Friday, March 02, 2012

Unofficial VLC beta hits Android, no video format is safe

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/02/unofficial-vlc-beta-hits-android-no-video-format-is-safe/

VLC is the Swiss Army knife (nope, not you Perian) of media players and it has never baulked at any of the increasingly weird and wonderful formats we've thrown at it -- which is good because now it's available on Android. The unsupported, unofficial beta by user adridu59 is tailored to run on selected Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich handsets. It's available to grab from the source link, with the caveat that as an unofficial build, it'll require a little bit of tinkering at your end

Unofficial VLC beta hits Android, no video format is safe originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Mar 2012 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 8:41 AM

Thursday, March 01, 2012

How Fab.com Convinced Its Board To Completely Pivot The Company, And Then Raised $51 Million

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/fab-pivot-change-business-investors-2012-3


It only took one year for Fab.com to attract 2.5 million members.

It's proof that co-founders Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer made the right decision when they asked their board if they could shut down Fabulous.com and create an entirely new site.

"We had a wake-up moment," Goldberg told us. "Why were we building a company that isn't the company we want to be building?"

They pivoted and created a home decor flash sales site, attracting 165,000 members even before launching, and have raised $51 million to date. They're set to generate twice as much in 2012.

Watch below Goldberg and Shellhammer talk about how they made the decision to pivot and how they told their investors.

Produced by Kamelia Angelova, Robert Libetti and Dan Goodman

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Posted by Augustine at 8:39 PM

NSA builds own model of Android phone, wants you to do the same

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/nsa-builds-own-model-of-android-phone-wants-you-to-do-the-same/

The NSA decided it wanted to have its own go at producing a secure Android smartphone that could encrypt communications to levels necessary for national security. Project "Fishbowl" constructed 100 handsets from off-the-shelf components that were secure enough that staffers could use them without speaking in code. All conversations are conducted across an IPsec VPN with a secure, real-time transport protocol for encrypting the voice at both ends, with the VoIP server being housed inside an NSA facility. It's part of a program to get handset makers to build this kit so the Information Assurance Directorate doesn't have to navigate the interoperability hurdles between each company's tech. The agency has launched a how-to for any manufacturer looking for a large Government contract to produce Fishbowl phones on a larger scale, although they'll probably have to change the name to something more threatening like MK-Ultraphone or the Phoneadelphia Experiment.

NSA builds own model of Android phone, wants you to do the same originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 6:30 PM

Android and iOS expose your photos to third party apps, promise fixes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/android-and-ios-expose-your-photos-to-third-party-apps-promise/

Oops
2012 is still young, yet it's already shaping up to be a bad year for privacy and security on the mobile front. Apple found itself embroiled in a bit of a brouhaha over the iPhone address book and an app called Path. And, of course, Google was put under the microscope when mobile Safari was found to have a security flaw that its mobile ads were exploiting. Then, earlier this week, it was discovered that granting iOS apps access to your location could also expose your photos. Now it's been discovered that Android also exposes your images, though, it's doing so without asking for any permissions at all. While Apple was masking photo access with other permissions, Google is simply leaving your pics vulnerable as a part of a design quirk that came from the OS's reliance on microSD cards. Both companies have acknowledged the flaws and have said they're currently working on fixes. We're just hoping things start to quiet down soon, though -- our mobile operating systems are running out of personal data to expose. Check out the source links for more details.

Android and iOS expose your photos to third party apps, promise fixes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 6:30 PM

At A Strange New Restaurant In Times Square, Diners Eat In Pitch Black Darkness

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/at-a-strange-new-restaurant-in-times-square-diners-eat-in-pitch-black-darkness-2012-3


black, dark, Dans Le Noir NYC's several-year journey to open in New York City is now over. The dining-in-the-dark restaurant is officially open in Times Square, according to Eater.

Originally, the restaurant had scouted a Flatiron location, but then moved to the Lower East Side, then considered Chelsea before deciding on the crossroads of the world.

Finally after delays dating to 2009, the spot opened this week.

Patrons are told not to wear fancy clothes, so if something spills in the dark, the damage is not severe. Fortunately waiters are deft in the dark; they're all blind.

Sample menus show items such as tournedos of crocodile and "surprise wine" and "surprise cocktails."

And if you get to drunk, it's back to the daylight for you.

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Posted by Augustine at 5:49 PM

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