Ex-con launches startup aimed at inmates

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

He filled his days with business planning, even hand-drawing spreadsheets on plain paper from the law library. Upon release, he'd sketched out what would become Pigeon.ly, a venture that connects inmates with their loved ones through phone calls and photos.

Hutson believed he saw a billion dollar opportunity. There are 2.3 million Americans in prison; and millions more with a loved one behind bars. Hutson intimately knew the extreme isolation experienced by inmates. He also noticed was that once his fellow inmates were released, many returned. According to one Bureau of Justice study, three-quarters of prisoners were rearrested within five years.

Those who maintained close ties on the outside fared better. Forty years of research has found that inmates who stayed in contact with their families have lower recidivism rates.

With all this in mind, Hutson developed Pigeon.ly's photo-sharing platform, FotoPigeon, which gives family and friends a way to search all federal prisons for an inmate's current location (which changes frequently). For fifty cents apiece, customers upload photos and Pigeon.ly prints and ships them in plain envelopes that make it through prison mail check.

But despite a well-drawn business plan, Hutson had obvious hurdles launching his start-up: He was released in 2012 to a halfway house without Internet. His business partner and old friend Alfonzo Brooks had to "hire" Hutson so that he could leave for work each day. Not to mention the fact that traditional investors didn't understand the potential market of inmates and their families.
His first round of investment came from peers: "Guys we knew from the streets," Hutson explained. "They were close to the problem ... it was a very easy sell." But contributions were small, averaging $500 or $1,000.

The site had to be easy to use -- much of Pigeon.ly's customer base only has mobile access to the Internet. Still others don't have email addresses. They did a lot of testing on grandmothers, because as Hutson puts it, "You can't just make the typical assumptions a tech company would make."

Hutson acquired customers through direct mail, tucking advertisements for FotoPigion into newsletters that included content inmates would find valuable -- like details on new sentencing guidelines.

Using this method, Hutson had attracted 2,000 paying customers by 2013, when Pigeon.ly was accepted to NewME, a San Francisco tech accelerator aimed at supporting underrepresented communities. Hutson raised $1 million in seed money from investors and venture capitalists. In the past year, he's raised another $1 million and is about to close on what will be the company's largest investment round to date, although he declined to give an exact amount.

The company launched TelePigeon in December 2013, which works with Internet phone-service providers to give families phone numbers that are local to where their loved ones are incarcerated. That way, inmates can call home at local rates no matter where they're serving time, which is an alternative to the expensive long-distance collect calls. Families who can't afford the nominal fee get 20 minutes free each month. Hutson said it's saved families over $646,000 since January 2014.

Related: 30-to-life nad pitching a startup

Currently, 3,000 photos are shipped daily using FotoPigeon, which has helped Pigeon.ly achieve 20% revenue growth month over month since the start of 2014. It's on target to reach over $1 million in sales this year.

The real-time inmate search engine embedded in FotoPigeon will soon be released as its own platform for those simply trying to keep track of their loved ones. (Previously, you'd have to search individual state databases because no other single repository exists.)

Pigeon.ly's purpose -- what investors keep investing in -- is a company that sees great opportunity in reaching underserved markets.

"We are different, because we don't look like the typical technology company," said Hutson. "[We have a] unique understanding of problems in this demographic that other people don't understand. ... That's really our stone of strength."

First Published: September 17, 2014: 9:39 AM ET

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IOS 8 is coming today: How to get it -- and whether you should

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Apple's new operating system isn't the radical upgrade that iOS 7 was, but it has a handful of new features that look promising.

IOS 8 will let apps display useful information in the "Today" screen, including sports scores and weather updates. You can answer phone calls on a Mac, install a third-party keyboard on your iPhone and ask Siri to identify what song is playing on the radio. You can even share iTunes purchases with your family.

The update will be available to iPhone 4S, 5, 5C and 5S owners. All iPads except for the first-generation model are eligible for iOS 8. And only the latest iPod Touch users can upgrade to iOS 8.

When: The update will be available at 1 p.m. ET. But be patient! You're just one of millions of people trying to tap Apple's servers at the same time. So if you can wait, wait.

Related: 5 things you'll love about iOS 8

How: Make sure your iPhone or iPad is plugged in. Then go to Settings > General > Software Update, and hit the "Download and Install" button. After it downloads, touch the "Install" button.

If you prefer, you can also download the iOS 8 update on your computer and install it on your iGizmo. To do that, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes, then plug your device into your computer, select your device in the menu and click on "Check for Update." Then click "Download and Update."

There's no advantage to downloading iOS 8 via a Mac or PC -- the update won't get to you any faster.

Should you update? There's a few things to consider before making the decision to upgrade to iOS 8.

IOS 8 will require you to have 1.4 GB of memory free. That means deleting those old photos, podcasts, songs and apps that you don't care about anymore. If you're an iCloud user, all of those things will be backed up in the cloud. But if you're not ready to clear space just yet, you'll have to wait to download iOS 8.

Related: What is the cloud?

Also, bugs happen. Some of your apps won't look perfect or work 100% right after you download iOS 8. Those will get ironed out over the course of a week or so. But if you're downloading iOS 8 on Wednesday, make sure you have a good sense of humor.

If you have an older iPhone or iPad, the newer operating system can slow your iGadget down.

And lastly, there have been snafus with every software update in history. That's not exclusive to iOS -- Android, Windows and Mac OS all have experienced their own set of upgrade issues. But iOS had some very high-profile software bugs in the past. Antennagate, forgetting to adjust for Daylight Savings Time and battery drain. And who can forget the iOS 6 debacle, when Apple forced iPhone users to switch to its sub-par Maps app?

Remember, there's no going back to iOS 7 once you've upgraded to iOS 8. So why not let the guinea pigs test it out and let Apple and the app makers iron out the wrinkles before you end up making a decision you could regret?

First Published: September 17, 2014: 9:45 AM ET

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Holder: Pay Wall Street whistleblowers more

Attorney General Eric Holder wants to encourage whistleblowers to come forward about financial fraud.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)

In a speech slated for delivery Wednesday in New York, Holder will ask Congress to change a federal law to increase the financial reward paid to anyone who provides evidence of financial fraud to the government.

He'll also announce plans to increase the number of FBI agents with forensic accounting experience who are focused on investigating white collar crime, according to a Justice Department official.

In his five-plus years leading the Justice Department, Holder has faced criticism about how the department has handled corporate crime investigations and its failure to bring charges against top bankers tied to the financial crisis. The department struggled to find proof of criminal wrongdoing, but in recent years has dusted off a civil law that it is using to extract multi-billion dollar settlements from some of the nation's biggest banks for their shoddy mortgage securities sales practices.

Related: FBI launches a face recognition system

It's that law, known as the Financial Institutions Recovery and Reform Act, that Holder hopes to change to award bigger sums to whistleblowers in exchange for helping prosecutors bring white collar crime cases. The law currently caps whistleblower awards at $1.6 million, but Holder believes that's not enough to make a Wall Street banker risk his lucrative career to come forward.

The attorney general wants to bring the law in line with another whistleblower law, the False Claims Act, which encourages whistleblowers to report fraud against government programs. In those cases, whistleblowers can win awards worth up to 30% of the prosecutor's final settlement, sometimes totaling millions of dollars.

Holder hopes these steps will help the Justice Department pursue cases against bankers and executives, and not just against the corporations.

Related: UBS whistleblower nets $104 million reward

First Published: September 17, 2014: 10:39 AM ET

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United Airlines flight attendants can get up to $100,000 to leave their job

Senior United Airlines flight attendants will get buyouts offers worth as much as $100,000.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The airline and the flight attendants' union have agreed to voluntary buyout packages worth up to $100,000 for the more senior flight attendants.

The offer also means that flight attendants now on temporary layoff will be recalled to work.

Related: Airlines' annoying fees add up to $31.5 billion

The airline did not disclose how many buyouts will be paid out, or if there will be net reduction of staff at the carrier as a result. United (UAL) has more than 23,000 flight attendants now on staff.

The airline also did not disclose the typical pay for its flight attendants. Salary tracker glassdoor.com puts flight attendant annual pay at the airline at just under $36,000, which is in line with Labor Department estimates for pay for the job. Senior flight attendants who are being offered the buyouts are likely earning high wages.

The union said the agreement will be an important boost to employee morale, providing more job security for those who remain with the airline.

First Published: September 16, 2014: 8:38 AM ET

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UPS plans huge boost in holiday hiring

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The company plans to hire up to 95,000 seasonal employees this holiday season, nearly double last year's total of 55,000.

UPS (UPS) hires thousands of temporary workers each year to help deal with the annual surge in package deliveries that runs from October through January.

The seasonal workers will be paid at least $10 an hour to sort packages, load trucks and assist drivers in making deliveries.

UPS says many of the temporary jobs could become full-time after the holiday season.

First Published: September 16, 2014: 9:24 AM ET

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U.S. poverty rate drops to 14.5%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The nation's poverty rate fell to 14.5% in 2013, down from 15% a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

But the number of people in poverty remains at 45.3 million. The percentage dropped largely because more people have full-time employment now.

Middle class Americans, meanwhile, didn't get any richer last year as median income remained essentially level at $51,939 in 2013. This was not statistically different than the $51,759 recorded the year earlier.

Though the Great Recession ended in mid-2009, most Americans are not seeing the fruits of the recovery. The lack of wage growth is a particular concern of Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.

Incomes have stagnated for all but the richest Americans. Income remains 8% lower than in 2007, the year before the economic downturn.

Related: Are you middle class?

The poverty rate, meanwhile, has been edging downward since 2010, when it hit 15.1%.

First Published: September 16, 2014: 10:37 AM ET

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The new Moto X is the best Android smartphone ever made

Motorola's Moto X smartphone will delight you -- something you don't say about smartphones too often.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

I mean, when was the last time your smartphone did something so surprising that you smiled? Or you discovered a feature and actually thought, "Okay, THAT was awesome?"

It's been a while, right?

That's because today, most smartphones are exactly the same. They are all lighting-fast. They all have great screens. They all have the same apps. They all have good cameras. They all have 4G connections. They're all easy to use. Heck, they all pretty much look the same.

That's what makes the new Moto X so wonderful -- it's not just another smartphone. It's your smartphone. You can make the Moto X fit your needs.

Do you want your phone to be quiet during meetings and automatically respond with a custom text? You can do that. Or maybe you want it to automatically detect when you're driving and read your texts aloud? It'll do that if you want it to.

Related: iPhone 6 pre-orders crash the Apple Store

You can even set your Moto X to detect when you're home, then announce who's calling when your phone rings. That means you can leave your phone charging on the kitchen counter and you don't have to get up from your comfortable living room chair when your phone rings if you're screening your calls.

And the Moto X will look exactly the way you want too. With Motorola's online Moto Maker tool, you can mix and match any number of combinations of colors and materials. You want a leather back and a white screen? How about your laser-etched signature on a seafoam green back with a black front? Or maybe you want your phone to be made out of wood. All those options are available with the new Moto X.

My favorite Moto X feature lets you set a unique name for your phone. Mine is "tippity spoons," which is some crazy name my three-year old daughter suggested. (Why not?) So I just yell "tippity spoons," and my phone will do whatever I tell it to. It's fantastic while driving -- I don't need to touch anything.

Related: Which carrier has the best deal for the iPhone 6?

Beyond letting you customize it, the Moto X also comes with a handful of smart extra features.

When you take the phone out of your pocket, your phone will display the time -- you don't have to hit any buttons. When you get a call, just wave at your phone to silence it. To snap a photo, just shake your phone -- even if it's locked. And when you get a notification, you can tap your phone to get a quick glance at who's trying to bug you.

Other phones have better cameras (the Moto X's is fine but not outstanding like the Samsung (SSNLF) Galaxy S5, Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) Lumia or the Apple (AAPL, Tech30) iPhone). Other phones have better speakers (the Moto X's are loud and clear, but no one beats the HTC M8). There are better sized phones too (the Moto X's 5.2-inch screen is a bit too big for my puny hands).

But other than the iPhone, the Moto X is the only phone that will delight you on a consistent basis.

That's why the Moto X is the best Android smartphone ever made.

First Published: September 15, 2014: 10:23 AM ET

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