Mini Chic! See Harper Beckham?s Designer Rain Boots

"Harper loves her Marc Jacobs wellies! Rainy day in London," the fashion designer wrote.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/lCQKJsJPz7o/

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Exec CEO Justin Kan Talks Competition, Cleaning, And Future Plans

Hot on the heels of Exec’s Cleaning Service launch in NYC, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to get CEO and co-founder Justin Kan in the studio for a quick chat. We also couldn’t resist checking out the service in action, and thusly hired Execs from the company’s standalone Cleaning app to help tidy up our NYC Aol Ventures crib. For those unfamiliar with Exec, the concept is quite simple. Exec lets you hire people on a case-by-case basis for errand-running and cleaning. The app originally launched as an errand-running service, letting Execs who sign on to the platform (and pass background checks) run to get you coffee, pick up your dry cleaning, or assemble that Ikea bed for you. You’re charged $25 per hour, the majority of which goes to the Exec and a percentage of which goes to the company. After realizing that cleaning was dominating over 50 percent of Exec’s orders, the company launched a standalone Cleaning app in February. Since, the cleaning side of the business has expanded to Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and here in New York City. “We wanted the cleaning app to be the easiest thing you can imagine,” said Justin. “We don’t want you to have to make any decisions.” He mentioned that most of the current cleaning services force you to play phone tag and call a number of services. Meanwhile, on Exec, you simply open the app and are instantly given the availability for your house cleaning and a quote. But even though cleaning makes up a large part of the Exec business, we can’t forget about errand-running. I asked Justin how Exec gets users to change behavior, as most people in the younger demographic feel somewhat uncomfortable giving directions for others to do their chores. But Exec has added layers to the app that give you prompts for what you might do with it, like have someone stand in line for you at Brunch. (Justin’s actually used Exec for that very purpose.) As the company continues to enter new markets, the biggest challenge (according to Justin) is handling the logistics on the backend as the apps scale. In the past eight months, over 11,000 people have applied to be Exec contractors. Not only does the company have to handle the massive hiring funnel, complete with interviews and background checks, but also handle scheduling thousands of workers with real-time tasks on

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dXoqvO528jY/

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Feds crack down on text-messaging spammers

Herb Weisbaum , NBC News contributor ? ? ? 7 hrs.

The Federal Trade Commission has gone to court to stop companies from allegedly bombarding cell phone users with hundreds of millions of unwanted text messages that promised ?free? gift cards.

The FTC complaints, filed in courtrooms around the U.S., charge 29 defendants with sending more than 180 million of these spam texts.

"Today's announcement says ?game over? to the major league scam artists behind millions of spam texts," said Charles Harwood, acting director of the FTC?s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement.

If you have a wireless phone, there?s a good chance you got one. The text messages offer free $1,000 gift cards from big name companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.

(Related: Warning: Bogus 'smishing' messages tell lies)

The FTC claims the texts were designed to get people to click on a link that would take them to deceptive websites that requested sensitive personal information ? supposedly needed for shipping ?before they could get that ?free? card.

The commission suspects the information collected was sold to other companies for marketing purposes.

But that was just the beginning. Once the personal information was gathered, people were directed to another site where they were required to sign up for a number of ?offers? in order to be eligible for the gift card.

The FTC?s investigation shows some people had to sign up for as many as 13 offers. This often meant providing a credit card number to sign up for some type of subscription. In some cases, they had to submit applications for a credit card, an action that would show up in their credit history and could affect their credit score.

(More information:FTC Cracks Down on Senders of Spam Text Messages Promoting "Free" Gift Cards)

In its complaint, the government claims the operators of these websites violated the FTC Act by not disclosing all of the conditions attached to that supposedly ?free? gift ? including the possibility that ?lucky winners? would be required to spend money to get it.

The FTC says its investigation shows the text messages were sent to random phone numbers, including to cell phone subscribers who did not have a text message subscription plan. These consumers paid the cost of receiving that spam text. While it may seem like everyone has a text plan, the FTC says as many as 12 percent of mobile phone users do not.

The FTC?s complaints target those who allegedly sent the unwanted text messages and those who allegedly operated the deceptive websites. The courts are being asked to stop the companies and individuals from continuing ?their alleged deceptive and unfair practices? and to freeze their assets.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitteror visit The ConsumerMan website.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/feds-crack-down-text-messaging-spammers-1C8736229

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