uTakata Airbag Defect Now Linked To 105 Injuries, Six Deathsr

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  (I Am Rob)

  The number of injuries and deaths associated with Takata-produced airbags that have been found to spew pieces of shrapnel at passengers and drivers upon deployment increased once again, now totaling 105 injuries and six deaths, according to data received from the parts manufacturer.

  Florida Senator Bill Nelson revealed the higher numbers during a statement on the Senate floor Monday afternoon.

  “These are the airbags that when they explode in order to save life, is either maiming life or ending life,” he said. “The number of vehicles recalled is going to be in the record books as one of the largest in American history.”

  Nelson said during his statement that the new injury and death figures, which were provided by Takata, are accurate as of the end of January. Previously, Takata provided Nelson and the Senate Commerce Committee with data that included 64 injuries and 5 deaths related to the defect.

  Seventeen of the new injuries were reported in Florida – which Nelson calls the “epicenter” of the issue – bringing the state’s total to 35 injuries and one death.

  “Now these injuries have been very, very serious,” Nelson said. “This is not a minor little nick. This includes incidents of facial fractures, blindness, and even quadriplegia.”

  Nelson warned members of the Senate that the number of injuries and deaths associated with the Takata airbag defect will likely continue to grow, citing a report from Reuters earlier this month that linked another rupture occurred last month.

  “We need to get to the root cause of the problem and we need to make sure we know why these defective airbag inflators are failing,” he said.

  While Takata has said that it would double its production of replacement airbags over the next six months after being criticized its slow output, Nelson said that it is more important regulators and the company ensure that the products are “actually safe instead of just producing more of the same, potentially defective inflators.”

  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the issue in June 2014 after five automakers – Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda and Chrysler – began recalling millions of vehicles.

  In all, the defective Takata airbags have resulted in automakers recalling nearly 25 million vehicles.

  In February, the agency began fining the company $14,000 per day for failing to turn over documents and answer questions. Investigators said the fine was a result Takata’s slow pace in working with the agency.

  “We have concluded that Takata is neither being forthcoming with the information that is it legally obligated to supply, nor is it being cooperative in aiding NHTSA’s ongoing investigation of a potentially serious safety defect,” the agency said at the time.

  Just a week later, NHTSA upgraded its probe to an engineering analysis. The regulators said the formal step intensifies the investigation and could help determine whether the company’s failure to quickly notify the agency of possible defects violated federal law or regulations.

  Additionally, the company was issued an order requiring it to preserve airbag inflators for use as evidence in the agency’s probe and any subsequent lawsuits.

  In March, Mark Rosekind, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told a panel at the Consumer Federation of America Assembly in D.C. that Takata was being more forthcoming with information related to the agency’s investigation.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uTime Warner Cable Says It’s Not Seeking Rebound Romance With Coxr

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  (Lyman Green)

  It’s only been a few days since Comcast and Time Warner Cable got tired of waiting for the inevitable regulatory objections to their wedding and called off the whole $45 billion marriage. While Comcast can enjoy the single life for a bit before deciding what to do next, TWC is already being linked to multiple suitors. First there was news that Charter, who was originally rejected in favor of Comcast’s bigger, sexier proposal, was once again standing outside TWC’s window with a boombox over its head. Now come rumors that TWC may be trying to make some merger magic happen with Cox.

  The potential union of Cox and TWC comes from the Wall Street Journal, which reports that it was TWC that called the privately held Georgia-based Cox.

  Cox is the third-largest cable provider in the U.S., following Comcast and TWC. A merger of the two would have put TWC closer to Comcast’s size in terms of customer base.

  Alas, both companies deny that there is any wedded bliss in their future.

  A Cox rep told the Journal that “we’ve been clear we’re not for sale.”

  Meanwhile, a rep for TWC tells Reuters that no such call to Cox ever occurred.

  “It’s simply not true,” said the spokesperson. “We have not engaged in any discussions with Cox.”

  Considering that both the FCC and the Justice Department were poised to put up roadblocks to the Comcast/TWC deal, any merger of two top-tier cable/broadband providers is likely to be an uphill battle.

  Success is more likely for two companies with complementary products to merge. AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV has drawn significantly less criticism and appears to be headed toward approval by regulators because AT&T doesn’t offer satellite TV and DirecTV doesn’t sell wireless phone service or broadband. The only overlap is the pay-TV market, though AT&T’s U-Verse customer base is only about one-fourth the size of DirecTV’s, and only a small fraction of AT&T’s overall business.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uMcDonald’s Employee Caught On Camera Knocking Out Unruly Customerr

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• An apparent attempt to remove an unruly customer from a Michigan McDonald’s resulted in a knockout punch from an employee at the fast food chain.

  The above video was shot in the early hours of the morning last week at a McDonald’s in East Lansing, MI.

  The man who shot the video tells Mlive.com that there was a belligerent, possibly drunk customer, spit on the counter and knocked over a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign.

  In the video, you can’t initially see that customer because he’s hidden in the darkness by the door, but you can see a McDonald’s employee and another man attempting to talk to him.

  Then a second McDonald’s worker comes into the picture and appears to pick the man up. There looks to be some resistance from the customer and this second employee then punches him once, knocking him to the floor, and apparently rendering him unconscious.

  The customer “definitely instigated it,” says the man who shot the video. “But, it got taken too far. He didn’t have to get punched, he could have got pushed out and told not to come back.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uWe All Somehow Survived The 5-Hour Starbucks Register Outager

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  (jojoling)

  On Friday, people across the United States and Canada banded together to get through a crisis. Payment systems at corporate-owned Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada went down, leaving about 8,000 stores unable to collect money in exchange for food and beverages. While the crisis only lasted for one afternoon and evening, Starbucks managed to thrill customers by giving food and drinks away instead…and raised a lot of questions about the flaws in modern payment systems.

  While some stores closed early to deal with the problem, others stayed open and gave food away instead. “Imagine all the customers we’ve surprised and delighted – those customer will be loyal to Starbucks,” one employee explained to unofficial fan blogger StarbucksMelody. That’s true, but Melody also points out that much of the food given away would have been donated or thrown away if the stores had simply closed their doors for the rest of the day instead.

  About 60% of stores were part of the outage, as well as a few Teavana tea bars. Teavana mall stores use a different register system and weren’t affected. Computerized point-of-sale systems are essential in the modern food business: they don’t just validate credit cards and keep track of customers’ loyalty points, but they collect data about what’s currently selling in a given geographic location at a given time of day.

  This outage shows how vulnerable a chain can be to glitches in the system, though: while Starbucks might have bought some customer goodwill with free drinks and snacks at some locations, they also lost what must have been millions of dollars in revenue.

  Starbucks breakdown shows how registers have evolved [Associated Press]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uFacebook Messenger Adds Video Calling, Because Why Notr

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• Over the past several months, Facebook has retooled its messenger app to do a lot more than just send one-liners to your friends – from allowing real-time customer service chats to a payment feature. The company’s latest update to the app aims to take conversations to the next level with video calling.

  Mashable reports that Facebook Messenger’s latest update will allow iOS and Android users to chat face-to-face with their Facebook friends.

  The free feature, which will rollout in 18 markets today and others in the coming months, works with a 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi connection simply by tapping the video camera icon inside the messenger app.

  Video calling in Messenger is available for calls made from a mobile phone to another mobile phone, even if one person is on iOS and the other person is on an Android device.

  Stan Chudnovky, Facebook Messenger’s head of product, tells Mashable that the company’s foray into video calling was an easy decision.

  The company says the video calling feature creates a “fast, reliable and high-quality” Messenger experience.

  The video calling feature for Messenger comes just a week after Facebook launched a new app called “Hello” that effectively uses all the info Facebook has about its users to help you decide whether to answer/ignore/block incoming calls.

  Facebook Messenger gets in your face, rolls out video chat [Mashable]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uUsing Times New Roman On Your Résumé Is Like “Putting On Sweatpants For A Job Interview”r

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  (Scott Lynch)

  Once upon a time, you actually had to type your résumé on real paper. If you wanted it to look special, you needed to find a letterpress shop to rework it into something special. But now we have a world of typographic options at our fingertips… and yet, when it comes time to apply for a job, so many of us still choose good ol’ Times New Roman.

  Bloomberg spoke to a bunch of font freaks about the best and worst typefaces to use when putting together your curriculum vitae, and while some didn’t have any real problem with Times New Roman, its ubiquity — being the default font on many a word processor — may send the wrong message to a prospective employer.

  “It’s telegraphing that you didn’t put any thought into the typeface that you selected,” designer Brian Hoff explains. “It’s like putting on sweatpants.”

  A better option, if you insist on a serif font, may be Didot, which adds a bit of flair but is still legible. Though one designer cautions it may be too much for employers.

  “It’s like wearing the black dress to the ball,” says Matt Luckhurst. “Do you wear a tuxedo to your job interview?”

  Many of the designers preferred the clean lines of Helvetica or the classic feel of Garamond. Avoid script-like fonts because they’re just too hard to read and only use comic sans “if you’re applying to clown college.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uPolice Seek Man Who Ran Out Of Kohl’s Store With Sneakers Stuffed Down Pantsr

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  (C x 2)

  Here at Consumerist, we’re fascinated with the various things that shoplifters have removed from stores by shoving them down their pants. We’ve seen people accused of using this method to steal meat, seafood, puppies, more meat, more seafood, and a chainsaw. Police in New Jersey seek a man who shoved three pair of women’s sneakers down his pants at a Kohl’s store. [NJ.com]
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist