posts

Lucian Constantin, IDG News Service:

A feature that allows Android users to authenticate themselves on Google websites without having to enter their account password can be abused by rogue apps to give attackers access to Google accounts, a security researcher showed Saturday at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas.

The feature is called “weblogin” and works by generating a unique token that can be used to directly authenticate users on Google websites using the accounts they have already configured on their devices.

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David Chartier:

Dropbox continues to improve and innovate, making the service more accessible, faster, and even more secure. As part of this progress, Dropbox will disable its legacy API—the bridge that lets apps talk to Dropbox—in favor of its next-generation API on September 1st.

As we all know, sync and innovating are hard work, so we sympathize with Dropbox’s need to retire an old API that’s done its bit for king and country. If you use 1Password 3 for iOS and sync through Dropbox, you need to take action before September 1. If you use any other 1Password apps, they are already built for Dropbox’s next-generation API; you don’t need to do anything.

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I have some downloading to do.

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This week, Myke, Federico and I review rap records, customer service at electronic stories and Italian car advertisements. Federico then yells about Apple’s cloud services, and we discuss passwords in Chrome and the iPad’s interface.

Sponsored by Squarespace (use code TALLYHO8 for 10% off), Shutterstock (use code PROMPT8 for 30% off) and Fairway Solitaire (free for a limited time via the URL)

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Matt Alexander, on the muting ability of certain social media platforms and apps:

On the surface, it sounds perfectly acceptable. You grow tired of a certain topic or the exhaustive sharing habits of certain friends, and, without going all the way to remove them from your day-to-day experience, you simply quiet the portions of noise that bother you the most.

In a world of highly-curated opinions, deeply polarizing and heavily-politicized views, and rampant tribalism in the consumer sphere, however, the ability to simply remove certain opinions that are not adherent with your own is irrefutably dangerous.

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I love me some Stephen Colbert.

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Late last year, LEGO announced that the company would be moving forward with a Back To The Future DeLorean after fans at LEGO’s CUUSOO community went crazy for the design. ¹

Last week, it went on sale in the US. Here’s mine.

The DeLorean can be configured in three different modes:

• The original, from the first movie, complete with the “OUTATIME” license plate and lead-lined plutonium tank.
• The flying version from the second film. In this setup, the car is equipped with its futuristic barcode license plate and Mr. Fusion reactor for powering the time circuits.
• The somewhat-rigged version found in the third film, complete with 1950s-era Doc engineering strapped to the hood and red rims. Sadly, LEGO didn’t include whitewall tires.

After building all three, I reverted to the original, 1985 configuration, but the “Old West” version is my second-favorite of the the three.

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Igloo is now free to use with up to ten people, making it easier to work with your whole team, your customers or your partners.

Your Igloo is built around apps you already know and love: blogs, calendars, file sharing, forums, microblog and wikis.

Start building your Igloo instantly (no credit card required), or check out their awesome Sandwich Videos.

Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

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My friend Shawn’s new project is now for sale:

This book does not include any step-by-step design guides or product development runsheets that would apply to a specific project or trade — the scope of our creative industry is so broad, encompassing print design, web design, development, music, photography, and writing to name a few. Rather, the focus is on addressing the finest goal a person in our industry can have: to create substantive work that delights and excites our audience.

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MG Siegler:

Here’s the thing that most people, and certainly many in the tech press, don’t seem to understand about Amazon, and by extension, Bezos: when it comes to business, there’s a game being played almost flawlessly.

The goal is actually to not make a huge profit too early, and Bezos manages it perfectly. You want to avoid showing your cards too early as you continue to lay the groundwork for an ever-larger business. Occasionally, you’ll have to show those cards and win a hand to prove that you can. But the rest of the time you call and fold, as you await the monster to take the entire pot.

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Jack Shafer at Reuters:

In acquiring the Washington Post, Bezos enters a business that is not radically different from the ones he already owns. Reporters and editors like to think their literary arts are central to newspapering. But it’s better to think of a newspaper as a coordination problem that manufacturing and distribution solves daily: Copy, art, and advertising is beamed from newsroom to printing plant, bundled newspapers flow from the plant to trucks, are transferred to carriers, and are delivered to your front door. Nobody knows more about deadline deliveries and distribution than Bezos’s Amazon, which has spoiled several nations with its reliable service. I can’t imagine what plans Bezos has for the print edition of the paper—if I did, I’d be worth $25.2 billion—but I’m confident that he will maximize the value of the existing Post delivery system in novel ways. It would not surprise me to see him use the Post network of trucks and carriers to enter the local delivery business as a pilot project. Obviously, he’s learned a lot from same-day delivery he could share with the paper.

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Paul Farhi:

The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family’s stewardship of one of America’s leading news organizations after four generations.

Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world’s richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses.

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