Free Urdu English Islamic, IT, Urdu Story , Ebooks Library | PDF Docx Format | Learn Online

In the future, when you forget that Sports Authority went out of business and type in their website address, you’ll end up on a page owned by the defunct retailer’s biggest competitor. Dick’s Sporting Goods reportedly scooped up the Sports Authority name, including its domain names and customer mailing lists, for $15 million in the company’s intellectual property auction. Reuters reports that a source close to the auction shared that Dick’s was the big winner in this auction. The sporting goods retail landscape isn’t a promising one lately, but Dick’s did also reportedly win 31 leases for a total of $8 million, most likely in areas where it doesn’t currently have a store. When Sports Authority put its current stores up for sale as a going concern, which means buying the business and all of its inventory, liquidators made the highest bids , selling off inventory at nice discounts eventually. Buying the intellectual property of Sports Authority, as Reuters reports that Dick’s Sporting...

Did you enjoy a pad thai, macaroni and cheese, or a pesto cavatappi for lunch sometime in the last few months? And then have your bank very suddenly replace your credit or debit card, due to an unnamed data breach, in early June? You’ve may have Noodles and Co. to thank for both. The 20-year-old fast-casual pasta-based chain announced this week that it is the latest victim of a large scale data breach affecting consumers’ payment data. The hack lasted from January 31 until June 2 of this year, Noodles reports, at which point it was detected and stopped. The company has been, as one does in this sort of situation, working with third party security investigators to determine how the breach happened and what was stolen. Lo and behold, there was malware in Noodles’ computer systems that managed to yoink payment card information including cardholder name, card number, expiration date, and CVV. Online orders were not part of the breach, Noodles added. The company suggests the usual: c...

As a reminder of how much everyone has come to depend on a free (or work-supplied, if your workplace uses Google accounts) online service, today civilization may yet still collapse due to a morning outage of Google Calendar. There were no widespread reports of people wandering streets or office hallways with no idea of where they were supposed to be, but that may be because the outage only lasted a few hours. As usual when a service other than Twitter is down, people took to Twitter to vent about the situation. Or celebrate. One of those things. Wait, @googlecalendar is down? This is like a snow day for adults, right? — Peter Seibel (@peterseibel) June 30, 2016 Do you think the 8 meetings I have between now and 6pm are canceled bc google calendar is down — Shani O. Hilton (@shani_o) June 30, 2016 @googlecalendar can you please erase the last week, thanks. UK. — HP (@hp88) June 30, 2016 …. is google calendar down right now? — Sam Sheffer (@samsheffer) June ...

When you see a label that says “natural” on your meat, you might make some assumptions about what’s in it. Doesn’t that label mean meat that doesn’t have preservatives or artificial colors, that comes from animals raised without growth-promoting hormones or antibiotics? Well, no, it doesn’t necessarily mean that , and a recent lawsuit from the Animal Legal Defense Fund calls Hormel out on its labeling. Yes, that’s the same Hormel that owns organic meat brand Applegate Farms, but this lawsuit is about Hormel’s own trendy Natural Choice line of lunch meats. The suit, filed by animal rights group the Animal Legal Defense Fund, asks why the line is marketed as having the features customers expect in “natural” products, but contains plant-derived preservatives and comes from the same meat supply as Hormel’s other products. “Contrary to Hormel’s branding campaign,” the ALDF explained in a press release explaining the lawsuit, “meats the company advertises as ‘natural’ actually [come] from...

Snack food giant and grocery store staple Mondelez International apparently has decided it needs more chocolate for the s’mores you can make with its Honey Maid graham crackers, and is making a takeover bid for Hershey Foods. The Wall Street Journal reports that Mondelez is making every attempt to acquire Hershey. The WSJ, citing the ever-popular “people familiar with the matter,” says that Mondelez has contacted Hershey about the sale. The Hershey Trust, which holds 8.4% of the stock and 81% of the voting power, has historically resisted any sale offers. Mondelez, however, is reportedly “prepared to go to lengths” to win over America’s most famous chocolate brand, including pledges to protect jobs, relocate to Hershey, PA, and rename the whole company Hershey, according to a source. The Mondelez family of brands currently includes a whole bunch of snacks, crackers, and candies that you know, including Oreo, Cadbury, Chips Ahoy, the entire Nabisco line, Philadelphia (cream cheese...

This holiday weekend, many Americans will no doubt be in the mood to celebrate Independence Day with brightly colored fireworks that go “whiz!” and “bang!” and make us all proud we got rid of the British early on. But no matter how fun fireworks can be, they can also be very, very dangerous. To bring that message home, New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is sharing the story of how he lost part of his hand in a firework accident In a new public service announcement from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Pierre-Paul shows the world exactly what can happen when you aren’t careful around such explosives, holding up his right hand to show the damage a firework did when it accidentally exploded in his hand last year. “Fourth of July, I lit up a firework, thought I could throw it away real quick,” he tells CPSC chairman Elliott Kaye in the video, filmed at the Giants’ indoor practice facility at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J. “And in a...

Don’t have a car, but want to work for Lyft or Uber as a driver? Hertz is hoping it can squeeze some extra miles out of its older cars with new deals it’s just announced to supply rentals to the ride-hailing companies. Under the agreements, drivers have set rates on two- to three-year-old models Hertz has rotated out of its fleet, which can be rented from Hertz off-airport locations. The cars can then be used for either personal or business reasons, and they can be rented out for just a few days or even months. “We consider this agreement to be largely complementary to our rental car business,” said John Tague, president and CEO of Hertz Global Holdings, in a statement . The agreement will expand Hertz’s pilot program with Lyft , which it debuted in Las Vegas last year. The rental car company will be bringing that program to Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The Hertz/Uber program will at first only be available in Los Angeles, but the company says it plans to expand both pro...

While Keurig is surely hoping there will come a day when its failed KOLD soda-making machine is but a misty, sparkling memory, it’s not the first company to reach for the stars, to fly too close to the sun, to try to capture lightning in a bottle… and fail utterly and completely, thereby forever securing a spot in the brand failure hall of fame, never to be forgotten. Keurig is far from alone, of course: many companies have tried to bank on former successes by coming up with some strange ideas. And so we present forthwith, 16 other examples of companies who thought they had the next big thing, only to fall flat on their faces. 1. The Ford Edsel Perhaps nothing embodies the idea of a commercial failure as much as the Edsel, which was unveiled on Sept. 4, 1957 to the public after a yearlong teaser campaign. It was met with resounding rejection, as customers deemed the gas-guzzling, pricey car an ugly waste of money. Three model years and 110,847 Edsels later, Ford pulled the plug o...

Last year, Amazon tried inventing a holiday all for itself. The day was dubbed “Prime Day,” and it was to be a day full of irresistible sales and promotions for Prime Members. In the end, it was something of a wash. But Amazon, undeterred, is now making it an annual tradition. The online retail behemoth made the announcement today to anyone who logged in to see it, with a giant banner proclaiming July 12 to be the day of deals. Last year’s event, though, didn’t go exactly as they planned. It started rough , with deals that were not exactly inspirational or thrilling… and technical issues galore when users actually tried to buy the products. Then there was the flap over a TV sale that came and went so quickly that customers complained it had never existed at all and was a misleading ploy to draw people in. It wasn’t; the 40″ HD TV really did exist and really did sell for $115… it just also really did sell out in literal seconds, leaving bargain-hunters frustrated. Despite the frust...

Despite efforts by the Department of Education to educate prospective college students about the burden of student loans, nearly two-thirds of students who took out loans to pay for college say they had no idea what they were signing up for . To fix this problem, it’s going to take more than making these students sit in a class about financial aid and student loans; it may require an overhaul of the entire college financing system.  Sure, the DOE and most colleges offer courses or, at the very least, online resources to inform students about the long-term obligations associated with taking out student loans, but those efforts likely aren’t enough. According to the results of a recent survey [ PDF ] from our colleagues at Consumer Reports , most students with loans felt the information they received through financial aid information sessions prior to enrolling in college wasn’t helpful. Of the students who took part in at least one financial aid counseling session, most reported...

For years, raw chocolate chip cookie dough was a forbidden treat. Everyone said — rightly or wrongly — that you shouldn’t consume it because the uncooked eggs could make you sick. Then came special commercial dough preparations that worked around that, and there was much rejoicing (and many ice cream sales). But now, alas, cookie dough is back off the table, as are any other uncooked treats… and this time, it’s all down to the flour. You know how we’re in the midst of that nationwide E. Coli outbreak linked to now-recalled General Mills (Gold Medal) flour? Yeah. This is another piece of fallout from that. Because consuming contaminated flour without cooking it first is a great way to get yourself some E. Coli , and that is a thing you do not want. That’s why the FDA this week has published a consumer advisory telling consumers to quit licking the spoon already during baking time, among other things. Specifically, they advise against eating, handling, or playing with any raw dou...

The date when food items that contain ingredients from genetically engineered plants or animals must be labeled to be sold in Vermont is almost here, and lawmakers haven’t managed to strike down the law yet , so food companies will have to print or add the information to items shipped to Vermont. Or they could do what Coca-Cola plans, and not ship the items for a while. Don’t fret, Vermont: the standard regular and diet drinks will still be available in Vermont. A Coca-Cola spokesperson said that some products will have information about genetically modified ingredients on the label, and others will have it added with a sticker. For less popular items, the company will do neither, and just temporarily stop sending them to Vermont. Keep in mind that competitor PepsiCo quietly started adding GMO labels to its own ingredients a few months ago, even in states where such labels aren’t required. Some other big food companies have made the same decision, including General Mills , Campbell S...

You might not think of window blinds as something dangerous, but they pose a risk to children, who can entangle themselves in the cords and be strangled. An average of one child every month has strangled to death on the cord to a window covering for the last few decades. Why hasn’t the window covering industry invented something better and safer than a long piece of string to raise and lower our blinds? An industry group announced today that they will figure one out. While there aren’t really child strangulation advocates out there, Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have taken up the cause, last month sending a letter to the Window Coverings Manufacturers Association, the trade group for, yes, window coverings. The process from here is bureaucratic, but the result will be the trade group working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and their counterparts in Canada to develop a voluntary standard for Safety advocates have flagged the some...

Last month, Walmart sued Visa , accusing the card network of pushing the retailer to use a less-secure method of verifying debit card transactions. Now Visa is firing back with a lawsuit of its own, claiming the nation’s largest retailer is violating its contract by setting up payment terminals so that they can only accept the more secure form of validation.  At issue is the “PIN” part of the new chip-and-PIN debit cards being rolled out nationwide. Historically, third-party PIN networks have offered more affordable methods for retailers to confirm that the person using the card is the account-holder. Visa believes that the embedded chip and the (more costly) verification provided by its network is sufficient, and has been accused of throwing its weight around to force retailers to not use the third-party PIN networks. However, in the lawsuit filed by Visa today in a New York state court, the card company claims that Walmart violated its contract with Visa by secretly recon...

Last Monday was an important day in retail history, and we’re not being sarcastic: it was the day that Costco switched its credit card acceptance policy from only accepting American Express to only accepting Visa . The transition didn’t go smoothly for some members , and national competitor Sam’s Club decided to take advantage of the confusion and try to win over some of those members. Unfortunately, some employees didn’t know about this. Reader Megan decided to visit her local Sam’s Club, bringing her two young kids along. Only no one at the store had heard about the promotion. “The card checker at the door was rude, told me I was at the wrong store, and was absolutely incredulous that Sam’s would ‘just let people from Costco in’,” she wrote to Consumerist. “I had to go wait in line at member services and actually had to show someone an ad about the promotion before they would let me in.” That was just getting in the door to look around. Megan was under the impression that Costco ...

While you may have a personal choice of antibacterial hand-sanitizing product to wipe, slather, and squirt your way to germ-free mitts, there’s one thing all those products all have in common: they should actually work. The Food and Drug Administration is proposing a rule that would have manufacturers submitting scientific data on the efficacy of their products, with a focus on gels, rubs, towelettes, and other similar over-the-counter products used to combat bacteria when washing your hands isn’t an option. The FDA says it doesn’t have any particular concerns over ingredients, but it wants to make sure it stays up on the latest sincere on the topic, especially because these products are so popular. “Today, consumers are using antiseptic rubs more frequently at home, work, school and in other public settings where the risk of infection is relatively low,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, noting that while the products are a c...

A month after Monsanto deemed a $62 billion proposed merger bid from Bayer “ financially inadequate ,” the Missouri seed and pesticide giant is reportedly looking at its options after receiving less-than-stellar earning numbers.  Reuters reports that Monsanto is in talks with Bayer and other companies regarding “alternative strategic options” that could include a merger. Executives for Monsanto say the company has continued merger talks with Bayer after it rebuffed the smaller company’s merger bid, but that no deal has solidified. Additionally, the company says the options under consideration include combinations with other companies and businesses outside of Bayer. Any further deals could also involved businesses that were divested from the Dow/DuPont merger. “Monsanto remains the partner of choice in this industry and I assure you that we will continue to actively explore these opportunities,” Monsanto CEO Hugh “ No, Not That One ” Grant said. However, Reuters points out t...

In the wake of a suspected terrorist attack at Istanbul’s airport that killed 41 people and wounded 239 more, the four major wireless carriers in the U.S. are offering to connect customers with their loved ones in Turkey for free. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all announced that they’ll be waiving fees and charges for texts and calls between the U.S. and Turkey over the next few days. Verizon : Wireless users won’t rack up charges for texts or international long distance calls originating from the U.S. to Turkey through June 29. In addition, home wireline telephone customers can make free calls to Turkey on those days as well. “More than 170,000 Verizon employees worldwide extend condolences to all our friends and family in Turkey,” the company said. AT&T : AT&T will waive or credit charges incurred for consumer or business calls placed by AT&T’s customers from the U.S. to Turkey between June 28, 2016 to June 30, 2016 (in the local time zone). That includes “l...

Remember back when candy bar phones and flip phones were the hot new thing, and all the wireless providers jumped into the fray trying to offer you rollover minutes to come sign up with them? Well, if the rumor mill is to be believed, we might all be climbing on board the rollover train again… this time, in the data era. A thread has surfaced on Reddit in which Verizon Wireless employees are discussing some kind of “huge new promo” launching on Friday — July 1 — and trying to suss out what it is. The answer seems to be that Verizon has done a 180 on their adamant denial from last year and is going to start offering some kind of monthly data rollover plan to customers. In addition to the rollover data, Verizon is also rumored to be offering an alternative to overage fees: data throttling, in which you can still use your phone and connect to the internet when you’ve hit your data limit, but only very slowly. Customers who opt in to this “safety mode” would be swapped to the worse ser...

It’s understandable that a customer may be a bit ticked off when their bag full of tacos doesn’t include everything they asked for at the drive-thru. But it is never acceptable to take that frustration out on an employee in a violent manner.  Police in Milwaukee say a customer, reportedly upset that his order didn’t include the sour cream he had asked for, allegedly pulled a gun and shot at the drive-thru window, WISN-TV reports. Management at the restaurant say the issue began around midnight on Monday when the customer ordered a meal through the drive-thru. After leaving with his order, the man became upset when he discovered an employee forgot to add sour cream. The customer then called the restaurant, by then closed, and a manager told him to come back the next day for a free meal. Unsatisfied with that directive, the man returned to the restaurant and shot at a bullet-proof window and an employee’s car. WISN reports that no one was injured in the incident and police ...

While dressers and chests in IKEA’s Malm family have drawn attention this week for being recalled after the deaths of three children were linked to them , those aren’t the only deaths that dressers from IKEA alone have caused: other models of dresser are linked to an additional three deaths of children age three or under, and the first one was in 1989. A wide variety of pieces of furniture tip over and injure both adults and children: the stunning statistic publicized this week comes from a Consumer Product Safety Commission study of “product instability or tip-over injuries” that looked at reported injuries from 2000 to 2013. [ PDF ] An average of 38,000 people in the United States end up in emergency rooms as a result of these injuries every year, and an average of 430 people die every year. 84% of the people killed by falling or tipping furniture, appliances, or televisions are children under age 10. All dressers and chests from IKEA that don’t pass an industry standard (but volu...

If you’ve bought workout videos to use with Xbox Fitness, better get those squats and lunges in now: Microsoft announced it’ll be phasing out the app over the next year, ticking off customers who paid for content in the process. For those unfamiliar, Xbox Fitness was launched in 2013 along with the XboxOne console as a Kinect-linked app that could, effectively, watch users as they exercised and evaluate their performance. It came with a slew of free titles for users with Microsoft Live Gold account, as well as content that could be purchased upfront. Microsoft said this week (h/t Ars Technica ) that Xbox Fitness will be no more, but it didn’t announce any kind of compensation program for users who won’t be able to access their purchased content when the sunsetting process is complete. “Given the service relies on providing you with new and exciting content regularly, Microsoft has given much consideration to the reality of updating the service regularly in order to sustain it,” Mic...

It’s been exactly a week since Burger King made every cheese lovers’ dreams (or nightmares) come true by shoving glowing, orange-ish mac and cheese inside a hollow, fried giant Cheeto. So, how has the fast food company’s Mac n’ Cheetos concoction been received since it officially hit stores on Monday? Let’s just say the initial feedback is underwhelming. Burger King debuted the new menu item last week, describing the portable snack mashup as a “dangerously cheesy re-imagination” that combines creamy mac n’ cheese with crispy Cheetos. But some fast food connoisseurs say the unholy cheese combination — sold as five pieces for $2.49 — falls short of the company’s description, instead calling them “not good,” but “not totally awful.” That glowing review from For The Win goes on to say that the only redeeming quality of the super sized-stuffed Cheetos is the fact they contain cheese, and “cheese is good.” “And though there’s some mild crispiness to the fried outer crust of the Mac n’ ...

Rumors that musician/shoe designer/famous person Kanye West would release his next line of Yeezy footwear without partner Adidas have proved to be wrong, and then some: West and Adidas have instead announced an expanded partnership, including retail locations that will be dedicated solely to the Yeezy product line. And while there have been plenty of other celebrity/footwear alliances in the past — including recently, actor Kevin Hart and Nike — West and Adidas claim this is new alliance is “unprecedented,” and that it “makes history as the most significant partnership ever created between a non-athlete and an athletic brand.” With West on board as a creative partner, the adidas + West will be a Yeezy branded entity, with footwear, apparel, and accessories “for all genders across street and sport.” Eventually, that effort will include retail stores that will serve as hubs for the new Yeezy products. West and Adidas have worked together for the past two years on sneakers, resulting ...

In the more than 20 years that it’s been in business, Chipotle hasn’t changed its menu very much. That’s why it’s notable that the burrito eatery is slowly rolling out a new protein, just over two years after introducing braised tofu that they had to bribe everyone to try . Only a few select markets get to try the new chorizo for now, though. If you aren’t familiar with chorizo, Chipotle’s version will have a blend of chicken and pork, seasoned with paprika, cumin, and chipotle peppers. It will be available alongside other protein options to be added to burritos, burrito bowls, salads, and tacos, but only in a few markets. The sausage has been tested in Kansas City for almost a year , and executives explained that the planned national rollout was postponed because of the company’s food safety crisis that you may have heard about . During the company’s last earnings call, the chorizo rollout and the special summer loyalty program were two things that executives promoted as items tha...

In the market for a new phone, but don’t want to pay retail? Amazon is offering $50 off unlocked Android smartphones, but that discount comes with a slightly big catch: the e-commerce giant gets to pre-load the device with its own apps and send ads to the lock screen anytime it wants. Amazon announced the deal on Wednesday, noting that it would be offered to members of its $99/year (or $10/month) Prime subscription service who purchase the Motorola Moto G and the BLU R1 HD Android phones. Amazon has long sold discounted, ad-subsidized versions of its own Kindle and Kindle Fire e-readers and tablets, but this is the first time the e-tailer has used ads to subsidize the cost of a device made by a third party. In addition to coming loaded with all of Google’s traditional Android-based apps, Amazon will showcase its own shopping, video streaming, and music apps on the devices. With the discount, customers will pay about $49 for the Blu phone, and $149 for the Moto G. Still, that doesn...

For better or worse (mostly worse), I’ve always been a big fan of soda, so when I was a senior in high school in Florida in the early ’90s, I was over the moon that my area would get to try Crystal Pepsi before some other parts of the country. Then I tasted the underwhelming clear cola for myself. Now, more than 20 years later, Pepsi gets to introduce a new generation of cola lovers to that same unique disappointment, with a limited time re-release of Crystal Pepsi that we’re pretty sure the world could have done without. In a press release apparently written by someone who either has no memory of the 1990s or doesn’t understand what “iconic” means, PepsiCo says that “overwhelming fan demand” has given the company no other choice but to fill a few bottles with the “iconic 90s [sic] clear beverage.” Um, Crystal Pepsi was barely around for a year, and its reputation is primarily that of an overhyped failure, so dubbing the drink “iconic” is like calling Cop Rock an iconic piece of TV ...

California residents may no longer have to complain to their doctors about raging headaches in order to get their hands on legal marijuana soon, as an initiative to legalize the use of recreational pot in the state will be on the ballot this November. While medical marijuana has been legal in the Golden State since 1996, with doctors prescribing weed for a variety of conditions, from nausea to migraines, back pains to insomnia, technically, it’s illegal if you don’t have a medical marijuana card. That could change with the new initiative — which is now officially on the ballot now for Nov. 8, after the Secretary of State’s Office certified that a random sample showed sufficient signatures among the 600,000 turned in to qualify the measure, the Los Angeles Times reports. If passed, the initiative would allow adults 21 and older to possess, transport, and use up to an ounce of cannabis for recreational purposes. Want to grow your own at home? That’d be legal too, with a maximum of si...

After nearly two years of telling you about cars being recalled because of shrapnel-shooting Takata airbags , it’s almost a refreshing change of pace to report on an airbag recall that has nothing to do with the auto parts maker. However, Toyota’s latest recall of 1.4 million vehicles bears a striking resemblance to the Takata problems. Toyota said Wednesday that it would recall 1.4 million model year 2010 and 2012 Prius and Lexus vehicles worldwide that contain potentially malfunctioning airbags, the New York Times reports. The recall concerns the inflator that causes the airbag to inflate in the event of a crash. According to Toyota, who did not name the parts supplier for the airbags, the inflators may have a small crack in a weld that can cause the airbag to inflate unexpectedly, sending pieces of metal into the vehicle. Like the Takata inflator issue, the risk of unexpected airbag deployment is highest in areas of high humidity. However, unlike the larger years-long recall...