“This Looks Like My Hearing Aid”: What Happens When The Older Set Tries Google Glass

Pamela is my favorite, is unsure about Glass.

Listen, plenty of young/youngish people think Google Glass looks a little bit weird, so the fact that a group of older folks can’t quite get a grip on the idea isn’t too surprising. Still, “This looks like my hearing aid” is pretty darn funny.

The Fine Brothers sat down to make a YouTube video with members of the older set experiencing Google Glass for the first time, and the reactions are, of course, comedy gold: “Kinda weird,” “Looks like a science fiction movie” and “I think you can see a screen up here when you put it on” all serve the purpose of making us giggle about how weird technology really is.

Once the subjects have Google Glass on properly (after a few miscues and sheepish giggles, of course) the fun continues — “Spaceship 12 calling Earth! Spaceship 12 calling Earth!” one guy yells, making me very much wish he was my pal.

Some folks have heard of Google Glass — but how?

“Because I’m hip,” asserts one very hip lady indeed.

But the fact that you actually speak to it to make it work? “You’re kidding.”

Nope. No kidding, Pamela my friend, just cyborging.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Man Sues CVS Claiming Prescription Mix-Up Made Him Go Blind In One Eye

(Daniel Lobo)

Taking the wrong prescription can have devastating consequences. Just ask a Houston man who alleges a mistake at the pharmacy counter made him blind in one eye.

The 65-year-old man is suing CVS Pharmacy claiming he was blinded in the left eye after being given anti-bacterial ear drops to treat an eye infection, KHOU-TV Houston reports (warning: video autoplays).

The man, who suffers from a variety of ailments, sought treatment at a local Houston hospital in 2012 and was given a prescription to help his pink eye/conjunctivitis.

But instead of receiving cortisporin opthalmic suspension – a common conjunctivitis treatment – at the local CVS, the man’s attorney claims he was given neomycin-polymyxin-HC, a treatment for bacterial ear infections.

The lawsuit shows the original packaging and instructions that came with the solution the man received from CVS. The packaging identifies it as an “EAR SOLN” and instructs the user to “INSTILL 3 DROPS IN EACH EYE TWICE DAILY FOR 5 DAYS.”

Upon using the drops, the man’s caregiver said he immediately felt pain and was rushed back to the hospital emergency room.

According to the suit, documentation in medical journals and pharmaceutical websites regarding the ear infection treatment clearly state that it should never be placed in the eye.

Doctors confirmed that the man is now blind in his left eye. His caregiver says the man now has problems with pain and depth perception.

“He used to be fully capable of operating day-to-day on his own,” the man’s caregiver says. “And now he looks to me to support him in everything that he does.”

The man’s attorney tells KHOU-TV that they are waiting to hear from CVS.

In a statement to the news station, a CVS rep said it could not comment on matters involving pending litigation.

Man claims CVS mistake cost him his sight [KHOU-TV]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Pretty Much Everyone (Except The FCC) Thinks Internet Fast Lanes Are A Bad Idea

The pro-net neutrality protest outside the FCC on May 15.

This morning the House Judiciary Committee held another hearing about net neutrality. While the members of Congress and expert witnesses are sitting on Capitol Hill arguing with each other over antitrust law, the public is clear on one thing: paid prioritization is a bad, bad idea.

Our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports have been quite busy with surveys this spring. In a nationally representative poll, they’ve found that well over half of respondents, 58%, believe that regulators should absolutely not allow ISPs to enter paid prioritization deals. No fast lanes: no way, no how.

The findings echo what the overwhelming majority of the 187,897 (and counting) public comments to the FCC have said. There is also a (largely symbolic) pending bill in the House and Senate that would require the FCC to ban “fast lane” paid prioritization arrangements.

Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, shared the survey results with the House Judiciary Committee in a letter that was added to the record at the hearing this morning (full text below).

The public comment period for the FCC’s proposed open internet rule ends on July 15. If you have thoughts about net neutrality and paid prioritization, here’s how to let them know .

The full text of Consumers Union’s letter:

June 19, 2014

The Honorable Spencer Bachus, Chairman

The Honorable Hank Johnson, Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform,

Commercial and Antitrust Law

Committee on the Judiciary

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Bachus and Congressman Johnson:

As strong supporters of both net neutrality and the antitrust laws, Consumers Union, the advocacy and policy arm of Consumer Reports, appreciates the Subcommittee’s holding a hearing to bring further attention to the issue of how best to advance the goal of net neutrality.

With the Internet becoming ever-more central to American life, it is essential that we not devolve into a two-tiered society where some get special preference over others. And consumers agree. In a recent national Consumer Reports survey, 58 percent were opposed to allowing Internet service providers to charge extra for preferential treatment. Only 16 percent of those surveyed thought this was a good idea.

Consumers Union has been very engaged in working with the Federal Communications Commission over the years to ensure that net neutrality is the law of the land. We were deeply disappointed when the court overturned the FCC’s net neutrality rules, and have been working ever since to convince the FCC to restore the rules by using Title II authority to reclassify the Internet as a public utility. We have also asked the FCC and the Justice Department to investigate the recent Comcast-Netflix deal involving Netflix paying for faster access to Comcast customers, to determine its impact on net neutrality and competition.

As the Subcommittee considers the role the antitrust laws can play in advancing the goals of net neutrality, we hope you will bear in mind that the antitrust laws address specific kinds of harmful marketplace conduct – agreements in restraint of trade, monopolization and attempts to monopolize, and mergers that may substantially lessen competition. However, there are other kinds of harmful marketplace conduct that the antitrust laws do not reach.

Net neutrality is one area where the antitrust laws cannot be counted on to provide the complete solution. An Internet service provider raising prices on targeted content providers or on targeted consumers may or may not be violating the antitrust laws. But even if that conduct is not violating the antitrust laws, it is harming consumers, and it needs to be prohibited. That is why we support the Federal Communications Commission’s vigorous use of its broader public interest authority in this area.

The principle of net neutrality reflects an overriding policy judgment that the benefits of the Internet, for consumers and for the overall economy, are best achieved if the Internet is available to everyone on equal, nondiscriminatory terms. We need a regulatory framework that promises to achieve that goal. The antitrust laws are not inconsistent with that goal, and can also help promote it, but they are not by themselves sufficient to fully achieve it.

We need the FCC to restore network neutrality rules that will ensure an open and accessible Internet for everyone.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

New York To Legalize Medical Marijuana — As Long As You’re Not Smoking It

(Eva_Deht)

New York is just about ready to legalize medical marijuana in the state for patients with serious illnesses — and no, your cousin Chad’s extreme boredom is not an illness — as long as patients aren’t smoking the stuff.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and other legislative leaders have come up with an agreement that lets doctors prescribe marijuana to patients with cancer, AIDS and epilepsy, but will require that prescription to be filled in non-smokeable form, ostensibly to ward against recreational users from cheating the system.

According to The Journal News, Cuomo called the medical pot agreement “the best of both worlds,” because patients who need it can have it, but the program won’t be abused, it’s hoped.

“There are certainly significant medical benefits that can be garnered,” Cuomo said during a news conference Thursday. “At the same time, it’s a difficult issue because there are also risks that have to be averted — public-health risks, public-safety risks — and we believe this bill strikes the right balance.”

Lawmwakers are expected to approve the bill soon, with the aim of having the medical-marijuana program up and running within 18 months. The marijuana will be taxed at 7% of gross sales.

All the reefer would be grown in state at five approved sites, and dispensed at 20 outlets around the state. Instead of offering smokable marijuana, patients would be authorized to vaporize it or use oil-based cannabis extracts.

New York will become the 23rd state with a medical-marijuana program if the bill passes.

“New York has finally done something significant for thousands of patients who are suffering and need relief now. They will benefit from this compromise,” said the director of the Drug Policy Alliance, “That said, this is not the bill we wanted.” That’s in reference to concern over the limitations placed on the drug.

Under the program, medical marijuana would be available to patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, significant damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington’s disease and other conditions added by the state Department of Health.

N.Y. set to legalize non-smokeable medical marijuana [The Journal News]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Watch Out For Groupons With “Reservation Required”

Reader Aaron is annoyed at Groupon. He bought a voucher for a local restaurant: a sushi place, to be exact, but the type of business doesn’t matter all that much. What does matter is that he paid for a voucher, which required that he make a reservation at the restaurant through Groupon’s app. This wouldn’t be a problem if he could get a reservation.

“When I tried to make a reservation through the Groupon app there were very few options,” he explains. This wouldn’t be a problem, but the voucher is only valid at the reservation time that customers schedule through the Groupon app. He happened to be near the restaurant at the time, so he walked over to ask about the limited reservation times. It turns out they’re using Groupons to drum up business during off-peak hours. “I walked down the street to the restaurant and the hostess informed me that the Groupon only is valid 5:00PM-6:30PM and then after 9:00PM,” he explains. “On the website it says ‘Offer valid only at scheduled reservation time’ which seems scammy to me.”

Calling it a “scam” is going too far, we think, but this is definitely something that you should look out for when buying restaurant vouchers.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Survey: Consumers Willing To Pay More If It Makes Them Feel All Warm And Gooey Inside

(Van Swearington)

What do clean water, locally sourced labels and certified organic products have in common? Tough one, right? They are all thing consumer are willing to pay more money for in order to feel as if they’ve made a difference in the world.

A new research report from Nielsen found that consumers are attracted to social-responsibility efforts and are willing to pay top dollar to satisfy their “do-gooder” instincts, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

In an online survey of 30,000 consumers in 60 countries, 55% of respondents said they would pay more for products or services from companies committed to positive social and environmental impact.

And what age group was most likely than all others to feel the need to be a do-gooder? The millennials. See, we’re not all that selfish.

That’s good news for companies that provide a buy one, give one business model. Tom’s latest venture involves consumers purchasing a bag of coffee, and in return a specified amount of clean water is donated to a community in need.

In fact, that issue – access to clean water – topped the list of concerns premium paying customers cared about the most. Other highly-ranked causes included concerns about access to sanitation and environmental sustainability.

As far as retail analysis goes, Nielsen found that sales of products marketed as socially responsible grew more quickly than those of comparable products. This was a lesson producers learned when using “locally sources” or “organically certified” labels on products.

Sales of products with sustainable claims on the packaging grew on average 2% between 2013 and 2014. Products that promoted sustainability actions through marketing programs saw sales increase by %5 during the same time frame.

Still, Nielsen suggests taking the results of the survey with a grain of salt. Not all consumers practice what they preach to opinion polls.

Consumers Believe They’re Eager to Pay More for Do-Gooder Products [Bloomberg Businessweek]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Officials Bust Traveler With $50,000 Worth Of Cocaine Cookies At Newark Airport

Not the cookies with coke. (kenfagerdotcom)

If there’s one thing law enforcement will never expect, it’s illegal drugs hidden inside of food. Believing that sentence is exactly how you can end up busted for baking $50,000 worth of cocaine inside cookies, people. Because the very first place people often think to stash their stashes is inside seemingly innocent edibles.

A traveler coming into Newark Airport from Guatemala was caught white-handed, officials say, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection found 118 pellets of cocaine baked into a batch of cookies. That’s reportedly a street value of more than $50,000.

The Asbury Park Press reports that customs officers made the discovery while examining luggage arriving at the New Jersey Airport from a flight originating in Guatemala City. The cookies’ owner was arrested after officials allegedly found the cookies in his three checked bags.

He’s now facing state charges of narcotics smuggling. Meanwhile, perfectly good cookies have gone to waste, tainted with drugs. Poor cookies, no one’s going to eat you now.

US: Cookies with cocaine found on traveler [Asbury Park Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

Here are eight of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

(Kevin Cardosi)

(Chuck Miller)

(Karen Chappell)

(Bastian Eichhorn)

(thedax3)

(Kevin Cardosi)

(RiddimRyder)

(Simon Yeo)

Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Want to see your pictures on our site? Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Popular Messaging App Of The Moment “Yo” Has Some Serious Security Issues

Have you Yo’ed yet today? No? Me either, my younger cousins haven’t Facebooked about it so I’m out of the loop. Anyway, it’s the messaging app that’s been all the rage for at least 48 hours or so, all because its sole function is to send your friends the word, “Yo.” Yes, that’s it. In any case, just as quickly as its star has shot to the heavens, people are already claiming to have hacked it right back down again.

TechCrunch reports that some Georgia Tech students have claimed to have hacked Yo, figuring out how to lift any user’s phone number from the app, among other things.

“We can get any Yo user’s phone number (I actually texted the founder, and he called me back). We can spoof Yo’s from any users, and we can spam any user with as many Yo,” the students said in an email to TechCrunch. “We could also send any Yo user a push notification with any text we want (though we decided not to do that).”

Then there’s a Vine video from someone who’s tricked out the Yo app to Rickroll the user, hacking it to bleat Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” instead of the usual “Yo” sound.

Yo’s founder Or Arbel confirmed that the app is “having security issues.”

“Some of the stuff has been fixed and some we are still working on. We are taking this very seriously,” he said, without detailing which hacks are still live, but that a specialist security team is on the case and that he hoped security issues would be fixed “in next few hours.”

Yo, guys? Now might be a good time to delete the app if you’re worried about hackers calling you or lifting any other information. Just saying. Better safe than sorry, as that man who lived under my bed used to say. And he was right… about everything.

Yo App Hacked By College Students [TechCrunch]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Chalkup: para enviar y corregir actividades en google drive

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