uNYC Car Service Companies Launching Their Own Smartphone Apps To Compete With Uberr

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  (dsuniaga)

  In the pre-Uber days of New York City, if you needed a ride to show up at a certain time and location, you’d call a car service in your neighborhood (everyone had their favorites) and arrange for a livery driver to pick you up, instead of risking it and trying to find an available yellow cab. Some of those local car service companies are now turning to their own new technology, introducing smartphone apps to try to compete with the growing presence of Uber.

  Because many people prefer simply tapping a few buttons on a screen to calling into a busy, often noisy dispatch center, a few of those neighborhood car companies are adapting to the times and using their own apps, the New York Times reports.

  “We have to offer this thing or we’re going to be left behind,” said co-founder of one Bronx car service, who now uses an app as well as fielding requests by phone.

  Most of these local companies have relied on loyalty across generations, and that touch of personal service that comes with calling your neighborhood business. A group of car services companies has come together to try to compete with Uber, using a system where each company can have its own app with its own brand, but all the bases are linked to one software system by Limosys Software, a company that has catered to the limousine industry since 1989. This way, companies can pool their cars and serve more customers.

  “It’s amazing to see competitors who didn’t speak together in 20 years are sitting in one room learning to talk to each other even when they’re two blocks away,” Issac Yehuda, a co-founder of Limosys Software, tells the NYT.

  Drivers seems to be okay with the change, as it’s just one more transformation of cab culture. Heck, at one point drivers had to switch from horse-drawn cabs to cars, right?

  “You try to stay flexible,” one 74-year-old driver with 40 years experience told the NYT.

  Neighborhood Car Service Companies Adopt Their Own Apps to Fend Off Uber [New York Times]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBud Light Truck Overturns, Spilling Cans Of Natural Light Beer Everywherer

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  A semi full of Natural Light beer overturned Tuesday spilling its contents across a Florida highway.

  They say you shouldn’t cry over spilt milk, but can the same be said for thousands of cans of spilt Natural Light? Maybe not, but someone’s certainly going to miss the cases of brew left strewn across a Florida highway following a big rig crash this morning.

  A semi-truck carrying cases of Natural Light overturned around 7:30 a.m. today, spilling its sudsy cargo across a Florida highway never to see the bright lights of retail stores, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

  Florida Highway Patrol investigators say the accident on Interstate 75 occurred when the truck’s 23-year-old driver became distracted by his dog.

  Authorities say the truck collided with the center median before overturning, sending its content across the road, leading to the closure of one lane of traffic for about three hours.

  Hernando: Beer Truck overturns after driver is distracted by his dog & looses control. Outside lane open. http://pic.twitter.com/ygAl01FRBe

  — Steve Gaskins (@SteveG717) August 11, 2015

  Hernando: SB I-75 just south of SR-50. Use caution – outside lane open. No injuries. http://pic.twitter.com/GRSuaUcK3A

  — Steve Gaskins (@SteveG717) August 11, 2015

  Thankfully, neither the driver, nor his furry companion were injured in the accident, but we can’t say the same for the cans of Natural Light which will, for better or for worse, never have the opportunity to be consumed.

  Driver’s dog blamed after beer truck overturns near Brooksville [The Tampa Bay Times]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSears Is Hiring For Its Call Centers, Holds Job Fair In Alabamar

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• It may surprise you to learn that Sears Holdings, a company that has been shedding jobs as it slims down its retail presence, is giving hope to people who are unemployed, but it’s true. The company is hiring for 100 new positions at its call center in Alabama, explaining that the closure of physical stores means that some of those sales shift online.

  In theory, anyway: all of my local Kmarts have closed, and even though I’ve been a loyal shopper there since I was an infant, there’s nothing I feel compelled to buy online at Kmart. Other people apparently disagree, and with Kmart moving some customers layaway contracts online when a store closes, that at least encourages those customers to think about shopping online.

  The Sears store near the call center has also closed, which is probably why it surprised people to learn that Sears was hiring instead of laying people off. Yet the company held a job fair for about 100 call center positions, at least creating hope for people in one area with a higher than average unemployment rate out of the massive shift in their business.

  Job Seekers head to Sears for Employment [WKRG]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uBMW Beat Google To The “Alphabet” Name And Websiter

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  Before Google created its new parent company, BMW used and trademarked the Alphabet name and domain.

  Yesterday, Google announced a massive reorganization that will put the Internet giant and all its other side businesses under the umbrella of a new company called Alphabet. But don’t expect to visit Alphabet.com anytime soon, unless you want to buy a bunch of BMWs.

  The New York Times reports that BMW, which currently uses Alphabet for a subsidiary that provides services to corporations with vehicle fleets, wasn’t informed by Google of its new company’s name.

  A spokesperson for the German automaker says it hasn’t received any offers to buy the Internet domain or the trademark. And even if it did, it’s not selling, claiming the website is a “very active” part of the subsidiary.

  Still, BMW says its subsidiary’s alphabet.com website has been overloaded with visitors since Monday’s announcement. Google’s new parent company already has a website at abc.xyz.

  The automaker tells the Times it will look into whether or not Google’s use of the name Alphabet has led to any instances of infringement.

  Of course, as the Times points out, there are no rules that prohibit one company from using the name already employed by another company.

  However, two well-known corporations utilizing the same name may lead to consumer confusion, which could constitute infringement, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  Although BMW and Google don’t seem to have much in common at first glance, the tech giant has made a push in the auto industry recently with increased testing of self-driving cars.

  Google Creates Alphabet, but Runs Into BMW [The New York Times]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

u“Travel Club” Telemarketer Fined $2.96M For Robocalling Consumersr

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  (alexkerhead)

  Whenever we tell readers that it’s important for them to file complaints when they receive illegal robocalls, some inevitably respond that they believe it’s pointless and nothing ever comes of their gripe. But today, the FCC announced a nearly $3 million fine against a robocalling telemarketer following complaints from consumers who took the time to speak up.

  The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has released the details of a $2.96 million forfeiture order against Florida-based Travel Club Marketing, Inc. (aka Diamond Vacations, aka Great Vacations), Travellink Corp., Proven Results Direct Marketing Inc., Direct Marketing Travel Services Incorporated, and the companies’ owner, a man named Olen Miller. This is the FCC’s largest robocalling forfeiture order to date.

  According to complaints received the FCC, these companies made at least 185 automated, prerecorded marketing calls without consent from the consumers receiving these calls. Of these calls, 142 were to consumers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.

  The calls — to both landlines and wireless phones — tried to sell consumers on travel deals, free vacations, and time-shares.

  Robocallers must now obtain prior express consent for all prerecorded marketing calls. During the time that this telemarketer made some of its calls, there was still an exception for robocalls to consumers with whom a business had an existing relationship. However, this telemarketer had no such relationship with any of the consumers who complained so that doesn’t give the company a way out of this jam.

  “It is unacceptable to invade consumers’ privacy by bombarding them with unwanted and intrusive robocalls,” said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau, in a statement. “All companies, and their owners, who thwart the Do-Not-Call list should expect to face severe consequences.”

  There are two ways you can easily file a complaint about robocalls.

  First, the FCC has its complaint portal where consumers can file grievances about phone, TV, Internet, and radio issues.

  Second, for people on the Do Not Call Registry, there’s DoNotCall.gov, where you can file a complaint or register your number to help reduce unwanted marketing calls going forward.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uHackers Cut A Corvette’s Brakes Wirelessly To Prove It Could Happen To Your Car, Toor

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  (If your Corvette looks like this one, you don’t need to worry about a hack. Photo: frankieleon)

  
  General Motors gets to join Fiat Chrysler and Tesla in an unenviable lineup this week: Using cheap gadgets and text messages, researchers have proven they can hack that most traditional of cars, the Chevy Corvette. And worse still is that this line of attack will work on basically any car with a computer in it, which is to say… all of them.

  As Wired explains, the flaw that would allow anyone to zap your car over a local wifi network first requires a physical component: you, or someone else, has to put a cheap, widely-available gadget in the vehicle first. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad: plenty of drivers are signing up to put those gadgets in their vehicles already. And the worse: the attack could also work on “practically any other modern vehicle.”

  The gadget is a 2-inch-square dongle that insurance companies and trucking fleets plug into vehicles to monitor their location, speed, and efficiency.The particular vulnerable device is made by a French company and distributed worldwide. In the U.S., it’s used by corporations like Metromile, an insurance start-up that uses the trackers to charge customers rates on a miles-driven basis. (The company has a partnership with Uber, to offer discount insurance to those drivers.)

  The security researchers demonstrated that those dongles can be vulnerable to a “carefully-crafted SMS message.” Those messages can be used to transmit commands to the car’s internal network, the CAN bus that controls major vehicle functions.

  In their demonstration, the researchers turned the windshield wipers on and off and also, more worryingly, both activated and cut the brakes. They added that the brake tricks only work at low speeds due to safety features built into the car’s computer, but that they could also hijack critical features like locks, steering, and transmission.

  As with other demonstrated security flaws, the problem is far larger than just one device. This particular dongle is already being patched, but there are others out there — and where vulnerabilities exist, someone will find and exploit them.

  Insurance company Progressive offers an optional similar tracking to its customers. Commercial fleets regularly use some kind of tracker. And federal fleets of 20 vehicles or more are now also required to use metric and tracking systems to improve efficiencies when possible.

  In other words, unsafe, exploitable devices are already out there, and will be everywhere soon. It’s just one more avenue where every consumer needs to be aware of the risk, and where every company needs to do everything it can to make sure its bases are covered.

  Hackers Cut a Corvette’s Brakes Via a Common Car Gadget [Wired]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uRite Aid Changes Its Tune, Will Now Accept Apple Payr

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  (Jeepers Media)

  In a reversal from its sudden decision in October last year to stop accepting Apple Pay at its stores after just a week of offering that option to shoppers, Rite Aid has announced it’s going back, and will allow it as a form of payment starting Aug. 15.

  Rite Aid announced in a press release Tuesday that all of its almost 4,600 stores will not only accept Apple Pay, but other mobile payment systems including Google Wallet and Google’s upcoming Android Pay.

  “Increasingly, consumers are actively seeking out and incorporating mobile technology into many facets of their life, including their shopping and purchasing decisions,” said Ken Martindale, CEO of Rite Aid stores and president of Rite Aid Corporation in the announcement. “By accepting mobile payments, we’re able to offer Rite Aid customers an easy and convenient checkout process, which we know is important to them.”

  When Rite Aid and its pharmacy rival CVS both quit accepting Apple Pay last fall, the companies didn’t explain the move to customers. It’s believed, however, that the retailers were holding out for the launch of another mobile payment system called CurrentC that is being developed by Merchant Customer Exchange, a consortium of dozens of major retailers — including Rite Aid, CVS, Best Buy, and Walmart — that is fighting against the major payment card networks by attempting to cut out the middle man completely.

  CurrentC still hasn’t launched, prompting Best Buy to jump ship in April and begin accepting Apple Pay, so it seems Rite Aid may have grown tired of waiting for it as well. The company could be keeping the door open for CurrentC if it ever arrives, as it notes that Rite Aid will “continue to explore, test and implement innovative technologies that will help us to better serve our valued customers.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist