6 actually useful smartphone apps to get you through Black Friday

Gracefully navigate the shopping madness by doing a little prep work on your iPhone or Android before you leave the house

Ah, the holidays! Big-box stores compete with online behemoths for customers, while customers compete with each other to get the best Black Friday savings. And, in a new digital twist, Black-Friday-focused apps are competing with one another for downloads. Developers are creating all sorts of helpful ways for customers to sniff out bargains, track spending, and manage their nephew’s wish list. Now that The Week has advised you on Black Friday “deals” to avoid, here’s a rundown of some of the more helpful apps out there: 

Black Friday by BradsDeals
The folks behind BradsDeals.com, a site known for tracking down coupons and discounts, put together this helpful Black Friday app that shows you all the leaked ads and discounted items from 100 major retailers like Sears, Kohls, and Macy’s. Who needs a newspaper? (iPhone-only)

Black Friday Deal Finder by Fat Wallet
Search for deals using variables like free shipping, doorbusters, online availability, rebates, and more. Useful for planning but also recommended for any quick-witted shopper who wants to do in-store product comparisons. (iPhone-only)

Black Friday app from DealNews
Both PC World and PC Magazine voted DealNews tops in its category thanks to its exhaustive, well-organized catalog. Like the other apps, this one lets you browse “leaked” and “confirmed” ads from major retailers so you can plot out your plan of attack beforehand. (iPhone, Android)

ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner
Use your phone’s camera to scan products for instant price comparisons — no need to painstakingly input your search queries while angry shoppers slam you with their carts. If there’s a better deal around you or online, this app will let you know. (iPhone, Android)

Wunderlist
Was it your nephew Charlie who wanted the new Call of Duty game? Or was that your boss’ son Jimmy? Instead of checking your list twice, try WunderList, a super-simple task management tool that syncs lists on your desktop, iPhone, and more. (iPhone, Android) 

Mint.com Personal Finance
The whirlwind holiday shopping season can make it difficult to keep your finances in check. One solution: Mint, a virtual-money manager that automatically keeps tabs on your bank and credit card accounts to help you master your budget with a friendly, easy-to-use interface. Best of all, it’s useful well after January rolls around; no wonder TIME Magazine named it one of the 50 best iPhone apps out there. (iPhone, Android)

SEE ALSO: Get rich quick: 6 people who accidentally found a fortune

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Camembert to clocks: Dali’s genius on show in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) – The broadest-ever retrospective of Salvador Dali, opening in Paris this week, seeks to move beyond the shameless self-promotion that the 20th century Surrealist was often derided for and stress his indelible influence on artists today.

Once dubbed “Avida Dollars” for his love of money, Dali is regarded by some as little more than a marketing product, his Spanish home an obligatory tourist stop, his trademark melting watches the inspiration for money-spinning souvenirs.

But a new show at the Pompidou Centre lays bare the extent of his creative genius, exploring how his experiments with painting, cinema, advertising and installations influenced movements from Pop Art to today’s performance art.

The show, which runs from November 21 to March 25, is set to be a blockbuster of the Parisian art calendar. The last Dali retrospective at the Pompidou in 1979 remains the most visited exhibition in the museum’s history.

“There’s this vision we have of there being a good Dali, the Surrealist, and then the one who came after, who made money,” said exhibition curator Jean-Michel Bouhours.

“We needed to go beyond this distinction between the good and the bad and show how the experimental Dali was extraordinarily important in the history of art and the artistic models that developed in the 60s and 70s.”

The exhibition features some 200 works by the Spanish master, including the famous 1931 “The Persistence of Memory” with melting pocket watches, which Dali said was inspired by watching camembert cheese liquefying in the sun.

Also on show are dozens of works on paper, projects for stage and screen, photographs and films such as the 1929 “Un Chien Andalou“, written with Spanish director Luis Bunuel.

His designs for ballet, decorative arts and even a pavilion for the 1939 New York World Fair earned him the derision of fellow Surrealists such as Andre Breton.

But Dali saw mass media as a more efficient way than painting of getting across his “paranoid critique” of the world.

His 1935 installation, “Mae West’s Face Which May be Used As An Apartment” with its lip-shaped sofa showed an obsession with celebrity that would later influence the Pop Art of Andy Warhol.

Born Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali in 1904 in the Catalan town of Figueres, Spain, Dali remains a controversial artist, loved for his creative genius but dismissed by some as a madman and hated for his at times grotesque artistic vision.

Although an anarchist in his youth and deeply attached to his native Catalonia, he was criticized for later declaring himself a monarchist, turning to religion and moving closer to the post-war authoritarian regime of Francisco Franco.

His love of show business and manic declarations such as “Surrealism is me”, alienated many. But he is cited as an influence for many artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons.

Dali died of heart failure in Figueres in 1989, seven years after the death of his wife and muse Gala.

(Reporting By Vicky Buffery, editing by Paul Casciato)

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FDA approves first-of-a-kind seasonal flu vaccine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it has approved the first seasonal flu vaccine made using animal cell technology, rather than the half-century egg method.

The FDA approved Novartis‘ Flucelvax to prevent influenza in people 18 years and older.

The new method has been promoted by U.S. health officials because it is faster than egg-based production and could speed up manufacturing in the event of a pandemic.

In the older method, virus samples are injected into specialized chicken eggs and incubated. The egg fluids are later harvested, concentrated and purified into the vaccine.

With cell technology, small amounts of virus are put in fermenting tanks with nutrients and cells derived from mammals. The virus is then inactivated, purified and put into vaccine vials.

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Payday loan firms warned by OFT

20 November 2012 Last updated at 06:43 ET

David Fisher, Office of Fair Trading: “The industry as a whole certainly needs to raise its game”

The payday loan industry has been warned to improve the way it lends money and collects debts, or face fines or closures.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), in an interim report, says most of the 50 big firms it has been inspecting do not operate fully by its rules.

The OFT says it is worried by reckless lending and aggressive debt collection.

It has now begun formal investigations into several payday lenders over aggressive debt collection practices.

The OFT will publish its full report in the new year, when it has ended an investigation which it started in February 2012.

But David Fisher, the OFT’s director of consumer credit, said all 240 payday lenders have been put on notice to improve.

“What we are discovering is that right across the sector problems exist and the industry as a whole certainly needs to raise its game,” he told BBC News.

He added that recent estimates suggested that the industry was now lending £1.8bn a year, double the amount of a couple of years ago.

Updated rules

The OFT is worried about the “poor practices” which its enquiries have been uncovering, and which chime closely with many of the criticisms that consumer groups have been making of payday lenders.

Among the OFT’s concerns are that:

• lenders do not check properly if their borrowers can afford to repay the money they have borrowed


• too many loans are not repaid on time


• the loans are then extended too often


• lenders are too aggressive when borrowers fail to repay promptly

The regulator has become especially worried about the way payday loan firms use a type of repayment agreement called a continuous payment authority (CPA), using a credit or debit card to ensure they are repaid automatically.

The OFT has updated its rules for the industry to make it clear that if borrowers sign up for a CPA, it must be with their explicit agreement.

Borrowers must be told how a CPA works and how they can bring one to an end.

Lenders must not keep on trying to drain cash from their borrowers’ accounts if there is not enough money available to meet the debt.

Meggan Tile owes seven thousand pounds in payday loan debt and describes how the stress used to keep her awake at night

“Our report shows that a large number of payday loans are not repaid on time,” said Mr Fisher.

“Our revised guidance makes it absolutely clear to lenders what we expect from them when using continuous payment authority to recover debts and that we will not accept its misuse.”

The UK’s most high profile payday lender, Wonga, said it welcomed the OFT report and its recommendations, which add to a new industry code of practice that was announced in the summer and which comes into effect next week.

“Regarding continuous payment authority, which is also used by a broad range of businesses outside of consumer credit, we believe it is an important method of collection and we share the OFT’s concerns that it must not be misused,” said a Wonga spokeswoman.

‘Bad situation worse’

Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, welcomed the OFT’s interim report.

She said the experience of clients coming to the Trust for advice was that “payday loans have a habit of making a bad situation worse”.

“We have a lengthy list of concerns about the practices of many companies in the sector and we hope the OFT review will kickstart a more serious consideration of the problems payday loans create,” she said.

“Many thousands of people have come to us for help after having seen their debt problem made far more serious by taking out one or more payday loans,” she added.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has found a small but increasing number of people complaining to it about payday loan firms.

A spokesman said the main reason for people complaining was that the loan had been unaffordable and should never have been granted in the first place.

“In the first half of this financial year – April to September 2012 – we received 271 new complaints; this compares to the 296 complaints brought to our service during the whole of last year (2011-12) – and we are currently upholding eight out of 10 cases in favour of the consumer,” said an FOS spokesman.

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News Summary: India outrage over Facebook arrests

WHAT HAPPENED: As India‘s financial capital shut down for the weekend funeral of a powerful politician linked to waves of mob violence, a woman posted on Facebook that the closures in Mumbai were “due to fear, not due to respect.” A friend of hers hit the “like” button. For that, both women were arrested.

THE RATIONALE: The arrests were seen as a move by police to prevent any outbreak of violence by supporters of Bal Thackeray, a powerful Hindu fundamentalist politician who died Saturday.

THE REACTION: But analysts and the media are slamming the Maharashtra state government for what they said was a flagrant misuse of the law and an attempt to curb freedom of expression.

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Charlie Chaplin’s bowler hat and cane fetch over $60,000 at auction

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One of Charlie Chaplin’s bowler hats and a cane, the staple of Hollywood silent-era comedy, were auctioned for $ 62,500 on Sunday, said auction house Bonhams.

Chaplin’s hat and cane, which fetched more than the initial estimate of $ 40,000-60,000, are synonymous with his “Little Tramp” character in films such as “City Lights” and “Modern Times.”

Bonhams memorabilia specialist Lucy Carr said earlier it is unknown how many of Chaplin’s bowlers and canes still exist. Those auctioned on Sunday are from a private collection but have a direct link to Chaplin, Carr said.

The waddling and bumbling “Little Tramp” character propelled Chaplin to global fame. The character, Hollywood legend says was created by accident on a rainy day at Keystone Studios, first appeared in 1914′s “Kid Auto Races at Venice” and lastly in 1936′s “Modern Times.”

Chaplin’s hat and cane are the highlights of an auction of popular culture artifacts that is still in progress. Other items include a handwritten letter from John Lennon in which the Beatle sketched himself and wife Yoko Ono nude. There is also an archive of Marilyn Monroe photographs, an early Charles Schulz “Peanuts” comic strip, and a wicker chair from Rick’s Cafe in “Casablanca.”

(Additional reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Christopher Wilson)

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New push for most in US to get at least 1 HIV test

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.

Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once — not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.

The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make HIV screening simply a routine part of a check-up, something a doctor can order with as little fuss as a cholesterol test or a mammogram. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has pushed for widespread, routine HIV screening.

Yet not nearly enough people have heeded that call: Of the more than 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, nearly 1 in 5 — almost 240,000 people — don’t know it. Not only is their own health at risk without treatment, they could unwittingly be spreading the virus to others.

The updated guidelines will bring this long-simmering issue before doctors and their patients again — emphasizing that public health experts agree on how important it is to test even people who don’t think they’re at risk, because they could be.

“It allows you to say, ‘This is a recommended test that we believe everybody should have. We’re not singling you out in any way,’” said task force member Dr. Douglas Owens, of Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

And if finalized, the task force guidelines could extend the number of people eligible for an HIV screening without a copay in their doctor’s office, as part of free preventive care under the Obama administration’s health care law. Under the task force‘s previous guidelines, only people at increased risk for HIV — which includes gay and bisexual men and injecting drug users — were eligible for that no-copay screening.

There are a number of ways to get tested. If you’re having blood drawn for other exams, the doctor can merely add HIV to the list, no extra pokes or swabs needed. Today’s rapid tests can cost less than $ 20 and require just rubbing a swab over the gums, with results ready in as little as 20 minutes. Last summer, the government approved a do-it-yourself at-home version that’s selling for about $ 40.

Free testing is available through various community programs around the country, including a CDC pilot program in drugstores in 24 cities and rural sites.

Monday’s proposal also recommends:

—Testing people older and younger than 15-64 if they are at increased risk of HIV infection,

—People at very high risk for HIV infection should be tested at least annually.

—It’s not clear how often to retest people at somewhat increased risk, but perhaps every three to five years.

—Women should be tested during each pregnancy, something the task force has long recommended.

The draft guidelines are open for public comment through Dec. 17.

Most of the 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. every year are among gay and bisexual men, followed by heterosexual black women.

“We are not doing as well in America with HIV testing as we would like,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, CDC’s HIV prevention chief, said Monday.

The CDC recommends at least one routine test for everyone ages 13 to 64, starting two years younger than the task force recommended. That small difference aside, CDC data suggests fewer than half of adults under 65 have been tested.

“It can sometimes be awkward to ask your doctor for an HIV test,” Mermin said — the reason making it routine during any health care encounter could help.

But even though nearly three-fourths of gay and bisexual men with undiagnosed HIV had visited some sort of health provider in the previous year, 48 percent weren’t tested for HIV, a recent CDC survey found. Emergency rooms are considered a good spot to catch the undiagnosed, after their illnesses and injuries have been treated, but Mermin said only about 2 percent of ER patients known to be at increased risk were tested while there.

Mermin calls that “a tragedy. It’s a missed opportunity.”

___

Online:

Task force recommendation: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org

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U.S. ITC will review Apple, Samsung patent decision

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. International Trade Commission will review a judge’s decision which found that Apple did not violate patents owned by Samsung Electronics in making the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad.

An administrative law judge at the ITC had said in a preliminary ruling in September that Apple was innocent of violating the patents. The ITC, which could have opted to simply uphold the judge’s decision, said that it would take up the matter. A final decision is expected in January.

If Apple is found to infringe, its devices can be banned for sale in the United States.

Apple and Samsung have taken their bruising patent disputes to some 10 countries as they vie for market share in the booming mobile industry.

Apple won a huge victory in August when a U.S. jury found the South Korean firm had copied key features of the iPhone. Apple was awarded $ 1.05 billion in damages. That ruling is under appeal.

In its announcement that it would review the case, the ITC asked for briefings on how it should consider standard essential patents, which are normally expected to be licensed widely and on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. The use of standards helps companies ensure devices are interoperable.

Some antitrust enforcers have argued that it is wrong for companies which own standard essential patents to ask for infringing devices to be barred from the country except in extreme instances.

The commission is reviewing a decision by ITC Judge James Gildea, who said in September that Apple did not violate the four patents at issue in the case, which was filed in mid-2011.

The two standard essential patents in the complaint are related to 3G wireless technology and the format of data packets for high-speed transmission.

Apple has a parallel complaint filed against Samsung at the ITC, accusing Samsung, a major Apple chip provider as well as a global rival, of blatantly copying its iPhones and iPads. An ITC judge said in that case that Samsung infringed on four Apple patents. The full ITC will issue a final decision in February.

Apple has waged an international patent war since 2010 as it seeks to limit growth of Google’s Android system. The fight has embroiled Samsung, HTC and others who use Android.

Google’s Android software, which Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs denounced as a “stolen product,” has become the world’s No. 1 smartphone operating system.

Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone maker, while Apple is in third place. Many experts consider Samsung’s Galaxy touchscreen tablets the main rival to the iPad, although they are currently a distant second to Apple’s devices.

Samsung is also a parts supplier to Apple, producing micro processors, flat screens and memory chips – both dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and NAND memory chips – for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Apple has reduced orders from Samsung for chips and screens.

The case at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-794.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Bernard Orr and David Gregorio)

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Turbulence on Cuba-Italy flight leaves 30 bruised

ROME (AP) — An airliner flying from Havana to Milan abruptly plunged some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) when it hit unusually strong turbulence over the Atlantic on Monday, terrifying passengers and leaving some 30 people aboard with bruises and scrapes, airline officials said.

The flight continued to Milan’s Malpensa airport after the plane’s captain determined that it suffered no structural damage and two passengers who are physicians found no serious injuries, Giulio Buzzi, head of the pilots division at Neos Air, told Sky TG24 TV.

The ANSA news agency quoted bruised passenger Edoardo De Lucchi as saying meals were being served when suddenly there was “10 seconds of terror.” He recounted how plates went flying and some passengers not wearing seatbelts bounced about.

Buzzi had said that the drop measured some 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) in a cloudless sky. But Milan daily’s Corriere della Sera’s web site, quoting Neos official Davide Martini, later reported that the plane first bounced up some 500 meters (1,650 feet), then dropped some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) to some 500 meters (1,650 feet) below the original altitude.

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Google should not be accused of “unfair” acts: lawmakers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two lawmakers urged the Federal Trade Commission on Monday to steer clear of expanding its authority as it investigates allegations search engine company Google violated antitrust law.

The two California Democrats in the House of Representatives, who count Google as a major campaign contributor, asked the FTC not to accuse the company of “unfair” acts if it believes it broke antitrust law.

Anna Eshoo, on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Zoe Lofgren, who is on the Judiciary Committee, said there were reports to suggest the FTC planned to use the unfair standard to avoid proving some elements required in an antitrust claim.

They said such a move could lead to over-broad authority for the FTC that could create legal uncertainties for firms and stifle economic growth.

“Such a massive expansion of FTC jurisdiction would be unwarranted, unwise, and likely have negative implications for our nation’s economy,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was dated November 19 and sent to the five FTC commissioners.

The FTC is looking into a long list of complaints brought by rivals of Google, which is also accused of using its dominance to squash competitors in vertical search areas such as shopping and travel.

The FTC staff has reportedly given the commission a report urging them to file a complaint against Google for suing competitors based on standard essential patents and asking for injunctions to stop the sales of their products. Standard essential patents are supposed to be broadly licensed at a fair rate.

Google is the seventh largest contributor to Eshoo, donating $ 13,000 during the 2012 election cycle, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. It is the third largest contributor to Lofgren, who got $ 14,500 from Google. The donations came from a Google political action committee and employees and lobbyists associated with Google.

Complaints about Google to the FTC over standard essential patents arise from a raft of litigation between Apple Inc, Google and Microsoft Corp, which have sued each other numerous times in various countries, each alleging that their respective patents are being infringed upon by rivals in the highly competitive smartphone market.

In many cases, the companies ask that their rivals’ products be banned from stores. Many antitrust enforcers believe it is inappropriate for companies to ask for sales bans based on the infringement of essential patents.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, who is expected to leave the agency soon, said in mid-September that he expected a decision in the case by the end of the year. A decision could be in the form of a lawsuit or, more likely, a settlement.

Google has settled with U.S. law enforcement agencies in the past.

For example, it settled with the FTC following privacy gaffes during the botched roll-out of its social network, Buzz. Later, it paid $ 22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple’s Safari browser.

Google also paid a $ 500 million settlement in 2011 to the Justice Department for knowingly accepting illegal advertisements from Canadian pharmacies selling in the United States.

FTC spokesman Peter Kaplan confirmed that the commission had received the letter but said the agency declined comment.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; editing by Andrew Hay)

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