All posts tagged: Private

Google Play now lets anyone upload private, vibe-coded Android apps

Google Play now lets anyone upload private, vibe-coded Android apps

Published by skeptic

You can now upload your own vibe-coded apps straight to the Google Play Store and launch them from any device, without jumping through the usual hoops. According to the Google Play October 2026 update, if you create an Android app in Google AI Studio, you can now upload it to Google Play without first upgrading to a $25 paid developer account or going through Google’s lengthy pre-approval vetting process. But you won’t be able to share your new vibe-coded app with others, at least not straight off the bat. Vibe-coded apps for everyone But for your friends and family first Google plans to roll out the ability to share with friends and family in the “coming weeks.” After that, the tech giant plans to let users “graduate” to a paid developer account, giving, at least in theory, three billion people access to your app once you pass Google’s trust and safety reviews. There is something rather droll about Google letting you test your vibe-coded on your family before letting them rip on the rest of …

Google Play now supports private, vibe-coded apps built just for you

Google Play now supports private, vibe-coded apps built just for you

Published by skeptic

Your vibe-coded applications can now be easily run on Android smartphones without having to first go public on the Google Play Store, the tech giant announced on Tuesday. A new feature will allow users to launch their own personal apps on their device via Google Play using their standard Google account, but they will remain completely private. These personal apps won’t show up in Google Play’s search or listing pages, and won’t be shared with anyone except for the app’s creator. The idea comes as more people are experimenting with building their own applications via AI for specific, personal needs. However, being able to use that app on their own Android device has meant publishing to Google Play, making it accessible to the Play Store’s some 3 billion users. That led many to limit their vibe-coding efforts to web apps that could run on any device instead of something built natively for Android. Now, Google says Android device owners can vibe code an app using Google AI Studio, then launch it for their own use. …

We’re reporters, not teachers. We were able to start private schools anyway

We’re reporters, not teachers. We were able to start private schools anyway

Published by Sam Flores

We have no business running a private school. We’re reporters, not teachers. That doesn’t matter. Inexperience has hardly been a barrier for those who want to start their own schools, as we have reported this year. And it didn’t stop us, either.  Over the last few months, to test the process, reporters from ProPublica partnered with local journalists in three states to establish private schools. None required much effort. In Arkansas, all it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to form a bona fide private school with the Arkansas Times. We established a school with Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia after filing our new school’s name and location with authorities on a piece of notebook paper, then exchanging a few emails. And with The Assembly in North Carolina, we filed an online notice of intent to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, while perched on its metal bar stools, eyeing glasses of a crisp kolsch. We used our names …

The Private Life of Power | Karan Mahajan and Corey Robin

The Private Life of Power | Karan Mahajan and Corey Robin

Published by Jenni Sidey

I met Karan Mahajan, the Indian-American novelist and essayist, in 2018, when we were both fellows at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library. Karan was beginning to write The Complex, his novel that has just been released; I was finishing The Enigma of Clarence Thomas. I was drawn to Karan right away. Not only is he one of the best talkers in the world, ready to go anywhere in a conversation, but he’s also genuinely interested in right-wing politics. Since the rise of Trump, many on the left have tried to gain a better understanding of the right. Karan’s aims are both more modest and more ambitious. He wants to think and feel with the right. The Complex is one of those surprisingly rare novels that engages with the inner life of far-right leaders in the mold of India’s Modi, and of the ordinary people who vote for them. In this conversation, Karan and I talked about how the novel tells the story of the last seventy-five years of Indian politics, as …

The Many Private Lives of Missy Cooke by Jane Green

The Many Private Lives of Missy Cooke by Jane Green

Published by Jenni Sidey

Missy Cooke is fourteen when her father agrees to furnish her bedroom. She has kept a catalogue in a drawer for months. She chooses the loft bed with the steps, the furry chair, the pink rug and the dressing table with the oval mirror, and a colleague takes her shopping because her father has a meeting. When he gets home he stands in the doorway and says the room looks like a giant cupcake. Within a second she is seeing it through his eyes, hating all of it, wishing she had chosen black. The Many Private Lives of Missy Cooke by Jane Green is full of small scenes like that, and they are the reason to read it. How The Many Private Lives of Missy Cooke Is Built The novel runs on two strands wired together. The present strand is first person, present tense: Missy at twenty-nine, four years into a job at her father’s company, drinking a bit too much at parties her best friend throws. The childhood strand is past tense, and never …

5 Best Dior Private Collection Fragrances 2026: Couture in a Bottle

5 Best Dior Private Collection Fragrances 2026: Couture in a Bottle

Published by Jenni Sidey

Dior Sauvage is one of the most popular colognes of all time. You know it, you’ve smelled it, and there’s a strong chance someone in your life is wearing it as we speak. But sometimes, its fame can distract from the rest of Dior’s fragrance offering. And that’s a shame, especially when there’s a lesser-known Dior fragrance line with better ingredients, more elegant formulations, and—for those, like me, who care—much more beautiful bottle designs. La Collection Privée (literally, “private collection”) is essentially Dior’s olfactory couture line. It’s an idea that goes right back to Christian Dior himself, who saw himself as much a perfumer as a couturier. The initial LCP collection took shape in 2004, and its tie to perfumery royalty Francis Kurkdjian, now Dior’s Perfume Creation Director, goes all the way back to that year: He created two of its three founding fragrances, Eau Noire and Cologne Blanche. Today, Kurkdjian approaches each new Privée like a couturier approaches a garment, creating what Dior calls an “olfactory silhouette,” drawing on flowers (and even fabrics) from …

Meta disputes claim that Muse read a user’s private messages without permission

Meta disputes claim that Muse read a user’s private messages without permission

Published by skeptic

Meta is refuting a journalist’s claim that its AI agent Muse read the user’s private messages without permission. Following an earlier report from Inc. columnist Jason Aten that detailed the issue, Meta VP of Communications Andy Stone pushed back, making it clear that the company does not believe its product did this without the user’s consent. “The Messages integration in the Muse app for Mac is entirely opt-in,” Stone wrote on X in response to the claims made by the piece. “You have to enable both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector for Muse to be able to read your Messages content. It can’t read your Messages unless you do this.” Despite Meta’s denial, many people are still suspicious that Meta isn’t being truthful. That’s not surprising, given the tech giant’s years of mishandling consumer data, which has led to lawsuits, FTC violations, and fines. Just days ago, for instance, a New Mexico jury determined the tech giant had misled users about its data practices in a case that resulted from the 2018 Cambridge …

James Bulger killer Jon Venables to have private parole hearing | UK | News

James Bulger killer Jon Venables to have private parole hearing | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

Jon Venables, who tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993, will have his latest parole bid heard in private, despite a plea from his victim’s mother for it to be public, the Parole Board has decided. James’s mother, Denise Fergus, had demanded that the hearing be held in public to help combat “misinformation” about the case which had a “retraumatising impact” on her. Venables, at the age of 10, abducted, tortured, and murdered the toddler after luring him away from New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle. His mutilated body was found 4 kilometres away, on a railway line in Walton, Liverpool, two days later. The Parole Board said a public hearing would make it “very difficult for Jon Venables to give evidence” because he could be “being listened to by people who are seeking to get information so that they can kill him”. Parole Board hearings are usually held in private, but they can be made public “in the interests of justice”. A number of media organisations also applied for a public hearing. Venables …

The private equity backlash could start at the drive-thru

The private equity backlash could start at the drive-thru

Published by Sam Flores

Elizabeth Warren’s job doesn’t need to be this hard. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts is leading a cadre of largely left-of-center lawmakers in reviving the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, legislation that would curtail the worst tendencies of private equity firms. These investment firms frequently buy struggling companies in leveraged buyouts, foisting the debt of the purchase back onto the business being bought. The firms downsize staff and sell off parts of the purchased company to create dividends, all while charging the purchased corporation management fees for their trouble. When the companies frequently fail to service all this new debt, they are forced into bankruptcies that allow the private equity ownership group to walk away.  Warren has been fighting for a while to hold private equity firms responsible for the well-being of the companies they own. In fact, this is her third attempt at pushing the legislation, which she first introduced in 2019. The act would close loopholes that shield these investment companies from the debts of the newspapers, hospitals and department stores they purchase, …

Private Members Club Maison Estelle Under Police Investigation

Private Members Club Maison Estelle Under Police Investigation

Published by Jenni Sidey

Maison Estelle, a private members club in London, temporarily shuttered today following a Metropolitan Police investigation outside the premises. The club was set to host parties and dinners to mark Frieze Week, all of which have been canceled. Lisson Gallery, which was set to host an event at Maison Estelle, confirmed in an email to ARTnews that its team is now looking for a new venue. This is the second consecutive year that the gallery was forced to pivot venues under unusual circumstances: In 2025, the London’s Chiltern Firehouse caught fire, so Lisson move its annual Frieze party to Maison Estelle. Related Articles In an e-mail to all members, Maison Estelle said that police investigation follows “a serious public safety matter outside the premises” and that any “dining bookings and cultural programming will be canceled and will not go ahead during this closure.” According to a source close to the private members club, three members were granted special permission to invite around 30 people each (normally members are allowed up to three guests per visit, …