пятница, 13 марта 2015 г.
jikKia Recalls 200,000 Soul Compact Cars Because Gas Pedals Shouldn’t Break In Halfde
The accelerator pedal might just be one of the more important components of a vehicle, so when reports start surfacing that the pedal might break or bend, that’s kind of a big deal. Such is the case for more than 200,000 Kia Soul vehicles that are now subject to a safety recall.
According to a notice [PDF] from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Kia is recalling 208,858 model year 2014 and 2015 gas and electric Soul compact vehicles because the gas pedal may bend or fracture.
Kia says that if the pedal becomes bent or splits, the driver would likely have difficulty accelerating, which in turn, could lead to an increased risk of a crash.
A chronology [PDF] submitted to NHTSA shows that Kia first became aware of the issue in October 2014 through vehicle warranty claims. In all, the company received 12 warranty claims related to the pedals, but no consumer complaints.
A subsequent evaluation of accelerator pedals collected by Kia found they could fracture due to excessive force. At that point, the manufacturer opted to conduct a voluntary recall.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
jikWhy People Can Resell Old Lululemon Running Shorts For $800de
Tradesy is an online consignment market, where people can sell designer and luxury goods that they no longer want. The top brands that sell on the site are pretty much what you’d expect: Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Tiffany. Yet brand #3 in their top five is one that you might not expect: Lululemon, an athletic wear company. Are people really that crazy over yoga pants?
Yes. They are. Racked looked into the Lululemon resale market, and discovered an entire hidden world. Instead of getting a discount on yoga pants that someone else has already sweated in, this business is actually about taking merchandise that’s scarce, holding on to it until it’s valuable, and then reselling it.
This works for items that are brand new with tags, but used items retain their value because of the durability the clothes. The company doesn’t condone this secondary market, but at the same time offers limited-edition products and brings different items in different colors into and out of circulation. This makes the items artificially scarce, and therefore valuable to someone.
In an interview, the CEO of Tradesy told Racked that the secondary market for Lululemon gear is something that they hadn’t really anticipated. “We always see markups in rare Chanel bags or vintage Louis Vuitton, so it’s interesting to see it happening with pants that make your butt look good and only retail for $80.”
What kind of markups? How about some rare running shorts that are currently bid up to $1,000 on eBay? Limited-edition leggings with a tie-dyed effect sell for hundreds of dollars.
One flipper describes searching resale values on eBay from the dressing room of her local Lululemon outlet. Yet this flipper, who makes a nice profit simply flipping Lululemon products on eBay, worries that she could end up banned from the company’s stores, just like how Sephora bans suspected makeup resellers from making online purchases.
Inside Lululemon’s Booming Underground Resale Market [Racked]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
jikIf You’ve Ever Wanted To Smell Like An Old Book, New Perfume Will Make Your Dreams Come Truede
In the latest entry into the somewhat puzzling “Smell Like The Thing You Love The Most” product category, an “old book” scent is joining previous odd fragrance notables Bitcoin and pizza.
Yes, yes, we know — every time you walk into a library or used bookstore, you just looooove the smell of old books. I’m right there with you, I mean I love getting nose-deep in an old copy of Crime and Punishment, but I can’t say I want to tingle the olfactory organs of friends and strangers alike with the scent.
But because there’s probably someone out there who will want to buy it, a company called Sweet Tea Apothecary (via New York Magazine) has mixed up a concoction it calls “Dead Writers” to fool your nose into thinking you’re a musty old book, just waiting to be whiffed.
At $80 for one-ounce, the unisex fragrance is an oil perfume that “evokes the feeling of sitting in an old library chair paging through yellowed copies of Hemingway, Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Poe, and more,” the company’s site says.
More specifically, it “contains black tea, vetiver, clove, musk, vanilla, heliotrope, and tobacco.” It’s part of a fragrance lined inspired by historic figures and places — you can also smell like Marie Antoinette (pre-guillotine, probably) and Henry VIII (pre-gout/wife-executing, hopefully).
Again, love those old books. Not quite sure if I’d love smelling like one.
Now You Can Smell Like an Old Book [New York Magazine]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
jikLawsuit That Brought GM Ignition Switch Defect To Light Settled For Second Timede
The lawsuit filed by the family of a Georgia woman who died in a 2010 car accident that spurred the recall of 2.5 million General Motors vehicles with faulty ignition switches has been settled out of court.
The Associated Press reports that terms of the settlement, which are the result of a second suit levied by the family, were not released.
A lawyer for the family, who first filed the suit against GM in 2011, hired engineering experts who eventually discovered the ignition switch issues in several smaller model vehicles.
According to a deposition provided by the family’s lawyer, a GM engineer experienced the problem – in which the ignition switch could unexpectedly shift out of the run position, disabling safety devices and increasing the risk of a crash – while test driving one of the vehicles in 2004.
Initially, the family had agreed to settle their lawsuit with GM for $5 million, but rescinded the agreement last year; instead opting to file a second suit alleging that the company concealed the defect and withheld vital information from the family.
To date, GM has recalled millions of compact cars – including the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion– that have been linked to at least 64 deaths and 108 serious injuries.
Lawsuit that showed GM hid ignition switch problem settled [The Associated Press]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
jikReport: Google Error Leaks Hidden Data For 280,000 Domainsde
Usually when we hear that a company has had a bunch of data leaked to the world, hackers are responsible. But in the case of a Google leak involving hidden data for 280,000 domain names, a bug in Google’s system is apparently to blame.
Ars Technica reports on a discovery by Cisco Systems’ researchers that the complete hidden WHOIS data for 282,867 domains registered through Google Apps for Work service in a partnership with registrar eNom has leaked, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses and more.
The accounts that were leaked account for 94% of the addresses Google Apps has registered. Its services include a $6 per year fee to shield all personal information included in WHOIS records from the public view, promising that it will stay in the hands of eNom barring a court order.
But starting in the middle of 2013, information began trickling out of Google due to a software defect in Google Apps. Once a domain registration was renewed, the bug caused data to become public.
Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group discovered the leak on Feb. 19, and it was plugged five days later.
While a lot of WHOIS data is likely false — what with what it calls “obviously fake” names, addresses and other data in public WHOIS records — users who thought their data was protected by the privacy service Google offered are likely not happy about that information becoming public.
“The reality of this WHOIS information leak is that it exposed the registration information of hundreds of thousands of registration records that had opted into privacy protection without their knowledge or consent to the entire Internet. This information will be available permanently as a number of services keep WHOIS information archived,” Cisco researchers explain.
Cisco points out that while some people use fake information to register domains, those who don’t could be at risk: Villains with access to that information could send targeted spear phishing emails using the victim’s name, address, etc, to make the phishing attempt seem more legitimate. Identity theft is also a possibility, so Cisco recommends users “adopt safe browsing habits and make use of layered defenses like antivirus and anti-spam technology.”
Google emailed a notice to users of its service last night, writing:
Dear Google Apps Administrator,
We are writing to notify you of a software defect in Google Apps’ domain registration system that affected your account. We are sorry that this defect occurred. We want to inform you of the incident and the remedial actions we have taken to resolve it.
When the unlisted registration option was selected, your domain registration information was not included in the WHOIS directory for the first year. However, due to a software defect in the Google Apps domain renewal system, eNom’s unlisted registration service was not extended when your domain registration was renewed. As a result, upon renewal and from then on forward, your registration information was listed publicly in the WHOIS directory.
A Google spokesperson also told Ars that the bug was traced to how Google Apps integrates with eNom’s domain registration program interface. The spokesman reiterated that the root cause has been identified and fixed.
Epic Google snafu leaks hidden whois data for 280,000 domains [Ars Technica]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
jikWould You Pay 20¢ To Read One Wall Street Journal Article?de
As more news consumers have started to migrate online instead of getting their news in dead-tree form, this has caused problems for the entire business model of publishing. It raises an interesting question, though: what if there were a news equivalent of buying the one song you like from a new album for 99¢ or less? That option may be coming soon to our national newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
Will news fans use it, instead of buying all-you-can-read online subscriptions or pasting the article’s URL into a different Web browser? A startup in the Netherlands called Blendle will soon launch in this country, and has been doing pretty well in its native country. The New York Times was an early investor in the company back when it was exclusive to the Netherlands.
Better yet: if you open an article and don’t like it, you can request a refund. The idea has its detractors, who argue that there’s no shortage of free online news outlets in English, and that the system won’t work outside of the relatively tiny and specialized Dutch-language market.
N.Y. Times, WSJ, Washington Post Reach Pay-Per-Article Deals [Bloomberg News]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist