Uber Now Delivering Lunch, Too (PCMag)

• BY ANGELA MOSCARITOLO
• AUGUST 26, 2014
• 
  

For its next act, the app-based car service will bring you lunch.

Uber has already experimented with delivering everything from ice cream to toilet paper. But for its next act, the app-based car service is going to bring you lunch.

"We've all been there — that moment when you go from hungry to hangry during the lunch rush," the folks at Uber wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "At Uber, we take these problems seriously and wanted to explore another way to get lunch without the line."

The company will begin testing a new lunch delivery service, dubbed UberFresh, starting today in Santa Monica, California. If you live in the area, you can order by selecting the new UberFresh option on the lower right side of the Uber app between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. From there, you just set your delivery location, make your request, and meet your driver outside once he or she arrives.

At this point, Uber is offering a prix fixe menu with a different selection each day, for $12 per meal. Best of all — Uber promised super speedy delivery.

"Typical food delivery takes 45 minutes to 1 hour," the team wrote. UberFresh delivers you healthy, fresh food in about 10 minutes."

There's no delivery fee and no need to tip your driver, you'll just need to pay for your lunch order, Uber said.

The company is running the experiment in the Santa Monica area until Sept. 5, and may extend it if things go well. Note that the service will not be available on weekends or Labor Day.

"Depending on the results we look forward to expanding UberFresh throughout the southland — so head to Santa Monica for lunch this week and give it a try, that might just be enough to bring it to your neighborhood!" the company wrote.

The move comes after Uber last week launched Corner Store, a delivery service for all kinds of common items like toilet paper, razors, and body wash.

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security.

Five free smartphone apps to make life easier at trade shows (TechRepublic)

By Brien Posey in Five Apps, August 26, 2014

The right apps can make a world of difference in convenience and efficiency when you attend a trade show or conference. 

As someone who attends a lot of trade shows each year, I have found that my smartphone is an invaluable tool for helping me to function efficiently while on site. Here are five of my favorite smartphone apps to use while attending a trade show.

1: CamCard

CamCard (Figure A) is a free app that allows you to take pictures of business cards and save the contents to your phone. Upon photographing a card, CamCard uses optical character recognition to recognize the card data, but you can edit the data if necessary. CamCard also enables you to add custom fields and to add reference notes to the card information.

Figure A

CamCard is available for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android.

2: Track My Budget 

Track My Budget (Figure B) will help you to keep track of spending as it relates to your budget. Although the app is geared toward household budgets, it works surprisingly well for keeping track of spending while on the road. It allows you to set up custom categories, such as flights and hotels, and then categorize your transactions. You can enter your total travel budget as Income and the app will show you how much you have spent and how much money remains in your budget. Best of all, the app allows you to enter certain expenses (such as parking at the airport or your morning coffee) as recurring so that you don't have to enter the expense manually each day.

Figure B

Track My Budget is available for Android and Windows Phone. There is also an iOS version that is designed to link to your Google calendar.

3: Sticky Notes

Sticky Notes (Figure C) is a free app that lets you create a collection of virtual sticky notes. You can choose the color and font for each note, and there is even an option to dictate the note. Best of all, you can generate reminders for sticky notes and the Windows Phone version lets you pin a note to the Start screen.

Figure C

Sticky Notes is available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

4: Dude, Where's My Car

Dude, Where's My Car (Figure D) is a free app that helps you keep track of where you parked. It's simple, but effective. It allows you to create a named location for where you parked. When it is time to locate your car, the app uses mapping to show you how to get back to it. On my phone, the mapping software defaults to walking mode, but since I am in Houston at the moment and my car is in Charlotte, I have the option of getting driving directions to my car.

Figure D

Dude, Where's My Car is available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

5: Expensify

Expensify (Figure E) is a free app for keeping track of those receipts. It lets you photograph your receipts and then uses optical character recognition to extract data from them. You also have the option of entering data manually. Once the data has been entered, you can compile a collection of receipts into an expense report.

Figure E

Expensify is available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

Port Gate Hours -Election Day : 8-26-14 (FCBF)

Election Days 8/26/14 - Gate Hours

ALL PORT USERS ADVISORY NOTICE NOTIFIER:                ALFREDO FERRER, MAJOR                                    SAFETY AND SECURITY DIVISION DATE:                       AUGUST 26, 2014 TO:                            ALL PORT USERS SUBJECT:                 ELECTIONS DAY 8/26/14- GATE HOURS GATE HOURS:  OPEN AT 9:00 A.M. - OPERATING HOURS WILL BE EXTENDED AS NEEDED Please note South Florida Container Terminal (SFCT) and Port of Miami Terminal Operating Company (POMTOC) will open their gates starting at 9:00 a.m.  Today, August 26, 2014, and operating hours will be extended as needed in efforts to allow voting time for port users. Operating hours will return to normal on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, for questions, please contact individual gates. NOTE:  Expect possible traffic delays.

UPS Store Hacked, Credit Card Info Exposed (PCMag)

BY DAMON POETER AUGUST 21, 2014

The UPS subsidiary was hit with a malware-based intrusion impacting 51 franchises between Jan. 20 and Aug. 11.

The UPS Store, a subsidiary of UPS, was hit with a malware-based system intrusion impacting 51 franchise locations in 24 states between Jan. 20 and Aug. 11, the company said this week.

Customer data, including credit card and debit card information, may have been exposed at the impacted locations during the varying periods the malware resided on the computer systems at those franchises, according to a UPS Store notification to potentially affected customers.

Other customer information that was potentially exposed to bad actors included names, postal addresses, and email addresses, according to the UPS Store. The company said that "[b]ased on the current assessment, The UPS Store has no evidence of fraud arising from this incident."

The company said it hired an outside, unnamed IT security firm to investigate the breach and purge the systems at affected stores of the malware, which the UPS Store first learned about from a U.S. government bulletin.

"I understand this type of incident can be disruptive and cause frustration. I apologize for any anxiety this may have caused our customers," UPS Store president Tim Davis said in a statement. "At The UPS Store the trust of our customers is of utmost importance. As soon as we became aware of the potential malware intrusion, we deployed extensive resources to quickly address and eliminate this issue. Our customers can be assured that we have identified and fully contained the incident."

A full list of affected UPS Store locations with the dates each store was afflicted with the malware can be found here.

The majority of stores became infected after March 26, according to the UPS Store and its IT security contractor, though the computer systems of some locations were exposed to the malware as early as Jan. 26. All affected locations listed as exposed by the UPS Store were clear of the malware as of Aug. 11, the company said.

UPS Store customers who are concerned that their sensitive information may have been compromised can visit theupsstore.allclearid.com or call 1-855-731-6016 to speak to a customer representative.

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. 

Nearly Half of Americans Think the Recession Is Not Over (BusinessWeek)

By Allison Schrager August 19, 2014

The U.S. economy has nearly recovered. Now someone has to convince Americans. Nearly half think the United States is still in recession, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll. Some 76 percent don’t think their children’s generation will have a better life than they did. Americans are right to think they are worse off: Even if they have recovered financially, they have become aware that the economy is riskier than it used to be. They might never bounce back from that.

Economic well-being is not limited to wealth, earnings, and employment; security matters, too. All else being equal, a riskier environment is worse, economically speaking. Financial markets may be less volatile, but structural changes in the economy have increased risk for most Americans’ largest asset: future earnings.

Lifetime earning power has been getting less certain for decades, but it took the recession to make people realize it. In 2002, one out of two Americans expected real income gains in the next five years, according to the Index of Consumer Sentiment; by 2013, only one in three did. It is well known that real median earnings didn’t increase in the last 20 years; overall earnings have become more volatile, too. The amount that the average household’s earnings fluctuate each year has been increasing (PDF) since the 1980s. Household finances also are less secure because people have less liquid savings and more debt. The economic stress associated with the recession made these trends more apparent.

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The future of U.S. children also looks precarious. Tyler Cowen argues that changes in technology and trade are hollowing out the middle class, leaving a larger chasm between economic winners and losers, with very few in the middle. People who thrive in the future will do very well. The rest will have a harder time getting by.  Previously, parents could safely assume that their children had good shots at landing middle-class lives. The stakes are now higher and the risk of failure larger.

Younger Americans may never recover from the recession’s wake-up call to risk, and the economy might suffer for that. The Great Depression scared a generation away from taking financial risk: Many Americans who came of age during the Depression never invested in the stock market. To be fair, they never had to because many had company-sponsored pensions to support them in retirement. Millennials have internalized the same fears, with 13 percent describing themselves as financially conservative, a rate matched only by World War II babies (now ages 68 and up), according to a recent UBS survey (PDF). They are holding more in cash and less in stock than other generations have done.

The fortunes of the Depression’s children were eventually bolstered by a wartime economy and postwar boom. Millennials face no such relief on the horizon. Downturns have historically pushed previous generations (PDF) into entrepreneurship, but that’s not happening either. The youth self-employment rate has fallen each year since the recession and shows no sign of turning around. In 2003, 8.3 percent of Americans aged 25 to 39 were self-employed, by 2013 only 6.8 percent were.

STORY: Student Debt Threatens the Safety Net for Elderly Americans

The economic recovery cannot be measured only by market returns, growth in gross domestic product, and housing starts. Psychology counts. Heightened fear can hurt career and investment decisions for decades. Put another way, economic well-being requires a certain level of optimism, a firm belief that success is possible, even when times are hard. Markets crash. Businesses fail. But if people today unwilling to take measured chances, we haven’t recovered at all. That may affect career and investment decisions for decades.

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Allison Schrager is an economist and writer in New York City. Follow her on Twitter: @AllisonSchrager.

4.5 Million Patient IDs Compromised in Hospital Hack (PCMagazine)

·        BY DAMON POETER  AUGUST 18, 2014

The hack of Community Health Systems, operator of 200-plus hospitals, is believed to have come from China.

One of the country's biggest hospital operators, Community Health Systems, on Monday announced that its computer network was the "target of an external, criminal cyber attack" which saw the compromise of patient identification data for "approximately 4.5 million individuals."

The attacker or attackers are believed to have originated in China, according to Community Health Systems and its IT security contractor, Mandiant.

Community Health Systems, which operates more than 200 hospitals in the United States, revealed the breach in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The hack of the computer network occurred in July, the publicly traded company said. Data stolen in the breach "did not include patient credit card, medical, or clinical information," Community Health Systems said, but did include "patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers, and social security numbers," which are protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Community Health Systems said Mandiant, serving as the company's forensic expert for the breach, believed "the attacker was an 'Advanced Persistent Threat' group originating from China who used highly sophisticated malware and technology to attack the company's systems."

The intruder or intruders behind the attack is known to federal authorities, according to Community Health Systems.

"The company has been informed by federal authorities and Mandiant that this intruder has typically sought valuable intellectual property, such as medical device and equipment development data," the SEC filing said.

However, the July intrusion focused on "non-medical patient identification data related to the company's physician practice operations," Community Health Systems said.

Attorney Nick Akerman, a partner at international law firm Dorsey and Whitney with a specialization in computer crimes, said the scope of the breach was very concerning.

"The danger here is not only in the patient's privacy but the fact that they could be victims of identity theft because of the credit card information that was stolen," Akerman said. "It is unlikely that the Chinese hackers care about the health information. What is key is the financial information on the patients."

Community Health Systems said it was "providing appropriate notification to affected patients and regulatory agencies." The company said it has finished removing the malware installed by the attackers in its computer systems and was working with Mandiant on other remediation and preventative measures to avoid future intrusions.

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. Prior to joining PCMag, Damon worked at CRN and the Gilroy Dispatch. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and Japan Times, among other newspapers and periodicals.

Where Do U.S. Airline Profits Go? Away From Travelers, Toward Investors (BusinessWeek)

By Justin Bachman August 14, 2014

Compared with those ultralux Asian and Middle Eastern airlines, it’s easy to disparage the service levels of the average trip aboard an American (AAL), Delta(DAL), or United (UAL) plane. Overhead TVs in the aisle, circa 1980? Yep, the U.S. airline giants still have ‘em. Free meals on a six-hour, cross-country flight or a 10-hour haul to Hawaii? Those aren’t in the budget.

Yet when it comes to airline profits, no one does it like the U.S. carriers. After several Asian carriers reported results in recent days—including Cathay Pacific Airways’ (293:HK) half-year profit of $45 million announced on Wednesday—the financial difference between the U.S. airlines and the foreign carriers that travelers love to fly is striking. Nowadays, Delta clears a $45 million profit in less than a week during the summer.

 

With a mind on Cathay’s results, which marked an enormous increase over the same period last year, Bloomberg Businessweek tallied the results at other highly regarded airlines. Granted, the operating conditions for U.S., Asian, and Middle Eastern airlines differ, but the dramatic disparity in financial results illustrate to some extent differing philosophies. (And, as Delta executives routinely argue, the large Middle Eastern carriers are state-subsidized and don’t compete fairly on costs, an accusation those airlines deny.) All figures below have been converted to U.S. dollars:

• Singapore Airlines (SIA:SP), which often vies for the top spot in rankings of best airlines, earned $39 million in its most recent quarter ended on June 30.

• Japan’s All Nippon Airways (9202:JP), another of the five-star airlines in the Skytrax ratings, earned a little less than $3 million for the quarter.

• Asiana Airlines (020560:KS), the South Korean airline known for its premium service, isn’t profitable at the moment.

• Emirates, one of the world’s largest international carriers, earned $898 million in the year ended March 31.

In comparison, Delta fell only $9 million short in one quarter ended in June of Emirates’ $898 million haul for its full fiscal year. American Airlines earned $864 million in the second quarter, while United Continental’s profit finished near $800 million for the same period.

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The striking disparity also helps show that while travelers love to fly on Singapore and Emirates, their inner investor is likely to bet on American and Delta—and then, of course, complain about the dreary flight.

STORY: How Spirit Airlines Turned Cheap Seats and Sore Knees Into Steady Profits

Bachman is an associate editor for Businessweek.com.