uNew Google Glass Could Reportedly Have Larger Display, Hand-Triggered Photo Capabilitiesr

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  A recently awarded Google patent includes depictions of a new hand-triggered camera function that could be included in future versions of Google Glass.

  Citing the need for a redesign – and slow sales for its Explorers program – Google stopped selling the most recent version of its Google Glass back in January. While the company declined to provide any specifics on its next version of the device at the time, a newly awarded patent – and sources close to the device’s creation – give a few hints of what might be in store for the high-tech gadget.

  The upcoming revamp, being called “Enterprise Edition,” includes a larger display, a larger intel processor and maybe even the ability to take photos when a user makes a box with their fingers, 9to5Google, citing sources with knowledge of the new device, reports.

  The so-called Enterprise Edition – which is already being tested and showcased to interested companies – will reportedly come with a larger prism display that allows users to more comfortably view what is being recorded by the device and avoid eye strain issues. The device will also reportedly come with an extended battery life thanks to a low-power Intel chip.

  As for the stylistic aspect of the upcoming version, 9to5Google reports it will likely be bigger, but offered few other descriptions.

  Back in May, Italian eyewear company, Luxottica – the company behind Ray-Ban and Oakley – announced it had teamed up with Google to make the next version of Glass fashionable and something people would like to actually wear.

  As for the newly approved patent, it offers a few clues about the evolving entertainment capabilities that might soon be found in Google Glass.

  The patent – which only refers to a head-mounted device, not Google Glass specifically – outlines a way in which wearers can trigger the camera function of a device simply by using their hands, Quartz reports.

  The hand-triggered system would “capture and process images in response to a user placing their hands in, and then withdrawing their hands from, a frame formation,” the patent states.

  

  The new photo technology would allow users to pose their fingers in different shapes to take photos.

  Google’s last version of Glass required users to either click a button or verbally command the device to take photos or record their surroundings (including people who might not want to be filmed).

  While the patent doesn’t specify if the finger-triggered system would for video, it does suggest that users can create different shapes with their hands to create landscape, portrait and other types of photos.

  Google did not immediately respond to Quartz’s inquiry about whether the new function would be included in the newest version of Glass – which the company previously said it expected to be out later this year.

  Google Glass ‘Enterprise Edition’ brings new larger prism, Intel Atom CPU, optional external battery pack [9to5Google]
  Google wants you to use your fingers to take photos on the next Google Glass [Quartz]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uApple Avoids Paying $533M In Fight Over Patents, Wins A New Trial To Decide Damagesr

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  (SimonQ錫濛譙)

  A few months after a jury ordered Apple to pay almost $533 million after finding that the iPhone giant had infringed on three patents held by a rival company, a judge has thrown out that reward and ordered a new trial to determine damages in the case.

  At the center of the case are three patents owned by Smartflash that deal with data storage and payment management. The company had alleged that a patent co-inventor shared his ideas back in 2000 with a man who is now a senior director at Apple. Though Smartflash doesn’t make its own products, the company claimed that Apple infringed on the patents by using the technology to manage apps sold through the iTunes store.

  The jury decided in February that Apple had willfully infringed on SmartFlash’s patents, and awarded the claimant $532.9 million, though it had sought $852 million in damages initially.

  Apple had argued that the award was too much, and that jurors might’ve improperly considered the entire market value of the products when deciding royalties, instead of distinguishing between patented and unpatented features, reports Reuters.

  U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap in Texas said yesterday that there was a possibility that jurors were confused by his previous instructions on how to properly calculate royalties, noting that while his instructions had been legally correct, they weren’t applicable to the facts of the case. This “may have created a skewed damages horizon for the jury,” he said.

  He’s set a new trial solely to decide the issues of damages for Sept. 14 in Tyler, TX, Smartflash’s home base.

  Apple persuades U.S. judge to void $533 mln iTunes award [Reuters]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMarketers Of Memory Supplement Must Pay $1.4M To Settle Deceptive Advertising Chargesr

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• Using fake news stories and trumped-up, unsubstantiated claims, the marketers of a supplement that claimed to be the answer to memory loss problems sold nearly $100 million worth of the stuff in just a few years. Now they have to fork over $1.4 million to federal and state authorities for making these deceptive statements, and face millions more in penalties if they fail to comply.

  The Federal Trade Commission announced today that five companies – including KeyView Labs and Brain Research Labs – and their two principals agreed to a consent order to resolve their part in promoting allegedly deceptive advertisements for the supplement Procera AVH.

  According to the FTC complaint [PDF], the marketers sold Procera AVH as a “solution” to memory loss and cognitive decline associated with aging.

  The marketers sold the supplements through a series of ads on the Internet, in newspapers, direct mail flyers and infomercials.

  One infomercial cited in the FTC complaint pretends to be a news program, complete with an anchor telling the audience about “the latest breaking news on an emerging health crisis possibly facing all Americans age 40 and older.”

  The video then goes on to describe the “health crisis” as the “embarrassing, frustrating, sometimes dangerous effects of losing our mental edge, our focus and concentration, and even our memory.”

  Enter Dr. Paul Nemiroff, who opines about potential mental decline – claiming that one-third of brain power is lost by age 40. He then introduces the viewer to Procera AVH, saying the pills have been proven – through a “rigorous” study at a major university – to “effectively address our brain’s energy crisis. They actually helped reverse memory loss by up to 10 to 15 years.”

  Other means of advertisement for the supplement included newspaper ads and multi-page direct mail ads included similar claims.

  The cover of a direct mail ad was labeled as a “Special Edition” of the “Physician’s Mind and Memory Alert.” The text inside the mailer stated: “The thought of being a prisoner in one’s own home, or being unable to recall who you are, where you live, or to whom you are related is sending forgetful baby boomers and retirees scrambling for a solution.” The ad then promoted Procera AVH as “the memory pill preferred by many doctors.”

  According to the FTC, the claims for Procera AVH were false, misleading, or unsubstantiated and that the defendants falsely claimed that a scientific study proved the products efficacy.

  Customers paid $79 per bottle of Procera AVH or $119 for three bottles if the customer signed up for the continuity purchase plan and agreed to automatic refills.

  The FTC estimates that from 2006 to mid-2012, the marketers sold more than $60 million of Procera AVH. When sales began again from 2013 through March 2014 it totaled about $36 million.

  Under the proposed settlement with the FTC, KeyView must pay $61 million, while the remaining defendants must pay $91 million. However, those judgements are suspended once the defendants pay $1 million to the FTC and an additional $400,000 to local law enforcement in Santa Cruz, CA.

  Supplement Marketers Will Relinquish $1.4 Million to Settle FTC Deceptive Advertising Charges [Federal Trade Commission]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNew Jersey Legislation Would Create Student Loan Lottery To Let You Gamble Away Your Debtr

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  (Lisa Brewster)

  While lottery proceeds may do an awful lot of good for state coffers, the odds of winning are microscopically small, and anyone who has lived in a poverty-stricken neighborhood has likely seen people who can’t afford to lose any money throwing away what little they have on a nose hair’s chance that they might win something. So why not apply that same model to the $1 trillion student loan debt problem?

  That’s the gist of New Jersey bill A4631, which would create a student loan lottery in the state where the winner’s student loan debt is paid off.

  This wouldn’t be a sweepstakes or contest where “lottery” simply refers to the winner being selected at random from a pool of entrants. And this isn’t using a portion of state lottery earnings to pay down selected residents’ loan debts. No, entrants would need to pay for a ticket (which would cost up to $3 each) in order to compete, and only loan borrower (or their “benefactors”) can enter.

  In effect, it would be a bunch of people with student loan debt pooling their money together to pay off one single person’s debt.

  The state legislator who introduced the bill seems to be well-intentioned.

  “Any vehicle that could provide some relief it seems to me it’s worth talking about,” State Assemblyman John Burzichelli tells NJ.com. “We have people graduating from universities with just too much on their shoulders… And that hampers them from doing other things when they reach the workforce.”

  He’s right, but is it a good idea to suggest that these same people — already weighed down by debt — should risk more money on a slim chance they’ll win?

  Some 70% of undergraduate students graduating from New Jersey colleges in 2013 left school with student loan debt (the fourth-highest percentage in the country), and around 40,000 bachelor’s degrees were granted from those schools that year, meaning 28,000 students graduated owing money to lenders.

  The average student loan debt in the state was slightly more than $28,000 in 2013, according to The Institute for College Access & Success. Since the operator of this proposed student loan lottery would retain 25% of the pool for itself, that means the state would need to raise more than $37,000 just to fund a single lottery winner.

  Given that this sort of lottery would have a much smaller entrant pool than a typical state lottery, it would be tempting to try to game the system. If you owe $60,000 in student loan debt but can get your hands on $15,000 by selling your car, one might think about risking all that cash in an attempt to get your name on as many tickets as possible.

  The legislation tries to minimize this by limiting the amount you could gamble on the lottery to 15% of your total student loan debt. That means the average New Jersey grad could still spend more than $4,000 on lottery tickets and come away empty-handed.

  “Gamble to pay off your student loan? It’s all kinds of wrong,” Natalia Abrams, executive director of advocacy group Student Debt Crisis, tells NJ.com. “I think that if they can afford 15% of what they owe they should just pay it to their student loan servicer.”

  Then there is the issue of taxes. Even though the payouts from the lottery would go directly to the student loan servicer and not to the borrower, it may still count as taxable income.

  “Even if they got their student loan paid off, they might have 20 or 30 percent of taxes to pay off,” says Abrams.

  [via Credit.com]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uRadioShack Seeks Relevance Through Wu-Tang Clan Affiliation, YouTube Dance Partyr

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• RadioShack is in the middle of a bold retail experiment: is it possible to acquire a venerable brand with a deteriorated reputation through bankruptcy and rehabilitate it into a place where people actually want to shop? The Shack’s new owners are harnessing the power of song and dance to try this…well, and also portable speakers. And rap.

  While the headphone and speaker company Beats (now owned by Apple) has Dr. Dre in their corner, Boombotix portable wireless speakers has the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA as the brand’s creative director. The company now has an exclusive deal with RadioShack, which puts the speakers in strip malls nationwide rather than just a few small surfing and skateboard shops.

  I don’t see the appeal of clipping a speaker to your belt, but I am also old.

  Meanwhile, Orlando Jones, a comedian, singer, and person who I am always confusing with Orlando Bloom, released what was apparently meant to be a “viral” video re-introducing RadioShack with an in-store dance party.

  It’s actually quite catchy, and would probably succeed as a TV spot if RadioShack were interested in buying television ad time. As of right now, the video has had about 17,000 views, which is not terribly viral.

  #RadioShackisBack [YouTube]
  Could the Wu-Tang Clan Bring Back RadioShack? [Entrepreneur]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uTrading Suddenly Halts On Floor Of New York Stock Exchanger

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  (JoelZimmer)

  The New York Stock Exchange suddenly halted trading at about a quartern to noon, Eastern Time today. There isn’t much information available yet as to why trading has been stopped.

  A post on the NYSE status page simply reads: “NYSE/NYSE MKT has temporarily suspended trading in all symbols. All open orders will be cancelled. Additional information will follow as soon as possible.”

  Reuters reports that Intercontinental Exchange Inc’s NYSE Group, which includes the New York Stock Exchange, said it temporarily suspended trading in all of securities on its exchanges following earlier reports of technical difficulties.

  Bloomberg reports that SEC spokesman Kevin Callahan declined to comment on the halt, and a NYSE spokeswoman had yet to reply to a request for comment.

  We’ll continue to update this post as information becomes available.

  In light of this morning’s United Airlines computer outage, Twitter is already having fun with this one, including NYSE’s competitors:

  Who broke the NYSE? @united?

  — Alexander C. Kaufman (@AlexCKaufman) July 8, 2015

  .@NYSE DID YOU TRY TURNING IT OFF AND BACK ON AGAIN

  — KStreetHipster (@KStreetHipster) July 8, 2015

  Nasdaq systems are operating normally and are trading all symbols including Tape A (NYSE) securities.

  — Nasdaq (@NASDAQ) July 8, 2015

  WSJ.com is also delivering a 504, Twitter was quick to note, perhaps as people rush over there to get the scoop on the NYSE:

  The Wall Street Journal website goes down in solidarity with the New York Stock Exchange

  — Seth Fiegerman (@sfiegerman) July 8, 2015

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uVirgin America Souping Up WiFi System So Passengers Can Stream Videor

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  (Adam Fagen)
  

  A growing number of planes now allow passengers to connect to onboard WiFi networks (usually for a fee), but the connection is often sluggish and sometimes unreliable; it’s rarely good enough to stream video dependably. Virgin America hopes its upgraded inflight WiFi will solve that problem.

  The Verge reports that a new partnership between the airline and ViaSat aims to provide passengers with a strong enough WiFi connection to stream videos from Netflix and YouTube and keep them connected over large areas of water like the Pacific Ocean.

  The company says that the faster connection will be included in 10 new A320 airplanes that arrive in September. The first flights are expected to take off for Hawaii in early 2016.

  The new high-speed connections will be made available for free to passengers initially.

  Virgin America CEO David Cush says that the new WiFi connection – which he calls a “significant competitive advantage” – is made possible through a system of Ka satellites across the U.S. These particular satellites deliver speeds up to 10 times faster than Virgin’s current system and 30 times faster than those currently in use by other airlines.

  “It’s a dual antenna that also uses the Ku satellites across the pacific, so we can have a single antenna offer very fast Wi-Fi across the US and adequate WiFi to Hawaii now,” Cush says.

  A spokesperson for ViaSat tells ConsumerAffairs that tests of the new system conducted in July and August showed the aircraft could transition seamlessly between Ku and Ka networks.

  “For enroute airborne missions, seamless roaming on the best available broadband network can assure our customers continuous operation on a resilient enterprise network,” Ken Peterman, vice president of ViaSat Government Systems.

  Virgin America’s Wi-Fi will be fast enough for Netflix on some flights next year [The Verge]
  Virgin America deploys upgraded in-flight WiFi system [ConsumerAffairs]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist