uGoogle Subsidiary Apologizes For Including Concentration Camps In Mobile Gamer

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  (screenshot via Die Zeit)

  It can be a good thing for game developers to include real-life sights in the unreal world of video games, but there are cases where such inclusions are simply unacceptable. This was the case for a unit of Google, which has apologized after including Nazi concentration camps as “portals” in a mobile role-playing game.

  Players of Ingress by internal Google start-up Niantic Labs can suggest historic locations and monuments to be included in the game, which are then battled over by opposing sides to take control. These aren’t just images — Ingress takes place in the real world — you go to a location with your phone’s GPS on to “claim” it. That means players would actually be playing the game on their smartphones at those sites.

  But after German weekly Die Zeit reported today that some of those sites — called “portals” within the game — were located within concentration camps like Dachau, Arbecht Macht Frei, Sachsenhausen and a slew of others.

  “All of us here are completely appalled,” the head of the Sachsenhausen Memorial told Die Zeit. “This is most definitely no place for video games.”

  The diirector of the memorial site at Dachau also reportedly told the dpa news agency that Google’s actions were a humiliation for victims and relatives of the Nazi camps, the Associated Press reports, prompting Niantic Labs — a subsidiary of Google — to offer an apology for the inclusion of those sites.

  The founder of Niantic Labs told the AP in a statement that the company has started the process of removing the offending locations from the game, and that “we apologize that this has happened.”

  When Google plays games in a concentration camp [Die Zeit]
  Google unit sorry for including concentration camps in game [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uLifetime Bets On Cord-Cutters Willing To Pay $3.99/Month For Streaming Library Of Schlocky TV Moviesr

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  The recent Lifetime adaptation of V.C. Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic” — or as we call it “How Can Things Possibly Get Worse for Poor Sally Draper?” — will be among the offerings available at launch in the Lifetime Movie Club.

  Are you thinking about getting rid of cable but simply can’t because you have to catch the next Lifetime Movie Network schlockfest starring actors from ’80s and ’90s TV shows alongside 20-something Canadian thespians pretending to be American high school students? Then you may be in luck, as Lifetime’s parent company is launching a $3.99 on-demand streaming subscription service just for you.

  Variety reports that the Lifetime Movie Club, which is slated to launch today on Apple’s iTunes (though it was not available when we looked), will feature a monthly, rotating library of 30 movies from the infamous cable-TV network.

  According to the report, the initial selection will include everything from the network’s recent adaptation of everyone’s second-favorite incest romance, “Flowers in the Attic,” to more traditional Lifetime fare like “Too Young to Marry” to genuinely serious content like “A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story.”

  However, the Wall Street Journal notes that anyone hoping to catch up on recently aired Lifetime movies, like the bizarre Will Ferrell/Kristen Wiig feature “A Deadly Adoption,” will be out of luck, as the network is hoping to prevent defections from cable subscriber ranks by only putting older content on the Movie Club.

  This service stands apart from HBO’s recently launched standalone streaming service, HBO Now, in that it features a very limited library of older content, but at $11/month less. Showtime is set to launch its streaming service at $11/month ($9/month for Hulu subscribers) and will include live access to both the East and West Coast feeds of the network in addition to the streaming archive of new and old shows.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uBook Subscription Service Pulling Some Romance Titles Because People Read Too Many Of Themr

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  (RoniLauren)

  Although it feels like every subscription service wants to be like Netflix, that business model is proving tough to repeat for some. That includes the book subscription program offered by Scribd, which is reportedly pulling thousands of romance titles from its platform because people are reading too many titles, too fast.

  This is proving troubling for Scribd’s bottom line, reports Nieman Labs, as the service has to pay publishers every time a user reads even part of a book. In an ideal business model, Scribd readers would be like those people who pay for a gym membership, but then barely ever go.

  But to the romance “gym” they care certainly going, as the CEO of self-publishing site Smashwords revealed in a letter earlier this week that Scribd sent to publishers. It reads:

  We’ve grown to a point where we are beginning to adjust the proportion of titles across genres to ensure that we can continue to expand the overall size and variety of our service. We will be making some adjustments, particularly to romance, and as a result some previously available titles may no longer be available.

  Growing up with a slew of aunts who would trade boxes full of romance novels back and forth with my mother to supply their apparently unquenchable thirst for dark corners, sweet nothings and, most often, strong female characters, I’m certainly familiar with the voracious appetite evinced by the genre’s fans. Enough is never enough — there is always another romance novel ready to be digested quickly before it’s on to the next one.

  Scribd’s CEO Trip Adler addressed readers’ concerns in a blog post after the news hit the rapidly fluttering fan, saying the company is devoted to providing plenty of fodder for readers.

  “We’re working hard to establish more mutually beneficial terms with our publishing partners, so that we can continue to grow our catalog,” Adler wrote, adding that “romance is here to stay. We are maintaining a robust catalog of thousands of romance titles.” Titles will be rotated in and out, he adds, “so that romance readers always have something fresh to read.”

  Anyone who’s already downloaded and started reading a title won’t have to fear that the book will just disappear, either, Adler notes.

  In the meantime, it’s quite possible my mom’s trunk/closet/basement/garage hidey-hole is still full of boxes upon boxes of romance novels, so I’m sure she’d be willing to share.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uNHTSA “Tentatively Concludes” Fiat Chrysler Failed To Adequately Address Dozens Of Recallsr

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  (Ralph Krawczyk Jr)

  Federal regulators took Fiat Chrysler to task for its leisurely pace in fixing 11 million vehicles recalled for one reason or another in recent years during an unusual public hearing today.

  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced back in May that it would hold the hearing to receive testimony from Fiat Chrysler to determine whether or not any action should be taken against the car maker for a plethora of what they see as poorly handled national recalls.

  The Detroit Free Press reports that regulators have already “tentatively concluded” that Fiat Chrysler failed to fix many of the 11 million vehicles involved in 23 recalls in a reasonable time frame.

  In other cases, the agency says it has determined that the auto manufacturer failed to create adequate methods of repairing the affected vehicles.

  “In my experience, Fiat Chrysler’s recall performance often differs from that of its peers,” Scott Yon, chief of NHTSA’s Vehicle Integrity Division, said during the hearing. “Fiat Chrysler takes a long time to produce the parts needed to get vehicles fixed. Their dealers have difficulty getting parts for recalls. Their customers have trouble getting recall repairs done. Fiat Chrysler’s recall remedies sometimes fail to remedy the defects they are supposed to fix.”

  NHTSA was quick to bring up the company’s slow pace in completing its most public recall involving millions of Jeeps that can explode following low-speed rear-end collisions.

  That safety recall has been linked to at least 50 deaths. NHTSA said that as of the end of April the car maker had only fixed about 320,000 vehicles.

  Fiat Chrysler has contended that the repair rate has increased.

  Still, Yon said at the hearing that the repair rates are “not in line with either Fiat Chrysler’s own projection or NHTSA’s expectations.”

  Yon also testified that while the car maker did identify the addition of a trailer hitch as a fix for the deadly safety issue, it waited six months before actually selecting a parts maker for the hitch.

  Other testimony surrounded Fiat Chrysler’s action in several 2013 recalls, one involving rear wheels locking up and tie rod ends that can disable steering gears.

  According to Yon, NHTSA continues to receive complaints from the owners of the affected vehicles even though campaigns to fix the cars began nearly 15 months ago.

  Prior to the hearing, Fiat Chrysler defended its actions in an email to the Detroit Free Press, suggesting some of the blame belongs to NHTSA.

  A spokesperson pointed out that in the case of the Jeep recall, regulators didn’t see a risk to safety initially.

  When NHTSA announced it would hold the hearing, it said if evidence presented shows Fiat Chrysler failed to meet recall obligations laid out by federal law, they could require the automaker to repurchase or replace affected vehicles or take other action.

  Federal regulators open Fiat Chrysler safety hearing [The Detroit Free Press]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uOne Of World’s Most Expensive Restaurants Caught Keeping Tips From Waitersr

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  The five-course tasting menu at Per Se starts at $310 per person.

  Celebrity chef Thomas Keller’s Per Se restaurant in Manhattan is one of the world’s most expensive eateries, with diners paying a minimum prix fixe of $310 each for dinner. And yet the restaurant has been caught charging certain customers for “service charges” that didn’t go to pay the people performing that service. Now it faces having to pay $500,000 in restitution to employees who should have received this money.

  In 2011, the New York State Department of Labor enacted a new Hospitality Wage Order (HWO), which clarified that any mandatory surcharge like a service or “food service” fee would be treated as a gratuity to be distributed to tipped employees. Restaurants can have surcharges that aren’t treated like tips, but the customer must be made aware that the mandatory charge is not going to be used as gratuity.

  According to a settlement agreement [PDF] with the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the state began investigating Per Se two years ago over allegations that the restaurant was tacking on 20% service charges for banquet and private dining customers. Rather than distribute this fee as tips to wait staff, Per Se was using the 20% surcharge to pay for the general operating expenses of the business without revealing this fact to customers.

  In fact, AG’s investigation found that Per Se was allegedly misleading guests into believing that the 20% surcharges were indeed being treated like tips, with statements like “[K]indly note that service/gratuity is certainly included in the pricing.”

  On its own, the restaurant subsequently changed its private dining contract to reflect that the surcharge was not a service fee but an “operational charge.” Schneiderman says the new language, which specifically says that “this is not a gratuity,” is sufficient for compliance with the HWO.

  “Today’s agreement ensures that workers at Per Se will not continue to be cheated out of their hard-earned tips — tips that customers intended for them,” said Schneiderman in a statement, “And it reaffirms the right of satisfied restaurant-goers not to be misled about whether a ‘service charge’ is actually paid to workers as a tip, which the law requires.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uBubble Wrap: Now With Less Popr

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  (frankieleon)

  We’ve all been there: You receive a fragile packaged carefully wrapped in Bubble Wrap that’s just begging for you to start pinching the plastic between your fingers to create that joyous popping sound. The days of that sweet sound may be over as the biggest company in the Bubble Wrap game is revamping its signature product by removing its popping possibility.

  The Charlotte Observer reports that North Carolina-based Sealed Air, maker of the iconic packing material, has created a new version called iBubble Wrap that loses its popping quality.

  The new product is sold to companies in flat plastic sheets and then filled with special pumps. The company says iBubble Wrap – before inflated – uses about one-fiftieth as much space as traditional Bubble Wrap.

  While the new wrap costs less than traditional Bubble Wrap, the custom pumps used to fill the material cost about $5,500.

  Because the new version of the packaging material is laid out in connected air pockets, the filling migrates to other areas and doesn’t have the ability to pop.

  Sealed Air says the new material is intended to cater to online retailers looking for less bulky ways to ship products all over the world, the Observer reports.

  Sealed Air hopes to elate customers with deflated Bubble Wrap [Charlotte Observer]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uGuy Puts His Cat Through X-Ray Machine At LAX, Everyone Freaks Outr

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  No cats here. Whew. (JessicaKRoach)

  Something important you should probably add to your check list when traveling with a pet: Make sure your furry friend doesn’t go through the X-ray machine at the airport, not only because it could be dangerous, but because everyone around you will promptly freak out. Officials at Los Angeles Airport say a traveler accidentally placed his cat in a bag during the security screening procedure, but agents say it seems the fuzzy guy is perfectly fine.

  Transportation Security Administration officers discovered the pet when a JetBlue passenger placed his bag — not a pet carrier — on the conveyor belt to go through the X-ray machine, an LAX Police Department spokeswoman told NBC Los Angeles.

  TSA officers took the cat out of the bag and determined it hadn’t suffered any harm for its short ride, while the passenger told a supervisor that he didn’t know animals weren’t supposed to go through X-ray machines.

  Witnesses nearby promptly reported the incident on social media, Tweeting that folks were pretty much freaking out left and right. Comedian and writer Sara Benincasa and the Sklar Brothers (or perhaps just one of them?) were on-hand and issued a number of Tweets about the incident:

  Standing in front of guy at TSA. I hand him a bin. I turn away and go through the scanner. I hear screams. HE PUT HIS CAT IN THE BIN.

  — Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) July 1, 2015

  I have seen people pulled out of the TSA line for knives. Guns. I have never seen the rage of the TSA when dude just put his cat in the XRay

  — Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) July 1, 2015

  The amount of screaming that's happening in the Jet Blue terminal at LAX is incredible right now and yet it feels completely appropriate.

  — The Sklar Brothers (@SklarBrothers) July 1, 2015

  The Sklar Brothers Twitter account later added that the traveler in question was on their flight, noting for any interested parties that he was wearing a fedora.

  Gawker points out that this isn’t the first time a cat has taken a wild ride through the X-ray machine at LAX — another pet was put on the conveyor belt earlier this week, according to Twitter, at least:

  I have now seen everything. A woman trying to put a live cat, no cage, through the xray thing at LAX security. Officers suddenly screaming!

  — The Obvious Hiker (@ObviousHiker) June 30, 2015

  LAX X-Ray Machine Reveals Cat in Passenger’s Luggage [NBC Los Angeles]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist