All 4 Toys

In 2009, Chris Paget showed the world the vulnerabilities of RFID by downloading the contents of US passports from the safety of his automobile. This year, he’s doing the same for mobile phones. Demonstrating at DefCon 2010, the white hat hacker fooled 17 nearby GSM phones into believing his $1,500 kit (including a laptop and two RF antennas) was a legitimate cell phone base station, and proceeded to intercept and record audience calls. “As far as your cell phones are concerned, I’m now indistinguishable from AT&T,” he told the crowd. The purpose of the demonstration was highlight a major flaw in the 2G GSM system, which directs phones to connect to the tower with the strongest signal regardless of origin — in this case, Paget’s phony tower.

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The pool of choices for WiMAX hotspots continues to expand, and thanks to the FCC, we now know of another up-and-comer. The Rover Puck — trademarked by Clearwire and previously unheard of — joins the ranks Sprint’s Overdrive and its various rebrandings by providing pocketable 4G WiFi service. Unlike its predecessors, however, we finally have a new, more aerodynamic form factor. There isn’t much to the glean from the user manual at this point, and the oft-referenced Rover website still isn’t live — a WHOIS lookup reveals it was last updated via GoDaddy on July 2008 with no other details disclosed. So, until we get some word from the official news pipelines, a plethora of external / internal photos and user manual screenshots are only a mouseclick away. Read more »

Toshiba has unveils trio new of the 2nd-generation CELL REGZA LED-backlit LCD HDTVs, the 55-inch 55X2 with dynamic LED-backlit, the slim 55-inch 55XE2, and the 46-inch 46XE2 with Edge-LED backlight. Schedule to available in the market, both CELL REGZA televisions boasts a 1920×1080p Full HD resolution, Cell processor for enhanced image quality, and CELL 3D technology for 2D-to-3D conversion. They also have built-in digital tuner , 3TB hard disk drive for video recording, HDMI, USB port, DLNA support, internet-ready. Other different features of each televisions are the 55X2 boasts 9,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1000cd/m2 brightness, while the slimmer 55XE2 and 46XE2 has 4,000,000:1 contrast.

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NVIDIA teased us with the introduction of the 3D-ready G51JX back at Computex (you may remember it as one of the founding “3D PCs“), and now AVADirect is bringing that very machine to US soil. Said rig boasts a 15.6-inch display, Core i7-720QM processor, 6GB of DDR3 memory and a 1GB GeForce GTS 360M GPU. Better still, Clevo’s W860CU offers an identically sized display, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 285M (1GB), Core i5 or i7 CPU options and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Both units ship with all the necessary 3D Vision components to get your 3D kick on right from the box, with the ASUS going for around $1,600 and the Clevo for $1,800. Humility is free with purchase, we’re told.

Continue reading Clevo W860CU 3D and ASUS G51JX-3D bring three-dee to US laptopers

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Lumigon has confirmed the release date of its first Android-powered smartphone from this October, known as the Lumigon T1. Regarding features, the T1 will come out with a 3.2 inch capacitive TFT touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, 1GHz Freescale i.MX51 processor, and 5MP camera with flash. There also WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, A-GPS, accelerometer, and support 720p HD video through mini HDMI port. According to the source, the T1 will up for pre-orders from September 20th.

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Well, we knew it wouldn’t take very long, and it didn’t: iFixit’s gotten its hands on Apple’s Magic Trackpad and ripped it to shreds. This is one operation they’re not shy about calling delicate, folks — this thing is seriously thin and its components packed in quite lovingly. So what’s going on in there? Well, besides the magical dust, they found a Broadcom BCM2042 chip, which is the same one the Magic Mouse uses for Bluetooth connectivity, and a Broadcom BCM5974 touchscreen controller chip, which also powers the iPhone and iPod touch. There is plenty to be seen in the photos at the source, and there’s one more below. Read more »

Like Panasonic’s new 3D-capable HDC-SDT750 camcorder but don’t want to shell out $1,400 for a brand-new kit? Get a load of this Micro Four Thirds lens. That’s right, Panny’s just announced a interchangeable 3D lens that affixes to the standard Lumix G-series mount, meaning any of the company’s new sub-DSLR shooters could see in stereo with a firmware hack update. Sadly, compatible models are still “to be announced” and even the lens pictured above is just a prototype, but we won’t have too long to wait for the real deal — the Japanese manufacturer says it’ll be on sale by the end of the year. Press release after the break. Read more »

We’ve seen a number of promising Tegra 2 Android tablets at this point, but precious few solid release dates, so forgive us if we’re jumping for joy to hear even an unheard-of German challenger is slated to arrive this holiday season. Should you believe the company’s website, December will see the launch of E-Noa’s Interpad, a 10-inch capacitive multitouch Android 2.1 device with a laundry list of desirable features. €399 (about $518) may seem a bit steep for an Android device, but it buys you a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 T20 chip in a package only a half-inch thin, plus 1GB of DDR2 RAM and 16GB of flash storage (expandable via microSD) to put your PlayStation ROMs in. Connectivity includes 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0 and HDMI out, and it’s all powered by a 3900mAh battery reportedly good for 8-12 hours. If you’re willing to drop a little extra, MobiFlip reports that Android 2.2, GPS, camera and 3G modules will appear in an upgraded version for under €500 ($649), but we don’t want to get you too excited before we can verify the potency of the original, eh? We’re hoping to see it in person at September’s IFA in Berlin. Read more »

MetroPCS Communications has announced the availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8530 smartphone that is said to come with some services plan from the carrier, including an unlimited talk, text, Web and data service, Wi-Fi connectivity, e-mail, and turn-by-turn GPS navigation for just $60/month. The key features of the Curve 8530 include 2 MP camera with 5x digital zoom, 35 key backlit QWERTY, 256 MB internal flash memory, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, 4.5 hours talk time and 10.5 days standby time. The MetroPCS BlackBerry Curve 8530 also offers Messaging capabilities through IM services and BlackBerry (Messenger, as well as social media networks), Access to the latest content such as games, ringtones and wallpapers via the Metro App Store and BlackBerry App World (applications only available through MetroPCS include Metro Navigator), Metro Back-up, and Premium Directory Assistance and Metro Banking.

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You didn’t seriously think the Mac Mini would be spared, did you? The maniacal customizers over at Colorware have added Apple’s latest bit of desktop furniture to their stable of “have it your way” electronics, with a $250 price tag for the paintjob by itself and a $1,000 levy if you want them to procure the hardware as well. Hey, we know that’s expensive, but somebody’s got to be buying all these crazy-hued gadgets for the company to keep going, right? Anyone willing to own up to it? Read more »