uAdobe Joins Its Critics, Tells People Not To Use Flashr

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  After years of critics piling on top of Adobe Flash for its track record as one of the buggiest, crashiest (now a word), least secure, most vulnerable pieces of software ever to hit the web, Adobe itself is siding with its detractors (including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Firefox, etc.), and is letting everyone know they should stop using Flash. No, really.

  To be clear, Adobe isn’t killing of Flash, entirely. It’ll be up to web developers what they want to use, after all.

  But in a blog post last night, the company said that it will now “encourage content creators to build with new web standards,” such as HTML5, instead of Flash.

  Flash, though once a great tool for creating web games and animations, has been less and less popular over the last 10 years: Flash pages and players load slowly and drain laptop batteries, and it isn’t widely supported on smartphones. It’s also been subject to a slew of security issues, making it a risky prospect for users browsing the web.

  Again, Flash is here to stay — at least for now — and Adobe won’t be cutting off support for it, the company noted. Instead, it’ll be focusing on beefing up security, and changing its Flash Professional CC animation tool to a new name: Animate CC, which will be the company’s “premier web animation tool for developing HTML5 content” starting in 2016.

  “While standards like HTML5 will be the web platform of the future across all devices, Flash continues to be used in key categories like web gaming and premium video, where new standards have yet to fully mature,” Adobe says. “Moving forward, Adobe is committed to working with industry partners, as we have with Microsoft and Google, to help ensure the ongoing compatibility and security of Flash content.”

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uVTech Hack Exposed Tens Of Thousands Of Photos & Chat Logs Of Parents, Kidsr

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• The recent breach of popular children’s electric toy maker VTech compromised the personal information of nearly five million parents and children, but a new report claims the hack exposed even more sensitive information: photos and chat logs between children and their parents. 

  The anonymous hacker taking credit for the Nov. 14 breach of the company’s Learning Lodge app store claims VTech left tens of thousands of pictures and a year’s worth of chat logs easily accessible to hackers, Motherboard reports.

  The hacker says the new data came from the company’s Kid Connect service, which allows parents using a smartphone app to chat with their child using a VTech tablet.

  Photos stored in the VTech server were the result of Kid Connect’s online tutorials that encouraged the 2.3 million registered users – both parents and children – to take headshots for use in the app.

  VTech did not respond to Motherboard’s request for comment on the new revelation.

  ”Frankly, it makes me sick that I was able to get all this stuff,” the hacker told Motherboard in an encrypted chat. ”VTech should have the book thrown at them.”

  The hacker, who provided more than 3,800 of the photos to Motherboard as verification, also found year-old chat logs between parents and kids and some audio files on the breached VTech servers.

  The photos, chat logs and audio files, can easily be linked back to the personal account information previously exposed by the breach, the hacker says.

  “I can get a random Kid Connect account, look through the dump, link them to their circle of friends, and the parent who registered at Learning Lodge [VTech’s app store],” the hacker told Motherboard, noting that he doesn’t plan to sell or publish the compromised data. “I have the personal information of the parent and the profile pictures, emails, [Kid Connect] passwords, nicknames…of everyone in their Kid Connect contacts list.”

  VTech announced Monday that “as a precautionary measure” it had temporarily suspended the Learning Lodge and a dozen websites for a “thorough security assessment and fortification.”

  Hacker Obtained Children’s Headshots and Chatlogs From Toymaker VTech [Motherboard]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uJimmy John’s Jimmy John Decides Against Taking Sandwich Chain Publicr

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  With more than 2,000 sandwich-slinging stores across the country raking in some $2 billion a year in sales, Illinois-based Jimmy John’s seems like the perfect business to take public. But Jimmy John himself has decided against trying to cash in with an initial public offering.

  CEO, founder, and majority owner Jimmy John Liautaud tells Bloomberg that he had been considering going public for the last couple of years, but ultimately opted to keep things private for now.

  He likens the years of prep to making an entire Thanksgiving dinner and then tossing it in the trash “right before I was going to serve it.”

  In recent months, the company, which would have gone public with an estimated value of around $2 billion, had been putting together meetings about an IPO. But the decision was made in October to focus on expansion plans — including 1,300 stores set to open in California in the coming years — instead of going public.

  Jimmy John, who started the business shortly after — by his own admission — graduating second-to-last in his high school class, said he ultimately decided that the world of IPOs and stock markets just wasn’t for him.

  “I don’t think my wheelhouse is comfortable in Wall Street,” he tells Bloomberg. “My wheelhouse is small-town America.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uCelery Supplier Linked To Costco Chicken Salad E. Coli Outbreak Issues Recalls Affecting 13 More Retailersr

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  The E. Coli outbreak linked to a rotisserie chicken salad sold by Costco that’s sickened 19 customers in seven states has been traced back to a single ingredient: celery that comes from a supplier in California. That farm has now issued a recall for a slew of products that could contain tainted celery sold at 13 additional retailers across the country.

  The Food and Drug Administration issued a notice that Taylor Farms Pacific of Tracy, CA is issuing a recall for items that may contain the celery in question. Along with Costco, 7-Eleven, King Sooper, Pantry, Raleys, Savemart, Tonys, Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Starbucks, Target, Walmart and Sams Club are all included in the list.

  Click here for a complete list of the products being recalled. The items vary — some are simply diced celery mixes, while others are pre-made salads — potato, pasta, tuna, chicken, etc. — or kits to make your own salad containing the possibly tainted veggies.

  This strain of E. Coli can cause an illness that could develop into a form of kidney failure, the FDA notes, which is most likely to occur in y oung children and the elderly, so it’s important to remain vigilant. If you’re worried you’ve become ill from eating the products, contact your health care provider.

  Thus far, 19 people have been infected with E. coli in California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.

  Customers who have any of the recalled products should toss them straight in the garbage. You can call 209-830-3141 for any further information Monday to Friday, between the hours of 8am-5pm (PST).

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uCompany Must Pay $1.35M For Claiming Copper-Infused Sleeves Relieve Chronic Painr

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• Slapping on a knee brace or wrapping your ankle might provide a bit of comfort for aches and pains related to physical activity, but who wants to do all that work when slipping on copper-infused compression clothing can take all your pain away? That seems like a simple, easy way to rid yourself of severe and chronic pain and inflammation, you know, if it were actually backed by science. But it apparently wasn’t, and now athletic apparel company Tommie Copper must pay for that little oversight – to the tune of $1.35 million.

  The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it had reached a proposed settlement [PDF] with Tommie Copper and its founder, Thomas Kallish, to resolve allegations the company deceptively advertised that its copper-infused compression clothing would relieve pain and inflammation caused by arthritis and other diseases.

  According to the FTC’s complaint [PDF], since 2011 New York-based Tommie Copper advertised the copper-infused compression garments in infomercials, brochures, social media, and print media such as Arthritis Today magazine without “competent and reliable scientific evidence” to back up its claims.

  The garments, which include sleeves, braces, shirts and socks, sold for $29.95 to $69.50 each, generating an estimated $87 million from April 2011 to October 2014.

  Infomercials for Tommie Copper featured a well-known talk show host (and payday loan apologist) exclaiming that “Tommie Copper truly is pain relief without a pill.”

  Other ads featured celebrity and consumer testimonials claiming that Tommie Copper garments alleviated pain caused by multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and fibromyalgia.

  “Love this product. I have been having issues due to RA [Rheumatoid Arthritis] with swelling and pain in my left knee . . . . Since wearing the [Tommie Copper] knee sleeve, it has kept my knee from swelling, decreasing my knee pain at the end of the day . . . . Thanks for creating a great product!” a user of the products said in a brochure.

  The marketing also claimed the products could provide pain relief comparable to, or better than, drugs or surgery.

  “I had a torn cartilage in my knee years ago …. I was scheduled for surgery September 11, 2012 to have another knee replacement on my right knee,” one user says in a Tommie Copper YouTube advertisement. “I had gone to the gym and I limped in one day, my right knee was bothering me. So, one of the guys saw me in the gym and said, what’s the matter with you? I said, wow, my right knee is bothering me, I’ve probably got another bad knee …. [H]e threw me a Tommie Copper sleeve. I put it on, great. Next day I saw him, I said, … you got to get me another one for my replaced knee because it feels that good. I put them on and I have not taken them off since. I have not done surgery [sic] and I am not going anywhere near the surgeon’s knife. I am fine just the way it is.”

  The FTC alleges that claims included in Tommie Copper’s ads were deceptive as they contained false or unsubstantiated information.

  Under the proposed settlement, Tommie Copper and its founder must pay $86.8 million, however that judgment will be partially suspended after the payment of $1.35 million to be distributed to consumers deceived by the company.

  If the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition, the total amount will immediately come due.

  With the settlement Tommie Copper and its founder do not admit or deny any of the allegations levied by the FTC.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uCoke-Funded Anti-Obesity Group Goes The Way Of Crystal Pepsir

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  The Global Energy Balance Network, a supposed anti-obesity organization that was heavily criticized for not only receiving more than $1 million from Coca-Cola but for attempting to downplay the role of sugary drinks in the current obesity epidemic, has vanished from the Earth like a failed new soda product.

  “Effective immediately, GEBN is discontinuing operations due to resource limitations,” reads a notice posted on the organization’s website. “We appreciate the commitment to energy balance that the membership has demonstrated since our inception, and encourage members to continue pursuing the mission ‘to connect and engage multi-disciplinary scientists and other experts around the globe dedicated to applying and advancing the science of energy balance to achieve healthier living’.”

  GEBN, which stressed the importance of proper diet and exercise in fighting obesity, came out of nowhere in recent years thanks to purportedly no-strings-attached funding from Coca-Cola. However, the group’s motives were questioned when its leadership made public statements that seemed to directly echo beverage industry talking points.

  The organization, based at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, claimed that it was the media, and not science, that had linked the obesity problem to high-calorie foods, declaring that there is “virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.”

  In early November, under increased scrutiny over its funding, the Colorado med school returned $1 million to Coca-Cola, claiming that the cola giant’s involvement had “distracted attention from its worthwhile goal.”

  Last week, reporters unearthed e-mails between GEBN leadership and Coca-Cola execs showing just how not hands-off Coke had been.

  In 2012, before Coca-Cola handed over the funds, a company exec made it clear to GEBN’s future president that it was “non-negotiable” that he collaborate with private industry. The company then provided researchers with talking points about a Coke-funded study they were working on.

  More explicitly, the e-mails showed how Coca-Cola considered this no different than running a political campaign and that it was hoping to make GEBN “the place the media goes to for comment on any obesity issue.”

  Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent has acknowledged that maybe there could have been more transparency about this whole thing. Meanwhile, the exec who sent many of the above-referenced e-mails has tendered her retirement.

  [via AP]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uMattress Firm Getting Into Bed With Rival Sleepy’s In Deal Worth $780Mr

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  Instead of going to the mattresses* like they used to, two big rivals are hopping into bed together: Mattress Firm Holdings has agreed to buy Sleepy’s in a $780 million deal.

  The merger will unite the two biggest names in the U.S. specialty mattress business, reports Bloomberg, with Mattress Firm taking on #30 million in liabilities as part of the deal.

  The companies said the merged business would have a 21.2% share of the specialty mattress market, according to industry data released in 2014: the addition of Sleepy’s will give the new company a total of almost 3,500 retail stores and 80 distribution centers in 48 states, with only Wyoming and Alaska missing out on brands like Mattress Discounters, mattress.com and 1800mattress.com.

  Mattress Firm could use a little pick-me-up (and put-me-to-bed?) after seeing demand dip, and discounts took a bite out of its sales results. Investors won’t be going to bed angry, either: shares of Mattress Firm went up by 7.7% upon the news this morning that the companies are getting together.

  *See: Godfather

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist