uVerizon Launching Ad-Supported Mobile TV Service For Customers And Non-Customers Aliker

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  The landing page for the as-yet unvailable Go90 app.

  Another day, another company trying its best to get its hooks into that elusive, sought-after demographic — the millennial: Verizon is throwing its hat into the streaming content ring with a new free mobile TV service available to both customers and non-customers called Go90, aimed at that chunk of the population that doesn’t mind watching video on devices other than a TV. Though no matter your age, you’ll have to sit through ads to get that free content.

  Leaving the Verizon name out of the service was an intentional move to broaden its appeal, though the company is likely hoping that Go90 could attract new customers to its wireless service, reports the New York Times.

  The ad-supported mobile streaming service gets its name from the act of rotating a phone to landscape view (90 degrees) to watch videos, and is aimed directly at the people most likely to watch content that way — 18- to 34-year-olds.

  “Seventy percent of this group view on mobile first; that’s an enormous opportunity,” Marni M. Walden, president of product innovation and new business at Verizon told the NYT.

  Go90 will feature live events, prime-time TV, NFL games, live concerts and a smattering of original content. Instead of making all of a certain network’s shows available, a slew of different programs will be available from a bunch of different networks: Comedy Central, Food Network, ESPN, NFL Network and Discovery will all have programming on the platform, as well as certain online series from AwesomenessTV, Vice, Tastemade and Machinima.

  Go90 will start as a mobile-first product but could expand to streaming options for TV eventually. Right now, however, it’s all about the younger set — perhaps that explains the neon-soaked’90s nostalgia design going on with both the new @Go90 Twitter account and the site for the app. Because everyone knows millennials loooove throwbacks.

  “If you look at this generation, the first place they go to look for anything is not a network lineup or a channel lineup, it’s the web,” Brian Angiolet, Verizon’s senior vice president for consumer products told the NYT.

  Verizon is expected to formally announce the service this week.

  Verizon to Offer Free Mobile TV, With an Eye on Millennials [New York Times]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uProposed Keyless Ignition Alert Rule May Have Prevented Carbon Monoxide Deathsr

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  (Jeff Archer)

  A recently filed lawsuit alleges that 10 automakers concealed the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning in more than five million vehicles with keyless ignitions, resulting in 13 deaths. Meanwhile, a federal regulator’s four-year-old proposal for an alert that could have saved some lives continues to go unimplemented.

  Scripps News reports that back in December 2011 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted a public notice [PDF] in the Federal Register saying it believed that vehicles with keyless ignitions posed a “clear safety problem.”

  The agency went on to note that carbon monoxide position was a “significant concern” for drivers who inadvertently leave a vehicle running in an enclosed space.

  As a result of these findings, NTHSA proposed a rule that would required manufacturers implement an alert in vehicles equipped with keyless ignitions to alert drivers that the car is still running.

  Under the proposed rule, the alert would sound at at least 85 decibels if the key fob is removed from a car while the engine is running.

  NHTSA says in the notice that the proposal was created as a response to a review of consumer complaints to the Office of Defects Investigation.

  “While we recognize that this is not the traditional data base upon which our agency typically bases a rulemaking, we believe that, in this instance, we are addressing an emerging safety issue,” the posting states. “We believe that the new alert that we are proposing would refocus the driver’s attention on the vehicle when s/he is leaving if s/he has inadvertently left the propulsion system active.”

  According to Scripps the resulting sound would have been on par with that of a smoke alarm; easily audible inside and outside of the car.

  NHTSA claimed in its Federal Register posting that the cost for the louder alert would be minimal.

  “Given that we believe the total costs of this proposal would be relatively small, certainly less than $500,000 a year, for the entire industry, preventing even one serious injury over three years would make the proposed rule cost-beneficial,” the notice stated.

  While safety advocates saw NHTSA’s proposal as a step toward ensuring consumer safety, the slow progress since the 2011 notice is disheartening.

  “The agency clearly sees that vehicles on the road today have inadequate safety measures,” Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, tells Scripps.

  The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety backed NHTSA’s proposal, even directing the agency to require the alert be broadcast at regular intervals until the engine is shut off.

  “Audible alerts are a useful method for alerting drivers to unsafe conditions and should help alleviate rollaway, theft, and carbon monoxide risks,” David G. Kidd, a research scientist at IIHS, tells Scripps. “We support the proposed countermeasures and encourage the agency to strengthen them.”

  Still, four years later, the proposal remains simply a suggestion, and many vehicles with keyless ignitions continue to include nominal alerts.

  Scripps reports that a NHTSA administered test of 34 model year 2013 and 2014 vehicles with keyless ignitions from various auto makers found that none met the proposed 85 decibel standards.

  That’s because many automakers balked at the idea of implementing the safety feature, Scripps reports.

  In a 2012 public comment to NHTSA on the issue, Nissan said the company believed the 85 decibel rate was too loud and would “interfere with the driver responding to the alert in an orderly manner.”

  Still, according to Scripps, seven of the deaths referenced in the class-action suit filed in August occurred after the regulators’ proposal, some of which could have been prevented had the rules moved forward.

  One such death occurred just three months after NTHSA’s proposal appeared in the Federal Register. In that case, a North Carolina man died from carbon monoxide position in his home after inadvertently leaving his 2011 Chrysler 300c running in the first floor garage.

  Noah Kushlefksy, a lawyer – who doesn’t represent the man’s family, but has represented other affected by keyless ignition carbon monoxide poisonings – tells Scripps that the amount of time that’s gone by since the NHTSA proposal and any actual action is unconscionable.

  “Every death today could be prevented,” he said. “I honestly can’t conceive of the amount of time that has gone by that we have recognized a problem and we’ve recognized that people are dying and done nothing.”

  Keyless ignition deaths mount as regulators slow to act [Scripps News]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uUnited Airlines Customer Service Reps Learn That Working From Home Comes With 20% Pay Cutr

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  (Adam Fagen)
  

  Last week, United Airlines decided to shutter two of its customer service call centers — one in Detroit and one in Honolulu — but did so without plans to lay anyone off. Instead, these airline staffers could either move to Chicago or Houston to work in a call center, or they could work from home, but with a pay cut.

  The Chicago Business Journal confirmed with United that part of the airline’s deal with the International Association of Machinists, is that if these customer service workers are able to work from home, they must take a 20% pay cut.

  Assuming those workers don’t quit or make the move to Chicago or Houston, the Journal estimates that this will save United around $3.3 million a year in wages. If some of these workers choose to quit rather than take the pay cut — which the Machinists union believes is the airline’s intention — that’s even more money.

  As Crain’s noted last week, analysts believe that United could actually trim its entire workforce by 2,500 people and save $200 million a year. That would get the company closer to its target of shaving off $2 billion by 2017.

  The Journal cites airline sources as saying that United CEO Jeff Smisek may ultimately want to consolidate all of the company’s customer service in one center in Houston.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uVerizon Prepping Trials Of 5G Wireless; Could Be 50 Times Faster Than 4Gr

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  (dooley)
  

  Odds are that your wireless provider’s 4G LTE service is nearly as fast — and maybe faster — than the wired Internet service to your home (if only it weren’t so expensive on a per-gigabyte basis). But Verizon says it’s getting ready to test 5G service that could blow all current wireless — and most wireline — broadband out of the water.

  An chief technology exec at Verizon tells CNET’s Roger Cheng that the company is prepping to launch field trials of its 5G network within the next year, with deployment to some commercial accounts by 2017.

  In terms of speed, Verizon says its tests found the next-gen service is 30 to 50 times faster than the company’s current 4G offering. So a movie that currently takes six minutes to download over 4G would take as few as 15 seconds.

  Not only is 5G expected to faster, it should also be more energy efficient, meaning your phone and other 5G wireless devices won’t need to be charged as frequently.

  We’re still a few years off from 5G being available to anyone, but the 2017 date for launching some commercial 5G service puts Verizon’s timeline three years ahead of the predicted 2020 debut of 5G in the U.S.

  CNET notes that providers in South Korea and Japan are rushing to try to deploy 5G in advance of their upcoming Olympic games (2018 and 2020, respectively).

  Expect to hear more about 5G this week as Verizon and other providers talk up their next big things a the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uNetflix Won’t Offer Downloadable Content Anytime Soon Because Users Just Couldn’t Handle Itr

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• Any Netflix users who got their hopes up that maybe the streaming service would follow in Amazon’s footsteps and offer downloadable content that can be watched offline on a mobile device, well, your dreams probably won’t be coming true anytime soon: Neil Hunt, Netflix’s Chief Product Officer says it’s unlikely the company will go the route of offline viewing because adding another choice will just make the whole thing too complicated for users.

  Hunt told Gizmodo UK at a recent trade show in Berlin that he doesn’t think offline viewing is a very “compelling proposition,” and that it remains to be seen whether that’s something a lot of people will actually use. Why? Because it’s a hassle to have yet another choice.

  “Undoubtedly it adds considerable complexity to your life with Amazon Prime – you have to remember that you want to download this thing,” Hunt said. “It’s not going to be instant, you have to have the right storage on your device, you have to manage it, and I’m just not sure people are actually that compelled to do that, and that it’s worth providing that level of complexity.”

  He says offering that extra option would render some people unable to make decisions about what to do next, so they won’t do anything, calling it the “Paradox of Choice.”

  “You put strawberry, apricot and blackberry jam in the supermarket aisle and you can persuade half the people coming down the aisle to taste the jam and maybe buy one,” he explains. “But if you decide to add lemon, orange, blueberry and grapefruit, by adding the choices you don’t increase the number of people choosing one, but in fact you go the other way. Fewer people choose anything at all.”

  Hunt says that in addition to this paralysis, Netflix users are very sensitive to change — even the slightest tweak and people are turned off. For example, when Netflix experimented with allowing half stars in its five-star rating system, the company saw 11% less ratings come in than when only full stars were allowed.

  Bu even if you’re struck motionless by one more Netflix feature, preventing you from efficiently binging on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Netflix isn’t saying never to offline downloads — it just won’t be happening soon.

  “I don’t think it’d be particularly complicated to implement, but doing it right would take time,” says Hunt, adding that Amazon’s new offer isn’t all that great anyway, since some titles aren’t available for download, which could be frustrating to users.

  “I think Amazon is playing a good game of PR, but I’m not sure it’s a good consumer experience. We’ll see,” Hunt said.

  The Real Reason Netflix Won’t Offer Offline Downloads [Gizmodo]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uNew Policy Means AutoNation Won’t Sell Vehicles With Open Safety Recallsr

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  (smcgee)

  Although it’s not illegal for used car dealers to sell recalled vehicles, nearly a year ago AutoNation – one of the nation’s largest pre-owned vehicle dealers – suspended the sale of cars with potentially deadly Takata airbag defects. Now, the company plans to take things a bit further, announcing it will no longer sell any vehicle that has an open safety recall.

  AutoNation announced on Tuesday that each of its 293 franchises across the country will cease the sale, leasing or wholesale of any new or used vehicle with a safety recall.

  The company says it has taken the “explicit position that it will not have any role whatsoever in these [recalled] vehicles being on the road.”

  The affected vehicles will be identified, physically pulled from inventory and “Not For Sale” tags and key tags will be placed on them until adequate replacement parts are available.

  The dealer also pledges that it won’t simply rid itself of the affected vehicles through wholesaling.

  While the new stance will likely result in a loss of some revenue from sales and inventory space, AutoNation maintains that “customers’ protection is worth the investment in the process.”

  “There’s no way to expect that customers would or should know of every safety recall on every vehicle they might purchase, so we will ensure that our vehicles have all recalls completed,” Mike Jackson, Chairman, CEO and President of AutoNation, said in a statement. “We make it our responsibility as a retailer to identify those vehicles and remove them from the market until their safety issues have been addressed.”

  Despite the policy, AutoNation says it will continue to accept recalled vehicles as trade-ins from consumers. However, those cars will then be put on hold until fixes are available.

  AutoNation’s move to keep recalled vehicles off the roadways comes almost a year after the company took steps to ensure that vehicles equipped with potentially deadly Takata airbags were no longer being sold by its dealers.

  That defect, which has now been linked to eight deaths and hundred of injuries, culminated with nearly 30 million vehicles recalled earlier this year.

  Consumers who have purchased a used car recently, or who may be thinking of purchasing one, should first check the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration’s latest recall look-up tool to determine if the vehicle has been recalled and fixed.

  The search tool, which launched last August, requires consumers to input the vehicle’s 17-digit VIN, which can usually be found in the left corner where the dashboard meets the windshield or on insurance and registration documents. Results will then appear if the consumer has an open recall on their vehicle, and if there are none, owners will see “No Open Recalls.”

  The database will only provide information on the vehicle’s safety status and won’t publish personal information or track who checked the recall status of the vehicle, officials with NHTSA say.

  While AutoNation has vowed to stop selling the recalled vehicles, other used car dealers have tussled with NHTSA and consumer safety groups over the same issue in the past.

  Just last month, the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group released a report that examined the inventory and sales records at two CarMax dealerships in the state, and found that many of the vehicles listed for sale have unaddressed recalls.

  CarMax is currently the nation’s largest used vehicle seller.

  In all, the report found that 74 of the 566 vehicles for sale at the two dealerships during the month of July were currently under recall campaigns.

  Sen. Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, who has sponsored several bills that would ensure used vehicle recalls are addressed before being sold, said that the ConnPIRG report is “chilling.”

  “Bottom line: CarMax is playing a deadly game of ‘used car recall roulette’ with consumer lives,” he said.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uAmazon Now Delivering Restaurant Food In Seattler

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• If having Amazon deliver your groceries or farmers market produce wasn’t enough, the e-commerce giant turned deliverer-of-all-things-edible now plans to bring consumers piping hot meals right to their dining room tables with its foray into the restaurant delivery service arena.

  Amazon announced today that it will begin testing yet another service, this time delivering food from local restaurants to Prime members in Seattle.

  The service will be completed through Amazon’s Prime Now program, which provides members of the company $99/year Prime service deliveries in one or two hours.

  Using the Prime Now mobile app, Seattle customers can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders and track the status of their delivery. Once an order is placed, Amazon delivery drivers pick up and deliver the food within an hour or less, the company says.

  While it’s always nice to have options when it comes to hot food showing up at your door, the promise of delivery within one hour of pick up has us wondering if dinner will actually arrive hot, or just luke warm.

  According to Amazon, the menus featured on the Prime Now app will include “transparent prices – there are no markup or hidden service fees.” For a limited time, delivery thought the service will be free.

  “Prime members can now enjoy food from the Seattle restaurants they love without having to drive all over the city,” Gus Lopez, general manager of Amazon Restaurants, said in a statement. “For many of these restaurants, this is the first time they are offering delivery, and we are delighted they have chosen to work with us.”

  For now, restaurant delivery is only available in select Seattle zip codes, but the company anticipates rolling out the new service to other areas of the city in the coming days.

  “Prime members can download the Prime Now app and enter their zip code to see if Prime Now is available in their area,” the company says. “In zip codes where restaurant delivery is available, customers will see Restaurants on the home page.”

  Prime Now Introduces Restaurant Delivery in Seattle [Amazon]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist