Amazon Launches PayPal-Like Payment System For Consumers, Businesses

Amazon is quickly turning itself into an online one-stop-shop for consumers. Next up for the e-tail giant? Entering the e-commerce fold with a new payment product system that puts it in direct competition with PayPal.

Amazon Payments, which launched Monday, aims to allow consumers to use their Amazon accounts to send and receive money and shop online at a number of online sites, CNN reports.

Retailers and other businesses looking to use the service will have Amazon’s security and already plentiful user database at their disposal. In addition, consumers who already have Amazon accounts can save precious time during checkout.

The system uses the information already stored in a consumer’s Amazon account to log in and pay for their desired purchases. Consumers are also covered by the same buyer protection plan available with Amazon.com purchases.

The platform features no recurring fees for retailers, however, Amazon plans to take a standard cut of 2.9% from those businesses, as well as $0.30 for each transaction of $10 or more.

Amazon currently has 244 million active customer accounts, creating a large pool of potential users for the new service. In contrast, PayPal, which has long offered the similar services, has roughly 148 million active accounts.

Amazon launches PayPal competitor [CNN]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Teacher Accused Of Kidnapping Students, Forcing Them To Go To Jack In The Box

(Matt McGee)

It’s one thing to ask someone for a ride to your favorite feeding spot, but when you’re a high school teacher you shouldn’t be forcing your students to ferry you to your fast food dinner. Authorities in a California town have accused a teacher of kidnapping three students and making them drive him to Jack in the Box.

Officials say that three 17-year-olds were driving in Altadena when they stopped to greet their teacher, who they’d spotted standing on a sidewalk.

They said hello and noticed that their teacher appeared to be a bit drunk, police said.

“The teacher then asked for a ride, to which the driver agreed,” according to a news release cited by KTLA.com. “During the ride, a conversation with the teacher caused the driver to become worried and therefore pull over.”

But when the students got out of the car, the teacher allegedly said he wanted to go to Jack in the Box and “ordered the juveniles back into the car.”

“Fearing for their well-being, the juveniles re-entered the car.”

That’s when the suspect pulled out a knife, the Sheriff’s Department said.

A student called 9-1-1 from the car, and after the teacher saw a police helicopter overhead, he allegedly ordered the driver to stop driving, got out and fled.

He was later arrested for kidnapping, false imprisonment and criminal threats. And he never got his Jack in the Box fix.

High School Teacher Accused of Kidnapping 3 Students in Altadena [KTLA.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Do You Have Questions Only A Florist Can Answer?

A few weeks ago, we shared with you some insider tips from a former florist who explained that the real arrangements we receive look meager compared to website photos because the arrangements in photos are designed for two-dimensional photographs. We wondered whether our readers had other questions about the flower business that she could answer, and she has agreed to answer your questions.

Here’s a bit more about my background. I worked as a floral designer for roughly 8 years, and still moonlight occasionally during the big holidays. Floral designing covers basically all the stuff that happens in a flower shop – creating arrangements, designing for large events like weddings and funerals, purchasing and processing product from growers, basic indoor plant care, merchandising and money handling, etc.

Two words that still strike fear in my heart: prom season.

I thought those words struck fear in the hearts of people outside the flower industry, too.

S. has generally worked in larger shops with ten or more employees, as opposed to the tiny shops you might be picturing.

To submit your questions, you can leave them here if you’re part of the commenting beta, or submit them by e-mail to tips@consumerist.com. Put “Ask a Florist” in the subject line so we don’t miss your message.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Netflix Speeds On Verizon Do Not Improve Even After Agreeing To Pay Up

When Netflix agreed to pay Comcast earlier this year for better access to the Comcast network, the streaming video service’s downstream speeds bounced back almost instantaneously and are now faster than they were a year ago. Netflix and Verizon announced a similar deal in late April, but the latest data shows no signs of improvement just yet.

Netflix has released its Speed Index data for May, the first month following its accord with Verizon FiOS, whose downstream speeds bottomed out in February after months of quickly declining performance.

The slowdown was due to Verizon’s unwillingness to upgrade its connections to the bandwidth providers that carry Netflix data from its servers to the ISPs, who then do the so-called “last mile” delivery to the end user. As those peering points became congested, a data bottleneck was created.

Paid-peering arrangements, like the one Comcast and Netflix announced in February, are intended to get around these bottlenecks by giving the content company more direct access to an ISP’s network.

In April, Netflix and Verizon announced that a deal had been made, but the data from May shows a downturn in speeds after two months of moderate improvements.

There is no explanation for the reversal of direction in FiOS data speeds, but the lack of improvement probably explains the recent battle of the buffering screens between Netflix and Verizon.

Last week, Verizon customers — and customers of other ISPs with slow connections — began seeing on-screen messages reading things like “The Verizon network is crowded right now,” while the video buffered.

Verizon slapped Netflix with a cease-and-desist letter regarding these messages, saying that Netflix provided no evidence that the slowdown was due to ISP congestion and not other factors that could affect the video quality.

Netflix says the messages were part of its campaign to be more transparent.

“As part of this transparency campaign, we started a small scale test in early May that lets consumers know, while they’re watching Netflix, that their experience is degraded due to a lack of capacity into their broadband provider’s network,” writes the company on its official blog. “We are testing this across the U.S. wherever there is significant and persistent network congestion This test is scheduled to end on June 16. We will evaluate rolling it out more broadly.”

Here’s how the other major ISPs stack up in the latest speed ratings:

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

FTC: Marketers Deceived Consumers About BrainStrong Supplement’s Memory Improvement Claims

When a supplement sounds too good to be true, it mostly likely is. And deceiving consumers about a product’s wondrous powers isn’t looked upon lightly by federal regulators. The marketers of BrainStrong Adult dietary supplement found that out the hard way.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday that supplement marketers i-Health Inc. and Martek Biosciences Corporation settled charges of deceptively advertising that BrainStrong would improve adult memory and prevent cognitive decline.

The companies also allegedly falsely claimed there was clinical proof that the supplement improved adult memory.

Since 2011, the companies sold a 30-day supply of BrainStrong for $30 a major retailers such as CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid.

Television advertisements for the supplement featured a woman forgetting why she walked into a room. Then, through a voiceover her dog says she is there for her sunglasses that are in reality sitting on her head. The announcer asks “need a memory boost? Introducing BrianStrong…Clinically shown to improve adult memory.”

Under the settlement the companies are barred from claiming that any dietary supplement, food, or drug promoted to prevent cognitive decline or improve memory unless the claim is truthful and supported by human clinical testing.

Additionally, the company must pay a $16,000 civil penalty for each subsequent violation of the order.

Supplement Marketers Settle FTC Charges that “BrainStrong Adult” Memory Improvement Claims Are Deceptive [Federal Trade Commission]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Weekend Water Main Break Soaks Thousands Of Visitors’ Plans To Visit Ohio Amusment Park

(elephantattack)

The car is packed and gassed up, the road trip snacks are bountiful and summer vacation is in high gear. That is, until visitors arrived at Ohio’s Cedar Point amusement park over the weekend, only to find the park closed because of a water main break. Total buzzkill.

Park officials closed not only Cedar park but three hotels on its property on Saturday after the water main break affected the primary water supply, reports the Associated Press, ruining plans for thousands of summer vacations.

The park reopened today, but not before many visitors arrived at the park without knowing it had closed, only to be turned away, sometimes after driving hundreds of miles.

Those disappointed visitors include one family group that drove four hours Saturday morning and snagged what seemed to be a golden parking spot, only to hear that there would be no amusement that day.

The family said they’d waited in line for an hour after to get a refund on the tickets, and then got stuck in an hour-and-a-half traffic jam trying to get out of the park with the rest of the disappointed tourists.

Cedar Point apologized on its website, saying any tickets purchased would be good for the year.

“We recognize that this situation has caused many of our guests to be disappointed,” the statement said. “We are sorry that this has happened.”

Water main break closes Cedar Point amusement park [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Sunny Delight Now Has An Energy Drink For Teens

If you’re like most Americans, you spent many of your formative years drinking sugary vitamin-laced beverages: a childhood littered with Capri Sun packets and Sunny D bottles. If you’d like to revisit that time, Sunny Delight is now available as a caffeine-free canned energy drink. No, really.

In a quote provided in the press release announcing the product, it becomes clear who this product is aimed at. “It… offers a different kind of pick-me-up – carbonated energy that’s uniquely provided by a combination of three carbohydrates, as well as seven B vitamins to help metabolise the carbohydrates into energy,” we’re all pretending that the company’s associate marketing director said. “Simply put, SunnyD X offers the energy teens crave without the ingredients moms tell us concern them such as caffeine and taurine. It’s a win win.” Aha! Teens!

In other words, the idea behind the drink is to serve as an alternative to standard energy drinks by blasting you with B-vitamins and sugars. That “combination of three carbohydrates” is sucrose (regular sugar), glucose, and isomaltulose, a sugar-derived sweetener that has the same amount of calories as sugar, but is metabolized at a slower rate, avoiding sugar highs and crashes. No, you’ll have to depend on the other two sugars for those.

If this sounds interesting to you, SunnyD X is available at convenience stores and some grocery chains in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

News: Sunny Delight Now Comes in an Energy Drink Version [Brand Eating]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

It’s Time To Start Treating Video Game Industry Like The $21 Billion Business It Is

The Next Trendy Health Drink? Camel Milk

(boldsheep)

It’s hard to keep track of what’s a superfood these days and what’s just like, a regular-powered food, but heck, plenty of people love gobbling up whatever the newest, trendiest thing is. Which is why in the future you might be hearing a lot about a new contender in the wonder food category, camel milk.

Yes, those humped, gangly animals you probably loved taking a ride on at the zoo when you were a kid could be part of the next superfood fad, reports The Citizen-Times, as one farmer is hoping to build up a business selling camel milk as a health drink.

On a farm near Asheville there are 23 camels, including the humped dromedaries as well as the double-humped Bactrians, along with a herd of buffalo. The owner of the farm says he wants to grow his camel milk business, modeled on the fact that it’s been a staple food in the Mideast for a long time. And he could sell the stuff at $18 a pint as a nutrition and dietary supplement.

“Epigenetics suggest that we can actually change our genes by how we live,” the farmer explains. “Right now in modern society, we are like polar bears released into a Death Valley environment. When people connect with nature, they feel better, and wild is better.”

According to some scientific studies, camel milk’s benefits include higher levels of potassium,magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, sodium and zinc than in cow’s milk, lower cholesterol levels than cow or goat milk, and is three times higher in vitamin C and 10 times higher in iron compared to cow’s milk. It also has more fat and protein than cow’s milk, and it’s higher in unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins.

I know what you’re thinking, because I’m thinking it too — what the heck does camel milk taste like?

“The milk is tasty. The dromedaries’ milk has a slightly salted taste and creamier. The Bactrians’ is less salty,” he explains. He should know — he and his family drink it four times a day for better health.

Camels are milked by hand, and you don’t need to even sit down to get the job done, since camels are a lot taller than say, a cow or a goat.

Right now the farm is still working on figuring out pasteurization methods as required by federal law, if the milk wants to travel across state lines.

And this farm isn’t the only one — there are several farms with collections of breeding camels that are working on milking programs, in states like Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio. A slew of other states are also scheduled to open new programs as well.

Milking camels for the next superfood [The Citizen-Times]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Executive Order Would Expand Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Program To 5 Million Additional Consumers

(Phil Jones)

College students and graduates weighed down by crushing student loan debt can expect a little help in repaying those loans with the forthcoming expansion of the Pay As You Earn initiative.

President Barack Obama is set to issue an executive order today that would allow more students to take advantage of a federal program in which students who borrowed federal direct loans can cap their loan payments at 10% of their monthly incomes, Reuters reports.

The new order would extend the program to students who borrowed before October 2007 or those who have not borrowed since October 2011.

Officials say the expansion would help up to 5 million additional borrowers when it takes effect in December 2015.

With tuition costs rising by an average of 6% each year over the last decade and students graduating with an average of $29,000 in student loan debt, which can prevent consumers from making big purchases in the future, it’s no wonder the government is looking for ways to alleviate the burden by expanding payment programs.

However, as Consumerist reported in April the debt forgiven by government programs has added up more quickly than anticipated. At its current rate the Pay As You Earn plan is expected to reach $14 billion next year, exceeding government expectations by 90%.

Monday’s executive order is just the latest measure government officials have used to alleviate the burden of student loan debt.

In early May, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced the Bank On Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act that would allow federal and private student loan borrowers to refinance to rates set for first-time borrowers – approximately 3.86%.

That rate was set last summer by legislation that tied student loan interest rates to the yield rate on 10-year treasury bonds. While that change ensured that new borrowers are getting very accommodating interest rates, it didn’t do anything to deal with the more than 1 trillion dollars in student loan debt that is currently on the books for around 40 million Americans.

However, Reuters reports the bill is unlikely to overcome stiff opposition from legislators who say it would come at too high a cost for the government.

Obama to issue order easing student loan debt pressures [Reuters]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist