Consumer Confidential: Medicine recall, digital reader, YouTube

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Here’s your tip-top-Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

• Bayer Healthcare is recalling 100,000 packages of Alka-Seltzer cold capsules because some lack warnings of possible drowsiness. The recall applies to Alka-Seltzer Plus Day & Night Liquid Gels. Bayer blamed the label omission on human error and said steps are being taken to prevent this from happening again. More information can be obtained by calling (800) 986-3307.
• Another boost for e-books: Five leading publishers -- Time Inc., News Corp., Conde Nast, Hearst Corp. and Meredith Corp. -- say they’ll cook up a digital reading device to rival Amazon.com’s popular Kindle. They say they’ll even go Kindle one better by featuring a color display capable of playing videos and games along with print content. Publishers have been snippy about the Kindle because Amazon claims the lion’s share of subscription fees. A new device would change that.
• Is there more to YouTube than way-cool videos of Mentos being plopped into Diet Coke? The video site’s co-founder, Chad Hurley, says YouTube (now owned by Google) is seeing a big jump in ad sales and that it now gets more than a billion views a day. One small problem: YouTube still doesn’t make any money. But maybe that will soon change.

-- David Lazarus