Rexfeng

Cards Against Humanity - When you have completed your order, there is a “Go outside.” button that takes you to a Google Map search for parks near the zip code you entered for your order.

/via Thomas Mercurio

Dan Frommer:

While Apple Pay is designed to make payments as easy as possible — by riding on existing payments infrastructure, with security and privacy in mind — using CurrentC actually looks harder than typical payment techniques. Because it’s designed to skirt the existing credit-card infrastructure, CurrentC’s current version only supports payments via checking accounts and certain store cards. And it comes with a questionable privacy requirement: To “confirm your identity,” CurrentC demands both your driver’s license number and social security number.

When it comes to actually paying, the system gets even more cumbersome. CurrentC describes the process on its support site: You need to select a “Pay with CurrentC” option on the register, activate your phone, open the CurrentC app, enter a four-digit passcode, press the “Pay” button, “either scan the Secure Paycode that the cashier presents (default) or press the Show button at the bottom of your screen to allow the cashier to scan your Secure Paycode,” select the account you want to pay with, and then press a “Pay Now” button.

John Moltz quips:

Not only will I never use this system, I will strangle the first person I’m behind in a checkout line who tries to use it.

Starbucks will begin delivering coffee and food in select markets next year, as part of its push to expand into e-commerce. CEO Howard Schultz revealed the company's plans during its quarterly earnings conference call yesterday, saying that the delivery service will be available to loyalty program members through a new Mobile Order and Pay app debuting later this year.

"Imagine the ability to create a standing order of Starbucks delivered hot to your desk daily," Schultz said. "That's our version of e-commerce on steroids."

Matt Ryan, Starbucks' global chief strategy officer, added that the delivery program is still in its "early days," though the company is "moving full speed ahead" with plans to introduce it during the second half of...

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The Colbert Report has a date for its final episode. On December 18th, one of the best political satires ever will conclude its nine year run.

The show, a spin-off of the long running comedy news program The Daily Show, features the character "Stephen Colbert" played by the comedian of the same name. Stephen Colbert, the character, is a pompous, boisterous, loudmouth inspired initially by the conservative talk show hosts on FOX News, though the character now parodies all types of political talking heads. Less is known about Stephen Colbert the person, who has taken the back seat to his character for nearly the past decade.

We'll have a chance to learn more about Colbert when he takes over hosting duties on The Late Show on CBS in 2015....

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Facebook just took the surprising step of adding a way for users of the free anonymizing software Tor to access the social network directly. Tor is an open source project that launched in 2002 to provide a way for people to access the internet without sharing identifying information such as their IP address and physical location with websites and their service providers. People who download the free Tor software can visit websites while keeping the actual location of their computer and its make and model secret. While Tor users could previously access Facebook before today, it often loaded irregularly with incorrectly displayed fonts and sometimes didn't load at all, because Facebook's security features treated Tor as a botnet — a...

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A report published this afternoon by The New York Times details one of the possible plans the FCC may debut in their attempt to establish new rules around net neutrality and the open internet. It takes a "hybrid" approach, dividing the new regulations between commercial or wholesale internet traffic and retail or residential internet traffic. In a nutshell, this would mean content companies like Netflix will get the price controls they want when it comes to dealing with companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T. But those companies will also be allowed to give certain data a fast lane over their networks if it was "justified," cementing the gutting of net neutrality that occurred when Verizon defeated the FCC in court.

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Valve doesn't seem too pleased that devs have made a group to upvote each others' games on Steam Greenlight . A rep said, "Clearly this is not the feedback we are seeking from Greenlight. We do track these sorts of things and folks 'going this route' will likely not find the results they may have hoped for."

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 The maker of a popular iOS app and widget, PCalc, which took advantage of iOS 8’s support for Notification Center Widgets, was recently told by Apple that his handy app would be pulled from the App Store due to the fact that “widgets on iOS cannot perform any calculations.” The app’s creator, James Thomson, took to Twitter to inform users and respond to inquiries about… Read More

Motorola hasn't announced the champagne gold Moto 360 seen above yet, but Amazon accidentally revealed it to the world early this morning. The listing has since been pulled, but remains visible through cached pages. So it's clear that Moto — now under Lenovo's ownership — will soon offer a gold Moto 360 with a matching steel band. It'll cost $299, which puts it right in line with other metal-band versions of the leading Android Wear smartwatch. And if the regular 23mm strap is too big for your liking, there will apparently be a smaller, 18mm option as well. The watch itself remains as big as ever, so this might not be the answer some were looking for to make the hulking 360 more manageable.

There's also another leather strap color...

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Guns, glorious guns. In this rather mesmerizing gif, the creators of Witchmarsh, the (successfully) Kickstarted 1920s action RPG , show off some of the gun types you'll be able to pick up in-game when it arrives on PC late next year.

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After deciding no one really liked them, Shake Shack has finally done away with every last fresh-cut fry. Now it's all crinkle cuts all the time.

It's official: no Shake Shack customer will ever see a fresh-cut fry again. People-pleaser Danny Meyer and his team of fast food experts have been slowly reinstating crinkle cut fries at every Shake Shack outpost since August, after deciding that fresh-cut french fries (which were introduced with much fanfare only a year earlier) weren't actually what the people wanted after all. But because that transition required all fresh-cut serving Shacks to revamp their kitchens and retrain their staff, fans were given until November to get their fresh-cut fry fix. Now, right on time, Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti announces the official end of the era.

Of course, this isn't a victory for everyone, and certain potato lovers out there are no doubt in morning. But as Garutti says, the "fans have spoken." Plus look at how well those crinkles hold the cheese.

Motorola Mobility officially becomes part of Lenovo today. Lenovo’s acquisition was announced back in February for $2.91 billion, and today marks the finalization of the deal. Motorola is now "a Lenovo company," but the brand will remain as a subsidiary of Lenovo, headquartered in Chicago. "The iconic Motorola brand will continue, as will the Moto and DROID franchises that have propelled our growth over the past year," explains Rick Osterloh, Motorola president. "We will continue to focus on pure Android and fast upgrades, and remain committed to developing technology to solve real consumer problems."

Google's sale of Motorola was met with surprise when the search giant revealed its plans earlier this year. Google initially bought...

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In an op-ed at Bloomberg Businessweek today, Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals he's proud to be gay. "So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me." Cook explains that "plenty" of Apple employees know he’s gay and "it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me."

Cook admits the choice to come out wasn’t easy as privacy is important to him, but the trade-off to inspire equality is clearly something the Apple CEO has considered. "I don’t consider myself an activist, but I realize how much I’ve benefited from the sacrifice of others. So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone...

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At least one member of the Merchant Customer Exchange — a coalition of retailers that are blocking Apple Pay and other mobile payment systems in order to promote their own option — seems to have broken from the group. Michigan Live reports that regional grocery chain Meijer has decided to keep accepting mobile payments besides MCX's app "CurrentC," letting customers tap their NFC-enabled phones to pay for things like groceries and gas. "We don't plan to remove or disable these systems," said spokesperson Frank Guglielmi.

That decision separates it from companies like Walmart, Rite Aid, and Best Buy, all of which disabled their mobile payment systems over the weekend. That meant shutting out not just Apple Pay, but older and more...

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The pantheon of World Series pitching greats welcomed a new member to its club as Bumgarner gave a performance for the ages in Game 7.

After companies shut down and collectors lose interest, the Library of Congress is supposed to keep our cultural history intact. But digital media has turned our understanding of preservation on its head. It’s no longer enough to just get "a copy" of something: an ebook can be set to self-destruct, an MMO can be nothing without the people who play it, and a streaming video can have a million digital copies and no physical ones. When Buzzfeed journalist Joseph Bernstein profiled the Library of Congress’ video game collection, he included a tantalizing reference to how new media and traditional archival can collide:

The Library's processes are, by the standards of 21st century media consumption, antiquated. Netflix has to print special...

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Earlier this year, YouTube announced plans to support videos running at 60 frames-per-second —plans that would make a huge difference for footage of video games. Today, the video network has finally started rolling out the new service, and you can already tell that this is going to be wonderful.

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This burrito has been fairly compensated.

Class-action suits filed in Colorado and Minnesota have accused Chipotle of "an unwritten policy" of wage theft. Workers say they routinely work more hours than they are paid for, and that the practice isn't an oversight limited to just a few incidents. They claim, for example, that the in-house time clock automatically punches them out at 12:30 a.m., regardless how late they stay to clean up.

The company, like any other well-oiled business, is clearly attuned to the bottom line: Chipotle recently raised menu prices by pennies to correspond to the increased cost of meat, after all. If the allegations are true, the practice clashes hard with Chipotle's image of being the benchmark for ethical fast food. In statements, the employees even intimated the chain was aware of the issue. "Chipotle would threaten me with termination or would punish me by cutting my hours," one said. Other employees claim off-the-clock meetings were mandatory at their stores.

The workers allege that incentives existed for management to trim as much fat as possible, which led to the illegal practices; one employee claimed that "bonuses for general managers were based upon labor costs." All told, the workers want unpaid overtime, lost wages, and other damages. Chipotle's spokesperson Chris Arnold says the company isn't violating any labor laws, so they consider these lawsuits "nothing more than allegations and … proof of nothing."

[CNNMoney]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: lawsuits, chipotle, wage theft, workers' rights

In the highly competitive world of absurd concession foods, this item released just in time for the Charlotte Hornets season opener at Time Warner Cable Arena may take the metaphorical cake.

New @Hornets games: Hugo's Boss Burger -- 8 lbs of meat w/cheddar, bacon, lettuce & mushrooms ($70) pic.twitter.com/fT6cZYduHw

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) October 29, 2014

Called Hugo's Boss Burger (presumably not a sartorial pun so much as a coincidence of literal description — Hugo the mascot's burger is unstoppable), it's a double-decker weighing in at eight pounds, it's the brainchild of concessionaire Levy Restaurants' executive chef and Charlotte native Aaron Cox, and its Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, melted cheese, bacon, mushrooms, et cetera, sets you back $70.

A photo posted by Chrissie | Off the Eaten Path (@chrissie_beth) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:03am PDT

The fans may be rooting for the Hornets, but eating this burger means you root for 'Merica. All signs point to fries on the side, regardless.

[@darrenrovell/Twitter]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: like a boss, charlotte hornets, concessions, hugo's boss burger, nba

Marvel is today unveiling the subtitle for its third Captain America movie: Serpent Society. It's a mysterious subtitle, especially given that many had expected the new movie to be named after the Civil War plot line that Marvel is introducing in this movie, which is supposed to kick off the conflict that'll propel its next round of superhero films.

Serpent Society film will pit Captain America against Iron Man, as the two battle over a law requiring superheroes to register with the government and serve their country. Captain America is opposed to the legislation and ends up having to face off with Iron Man, who is in favor of it. Robert Downey Jr. will once again reprise the role.

Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed Captain America:...

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The self-proclaimed "front page of the internet" is expanding into crowdfunding and community-driven creation with Redditmade. According to its announcement post, the new site was created in part to provide a way for subreddits to develop official merchandise, although anyone with a Reddit account can begin a campaign of their own.

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Many retailers have been less than responsive to the Apple Pay mobile payments system. Rather than accept fees that banks charge for making the transactions, Walmart, Best Buy, and others disabled NFC in their stores, preventing customers from using Apple's system (along with other forms of payment). The retailers' solution is a payment system called "CurrentC," and it's an idea that some NFC users aren't so excited about.

CurrentC, a QR code-based app planning to launch next year (meaning reviewers haven't actually used it in stores yet), appears to be the target of a semi-organized campaign for one-star reviews. As of writing, the reviews breakdown on the App Store looked like this: 17 five-star ratings, zero four-star ratings, three...

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CurrentC is already under fire for working with its retail partners to shut out Apple Pay, and it's now facing another mess: some email addresses of people using the app or who have signed up to learn more from the app have been taken from its systems. CurrentC is notifying potentially affected people over email, informing them that "unauthorized third parties obtained the email addresses of some of you" over the past 36 hours. It hasn't said exactly how many emails are affected, but it says that "no other information" was taken.

CurrentC's developer, MCX, tells us that the app itself was not affected by the breach and that many of the emails were dummy accounts. "We take the security of our users’ information extremely seriously," an...

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Josh Constine, writing for TechCrunch:

Thanks to research shared with TechCrunch by Stanford student and developer sleuth Andrew Aude, we have more details on MCX’s plan and a closer look at the CurrentC app.

The reviews of the app on the App Store are a hoot. And because these retailers are shutting off NFC terminals completely to block Apple Pay, the whole thing has united Android and iOS users on Reddit.

Whenever Apple announces something new, companies will use the most basic specs revealed onstage to take a stab at making What You Need to go with it. But the Apple Watch is even crazier; despite not even existing yet, more than a few companies are already accessorizing for it.

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It's seemed like there's been a perpetual tsunami of hype ever since the first Iron Man movie hit theaters years ago. But the announcements that Marvel made today about its upcoming slate of superhero movies included the names that some fans have been been waiting a long time to hear: Black Panther and Captain Marvel.

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Kirk Lennon:

One of the objections I’ve seen to Apple Pay is “How is it faster/easier than just sliding my card?” The truth is, it isn’t always. It’s rarely going to take longer than sliding a card, but it’s not always going to radically faster either. However, it is much, much more secure. Merchants simply can’t be trusted with your card number, and the only real solution is to never give it to them. Apple Pay solves that, and it does so in a way that embraces industry standards and is easy and maybe even a little bit fun.

Good explanation of how Apple Pay works, and why it’s far more secure than swiping your actual card.

Beats headphones have always been just as much — if not more — about making a fashion statement as they've been about sounding good. Now, a new collaboration with Japanese company Sanrio is about to tip the scales even further. To honor the 40th anniversary of the Hello Kitty franchise, the audio industry giant will be releasing new versions of its staple Solo2 headphones and urBeats earbuds next month adorned with images of iconic bow-wearing cat. (Or is just the personification of a cat? We're actually still not clear on that whole cat/not a cat thing). Rabid fans who can't wait a few weeks to get a real-life look can do so this weekend at the official unveiling during Hello Kitty Con 2014 in Los Angeles.

The bigger, Kitty-covered...

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The Federal Trade Commission said smartphone customers who signed up for an unlimited data plan often found their data speeds reduced if they were in the top 5 percent of users.