On Thursday, organizers will unveil the USA's first Bitcoin ATM machine, tucked in the backroom of a downtown Austin bar. And just in time for SXSW, the three-week interactive/film/music conference that begins Mar. 7.
Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that is traded mostly online and person to person rather than through banks. Started by programmers whose identity remains anonymous, the cyber currency has been gaining popularity in the USA and accepted as payment at scores of businesses.
The first Bitcoin ATM was launched at a Vancouver coffeehouse last year. Austin, known for its vibrant tech community as well as scores of music clubs, was a natural spot to launch the first U.S. Bitcoin ATM, said Jordan Kelley, chief executive of Robocoin, the Las Vegas-based company that makes the machines.
"We're really excited about the community and culture Austin has," he said. "And it's a fantastically central location. It's right on the 50 yard line of the U.S."
The ATM will be located at the Handlebar, a hipster hangout on East Fifth Street in Austin. The machine will scan a user's palm print and government-issued ID to verify identity then allow them to add money to a virtual Bitcoin "wallet" or withdraw the currency to a mobile phone app, Kelley said.
The machine will also perform a one-time face recognition scan to verify users' identity. "All you need is your phone, your ID, your palm and your face – all the things people carry with them on a daily basis," he said.
Bitcoin, which could be used to buy everything from steak dinners to sporting event tickets, has had its share of controversy recently.
Federal agents charged a Bitcoin dealer last month with money laundering for allegedly selling more than $1 million worth of the cyber currency to people on a black market website that deals with drug! s and illicit goods.
And last week hackers forced the shutdown of Bitcoin's largest exchange service, Bitstamp, for several days. But the popularity of the virtual currency continues to climb, trading at more than $600, according to Bitcoin websites.
Bitcoin's usage will only continue to surge, said Antonis Polemitis, manager partner of Ledra Capital LLC, a New York-based venture capital firm investing in Bitcoin-based companies. Bitcoin today is at the level where the Internet was in 1994 or 1995, with 20 years of application in its future, he said.
"It really allows people to interact with each other to exchange value – whether it's currency or other types of assets – without a central party in the middle," Polemitis said. "It's mind-blowing."
Reza Piri, an Austin web developer and entrepreneur, met with Kelley last month while on his bachelor party in Las Vegas. After a morning meeting, he was purchasing two of the $25,000 machines and bringing them back to Austin. He plans to showcase one at SXSW, when more than 30,000 tech attendees and industry leaders are expected to descend into the city.
"Austin is perfect for this," Piri said. "We want to make [Bitcoin] mainstream and bring it to the people."
Dayna Smith for The Washington Post/Getty Images DETROIT -- Combi USA is recalling more than 33,000 child car seats made before January 2013 because the harnesses aren't strong enough to meet federal safety standards. The Charlotte, N.C., company is recalling the Coccoro, Zeus Turn and Zeus 360. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the seat straps don't meet minimum strength requirements. If there's a crash, children may not be properly secured. A company spokeswoman says the seats are still safe to use because the harness as a whole meets safety standards. She says one part of the harness that includes a plastic button failed strength tests. Seats made after January 2013 don't have the same problem. Combi will notify registered owners and send out free harness replacement kits starting in February. Owners can contact Combi at 800-543-7734. 
) has reportedly resumed talks with the U.S. as the bank is on the verge of a lawsuit concerning its representation of mortgage-backed securities it sold from 2005 through 2007.
Source: Realtor.com.
S&P 500 and its 50-day moving average FactSet 
Alamy Target (TGT) confirmed Thursday a data breach that affected about 40 million credit and debit card accounts. According to the company's website, data was obtained -- customer names and their card numbers, expiration dates and three-digit security codes (CVVs). Hackers struck at the height of the high-traffic holiday shopping season: Cards used for Target transactions between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 may have been compromised, so any consumers who used such payment methods at U.S. Target stores in that time frame should immediately check their bank accounts for unauthorized activity. Adam Levin, chairman and co-founder of Credit.com and Identity Theft 911, advised customers to call their credit card issuers or banks if they see any charges they didn't make. "The Target situation illustrates the growing problem with identity theft, which is how ordinary folks are often the real targets of hackers who go after these big companies," Levin said. "No matter how safe any individual person is with their data, customer databases like Target's represent a nearly irresistible source of people's personal information -- and their hard-earned money -- to hackers, rather than going after individuals one by one." What to Do Right Now You should strongly consider replacing the cards you used at Target stores after Black Friday, considering the high volume of stolen information, Levin said. If you do that, make sure you update any automatic payments tied to those cards, so you don't miss important bill payments elsewhere. At the time this article was posted, Target's REDCARD online and telephone account management systems were inaccessible, in the event a cardholder wanted to check on his or her store card activity. Consumer credit cards do offer protection against fraudulent transactions, but check your terms to be sure what exactly those protections are. Typically, cardholders will be responsible for no more than $50 of the fraudulent charges (some cards offer zero liability), but you must report the fraudulent charges to the issuer. So the sooner you find any, the more quickly you can resolve the issue. Protections for debit cards vary, and you definitely should check with your issuer on the terms. Fraudulent charges on a debit card are particularly problematic because they directly impact your available cash and could jeopardize your ability to make necessary payments from those bank accounts. In either case, you must report the fraudulent charges to the bank or issuer in order to start to resolve the problem. Consumers should already make a habit of regularly reviewing their card transactions through a secure Internet connection, as well as periodically checking their credit reports for unauthorized accounts. It's also important to check your credit scores for sudden changes -- a big score drop could indicate identity theft. The key to this strategy is to compare the same credit scores from month to month, using a free tool like the Credit Report Card, because different scoring models will generate different numbers from the same credit profiles. Even after taking the initial protective measures in the wake of a data breach, consumers should know the risk doesn't go away. Once the data is compromised, there's no knowing where it may end up, so it's crucial to maintain vigilance over your financial accounts. Identity theft protection can be handy for those who want a little help keeping track of everything, because these services alert consumers whenever their information is used to apply for new credit or new entries surface on their credit reports.
Rick Bowmer/AP2011 Subaru Forester models are among those being recalled. DETROIT -- Subaru is recalling about 199,000 cars and SUVs for a second time to fix rusty brake lines that can leak fluid and cause longer stopping distances. The recall covers the 2009 through 2013 Forester, 2008 through 2011 Impreza, and the 2008 through 2014 WRX and WRX-STI models. It affects vehicles in 20 U.S. cold weather states and Washington, D.C., where salt is used to clear roads in the winter. Subaru says in documents posted Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that salty water can splash on the brake lines through a gap in the fuel tank protector. That can cause rust and leaks. A recall from last year for the same problem didn't work due to incomplete repair instructions to dealers. Dealers will apply a corrosion-fighting wax to a brake line connector at no cost to owners. The recall affects vehicles now registered or originally sold in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. Subaru says in the documents that drivers will be alerted to brake line leaks by a light on the instrument panel. Brakes will continue to work even if there's a leak, but drivers may need to push the pedal harder to stop. 
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Shutterstock At some point during each of our professional lives, we wake up to the fact that we really need to be saving for retirement. We're all going to retire, and that means we're all going to need some money put aside for retirement. The problem is that when we think broadly about saving for retirement, it seems impossible. A million dollars? More? How are we going to possibly come up with that kind of money? Here's the catch: None of those retirement articles out there -- the ones that talk about having to save millions -- are writing about your situation. Instead, they're writing about someone else, often someone earning a lot more than you. What you need is a plan that works for you, and that starts with having a good target number for retirement savings. To calculate your retirement number all you need is your most recent Social Security statement along with how much you made in the past year as well as the number of years between now and when you plan to retire. You'll also need a web browser with Google ready to go and a piece of scratch paper. Ready? Step 1. The first thing you need to figure out is what your current salary will look like when you retire because this whole plan is based on the idea that you'll live on your current income when you retire. If you plan on living on 80 percent of your salary or another percentage, head to Google right now and type in "80 percent of $40,000" or whatever your current salary is. I usually suggest people use 80 percent of their salary for their retirement number because they will no longer have work-related expenses. Step 2. Expect that long-term inflation will be 3 percent, which is based on a high-end estimate from the Federal Reserve. So, you should go to Google and type in "1.03^" followed immediately by the number of years between now and when you expect to retire. So, if you expect to retire in 18 years, you'd type in 1.03^18. Now, take that number and multiply it by your salary (or whatever you decide to use above). If you're using Google, a calculator should appear with the first number already entered for you. If you were using $32,000 per year (80 percent of $40,000) and you're retiring in 18 years, for example, it will give you $54,477, which is what your salary will look like in 18 years with normal inflation. Step 3. From that number, you need to subtract what you'll receive annually from Social Security, so pull out your Social Security statement and look for your annual benefit. Subtract that from your salary above. In this example, a person might have an annual benefit of $15,000 from Social Security, so his or her new number would be $39,477. Step 4. Now, that annual amount is going to have to last you for awhile. I usually assume people will spend an average of 25 years in retirement, but their investments will continue to earn a return while they're retired. So, I tell people to multiply that salary number by 20, which is your final step. Therefore, a person who makes $40,000 per year and is 18 years from retirement needs to save $789,540 for retirement. This is a quick calculation, of course, but saving enough to hit your number isn't as scary as you might think, particularly if you're far from retirement. This person, who receives a 1:1 employer match on his or her 401(k) up to 6 percent, and hits all of that while also fully funding a Roth individual retirement account each year, would be close to on pace for that number. Someone starting to save earlier might not even have to push that hard. Someone starting later might have to save even more or consider waiting a year or two longer to retire. The lesson of this story is simple: Start saving now. You're going to need quite a bit of money to retire, and every year you put it off the harder you make your savings journey.