Coin mimics your credit cards

I'm not one to pre-order a product before I've seen it in person. But yesterday I took the unusual step of paying $55 for a new form of digital payment technology called Coin that I won't even get my hands on until the summer.

Unlike so many mainstays of the trendy digital payment revolution, Coin (onlycoin.com) doesn't require retailers to do anything. They needn't install a new point-of-sale system, one of those little smartphone scanners or make any investment of time or money at all.

Unfortunately, retailer adoption has been the impediment to digital wallet technology exploding. It's up to consumers alone to make the leap.

And unlike so many newfangled digital payment services and methods, Coin solves a real problem that I actually have: the annoyance of having to carry all those darn pieces of plastic in my wallet. Coin is a card that acts like all of your current credit cards in one, and it's the only one you need to carry around.

No more fumbling through your wallet for the Visa or MasterCard because a particular merchant doesn't take American Express. Simply press a tiny button on the Coin to select which card to use. It's like smart plastic. Setting it up involves swiping your credit cards through a reader that Coin sends you along with the card.

Even cooler: Coin has a little Bluetooth signal that links it to your phone. If you happen to leave it at the store, your phone will notify you that your Coin is out of range.

It was striking to see how the future of digital payment technology played out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week — the idea apparently being to make this more complex, not less. The conference featured several digital payment startups pitching biometric point-of-sale scanners.

In other words, you'd scan a fingerprint or your iris to confirm your identity when using a credit card, supposedly making data theft less likely. But I'm not sure biometric scans solve the underlying problem: data is vulnerable, whether it's a fingerprint or a credit card number.

Coin doesn't solve the problem of identity theft either. But I'm holding out hope that it will make one small aspect of my life just a bit easier, which is precisely what technology is supposed to do.

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On jobs, Obama calls 2014 'a year of action'

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is calling 2014 "a year of action" for creating jobs and economic opportunities for American families.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the first step is for Congress to extend unemployment insurance for those without work.

The president also points to a new initiative to boost high-tech manufacturing and other steps he plans to announce next week to put people back to work.

Obama's message comes after the government reported just 74,000 new jobs in December and a dip in unemployment that's fueled by people giving up their search for work.

In the Republican address, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi is pushing for Obama's health care law to be repealed or defunded. He says the nation should go back to the drawing board.

___

Online:

White House address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

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High court to hear Aereo case

Internet TV company Aereo will square off against the nation's biggest broadcast networks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, pitting an upstart company with Boston ties against the giants of television.

The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear arguments from Aereo and the networks, which claim the service — which takes free over-the-air channels and retransmits them over the Internet to paying subscribers — violates copyright law.

"We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and we have every confidence that the court will validate and preserve a consumer's right to access local over-the-air television with an individual antenna," said Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kenojia.

Internet companies including Google and Yahoo have sided with Aereo, while sports leagues including the NFL and MLB have threatened to pull their games from broadcast TV if Aereo is allowed to continue to operate.

"We believe that Aereo's business model, and similar offerings that operate on the same principle, are built on stealing the creative content of others. We are pleased that our case will be heard and we look forward to having our day in court," CBS said in a statement.

Michael Carrier, a Rutgers University law professor, said the key issue is whether Aereo's service is a public or private performance.

"I don't know what they're going to find. It's a very discrete issue the court has not looked at before," Carrier said.

Aereo, which recently raised $34 million in funding to expand beyond the 10 cities it now operates in, has most of its employees in its Innovation District office in Boston.

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Victorian features tasteful updates

This 1895 country Queen Anne Victorian in West Concord has a lot of its original charm, but has been updated with an expanded kitchen, master bedroom suite and bedroom/office addition.

The four-bedroom house at 1394 Main St. sits on a 16,000-square-foot lot that includes a large backyard and a two-car garage that opens onto a side street. One of the current owners, an interior designer, has restored the home to its Victorian glory while adding a high-end kitchen in a 1998 bumpout addition, turning the master bedroom into a suite and expanding another bedroom with a home office addition in 2004. The house, with new windows and an updated furnace, is on the market for $925,000.

The home's exterior is white clapboard and aluminum with black shutters and an octagonal turret with 
diagonally set windows. A flagstone walk flanked by hedges leads up to a large covered front porch.

The front door opens into a foyer with restored oak floors. To the right of the foyer is a sitting room with crown molding. To the left is a large Victorian living room with five windows, including a three-bay bumpout addition, crown molding and restored oak floors as well as a brick woodburning fireplace with a white wood mantel.

The expanded kitchen off this room features white cabinets, including a large pantry, and two cabinets with leaded-glass fronts and brown granite countertops. There's a wood-topped 
peninsula, a beautiful tin ceiling with recessed lighting and white beadboard backsplashes. High-end stainless steel appliances include a Jenn-Air electric burner/oven, refrigerator and dishwasher as well as a second oven, an Electrolux. There's a large eat-in area in a bumpout addition with a chandelier.

Off the kitchen is a wallpapered half-bath — redone in 1998 — with a white marble floor, beadboard walls and an antique vanity topped with black granite.

On the far right end of the kitchen sits a formal Victorian dining room with a glass chandelier hanging from a plaster medallion and chair rail wainscoting.

At the other end of the kitchen, a mud room leads out to a rear porch and a large backyard. At the end of the yard sits the garage and a driveway that holds three more vehicles.

Back inside, the house's four bedrooms are on the second floor, up a carpeted staircase with a stained-glass window on the landing.

The redone master bedroom suite retains its original wide-pine floors. An en-suite bathroom, added in 2004, has a green granite vanity with double sinks and a glass-enclosed steam shower with white subway tile walls and a green granite bench. There are also two walk-in closets, and right outside the bedroom are original built-in linen closets.

The large second bedroom was expanded with a connected home office with new pine floors and a wall-length built-in desk.

The third and fourth bedrooms are on the small side, but have restored oak floors and good-sized closets.

There is a second full bathroom on this floor, with beige ceramic tile floors, a pedestal sink and an off-white tiled tub and shower.

A stairway to the third floor leads to a heated attic home office. The rest of the attic space is unfinished, providing lots of storage space.

The home's basement holds a laundry room with a full-size Kenmore washer and dryer and a slop sink. The rest of the basement is unfinished with lots of storage space. It also holds the house's water heater and a 10-year-old furnace for an oil heating system fed through original radiators. There are two zones of central air conditioning in the home.

• Address: 1394 Main St., Concord
• Bedrooms: Four
• Bathrooms: Two full, one half
• List price: $925,000
• Square feet: 3,160
• Price per square foot: $293
• Annual taxes: $10,116
• Features: Original woodwork throughout including hardwood floors and moldings; expanded redone kitchen with tin ceiling, high-end appliances and large eat-in area; formal Victorian-style living, dining and sitting rooms; master bedroom turned into suite with granite bathroom in 2004; home office addition with built-in desk added to second bedroom; third-floor home office; updated oil heating and central air systems; basement laundry room; large backyard; two-car garage.
• Location: Three-tenths of a mile from shops and restaurants in West Concord center and the West Concord MBTA commuter rail station.
• Built in: 1895; kitchen expanded and redone in 1998; master bedroom suite and bedroom/office addition done in 2004
• Broker: William Raveis Real Estate agents Marjorie Gold at 617-549-0181 and Shari Jacobson at 617-512-5169.

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Zucker: GOP being run from Fox News headquarters

PASADENA, Calif. — The chiefs of CNN and Fox News Channel are throwing shots at each other, each suggesting the other's network is essentially out of the news business.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes struck first, saying in an interview published this week that it was interesting for CNN "to throw in the towel and announce they're out of the news business." It was a reference to CNN President Jeff Zucker's efforts to expand CNN's offerings beyond breaking news.

"We happen to be in the business, as opposed to some other fair and balanced network," Zucker responded at a news conference on Friday.

He suggested that Ailes' remarks, published in the Hollywood Reporter, were silly and an attempt to deflect attention from "The Loudest Voice in the Room," a book on Ailes and Fox by New York magazine writer Gabriel Sherman that is being published this month.

Zucker said he hadn't read the book, but that from what he heard it confirmed that "the Republican Party is being run out of News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel."

A Fox News spokeswoman said that Ailes gave his Hollywood Reporter interview in December, suggesting it had nothing to do with Sherman's book. She had no other comment on what Zucker said during a meeting with journalists who cover television on Friday.

Zucker, in charge at CNN for a year now, has taken note of flat ratings in pushing CNN to diversify. Non-fiction shows with chef Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock, ordered before Zucker came to CNN, are consistently among the networks' highest-rated shows. CNN has also beefed up its documentary film unit.

The films drew some barbs from Ailes, as well, particularly the successful "Blackfish," about killer whales. "I guess he's going to do whales a lot," Ailes said. "If I were Discovery, I'd be worried."

Zucker said CNN had several other new non-fiction series in the works. In March, CNN will premiere "Death Row Stories," a crime series produced by Robert Redford and Alex Gibney and narrated by Susan Sarandon. CNN is also continuing its concentration on the 1960s with a 10-part series beginning in May. Later this month, CNN will air "The Sixties: The British Invasion" in the days before the 50th anniversary of the Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Despite such efforts, Zucker said CNN's first priority remains news. A succession of CNN leaders over the past two decades have struggled to figure out how CNN could get a consistent audience during slow news periods. Fox and MSNBC, which appeal heavily to audiences on opposite ends of the political spectrum, have taken viewers away from CNN.

"CNN is not and never will abandon our first and fundamental brand equity, which is news and breaking news," Zucker said.

He also shot down reports that CNN is looking to get into the late-night entertainment business, perhaps by hiring Jay Leno when Jimmy Fallon takes over on NBC's "Tonight" show next month. Zucker was once Leno's boss when he was head of NBC Universal.

"That's really not a priority for us at this time," he said. "We have some other things I'd like to concentrate on first."

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More towns eye casino $

The state Gaming Commission is bracing for a rush of petitions from cities and towns that believe casino developers have wrongly denied them surrounding community status, which entitles them to payments to make up for the stress casinos would put on their roads and infrastructure.

Malden and Somerville have filed petitions for surrounding community status to Mohegan Sun's casino in Revere, and Northampton has filed for MGM's Springfield project. Chelsea is expected to file for Wynn Resorts' Everett project before Monday's deadline.

Mohegan reps met for the first time Tuesday with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who's said he may insist on host community status for both the Revere and Everett proposals, which would require a filing with the gaming panel and voter approval before either casino could be licensed.

The Gaming Commission plans to decide Feb. 6 who is and isn't a surrounding community. If communities disagree, they can seek arbitration.

"We look at the facts and we make a decision," Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said. "If we decide they're not a surrounding community, because essentially there's no material adverse impact in our judgment, then it's over."

Mohegan has designated Boston, Winthrop and Chelsea surrounding communities to its project at Suffolk Downs in Revere, and has offered a separate joint agreement to Malden, Saugus, Lynn, Salem, and Medford. Still, Malden has petitioned the commission for surrounding community status.

"Malden shares its entire easterly border with the city of Revere, and it is reasonably foreseeable that Mohegan's proposed development will impact Malden's infrastructure," city solicitor Kathryn Fallon wrote in a memo dated Tuesday, which was obtained by the Herald.

Mohegan and Suffolk Downs spokesman Chip Tuttle said a joint agreement was presented because impacts were all transportation-related, and the deal aims to "create a way for all of them to share in a resource that would help with regional transportation issues."

Tuttle said Mohegan had a "great initial meeting" with Walsh and members of his staff Tuesday. Walsh's office did not comment on the meeting.

Chelsea city manager Jay Ash said Wynn Resorts — which designated only Boston and Medford as surrounding communities — abruptly stopped negotiations six weeks ago.

"I was befuddled and incensed," Ash said. "It's kind of preposterous to think that communities that are within a mile of a gaming establishment would not be considered surrounding communities."

Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said, "We determined that Chelsea would not be negatively impacted by our project and consequently would not be designated a surrounding community."

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Bill key to Obama trade push faces Dem opposition

WASHINGTON — Legislation key to President Barack Obama's agenda to boost exports to the fast-growing economies of the Asia-Pacific is being welcomed by business but faces stiff opposition from Obama's fellow Democrats.

A bill to grant the president "fast track" authority for negotiating trade deals was introduced Thursday, co-sponsored by a senior Democrat and two leading Republicans.

Fast track, which was last approved in 2002 and expired in 2007, assures that the administration can negotiate trade deals that Congress can accept or reject but cannot change.

The administration will be counting on strong support from Republicans, who traditionally are more supportive of free trade pacts than Democrats. Such bipartisanship, however, is a rarity in the divisive political atmosphere that has severely hampered Obama and last fall culminated in a partial government shutdown.

Approval of fast track would be key to adoption of a trans-Pacific trade agreement the U.S. is closing in on with 11 other nations that in all account for some 40 percent of global gross domestic product. The pact is central to the administration's policy shift toward Asia, and in its effort to drum up exports.

The bill is also intended to apply to a trade pact under negotiation with the 28-member European Union.

But Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing trade, quickly announced his opposition to the fast-track legislation, saying it should stipulate a more active role for Congress, allow greater scrutiny of the negotiations by lawmakers and tackle currency manipulation.

"The vast majority of Democrats feel that we need to have a much more active, vigorous role for Congress in addressing trade issues, and there needs to be much more transparency and issues like currency have to be addressed," Levin told reporters.

Lawmakers of both parties have expressed concern that trading partners such as Japan, which is part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, undervalue their currencies to boost their exports.

The bill's sponsors, however, contend it addresses those concerns, and establishes new goals for U.S. negotiators on digital trade, and updates those on protection of intellectual property and labor and environmental standards. They say the legislation would allow every lawmaker access to the negotiations.

"This is our opportunity to tell the administration — and our trading partners — what Congress' negotiating priorities are," Sen. Max Baucus, Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Baucus, whose recent nomination to become U.S. ambassador to China could leave him little time left to push the bill forward, made the comment in a joint statement with his co-sponsors of the bill. They are Sen. Orrin Hatch, the senior Republican on the finance committee, and Dave Camp, Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee on which Levin also sits.

The Obama administration welcomed the bill as key to implementing its strategy to increase exports and support more American jobs at higher wages.

"We look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans in Congress throughout the legislative process to pass Trade Promotion Authority legislation with as broad bipartisan support as possible," a White House statement said.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said he expected to have a "robust conversation" with lawmakers about how trade agreements should be negotiated and the role of Congress in that process.

Fast track is vital not just for the eventual ratification of a trade pact, but also likely important for finalizing the TPP. It would help assure other nations that Congress will not tinker with what's agreed upon by U.S. negotiators who will be hoping to wrap up a deal in the coming months — perhaps before Obama visits Asia in April.

"To get the best possible deal, I think they are going to need fast track," said Susan Schwab, who served as U.S. trade representative during the presidency of George W. Bush.

But fast track has never been popular among unions and many Democrats.

Some 151 Democrats and 22 Republicans — out of 435 members of the House — have already come out in opposition to renewal of fast track unless Congress has a more "meaningful role" in forging trade agreements. Sizeable numbers of Democrats have also come out against the TPP, principally because they argue it will cost American jobs.

Schwab said quick passage of fast track would depend on how hard the president pushes for it and whether the Democratic leadership in Congress will get behind it.

"There's a lot of support from the Republican side, if not unanimity. The White House needs to get out there and get Democratic leadership in the House and Senate to be pro-active, and then it could move, fairly rapidly," she said, but added that midterm elections in November won't make it easier to win Democratic backing.

The fast track bill would renew the president's trade promotion authority for up to seven years.

The business community, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, quickly voiced its support Thursday, as did some Democrats.

Five House members from the New Democrat Coalition said the bill made key improvements to the 2002 fast track, and would help in efforts eliminate unfair barriers for American companies.

But five senators appeared to voice doubts, urging the administration to work directly with Congress before considering renewal of fast track, and calling for U.S. trade negotiators to be more accountable to Congress.

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Micro-units perfect fit for young pros

Micro-apartments aren't for everyone, but for young professionals starting out who embrace a leaner and more collegial lifestyle, it doesn't seem that it's that much of a compromise.

A recent tour of Factory 63 on Melcher Street in South Boston's Fort Point neighborhood, which has 23 "innovation micro-apartments," dispelled some misconceptions about a living experiment seen as a way to keep young professional people in the city. Factory 63's units are all rented and there's a waiting list. And, there are hundreds more of these units set to be built in an area dubbed the Innovation District.

"The idea here is to engage the community, especially the artists who live here, in a way that adds value for the residents," said Factory 63 property manager Jessica Ryan, pointing to Fort Point artists' work hanging on the walls and revolving exhibits by Design Museum Boston, which occupies a gallery in the common space. "We want to respect and hold on to what is already here in the neighborhood."

The common space is open to the public during business hours, and there are five artist live/work spaces in the building.

At rents ranging from $1,699 for a 374-square-foot unit to $2,450 for 597 square feet, the market-rate micro-apartments at Factory 63 are expensive, though the rent does include heat and central air conditioning, with only a $30-a-month electric bill. But residents feel the expense is worth it.

When Ross Chanowski moved into his 447-square-foot micro-unit last March, he was working in a big local ad agency that had just moved to the Seaport District. He said he could have rented a regular-sized apartment, but chose the micro-apartment instead because of the character of the building, a former shoe factory, and the focus on integrating living and working.

"I didn't just want an apartment, but a place to live, work, play, innovate and create," the 25-year-old Newton native said. "It's in a great neighborhood near downtown and I've gotten to know most of the people in the building, made friends and business connections. You don't just shut your door."

Phoebe K. Flemming is living in only 337 square feet, with her two dogs, in a unit at Factory 63 she won through a city lottery system, paying about $1,200 a month. She said initially she was skeptical about the smaller space because her Southie apartment had 700 square feet.

"This place has more of a neighborhood feel than I thought it would, and I liked the common space," said Flemming, a 31-year-old dietician consultant and executive director of the nonprofit South Boston Grows.

Developer Gerding Edlen's support of sustainability also appealed to her. The building is LEED Gold certified, with energy-efficient heating and cooling, appliances and fixtures.

"I like the idea of lean and green," Flemming said.

The Wi-Fi-enabled common space on the first floor has free coffee and tea, benches to work on, couches to sit on and long tables, and a conference room to hold business meetings. There is no charge to use the space.

The units at Factory 63 have wood floors and exposed brick, 13-foot wood-beam ceilings and two tall windows, which makes the spaces feel larger and less cramped. The galley kitchens have white Corian counters, a few cabinets and full-size stainless steel appliances. Walls divide the kitchen from the combination living/dining area and bedroom area, which has enough space for a queen-size bed. The bathroom is surprisingly roomy, with a space-saving stacked washer and dryer.

Living in such small quarters requires residents to be neat and orderly.

"You can't have a lot of stuff," Flemming said " I've spent the past few years decluttering my life."

Each resident does get an extra 9-square-foot storage cube on the bottom floor.

Flemming, whose living/bedroom area is smaller than Chanowski's, built a loft bed, which gives her more living space in the main room.

"I have two couches in there and friends come over all the time," Flemming said. "My place is kind of a focal point. But it is small and you have to adapt to that."

Chanowski said he does not feel that his place is too small to live and work in, or have a few people over.

"It's not just that I have to live my life lean here, I want to live my life lean," Chanowski said. "My idea is to live small and think big."

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Briar defends breach delay

The Briar Group is defending a six-week delay in notifying the public that its restaurant customers' credit card data were stolen last fall, saying it took that long to confirm hackers had breached its system.

But security experts say it shouldn't take that long to establish a breach has occurred, noting that the Briar Group had hired the well-regarded firm McGladrey LLP to investigate the matter.

"It doesn't take a month to identify a breach," said Al Pascual, senior analyst of security, risk and fraud at Javelin Strategy & Research in Pleasanton, Calif.

Meanwhile, two weeks after confirming the breach, the Briar Group still doesn't know the number of customer accounts accessed and how, or the exact timeframe in which it occurred.

"Our investigation into the nature and scope of the breach is ongoing," spokeswoman Diana Pisciotta said.

After receiving initial calls from customers about unauthorized credit card transactions on Nov. 15, the Briar Group said it immediately asked McGladrey to investigate. The company notified Attorney General Martha Coakley of the investigation on Nov. 21. The Briar Group, which owns 10 restaurants including Ned Devine's, Harp, Anthem and M.J. O'Connor's, only publicly announced on Dec. 27 that its payment system was compromised, and stated it believed the breach ran from "sometime in October" to early November.

"Investigations into potential security breaches can take a significant amount of time," Pisciotta said. "We notified customers once we were aware that an actual breach had occurred and had enough information to provide reasonable notice, which wasn't until late December."

It was the second security intrusion for the company, which in 2011 paid $110,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Coakley for its failure to secure customers' information in a 2009 breach.

Coakley spokesman Christopher Loh said in the current case, "Our investigation ... is focused on determining if any violations of state law and the prior consent judgment occurred, as well as the extent of the breach."

A good security team should have identified the breach quickly, but it's not uncommon for probes to take a month or longer, said Chris Morales, research director at NSS Labs, an information security research and advisory firm.

"It's not reasonable or practical, but it's really how long sometimes it takes," he said. "I've been to very large enterprises with very large security teams that are good that also have had similar issues. The whole industry still needs to change the way it does certain things."

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Cambridge company wins NASA job

NASA has awarded Cambridge-based Charles River Analytics a contract to build a system that analyzes satellite imagery to detect major changes, including volcanic eruptions, so scientists can respond more quickly to environmental events.

The $750,000 contract, which follows on an initial $125,000 award in 2012, will be used to develop the system known as DIPSARS for Discovery of Interesting Patterns and Semantic Analysis in Remote Space, said Daniel Stouch, who heads up the project for CRA. It will use CRA's Object Detection Framework, which sifts through the mountains of satellite pictures and detects changes in real-time, Stouch said.

"As we learn more about our world and the physical and social processes in it, it's important to be able to perceive and understand events and phenomena from a global perspective," Stouch said.

CRA said the system will let NASA "process and analyze which data is relevant, important and interesting enough to prompt follow-on action." A NASA spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

The ODF is best suited to quickly detect events such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and algae blooms, Stouch said.

"It might be something you can see from space, but you might not see from the ground," Stouch said.

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