Skymall Wants You To Watch The Seconds Of Your Life Tick, Tick, Ticking Away

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Life. Down. The Drain. (SkyMall)

“Is this reeeeaaaall?!” is a question that we ask each other around Consumerist HQ pretty much every day. Because if we’ve learned anything from this wide world, it’s that people are absolutely trying their best to invent things that make us feel crazy inside. For example: A watch that counts down the years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds of your life. Until you die . Not because the watch itself will kill you, but still, creepy.

But wait! SkyMall’s Tikker wristwatch touts itself as more of a motivational service — if you’re going to die anyway, because we all are, you might as use those seconds of your life slipping away to be happy and stuff. And also, we’re all gonna DIE:

REMEMBER, IT’S NOT REALLY about how much time you HAVE, it’s what you DO with it. A week spent in love and happiness can be worth more than years spent in agony. Wearing a Tikker is a statement to the world that your biggest priority in life, is living. So please help us help you do that, and have the time of your life with Tikker, the death watch that makes every second count.

We became re-aware of the fact that we are all marching toward the inevitable conclusion to our mortality and there is a way to keep that thought ever present by way of a tweet from @kev097, noting, “This is your most depressing idea yet, SkyMall.”

This is your most depressing idea yet, SkyMall. http://t.co/WpHe0oZyNV—

Kevin Koehler (@kev097) September 23, 2014

Depressing, yes. Inspiring… Yeah, it’s depressing. I’m about to spend an hour eating my way through a tray of brownies to distract myself now. Thanks, Tikker.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Amazon Testing One-Button Ordering Device For Connected Homes

(bclinesmith)

These days, everything from your TV to your light bulbs to your front door deadbolt to your crock pot can be connected to the Internet, so why not one button that lets you instantly order replacements and supplies for these devices?

According to Reuters, Amazon’s Lab126 division — the group responsible for the company’s hardware devices like the Kindle and last summer’s all-but-forgotten Fire Phone — is currently testing this one-button buying idea, as web-connected devices only become more prevalent.

Sources tell Reuters that the device, which may never make it to market, is something that could be placed in a convenient central position, like the kitchen, and would possibly alert users to the need for things like more detergent or filter refills and let them purchase those items with the press of a button.

It looks like Amazon has big plans, not just for this one device but for connected-home devices in general, as the company looks to add around 750 jobs to Lab126, and invest $55 million in the business, over the next few years.

A rep for the company would only say that “We will continue to invent and create new features, services and products, and to support this innovation. Lab 126 is also growing very quickly.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Burger King Australia Will Honor Winning McDonald’s Monopoly Pieces

The McDonald’s to Hungry Jack conversion chart.

While fast food fans in the U.S. prepare to begin the annual ritual of collecting McDonald’s Monopoly pieces in the hopes of getting free food and other prizes, the promotion is already running in Australia. But rather than watch the competition benefit from this board game-themed campaign, the operators of Burger King’s Down Under operations are fighting back.

BurgerBusiness.com reports that Hungry Jack’s — the name used by the Burger King in Australia — will let McDonald’s customers with Monopoly pieces for free food trade those in for similar items.

So a coupon for a free McDonald’s burger can be redeemed for a Whopper Jr. at Hungry Jack’s; a McDonald’s “chicken burger” coupon gets you a free “Chicken Royale” at Jack’s, and so on.

BurgerBusiness says the Hungry Jack’s offer is in response to an announcement by McDonald’s Australia that 1-in-5 of its Monopoly game pieces will win you something, with free food being the most frequent prize.

Alas, Burger King says it has no plans to launch a similar Monopoly counter-attack stateside when the game starts in the U.S. next week. But maybe if the Hungry Jack’s folks have success with their idea, the idea will eventually make its way to these shores.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Sherlock The Beagle Will Return The Items You Left On The Plane – If You’re In Amsterdam, That Is

Sherlock the beagle receives a hug from a little boy after returning the stuffed toy he left on an airplane.

Have you ever stepped off a plane only to realize that you left something behind? That shock of panic you typically feel may be a little less jarring if you’re flying Royal Dutch Airlines to Amsterdam Airport Schipol, thanks in part to the airlines new lost and found service that employs a friendly, furry, four-legged secret weapon.

While most airlines will do all they can to return lost items to consumers, Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) has taken things a step further by creating a dedicated Lost & Found Team – complete with a beagle named Sherlock, the airline says in a video posted on its website.

“Our main goal is to return lost times as fast as possible,” an airline official says in the video. “I really like that now we are getting some help with that.”

The airline introduced Sherlock to the world this week and quickly showed that leaving your phone or stuffed animal on an airplane doesn’t have to be cause for a minor meltdown.

“When we see the reaction from customers, that is really amazing,” one of Sherlock’s handlers says.

Following a quick introduction, the video cuts to Sherlock running aboard a plane where a flight attendant has found a left cellphone. After Sherlock gets a good whiff of the phone, the attendant stashes it in his blue harness for safe keeping. Sherlock then takes off through an Amsterdam Airport Schipol terminal in search of his target. Once he approaches a passenger, Sherlock’s handler retrieves the cellphone, to the woman’s joy.

“Personally I think he’s an asset to the company and he can really do something no one else can,” a KLM employee says in the video.

KLM launches Lost & Found service [KLM]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

What Do You Mean, This German Beer Was Brewed In Missouri?

You can’t really blame reader Nathan for thinking that Beck’s beer comes from Germany. Until just a few years ago, it was an import. Then InBev, the brand’s owner, acquired Anheuser Busch, and with that lots of breweries in the United States. Breweries where they might as well make InBev-owned brands, since most consumers won’t be able to tell the difference. Or so they thought.

“I thought this beer was from Germany, but it was from USA,” Nathan wrote. “I believe ‘Product of Bremen, Germany’ refers to the company, not the beer I was drinking. Either way, it tricked me into thinking I was drinking a German beer.”

If you’re not up on your beer news, it’s easy to see where Nathan got the idea that this is a German beer. Look at the label: the bottle has the word “Oktoberfest” right on it, and apart from the season you see things like the words “Brauerei Beck & Co” and “Originated in Bremen.” Only none of it is true: InBev is a company that’s really into cost-cutting, and one easy way to do that was to just bring the Beck’s recipe over to its breweries here in the U.S.

If you want to learn more than you ever needed to know about InBev, check out this 2012 Businessweek article with the not-at-all subtle title, “The Plot To Destroy America’s Beer.”

One beer drinker was so upset that he sued InBev, which didn’t really work out.

There’s even a Facebook page protesting the change and demanding that InBev start importing Beck’s again. Sure, it isn’t quite as popular as the page demanding the return of Coca-Cola’s Surge, but it exists.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Someone Made Craft Beer Jelly Because That Is Clearly What Peanut Butter Has Been Missing

(Potlicker Kitchen)

How often do you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a frosty pint of craft beer? Not that often, probably. But that doesn’t mean peanut butter isn’t bummed to be missing out on enjoying a cold one while it’s in that sandwich. Rejoice, then, peanut butter: Someone in Vermont has started making craft beer jelly.

While I’m pretty sure beer and peanut butter would be a weird combination (great, now I’ll have to try that), the spread is still an intriguing idea for say, cheese and charcuterie, says Nancy Warner, the founder of artisanal food purveyor Potlicker Kitchen.

She tells Fox News that the beer jellies — in flavors using oatmeal stout, Hefeweizen and IPA, for example — are made with all locally brewed beers, and were the product of necessity when she ran out of fruit.

“It was the middle of winter in Vermont and I had developed a serious canning addiction,” she tells Fox News. “After jamming all the fruit in my house I began to make jelly out of wine, which is an old technique. But I really liked the taste of beer so I developed a recipe that used only beer.”

Jelly is used with fruit juices, unlike jam, which is made with crushed fruit. So she simply substitutes “adult juice” in the recipe where grape or apple would usually be added.

There will be no tipsy after-effects from indulging in the beer jelly, however — each one has less than 0.5% alcohol, as the rest gets cooked out during the jelly-making process.

Sorry, peanut butter. No buzz for you, into the sandwich you go, while I ponder the High Life in my fridge and whether or not it wants to be jelly. Probably not. Probably not.

The taste of craft beer is now in a jelly [Potlicker Kitchen]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

McDonald’s Won’t Serve Pedestrian At Drive-Thru, So He Steals Customer’s Car

For many of us, that brief time between placing your order at the fast food drive-thru and waiting for your food is a couple minutes to do a whole lot of nothing; maybe get your wallet out, change the radio station, check your makeup in the rearview mirror. One thing you’re probably not expecting is to be carjacked.

But that’s what happened to an Oklahoma City woman shortly after midnight on Tuesday, when a strange man approached her car idling outside the McDonald’s, telling her to get out of the car.

“We told her her total, and all of a sudden, we just hear her yelling,” one worker at the fast food franchise tells KFOR-TV. “And we see the guy on the camera take her out of the car and get in.”

Employees also told KFOR that this same man had earlier tried to place a walk-up order in the drive-thru lane but had been turned away for lack of a vehicle.

The woman, who had borrowed the car from a friend, reportedly put up a struggle but her assailant was eventually able to yank her out of the car and throw her to the ground before speeding off.

Employees say they could hear the victim hollering, “Call the police! He just stole my car! He just took it!”

The driver didn’t get very far, and when police caught up to him he crashed the car he’d been so eager to steal.

“He had hit a curb and then a couple of trees, and when the car came to rest, he jumped out,” the police tell KTOK radio. “There was a minor use of force by officers. He was not wanting to go peacefully, but he was taken into custody.”

He was arrested and charged with robbery, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and attempting to elude an officer.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Walmart Continues Acting Like A Bank, Now Offering Low-Fee Checking Accounts

(Ron Dauphin)

It appears that Walmart is taking consumers’ willingness to do their banking outside of traditional banks to heart. The mega-retailer unveiled plans today that would put low-cost checking accounts into the hands of just about any consumer across the country.

The New York Times reports that Walmart teamed up with Green Dot, a company known for issuing prepaid credit cards, to provide checking accounts to anyone over the age of 18 who can pass an ID check.

The new GoBank service, which is expected to be available by the end of October, is intended to be a low-cost alternative to traditional bank checking accounts.

While the accounts will cost $8.95 per month for consumers who have direct deposits totaling less than $500 a month, they are missing the most costly elements of typical checking accounts. In fact, that accounts won’t have fees for overdrafts or bounced checks, and no minimum account balance is required.

Not charging fees is a stark contrast from the bank branches currently operating inside Walmart’s retail stores. A study earlier this year found that while the average U.S. bank only gets about 0.7% of its revenue from fees charged to customers, banks inside Walmart stores average anywhere from 11.3% to 20% of their revenue from fees.

Additionally, typical checking accounts cost consumers on average $225 a year in overdraft fees, a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found last year.

Of course this isn’t Walmart’s first foray into the financial services industry.

Back in April the company announced Walmart-2-Walmart, a money transfer program that allows customers to send funds to and from nearly 4,000 stores nationwide.

Before that, in 2012, Walmart partnered with American Express to offer consumers a prepaid debit card alternative called Bluebird. While the card came with few fees, it could only be used at stores that accepted American Express.

Walmart Prepares to Offer Low-Cost Checking Accounts [The New York Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Seattle Will Start Charging $1 Compost Fee For Too Much Food Waste In The Trash

No throwing this out in Seattle. (szczel)

The residents of Seattle will soon be busy staring intently into their trash cans. Or at least that’s what I’d be doing if I lived there, because the Seattle City Council just okayed a new rule that amounts to $1 fines for anyone chucking away too much food waste or compostable paper products.

Before the new rule, it wasn’t required for those in single-family homes to chuck food waste into compost bins, and apartment buildings had to have them available, but no one was required to use them, reports the Seattle Times.

But under the new Seattle Public Utilities rules, collectors will peek inside the trash before they dump it into garbage trucks, and if that haul has 10% or more food waste, they can write up a violation in the truck’s computer system to leave a ticket on a garbage can for a $1 fine on the next trash bill.

Apartments and businesses get two warnings before they too, will be fined for anything above that 10% limit.

You’ve got some time to adjust though, Seattleans. Seattleites. It’s too early — we get it, you live in Seattle: The fines won’t start until July 1, with warning tickets educating people about the new rule starting Jan. 1.

But it’s not like anyone is worried about a landslide of fines, as SPU isn’t expecting much money to come in from this.

“The point isn’t to raise revenue,” Tim Croll, the agency’s solid-waste director told the Seattle Times.

“We care more about reminding people to separate their materials.”

Seattle OKs $1 fine for adding too much food to garbage bins [Seattle Times]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

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