shoot.


by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

iOS 11 turns an iPad into a Laptop? DIY in 5 Ep 68


You can basically turn your iPad into a notebook/laptop computer now. It wasn’t really possible until iOS11, but Apple has added a number of features for the iPad that can make it feel much less like a tablet. If you have not upgraded to iOS 11, it is definitely worth it. iOS 11 gave us the split-screen feature. If you’re writing a document and need to drop in a picture, just open up both programs and drag and drop the picture just like you do with your other notebooks. Most of us work with a number of programs like email, Word, picture editors, and whatever. Now you can add all your favorite apps to that little bar on the bottom. When you open up a program you’ll notice it disappears. When you need it just swipe up. The files feature is what digitally transforms your tablet into an actual computer. Add a Bluetooth keyboard to make it truly mobile. Lots of keyboards come with cases that double as a stand to make it a more laptop-style experience. Bluetooth keyboards for iPads have come down dramatically in price over the last few years, and are now priced around $30 on Amazon. The iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) are now free and they’re surprisingly useful on the iPad. So if you need to write a document, make a presentation, or balance a budget, they have you covered. There is also Microsoft’s Office 365 which is not free, but if you really need the Office experience you can buy it from the App Store. Google Docs is free, easy to collaborate with others in real-time, and quite functional. To edit photos, videos, or work on 3D models, we suggest the iPad Pro. There’s a ton of really terrific apps that turn the iPad Pro into something close to a workstation-type system. Since you can’t upgrade the storage on an iPod, we suggest looking into cloud storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, and even iCloud itself. iCloud has come a long way recently and is actually a solid online storage solution. If you don’t trust the cloud, we also suggest the DT Bolt Duo drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJqjrk7Bwfc You can backup your camera roll, which is frequently the biggest offender when it comes to taking up storage space. Subscribe to Kingston: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=KingstonTechMemory
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SAY IT. SEE IT. Sony’s 4K HDR Android TV's are compatible with Amazon Echo Devices


Amazon Echo devices can control 2017 Sony 4K HDR televisions with Android TV. Ask Alexa to perform basic TV functions such as controlling the TV power, volume, play/pause/stop/fast forward controls, switch inputs and change channels. Learn More: http://ift.tt/2xUswcr
by Sony via Endless Supplies .De - Brands

Less Is More At Chili’s: Chain Cuts Menu By 40%

In a bid to avoid the continuously closing fate of chains like Joe’s Crab Shack, Outback Steakhouse, Bob Evan’s, and Logan’s Roadhouse, seminal restaurant chain Chili’s is downsizing — its menu, that is.

Chili’s Grill & Bar parent company Brinker International announced today that it would gut the chain’s menu by nearly 40% in an attempt to focus on the quality and size of the meals that customers actually order.

Starting Sept. 18, Chili’s will offer a “more is less” 75-item menu that focuses on the “value of its core menu items that first made the brand famous — burgers, ribs, and fajitas.”

The pared down menu comes after the chain spent years “chasing consumer trends, expanding the menu, and trying to be all things to all guests.”

At its peak, Chili’s offered one of the largest menus of any restaurant chain with more than 125 appetizers, entrees, desserts, cocktails, and add-ons.

In the end, however, Chili’s says the wide-range of menu offerings didn’t result in more sales, but in a “fuzzy food reputation.”

“After a lot of self-reflection, we’ve realized something you may already know — in restaurants as in life, you just can’t be everything to everyone,” the company said.

While the company realizes that some guests might miss departed menu items, it believes the improved quality of its remaining dishes will be enough to draw in customers.

“We apologize to any Guest who misses a departed dish, but with this bold move we commit to all guests to do a better job of serving our famous food on every visit, in every restaurant,” Kelli Valade, president of Chili’s, said in a statement.


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Future Ready Computers from Dell


Boost productivity for every employee. Dell computers with a 7th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro Processor Processors help workers stay productive, connected, powered up and secure so they can stay on top of it all and get more done. Learn more at http://ift.tt/2eSG6Zv
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RadioShack Is Down To Fewer Than 30 Corporate Stores

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice in two years, closing thousands of its corporate-owned stores, and auctioning off its corporate treasures, RadioShack is improbably still around. A new plan for getting out of bankruptcy filed with the court spells out the company’s plans, which involve online sales, franchising its brand, and somewhere between a few dozen and no corporate-owned stores.

RIPShack

That’s a surprising contrast for a company that had 8,000 stores not too long ago, and began its first bankruptcy with just over 4,000. Since then, the company has sold its own name to an outside firm, liquidated the inventory in its warehouses and in thousands of stores, often leaving employees without information about what was happening to their stores.

The bankruptcy judge has set an Oct. 25 hearing on this plan, The Wall Street Journal reports. It only nominally saves the company, and depends on lawsuits against former retail partner Sprint to make up the rest of the money due to its creditors.

Standard General, the hedge fund that put together the 2015 deal to save the RadioShack brand, will continue to own the retail operation (while it still exists), act as a wholesaler of RadioShack brands and other electronics to dealer/franchisees, and run the website. In return, the company will take $5 million of the chain’s secured debt.

The franchisees are fine

Dealer-franchisees, at least, are excited about the new business model. The first new store to open since the bankruptcy, in Baraboo, WI, was an existing locally-owned electronics store that took over the area’s franchisee license when the previous Shack closed.

“Radio Shack will work in almost any small town,” the owner told the Baraboo News Republic. “People want service.”

Providing competent repair services is part of the business models of both old and new franchisees.


by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Ergotron LearnFit®: Making an Academic Difference


A new study found that students who used standing desks achieved higher math test scores than peers in similar classrooms fitted with traditional classroom furniture. All involved agreed that increased activity through standing resulted in more engagement and better focus. Learn more at http://ift.tt/2wPdeFV.
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Google Will Kill Off Google Drive Completely By March 2018

Google Drive users, beware: The company has started the process of winding down the file-synchronizing app, and will stick the last knife in it by March 12.

As of yesterday, Google Drive for both Mac and PC is “officially deprecated,” the company noted in a blog post detailing its transition plan for the file-syncing service.

Google will stop supporting Drive on Dec. 11 — meaning users won’t be able to update the app after that — with the final shutdown date set for March 12, 2018.

Google Drive will be replaced with something called Backup and Sync, which does exactly what its name suggests: It backs up and synchronizes files stored locally on your computer to the cloud, making them available on all your devices.

You don’t have to wait until Google Drive is completely dead, as Backup and Sync is already available.

Thursday’s announcement was aimed at IT administrators at companies that offer Google’s G Suite tools — Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Calendar — to employees. Those administrators will be replacing Drive soon with Drive File Stream. So if you’ve been using Drive at work, you could soon be switching to the new file syncing system in the near future: Drive File Stream becomes generally available on Sept. 26.


by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

FBI Reportedly Investigating Uber For Spying On Lyft, Others

For about two years, Uber allegedly used a tool dubbed “Hell” to keep an eye on Lyft and other rivals, while also trying to lure away their drivers. This program caught the attention of federal law enforcement, who are now reportedly investigating whether Hell crossed any legal lines. 

This is according to the Wall Street Journal and its “people familiar with the matter,” who say that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing Uber’s use of Hell.

A rep for Uber confirmed to the WSJ that the ride-hailing company is “cooperating” with the agencies, but did not provide additional details.

Consumerist has reached out to Uber and the investigating parties for more information. We’ll update this post when we hear back.

What Is “Hell”?

The program, which was reportedly in use from 2014 to 2016, was first disclosed by tech website The Information [subscription required] in April, but Uber has not yet publicly released details of the software.

“Hell” allegedly let Uber’s top executives and a handful of data scientists track the availability and location of Lyft drivers in a given area, as well as track which of its drivers also drove for Lyft.

This software reportedly worked by creating fake Lyft driver accounts, and staging them at various locations around the city. That positioning let Uber build up a grid view of the whole city and all the Lyft drivers within it.

Uber would purportedly use this information to refocus its efforts to beef up its own services in certain areas that had a large Lyft presence. The company also began targeting specific drivers to entice them to drop Lyft by offering bonuses.

A Few Issues

There are several problems with the system, however. For instance, creating a fake Lyft account is a violation of the company’s terms of service, opening Uber up to claims including breach of contract, unfair business practices, misappropriation of trade secrets, and violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The WSJ reports that investigators are looking into these claims and whether or not Uber’s use of “Hell” constituted unauthorized access of a computer.

Just Another Investigation

A probe into “Hell” isn’t the only inquiry into the ride-hailing company’s allegedly sneaky ways.

The company has also been accused of using several types of software, including “God view” and “Greyball” to track users and otherwise keep an eye on everyone who uses its apps.

The WSJ reports that regulators in California are investigating Uber’s “Greyball” program that allowed drivers to avoid local transportation authorities.

Back in June, reports surfaced that the Federal Trade Commission had opened an inquiry into Uber’s privacy practices, including its handling of customer data.

Although the sources didn’t specify what the FTC staff was looking into, Uber’s handling of customer data and its tracking of users has come under scrutiny in the past. For instance, in April, reports suggested that Uber tracked iPhones even after the app was deleted.

That allegation came nearly two years after the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint with the FTC urging the agency to investigate a new privacy policy from the company. The group wanted the FTC to look into a portion of the policy that allowed it to use a rider’s location information to track where they are even when the app is running in the background.

That concern came back to the forefront late last year when the company changed its location settings requiring users to allow the app to continue following them for five minutes after a ride ends. Uber announced in late August that it would finally let users opt out of having their location tracked after their ride was over.

Also last month, it was revealed that the U.S. Justice Department is in the first stages of investigating whether managers at the company ran afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that prohibits companies and their employees from bribing foreign officials in the course of doing business.


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Equifax Already Being Sued Over Massive Breach; Company Criticized For Amateurish Response To Theft

Within hours of Equifax — one of the nation’s three major credit bureaus — confirming that the records of some 143 million people had been compromised in a data breach, the company now faces a lawsuit accusing it of failing to protect its stockpile of sensitive consumer information. Meanwhile, some critics are saying that Equifax’s response to the breach may be causing more harm than good.

The potential class action complaint [PDF] was filed Thursday afternoon at a federal court in Oregon with two of that state’s residents as the named plaintiffs. It aims to represent others who may be “harmed by Equifax’s failure to adequately protect their credit and personal information.”

As a credit bureau, Equifax has a large amount of potentially sensitive data about hundreds of millions of Americans — personal information like addresses, phone numbers, driver’s licenses, and Social Security numbers; along with financial information on credit card accounts, loans, lines of credit, and more.

The plaintiffs say that, with this much data at its disposal, Equifax has a legal duty “to use reasonable care to protect their credit and personal information from unauthorized access by third parties.”

The lawsuit alleges that the breach resulted from negligence on the part of Equifax, claiming the company deliberately did not invest adequately in protecting consumer data.

In addition to any potential harm that may come from the thieves’ misuse of the purloined data, the plaintiffs contend that Equifax should be expected to reimburse affected consumers for going out-of-pocket for services like third-party credit monitoring. Consumers should not have to “bear the expense caused by Equifax’s negligent failure to safeguard their credit and personal information from cyber-attackers,” reads the complaint.

We’ve reached out to Equifax for comment regarding this lawsuit but have not yet heard back.

This action is only the first of what will likely be dozens of similar lawsuits filed all over the country in the weeks to come. Aside from the $19.95 that one of the Oregon plaintiffs has already spent on an outside credit monitoring service, the complaint does not allege any actual damage done to the affected consumers. However, the type of information stolen in this breach could very easily lead to ID theft, credit fraud, and other harm.

This issue of potential harm is one that the court system has been debating in recent years. For instance, federal courts have disagreed on whether customers of health insurer CareFirst should be allowed to sue over a data breach where there is little evidence that the stolen information has been misused.

There will also likely be lawsuits, and possibly law enforcement investigations, involving reports that three top Equifax executives — including the company’s Chief Financial Officer — sold large chunks of Equifax stock, totaling around $1.8 million, shortly after the breach was discovered but before it was made public. The Oregon complaint does not mention these transactions.

Doing More Harm?

When it confirmed the data breach, Equifax launched a site — EquifaxSecurity2017.com — containing information and a way for people to enroll in TrustedID credit monitoring service, but there are a handful of problems that are only making the waters murkier.

First, Equifax fails to clearly point out that TrustedID is actually an Equifax product. Consumers could be forgiven for not having much trust in a company that just admitted it failed to secure the data of 143 million Americans.

Second, signing up for TrustedID appears to lock you into the cruddy Equifax terms of service, which include a forced arbitration clause. What does that mean? It means that by signing up for TrustedID, you could inadvertently be signing away your right to sue Equifax in a court of law. Instead, you’d have to enter into private arbitration with the company. We’ve asked Equifax to clarify the scope of this arbitration clause but have not yet heard back.

Third, as Ars Technica points out, there are several technical issues with the EquifaxSecurity2017 site — like the fact that it’s running on a system that lacks the proper security you’d expect for a site where you’re asking users to enter sensitive data (just so they can find out if their sensitive data is being misused). Additionally, the EquifaxSecurity2017 URL isn’t registered to Equifax, but through a third party company.

“[I]t’s format looks like precisely the kind of thing a criminal operation might use to steal people’s details,” writes Ars’ Dan Goodin. “It’s no surprise that Cisco-owned Open DNS was blocking access to the site and warning it was a suspected phishing threat.”


by Chris Morran via Consumerist

iPhone 8 facing shipping delays, Disney's streaming plan


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Equifax breach: Were you one of the 143 million affected?


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Equifax Announces Data Breach Affecting 143 Million Customers

Credit reporting agencies have access to basically all of our most sensitive financial information, and we pretty much all have our records collected and collated by them whether we want to or not. So that makes it a particularly big problem when one of the big three credit agencies in the country has to announce a data breach affecting all its customers, because that basically means all of us… and this one is bad.

What was the breach?

Equifax announced today that it discovered “unauthorized access” to their systems — i.e. a data breach — on July 29.

Whoever got into their systems had access from mid-May through the end of July, so about two-and-a-half months.

Equifax says it has “no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases,” but plenty of Equifax systems were accessed, and data purloined. The company adds the standard adage about reporting the incident to law enforcement and working with both independent forensic investigators as well as the relevant authorities to sort out who’s responsible.

What was stolen?

This one is bad. The illicitly accessed data includes:

  • Names
  • Dates of birth
  • Addresses
  • Social Security numbers
  • Driver’s license numbers

That is, of course, basically the identity theft jackpot. Every account that needs verification that you’re you asks for that exact set of data, so now anyone can be you.

Additionally, Equifax adds, another 209,000 customers had their credit card numbers stolen, and another 182,000 customers had “personal identifying information” listed from dispute documents.

Am I affected?

The breach may impact as many as 143 million people. That’s approximately 45% of the entire U.S. population, so if you have a credit card or loan anywhere, odds are really quite high that yes, this means you.

What can I do about it?

Equifax is, as you would expect, offering to enroll people in complimentary identity theft protection service for a year — specifically, with TrustedID which is, of course, an Equifax company.

Equifax lets you fill in a form here to find out if you personally have been affected, though its results are less than clear. Filling out that form and clicking submit also automatically puts you in the queue to enroll in TrustedID Premier, whether or not you meant to do that. It also warns you that it won’t email or contact you to tell you when your enrollment date was, so you should “mark your calendar.”

For actually protecting yourself, best bet is probably going to be to proactively read, and then bookmark, the FTC’s identity theft guide at IdentityTheft.gov for the foreseeable future, and to — as usual — make sure you’re going over all of your account statements with a fine-toothed comb pretty regularly.

Consumer advocates say that Equifax’s offer doesn’t go nearly far enough. “Equifax should alert all affected people to the benefits of credit freezes and offer them to all Americans for free of charge with all three major national credit bureaus,” U.S. PIRG’s Mike Litt said in a statement.

“Credit freezes help prevent new account identity theft because they keep potential creditors from seeing consumer credit history, without which new accounts are typically not opened,” Litt added. “The firm should be held fully accountable by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”


by Kate Cox via Consumerist

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The Decade That Built the Next iPhone


When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007, he said it was 5 years ahead of the competition and he was right. But after a decade, it's starting to feel like Apple needs something big again. And now, on cue, here comes something big. Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► http://wrd.cm/15fP7B7 CONNECT WITH WIRED Web: http://wired.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/WIRED Facebook: http://ift.tt/1dBz3Oa Pinterest: http://ift.tt/1JeJD7O Google+: http://ift.tt/1Ch4gR7 Instagram: http://ift.tt/1lUgynY Tumblr: http://WIRED.tumblr.com Want even more? Subscribe to The Scene: http://bit.ly/subthescene ABOUT WIRED WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture. The Decade That Built the Next iPhone
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