function – Page 28 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

PayPal will refund $15 million to customers if the CFPB has its way

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges that PayPal engaged in unfair, abusive and deceptive practices in the marketing and management of its PayPal Credit service, formerly known as Bill Me Later. To rectify the (many) outlined abuses, the CFPB filed a complaint and proposed consent order that directs PayPal to refund $15 million to affected consumers, plus pay a $10 million fine to the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund. The proposed consent order isn’t an official ruling just yet — a judge with the US District Court for the District of Maryland must approve the order for it to be enforced. “The CFPB alleges that many consumers who were attempting to enroll in a regular PayPal account, or make an online purchase, were signed up for a credit product without realizing it, ” the bureau writes. “The company also failed to post payments properly, lost payment checks, and mishandled billing disputes that consumers had with merchants or the company. Tens of thousands of consumers experienced these issues.” Specifically, the CFPB claims that PayPal deceptively advertised promotions, abusively charged deferred interest, enrolled people in PayPal Credit without their knowledge or consent, forced customers to use PayPal Credit, engaged in illegal billing practices and mishandled disputes. The CFPB has the authority to take action against companies engaging in unfair and abusive business practices under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The “affected consumers” in this case are, generally, “any consumer identified by the Bureau and Defendants who paid late fees or interest charges between January 1st, 2011, and May 1st, 2015, ” the proposed consent order reads. PayPal recently agreed to pay the US Department of Treasury $7.7 million after processing payments for numerous individuals and companies on the US sanctions list. For an in-depth look at the CFPB’s allegations against PayPal Credit, see the full complaint ( PDF ) and proposed consent order ( PDF ). Filed under: Misc , Internet Comments Source: CFPB

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PayPal will refund $15 million to customers if the CFPB has its way

Hoopla lets you digitally borrow almost anything from your library

Today the Hoolpa service and apps added e-books and comic to its media library of audiobooks, movies, TV shows and albums. While the app has always synced with local libraries, it wasn’t until today that the app was meant for reading. The new offerings will be from IDW Publishing , RosettaBooks , Chicago Review Press and others with more publishers being announced in the coming months. The reading feature includes options similar to Amazon’s Whispersync with the ability to read a book across multiple devices and the options to adjust fonts, line spacing, columns and background. For comic book fans, a feature called “Action View” enlarges individual panels with a double tap for easier reading on mobile devices. “One of our main objectives for libraries is to be mobile centric, ” said owner and founder Jeff Jankowski. Developer Midwest Tape has been supplying books and other media to libraries for 25 years. The Hoopla app is the evolution of that relationship. When you attach your library card to the app, you’re allotted a certain amount of “check outs” per month (for example, San Francisco allows 10). The 6, 000 e-books and comic books added today join the 300, 000 movies, TV shows, audiobooks and albums currently on the service. Filed under: Misc Comments Source: Hoopla

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Hoopla lets you digitally borrow almost anything from your library

New York Stock Exchange begins monitoring bitcoin value

Bitcoin’s march toward legitimacy just took a hop, skip and jump with the news that the New York Stock Exchange is going to start monitoring its value. The NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYBXT) will keep a beady eye on how much the cryptocurrency is worth, relative to the US dollar, with the data being pulled from Coinbase . That way, investment types can get a quick read on how bitcoin is doing at any one time, with the value being updated at 11:00 AM ET each day. Essentially, bitcoin will look and feel like any other foreign currency market on the NYSE’s ticker. Investors looking to make some money can put their cash into bitcoin and hopefully take it out, when its value increases. Those who are curious as to why the data is being pulled from Coinbase should note that NYSE made a small investment in the business earlier this year. The exchange has pledged, however, that if other bitcoin exchanges can meet its rigorous quality standards, they’ll be allowed to join the index at some point in the future. Between this and the impending launch of the Winklevoss-backed Gemini exchange, it looks like New York’s financial district is the place to be for would-be bitcoin speculators. Filed under: Misc , Internet Comments Source: NYSE (BusinessWire)

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New York Stock Exchange begins monitoring bitcoin value

Fingerprints will soon tell cops if suspects are on cocaine

A research team from the University of Surrey in the UK has reportedly developed a new, noninvasive drug test for cocaine that accurately detects its presence in your system through your fingerprints. Specifically, it looks for two common cocaine metabolites: benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine. These can be found in blood, sweat, and urine using a mass spectrometry technique known as Desorption Electrospray Ionisation (DESI). And since the metabolites dissipate from our sweat more quickly than in urine or blood (in which it can persist for up to a week), law enforcement will one day be able tell if a suspect is currently high as opposed to having been high a few nights before. What’s more, “we can distinguish between cocaine having been touched, ” Melanie Bailey, the study’s lead author, told Motherboard , “and cocaine having been ingested.” Plus since the sweat sample is tied to your fingerprint, it’ll be nearly impossible for someone to swap it out for a clean batch . The research is still in its very early stages, however. According to the team, they need to collect much more data on the effects of dosage and timing before they can move on to reliability testing . Still, they remain confident that this technology will be available to law enforcement within a decade. [Image Credit: Shutterstock / HamsterMan] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Motherboard Source: Royal Society of Chemistry

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Fingerprints will soon tell cops if suspects are on cocaine

NASA competition pays you to design a 3D-printed habitat

If NASA is going to put humans on Mars and other distant worlds, it’s going to need a place for explorers to stay — and it wants your help building those extraterrestrial homes. The agency has launched the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, a competition to develop the best artificial housing for space exploration. The first phase of the challenge will award a $50, 000 prize based on pure architectural merits, while a second will hand out two $1.1 million prizes for those who figure out how to manufacture individual components and whole shelters from “indigenous materials, ” such as rocky soil . NASA hopes that the winning ideas will make it possible to settle alien terrain without bringing mountains of Earth-made construction supplies. That would not only let crews pack light, but fix their own abodes if something goes wrong millions of miles from Earth. [Image credit: ESA/Foster + Partners ] Filed under: Science Comments Source: NASA

No car, no problem: 17 of the slickest electric rides

All kinds of personal-sized, eco-minded rides have been popping up on the market ready to propel us through the streets. Whether it’s for a quick commute or a casual cruise, these electric rideables help save time and fossil fuels. Not only do they get you from point A to point B quickly, but they’re also fun to ride… and you won’t sweat up a storm along the way. But which one is right for you? Below, we take a look at all the bikes, scooters, skateboards and everything else in between to serve up some useful personal transport suggestions. You never know, there might be a pair of RocketSkates in your future. Filed under: Misc , HD , Mobile , Alt Comments

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No car, no problem: 17 of the slickest electric rides

Judge rules Pandora has to increase royalty payouts to BMI

Pandora’s propensity for litigation is pretty storied by this point, but it seems like the internet-radio outfit’s luck has run out. A New York judge has ruled that Pandora must raise its payout rates to Taylor Swift’s music publishing house BMI , from 1.75 percent of its revenue to 2.5 percent, according to The New York Times . The full ruling is still being kept under wraps at the moment, but naturally, Pandora says it’s going to appeal the decision. Given that an appeals judge recently ruled in the outfit’s favor to keep royalty payout rates from rising, it isn’t clear what could happen in this instance. For artists’ sakes , let’s hope that history doesn’t repeat itself here. [Image credit: Getty Images for TS] Filed under: Home Entertainment Comments Via: The Register Source: The New York Times

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Judge rules Pandora has to increase royalty payouts to BMI

Etsy’s counterfeit problem is getting worse

News of Etsy’s battle against sellers pedaling knockoff goods on its site isn’t a recent revelation, but an analyst report this week details the extent of the problem. Investment firm Wedbush says that up to 2 million items listed on the marketplace may be counterfeit or infringe on either a copyright or trademark — items like these . That’s around 5 percent of all goods promoted there. It’s not just fashion and jewelery brands, either: products with pro sports, cartoon and comic book artwork abound on Etsy as well. The company recently went public , and as you might expect, its stock fell in response to the report. What’s more, a class action lawsuit was filed against the site for making “false and misleading statements” about the counterfeit issue. Etsy took aim at questionable merchandise in the past, banning the sale of Washington Redskins items back in September. However, if it wants to continue being the go-to place for handmade goods, it’ll need to do some spring cleaning. [Image credit: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images] Filed under: Internet Comments Source: World Trademark Review , MarketWatch

Shipments of ‘white box’ tablets overtake iPads

The hottest-selling tablets aren’t likely to be iPads or Galaxy Tabs these days — if anything, they’re the cut-rate slabs you see in the back of the drug store . Strategy Analytics estimates that shipments of generic “white box” tablets (which typically run Android) overtook iPads in the first quarter of this year, claiming 28.4 percent of the market versus Apple’s 24.3. The analysts largely chalk this up to consistently tepid iPad sales , but they also suggest that small, budget-minded tablet makers are having a field day. That’s not totally surprising. Low-cost Android gear also dominates the smartphone market , and a lot of these tiny outfits operate in China, where price is more of a concern. You don’t need a $500 slate just to watch video in bed, after all. That shift is partly borne out by what’s happening with other big-name competitors. Cost-conscious Chinese brands like Huawei and Lenovo are thriving, while higher-end rivals that don’t do so well in China (such as ASUS and Samsung) are struggling. If these relative outsiders are going to come back, they may need to either compete more on price or give buyers a reason to pony up. There are signs that this is happening (see Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A and rumors of a giant iPad ), but you may not see the results of these efforts until later in the year. [Image credit: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara] Filed under: Tablets , Apple , Samsung , ASUS , Lenovo Comments Source: Strategy Analytics

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Shipments of ‘white box’ tablets overtake iPads

Facebook ‘Instant Articles’ plug in content from NYT and Buzzfeed

Facebook wants to do for news content what it’s done with native video , and the first bit of self-hosted editorial content (“Instant Articles”) could go live tomorrow. It’s starting with The New York Times and will include Buzzfeed , NBC News and National Geographic if unnamed sources speaking to New York Magazine are to be believed. Apparently NYT ‘s business side is why a deal that surfaced in late March is only coming to fruition now, with CEO Mark Thompson’s push for “the most favorable” terms causing delays. A Wall Street Journal report says The Social Network is offering to let publishers keep 100 percent of the money from ads they sell against an article, or 70 percent if Facebook sells the ad. That bit is incredibly important because without traffic going to, say, nytimes.com , and staying on Facebook instead, a publication could lose its ability to pay the bills and its employees. The big argument seems to be that NYT is working to insulate its million-plus digital subscribers from free content hosted on Zuckerberg’s baby, thus rendering a subscription kind of pointless. Regardless of if this is happening tomorrow or not, we won’t have to wait too long before we find out. Update: That didn’t take long. Facebook’s officially unveiled Instant articles, crowing that the reason for the move is, as rumored, to do with page loads. Publishers have access to traffic and data analytics too, and can tailor articles to use the platform’s features which include tilt-to-zoom high-res images. For now, Instant Articles is exclusive to iPhone users. And the full slate of content partners ( NYT , NatGeo , BuzzFeed , NBC News , The Atlantic , The Guardian , BBC News , Spiegel and Bild ) isn’t available yet, with only the first four on offer at the moment. Two of those, Buzzfeed and NYT , have explanations regarding the hows and whys of the partnerships. The ad and analytics are perhaps the most important news for publishers because they offer similar tools to what they likely already have in place internally. It’s worth noting, however, that when something doesn’t pan out Facebook has a habit of killing it off. Remember Home and Paper ? Yeah, we barely can either. Filed under: Internet , Facebook Comments Via: Poynter Source: Facebook

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Facebook ‘Instant Articles’ plug in content from NYT and Buzzfeed