Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com “negative” reviewers

A federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm's request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left "phony negative" reviews of its products on Amazon.com.

The decision means that Ubervita may issue subpoena's to Amazon.com and Cragslist to cough up the identities of those behind a "campaign of dirty tricks against Ubervita in a wrongful effort to put Ubervita at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace." (PDF).

According to a lawsuit by the maker of testosterone boosters, multivitamins and weight loss supplements, unknown commenters had placed fraudulent orders "to disrupt Ubervita's inventory," posted a Craigslist ad "to offer cash for favorable reviews of Ubervita products," and posed "as dissatisfied Ubervita customers in posting phony negative reviews of Ubervita products, in part based on the false claim that Ubervita pays for positive reviews."

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Lyft reverses under legal pressure, cancels Friday night New York launch

Alfredo Mendez

Facing the weight of the New York Attorney General, Lyft now says it will delay its planned Friday evening launch in the Big Apple. Earlier in the day, the Empire State's prosecutor asked the New York Supreme Court to grant a temporary restraining order (TRO), hours before the company's scheduled debut.

According to the Attorney General's office, an injunction was issued on Friday—a fact that Lyft disputes.

Lyft is a San Francisco-based startup that allows its users to book rides from drivers via its smartphone app, effectively acting just like a taxi service. Earlier this year, as Lyft has expanded in various cities across America, the firm has faced fines and citations from numerous jurisdictions for not complying with local taxi law.

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Police beating of woman goes viral, rekindles images of Rodney King

Warning: This video contains disturbing imagery.

"This is not just jabs, they are hooks. Those are lights-out punches. Those aren't like taps. You see it, you heard it. It was like 'thump, thump, thump' and then you see her head bouncing 'bam, bam' on the concrete. Then you hear her screaming, 'No, don't, stop.' Then you even—at the end where she has her hands up like this—when it's clear there is no more resistance, he takes another four or five shots."

That's how motorist David Diaz described the incident he recorded with his phone of a homeless African American woman being beaten by a white California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer alongside a Southern California highway.

The two-minute recording—which has generated millions of hits on YouTube and elsewhere—has prompted protests seeking justice, politicians demanding a federal inquiry, threats of lawsuits, and outrage against the CHP. The reaction virtually aligns with what happened in the immediate aftermath of the taped beating of Rodney King in 1991, when King's attack by Los Angeles Police Department officers went viral via a different means: the television.

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Dropbox's 'Streaming Sync' Promises Faster Download And Upload Speeds

Unless you have oodles of bandwidth, using cloud storage services such as Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive to store massive files can be impractical, depending on how often you need to sync them. Improved telecommunications technology will eventually make the process less painful, but for now, software tweaks will have to do. Dropbox recently revealed some enhancements it's made to its clients that should boost sync speeds for "large" files by up to two times. More »

   

 

 

Balance Beer Bottles On Knives To Win Free Drinks At The Bar

Who doesn't like the prospect of free drinks or winning money? Perfect a couple of ingenious bar tricks, and you can become the local hustler who never has to buy a round. More »

   

 

 

Hang Your Headphones Under Your Desk With This IKEA Hook

We've shared more than a few waysto conveniently hangyour headphones at your desk, but if you want an easy under-desk solution that won't get in the way and doesn't take up much space, an IKEA GRUNDTAL toilet roll hook is a good option. Plus, it's cheap — only six bucks. More »

   

 

 

ThinkUp Analyses Your Social Life, Highlights Your Best Moments

ThinkUp, the tool that archives, analyses and gives you control over your online social life, has come a long way since we last highlighted it. The service now gives you unique and surprising insight into the things you post and the things your friends interact with, and you can try it for free to see if you like it. More »

   

 

 

XDictionary Xposed Module Gives Android A System-Wide Dictionary

Android (rooted): Something that is strangely missing from Android is a system-wide dictionary. You're probably used to highlighting and copying a word, and then pasting it into Google to look it up. XDictionary is an Xposed module that puts word definitions just a couple of taps away. More »

   

 

 

Atom, The Text Editor From GitHub, Is Available For Windows

Windows: Atom, the free text editor from the folks at Github (and one of our favourite text editors), now has an official Windows version. It's an alpha release, but it brings all of Atom's features to Windows, including support for the packages that make the tool so extendable. More »