Houston Stores Open on Thanksgiving

So you want to go shopping on Thanksgiving? The list of stores opening on Turkey Day may actually be longer than the list of stores that are closed. Here ya go!

Big Lots- Open at 7am

Dollar General- Open at 7am

Radio Shack- Open at 8am

Gander Mountain- Open at 8am

Walgreen’s- Deals start at 8am

Family Dollar- Opens at 8am

Michael’s- Opens at 4pm

Old Navy- Opens at 4pm

Stores Opening at 5pm:

Best Buy

JC Penney

SteinMart

Dick’s Sporting Goods

Fry’s

Toys R Us

Stores Opening at 6pm:

Houston Galleria (Open Thanksgiving from 5pm-9pm. Reopens at 6am Friday).

Houston Premium Outlets (Open 6pm Thanksgiving until 10pm Friday).

WalMart- Always open. Sales start at 6pm.

Kohl’s

Sears

Sears Appliances & Hardware

Macy’s

Target

Staples

Sports Authority

Stores Opening Later on Thanksgiving:

Ulta- Opens at 7pm

Anna’s Linens- Opens at 8pm

Is Facebook Messenger as “Insidious” as Writer claims?

Check out my 6 o’clock story by clicking here. At the time of this post, a Huffington Post article listing all of the seemingly probing permissions required by Facebook’s Messenger app has more than 100,000 shares. It definitely got our attention in the newsroom. Why would an app need to turn your phone’s camera on and off? Thousands of people have called it “creepy” and claim they won’t install Messenger. Here is what I learned by asking a few questions:

• The Play Store where Android users get apps requires permissions for everything an app may need to do to use all of its features… even if you never intend to use them all.

For example, one of the features of Facebook Messenger allows you to send video and voice-recorded messages to your friends or contacts. To do that, obviously the app will need to use your phone’s camera and microphone.

• The App Store where iPhone users download apps lets you install an app… and then it pushes permission requests to you when it actually needs them.

In this instance, if you never wanted to make a video message, the app  may never ask you for permission to use your camera. If you did try to make a video message, you’d get the permission request… and it would make sense to you WHY the phone was requesting to turn on your camera. Facebook’s Jillian Stefanki told me app developers are well aware of the difference in permission requests sent to Android users and iPhone users. They know that the long list of permissions Android users see (if they bother to read them) seem “creepy;” but the list of all of the cool things the app can do is just as long. Developers would like to add language to the fine print that explains to users why they want certain permissions. So far, that hasn’t been permitted. I haven’t downloaded Messenger yet. I am still deciding if I will. I do use direct messaging on my phone frequently to try and contact people for stories while I am not sitting in front of a computer. Are you using the app? What do you think about it?

Bad Gas

Today at 5, I told you the story of a local guy who bought bad gas at a Shell station on the Beltway near Wilson Road. You can watch the story here. He told me he felt helpless when Shell originally denied his claim for his car repairs. He’s not a fuel expert; but he is a computer guy… so he used the skills he has to try and help others. He started a website called Bad Gas Reports. It will only work if consumers actually share their bad gas stories and experiences. Check it out.

It is not an alternative, though, to filing any complaints with the Texas Department of Agriculture. You can do that by calling 1-800-TELL-TDA. Call as soon as you realize there is a problem so an inspector can get to the pump while there is still fuel to be tested!

Terrorists Sympathizers on Harwin?

Every year around Sept. 11th, I start to see emails from people concerned about a shop on Harwin whose owners they believe are closing to honor the hijackers from Sept. 11th. Back in 2009, I checked into the claims and blogged about what I discovered. It’s worth a re-post since you may be hearing about this for the first time.
Read all about it at this link.

How to Set up a Google Alert

This is a pretty cool feature. If you want to be alerted about any subject- say anytime someone mentions “Southwest Airlines” online, just type in Southwest Airlines in the “search query” line, leave your email address… and you can let Google know how often you want to be alerted to any news about “Southwest Airlines.”

In our story tonight at 10, we explained that you can put your name in search query line. Anytime someone mentions you online, you will be alerted. Try it out.

Set up your customized Google Alert here.