uGot A Burning Need To Stream Old Video Games Though Your Cable Box? Comcast And EA Have A Service For Your

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  Comcast hinted at adding streaming games to their X1 platform with a confused commercial last May. The young men shown were acting impressed with a lack of buffering on an offline title.

  The only two companies ever to win Consumerist’s Worst Company In America award more than once are now teaming up for realsies. Comcast and EA are unveiling a new set-top streaming gaming service together, and it looks like a resounding “meh.”

  Comcast made the announcement today. The new service, called Xfinity Games, is currently in a sort-of-closed beta. Current Comcast customers who are already using the X1 platform can apply for access at xfinitygames.com.

  The partnership basically cuts out the middle-man of a Sony or Microsoft set-top console (or a PC), and makes certain EA games playable directly from Comcast’s X1 set-top device. Instead of including a traditional controller, players streaming through Xfinity Games can use their phones or tablets — Apple iOS or Samsung Android products — as controllers while kicking back and gaming on their TVs.

  The games you stream through Xfinity Games, Comcast makes sure to add, “are treated just like other internet traffic,” meaning that if you are subject a data cap threshold, the game content you stream will count against it.

  The initial lineup includes a variety of sports, puzzle, casual, and indie games published by EA studios. Comcast’s blog posts touts EA as “the company responsible for some of the biggest and best games in history,” which is at least an argument that could keep game fans busy for a few weeks… but none of those ultra-blockbuster franchises, or recent entries in them, are available on the service. Plants vs Zombies and FIFA 13 yes; Mass Effect and Madden, not so much. Nor are online multiplayer functions, voice chat, or remote play currently available for any game on the service.

  “It’s perfect for families with kids and even those of us who haven’t picked up a game in years,” Comcast says, although why a family would want to go through the process of hooking their iPad up to their X1 and TV for some Peggle instead of just playing the mobile version on that iPad is a lot less clear.

  Rumors of the service, and the partnership between EA and Comcast, first began to swirl almost two years ago, when the app first found its way onto Apple’s iOS App Store. Later, certain factually questionable ads Comcast ran in the intervening months served as a reminder that streaming games through the X1 is and was definitely on Comcast’s agenda.

  The point behind the Xfinity X1 platform is that it’s just that: a platform. The cloud-based, remotely accessible service integrates DVR, TV listings, and Comcast’s on-demand video offerings. Like many other stand-alone devices (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, etc.), the X1 allows you to run a variety of apps like weather, music, and sports alongside your Comcast content.

  And if making those apps readily available on your cable box keeps you in their walled garden and reduces the likelihood you’ll go out and get something that will let you switch to watching Netflix instead, well, so much the better for Comcast.

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uFord Orders Dealers To Stop Selling New Edge Vehicles Over Leaksr

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  (Van Swearington)

  It’s not often that a car manufacturer tells dealers to stop selling a certain model, but that’s exactly what Ford Motor Company has done with the new 2015 Edge, after finding out the vehicles can leak water.

  Ford recently ordered a stop-sale action on new 2015 Edges produced through April 28 and encouraged owners of the vehicle to take them to a local dealer for inspection and possible repair.

  The car maker issued the order over concerns that water may seep into the cabin through the sheet metal joint in the front pillar, directly behind the hood hinge on both sides of the vehicle. When the problem occurs, water enters the cabin behind the lower dash trim panels.

  It’s an issue our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports experienced first hand during recent testing of the 2015 Edge.

  If the leak goes unaddressed, the vehicle may require more extensive repairs in the future.

  In Consumer Reports’ experience, a routine evaluation of the Edge revealed wet carpet. Upon further inspection, the test facility determined that no other parts of the vehicle were wet, meaning their first inclination that the windows had been left open were incorrect.

  After finding Ford’s Customer Satisfaction Program 15B21, the car was brought to the Auto Test Center car wash bay, where a quick cleanse resulted in a “sopping wet” floor on the driver’s side.

  “Given the dark carpet, there wasn’t a significant visual cue, but the carpet was more than damp. We let the vehicle air out over the weekend, and it dried up by Monday,” Consumer Reports says.

  CR points out that even a small, unnoticed leak could eventually lead to mold and mildew, as well as electrical problems for corroded connectors.

  According to the Ford customer satisfaction program, dealerships will apply a urethane sealer to seams if no leak has been previously detected.

  Vehicles that do show evidence of a leak will be held for a three-day assessment, including inspection, repair, time for the sealant to dry, and then test to confirm the fix worked.

  “It’s interesting to note that vehicles that do have evidence of water damage after the three-day procedure may qualify for a buy back,” CR points out. “Customers would need to work through their customer service rep on the details.”

  Stop-sale finds Ford Edge under water [Consumer Reports]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uTexas Billionaire Makes “Significant” Investment To Help Bring Back Blue Bell Ice Creamr

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  (kusine)

  Fans of Blue Bell ice cream who have been living without the stuff after the company was forced to shut down production will surely be pleased to hear that dessert salvation could be nigh: Blue Bell Creameries says a Texas billionaire has made a “significant” investment in the company, something that could help it get its products back on freezer shelves.

  Fort Worth businessman Sid Bass is now a partner in the company, according to a Blue Bell press release.

  “We are pleased Sid Bass has made a significant investment with our company. The additional capital will ensure the successful return of our ice cream to the market and our loyal customers,” said Paul Kruse, Blue Bell CEO and President.

  Blue Bell recalled all of its products on April 20 and shut down all operations while it investigated a listeria outbreak. Though the Centers for Disease Control concluded its investigation into the company in June, Blue Bell hasn’t been able to resume making ice cream just yet.

  The company recently announced it was making progress, however, with a plan for a trial run at its Alabama plant soon.

  Bass is “active in the family oil and gas and carbon black businesses,” the press release notes, and has had a history managing long-term investments.

  “We are excited to be a part of the Blue Bell brand and family,” commented Bass. “Blue Bell is the quality leader in the ice cream industry. We believe quality is the principle attribute that ensures the success, growth and longevity of a business.”

  Let’s hope Blue Bell’s return will force any diehards who are hoarding the potentially contaminated ice cream in their freezers to finally throw that stuff out.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uT-Mobile Announces New, Pricier Family Plans With More Data Than You Probably Needr

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  (Patrick)

  How much LTE mobile data does your family (or just the unrelated people on your mobile phone plan) really need? 10 GB? 20? 40? It depends on what you do with your mobile device and where you use it, but most people don’t use that much. Today, T-Mobile announced new plans designed to compete with similar offerings from Verizon, but that include more data than most people could need.

  T-Mobile is pushing a new plan under their “Un-Carrier Amped” brand, because roaming all over North America simply wasn’t enough. The limited-time offer gives every plan subscriber 10 GB of LTE data instead of the 10 GB shared between family members that Verizon is currently advertising. Does that sound like a great deal? Depending on how you use mobile data, it might not be.

  T-Mobile notably advertises “unlimited” data, but there’s generally a limit: your data is unlimited, but your high-speed data isn’t. The new plan advertises 10 GB per line on the plan, for an average cost of $30 per line once there are four people on the plan, or a total of $120.

  This is designed to make a current Verizon promotion, 10 GB of shared data between family plan members for $80, look puny. Yet the promotion is actually more expensive per month than their regular family plans that are comparable to the Verizon plan.

  

  We’re checking with T-Mobile to find out whether this will replace their current, cheaper family plan. If you’re part of a video-streaming, data-gobbling family, these plans could work if T-Mobile coverage is good in your area.

  T-Mobile Amps Up its Family Plan: Family Members Get 10GB Each – for Just $30 a Line [T-Mobile]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHonda Finance Unit Must Pay $24 Million For Charging Higher Interest To Non-White Borrowersr

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  (Jeff Archer)

  Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, creditors are prohibited from discriminating against loan applicants based on race or national origin. But that was a rule Honda’s financing unit allegedly violated, resulting in thousands of African-American, Hispanic, and Asian and Pacific Islander borrowers paying higher interest rates than white borrowers for their auto loans. Now, as part of a settlement with federal regulators to resolve allegations that the company allowed discriminatory loan pricing, the company must provide $24 million in restitution to borrowers.

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with the Department of Justice, announced today that a two-years-long investigation into American Honda Finance Corporations’ discretionary auto loan pricing and compensation practices found the company allowed dealers to unfairly discriminate against certain consumers.

  According to the CFPB complaint [PDF], as an indirect auto lender, Honda sets a risk-based interest rate – otherwise known as a buy rate – for its auto dealers. The company then allows these dealers to charge a higher interest rate when finalizing a deal – this is generally referred to as a dealer markup.

  This is where the issue comes into play, the CFPB says, because Honda allowed dealers to mark up consumers’ interest rates without regard to creditworthiness as much as 2.25% for contracts with terms of five years or less, and 2% for contracts with lower terms.

  The CFPB and DOJ’s investigation found that Honda’s policies were in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and resulted in thousands of minority borrowers from January 2011 through July 14, 2015 paying, on average, $150 to over $250 more for their auto loans.

  “The agencies claim that Honda charged borrowers higher interest rates because of their race or national origin, and not because of the borrowers’ creditworthiness or other objective criteria related to borrower risk,” the DOJ says in a statement.

  In all, investigators found that compared to non-Hispanic white car buyers, average African-American victims were obligated to pay over $250 more during the term of the loan because of discrimination, while the average Hispanic victim was obligated to pay over $200 more during the term of the loan and the average Asian/Pacific Islander victim was obligated to pay over $150 more during the term of the loan.

  As part of the proposed consent order resolving the discriminatory pricing allegations, Honda has agreed to change the way it prices its loans by limiting dealer markup to 1.25% for loans of 60 months or less, and to 1% for loans greater than 60 months.

  Honda must also improve its monitoring and compliance systems. The settlement allows the lender to experiment with different approaches toward lessening discrimination and requires it to regularly report to the department and the CFPB on the results of its efforts as well as discuss potential ways to improve results.

  With regard to the $24 million in restitution for consumers, an administrator will be appointed to locate victims and distribute payments.

  The department and the CFPB will make a public announcement and post information on their websites once more details about the compensation process become available. Borrowers who are eligible for compensation from the settlement will be contacted by the administrator, and do not need to contact the department or the CFPB at this time.

  Today’s action against Honda is part of a larger joint effort between the CFPB and DOJ to identify and address discrimination in the direct auto lending market. Two years ago, the agencies took action against Ally Financial and Ally Bank for similar violations. In that case, the company was ordered to pay $80 million in restitution and a $18 million civil penalty.

  CFPB and DOJ Reach Resolution with Honda to Address Discriminatory Auto Loan Pricing [CFPB]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uToday In Professional Envy: Cheese Scientistsr

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  (Scorpions and Centaurs)

  Cheese, glorious cheese. Where would we be without you? No sandwich would be complete, many a pizza would suffer and countless stomachs would be bereft. But in order to fully appreciate our access to such a divine food, we must also give props to a profession of great importance, and the subject of great envy: cheese scientist.

  Yes, dear reader, there is such a thing as a cheese scientist, which won’t surprise anyone who has a basic understanding of how cheese is made, but is still a fun job to think about.

  Wired.com has a great report on the life of microbiologists working in the cheese field, the scientists who manipulate microbes like yeast, mold and bacteria, along with the lactic acid and rennet used in the cheesemaking process, in order to come up with all the many variations out there.

  Though there are cheese scientists at work at universities and colleges, some companies go so far as to employ in-house microbiologists, who sometimes even resort to tactics like DNA sequencing to control the flavor.

  Microbes break down the proteins and fats in milk to create different flavors of cheese, depending on which microbes are used. Stinky cheeses can get their smell from mold that breaks milk proteins down into sulfur compounds that are tiny enough to float through the air to your nose, for example.

  And to make the white rind of a camembert, cheesemakers spray mold onto the curds to break the cheese down from the outside.

  One cheese scientist/microbiologist from Tufts University works with cheesemakers to tweak their products’ microbes in order to come up with the tastiest cheese possible. A cheese company he’s worked with in the past has more than 190 different microbes in its milk before pasteurization, he says.

  “For some cheeses, you can have a whole bouquet of flavors from over a hundred different compounds,” he tells Wired.com. “All the chemical components in the milk are essentially being restructured and reorganized in different formations that look, taste, and smell different.”

  The bottom line? Cheese is delicious, and impossible without science. Good work, cheese scientists. We salute you.

  For more on the science of cheese, make sure to check out Wired.com.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBank Of America, Wells Fargo Top List Of Most Complained About Mortgage Issuersr

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  (Great Beyond)

  For the past four years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Complaint Database has seen its fair share of consumer issues related to mortgages. In fact, complaints regarding loan modification, collection, foreclosure, loan servicing, payments and escrow accounts continue to be one of the biggest financial thorns in consumers’ sides. And the worst offender? Bank of America.

  That’s according to a new report [PDF] from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, which examined more than 138,000 mortgage-related complaints in the CFPB’s public complaint database.

  The report – the sixth in a series reviewing complaints made to the CFPB – looked at mortgage issues that occur when consumers are unable to pay, encounter difficulty making payments, applying for the loan, signing the agreement, receiving a credit offer and others.

  
  According to the report, the vast majority of mortgage complaints – about 85% – fall into two categories: problems when consumers are unable to pay (55%) and problems making payments (30%).

  “In particular, consumers still complain about delays and ambiguity in the review of their modification applications,” the report states. “Some consumers expressed concerns about the decimation requests they receive and argue that they were not provided a reasonable date by which the required documents had to be returned but instead were instructed to return the documents “immediately.”

  That appears to be the case for a Virginia veteran who had been approved for a loan modification to avoid a foreclosure. Because he was given less than two weeks to turn in paperwork instead of the four weeks he was originally told, he was at increased risk for losing his home.

  In all, just 10 companies account for 77% of all mortgage complaints to the CFPB.

  

  Topping that list is Bank of America, which has received 31,123 mortgage complaints in the database since 2011 – representing about 23% of all mortgage-related complaints.

  The financial institution was the most complained about company in 45 states and the District of Columbia. The second most complained about company was Wells Fargo, which had the most complaints in five states.

  While dealing with issues with their mortgages can be a frustrating experience for consumers, the report found that more than one in 10 consumers who reported mortgage issues to the CFPB receive relief, either monetary or non-monetary.

  One of the consumers who received relief was the aforementioned Virginia veteran.

  “Consumers need a strong CFPB that reins in reckless mortgage companies who ignore the rules,” Mike Litt, Consumer Program Advocate with the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, said in a statement. “Before the CFPB was created, victims of mortgage errors like misapplied payments and incorrect late fees were at the mercy of the banks. Now, we have a cop on the beat.”

  With its authority over both updated and new mortgage regulations, the CFPB has also taken enforcement actions against more than 40 companies, halting illegal activities and securing over $2.9 billion in relief and refunds for mortgage consumers, the report states.

  Still, PIRG suggests that the CFPB can do more to help consumers facing difficulty when dealing with their financial servicers, such as creating downloadable applications so individuals can share their stories via mobile phone and increase publicity for the complaint database process, bringing it to more consumers’ attention.

  New Report: Mortgage Problems Rank #1 At CFPB For Consumer Complaints [U.S. PIRG]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist