If you use Google Maps, you may have noticed a new feature recently: One that tells you how many calories you’ll likely burn walking to wherever it is you’re going. Google has now pulled that tool, after users complained that it often wasn’t correct, and criticism over the fact that it showed users how many mini cupcakes worth of calories they could burn on their route. [More]
apps
Dog-Walking Apps Want Customers To Entrust Their Pups To Strangers
By 10.17.17
Ride-hailing apps ask us to get in strangers’ cars, something that our parents specifically warned us against. Now a new generation of gig economy apps asks us to let strangers into our homes and take our pets on walks. While most walks and boarding stays using services like Wag and Rover end well, enough have resulted in lost or killed pets that investors are becoming skittish, and maybe customers should be. [More]
App That Promised To Pay Users For Fitness Trapped Some On Erroneous Payment Treadmill
By 9.22.17
The mobile app GymPact, later known as Pact, was a tool that gave users a financial incentive to exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, and to log what they ate. Only the Federal Trade Commission claims that Pact users were charged when they weren’t supposed to be, and some lost hundreds of dollars in a negative-option mess that they couldn’t cancel. [More]
Uber Drivers Have Already Received $50 Million In Tips Through The App
By 8.23.17
After a parade of scandals and a campaign urging users to delete its app, the ride-hailing app Uber has implemented some changes that the company hopes will make drivers happier, including in-app tipping. Since that was added to the app, the company reports that drivers have already received $50 million in tips. [More]
Google Adds Additional App Verification Steps To Protect Users From Phishing Attacks
By 7.19.17
Two months after Google added phishing protections to the Android Gmail app, the company is taking its no-phishing attack approach further by introducing new warnings and a more complex verification system for new apps. [More]
Sega Jumps On Retro Game Train With Mobile Versions Of Sonic, Altered Beast, Others
By 6.21.17
Perhaps Sega has been paying attention to Nintendo’s recent success with its Mario Run smartphone app — which has been purchased and downloaded hundreds of millions of times since its release in Dec. 2016: The video game company has announced it’ll be bringing back a few retro titles of its own, starting with Sonic the Hedgehog and four other classic games on June 22. [More]
Uber Owes Some NYC Drivers Up To $45M After Miscalculating Commissions
By 5.23.17 — Updated: 5.25.17
Uber has to open up its wallet and pay an estimated $45 million to its drivers in New York City, after it miscalculated drivers’ share of fares for more than two and a half years. [More]
You Can’t Get The Netflix App On A Rooted Android Phone Anymore
By 5.15.17
Folks who enjoy tinkering with their Android phones have gotten a rude surprise this week: As far as Netflix is concerned, their phones no longer exist, and can no longer install or update the streaming video app. [More]
Uber Settles Charges Of Sending Unwanted Texts With No Opt-Out
By 5.5.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
If you’re interested in signing up as an Uber driver, a friend or driver can have the site text you a mutually beneficial referral code. Some consumers in Washington state reported receiving referral text messages from the ride-hailing app that they didn’t ask for, though, with no way to opt out, and now the company and the state have settled those charges. [More]
NYC Will Require Uber App To Allow Tipping (Eventually)
By 4.17.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Tipping is a confusing issue when it comes to ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft in New York City. Drivers are allowed to accept cash tips, but they aren’t allowed to ask for them. What’s more, the Lyft app includes the ability to put that tip on your credit card, but Uber’s app is still tip-less. That will change later this year, as NYC will require Uber to include tipping on its mobile platform. [More]
Microsoft Testing Refund System For Xbox And Windows Games, Apps
By 4.13.17
In a move to be more consumer friendly — or, at least, less consumer-hostile in the digital goods space — Microsoft is now testing a refund system to make it easier for customers to return Xboxvideo games and apps from the Windows Store. [More]
McDonald’s Hopes Mobile App Can Super-Size Your Spending By Tracking What You Buy
By 4.10.17
McDonald’s is looking for ways to reverse its decline in customer traffic and appeal to younger consumers so it can stay relevant. While fresh beef and functioning ice cream machines are important parts of the fast food giant’s future plans, even more important will be a mobile ordering app that will let it collect data on customers and offer them carefully tailored deals and upsells. [More]
Police: Uber Driver Sexually Assaulted Passenger, More Victims May Be Out There
By 4.3.17
An Uber driver in southern California has been arrested “on suspicion of various sexual assault crimes” after he was accused of parking his van and sexually assaulting a sleeping passenger near her home. Now police have put the word out that they’re looking for other possible victims. [More]
Time Warner Cable Customers Unable To Access TV Apps After Charter Merger
By 2.23.17
It’s been nearly a year since Charter officially acquired Time Warner Cable, but TWC customers — now “Time Warner Spectrum” — say they are no longer able to access an array of TV apps that require their pay-TV logins. [More]
Google To Take On Uber, Lyft With Major Expansion Of Waze Carpooling Service
By 2.22.17
It seems you can’t throw a rock in the street these days without hitting a ride-sharing vehicle (but don’t do that, seriously). Google is going to make that marketplace even more crowded with a major expansion it has planned for the carpooling function included in its Waze navigation app. [More]
Here’s How You Can Get A Free Burger At Shake Shack
By 1.23.17
If you’re the kind of person who prefers free food over food you have to pay for — and who isn’t? — we’ve got some good news for you: in a bid to woo customers into downloading its new mobile app, Shake Shack is offering customers a free burger. [More]
Pressing Your Phone Camera Against Your Finger Will Not Measure Your Blood Pressure
By 12.12.16
The tiny sensors in our smartphones can do amazing things, but what they cannot do is substitute for a blood pressure cuff. That’s unfortunate, because having your blood pressure measured can be painful and unpleasant. However, one app-maker ran afoul of federal regulators by claiming that your smartphone camera could be used to accurately check your vitals. [More]
Verizon Won’t Explain Confusing Ad Data Policy On NFL Mobile Streaming
By 12.9.16
If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer, you may have taken advantage of the carrier’s promotion that allows you to stream local football games via the NFL Mobile app without eating away at your monthly data allotment. However, you might not have noticed that the commercials you watch during those games do count against your data limit — at least initially. It’s confusing to some Verizon customers, and the nation’s largest wireless provider won’t explain why it’s not more straightforward. [More]
