Cable Spies

Remember the Nintendo 64? How about how awesome James Bond Golden Eye was and still is? Well if you have an old N64 sitting around collecting dust this DIY video from Revision3 will show you how to make a portable N64 that you can take anywhere. He combined his N64 with a small screen and battery powered unit and put it in this easy to view video that guides you along to help you make the same cool contraption. Now if only someone could make a portable PlayStation.

-Ray

[Source: engadget]

Is your gloomy tech ridden apartment in need of some color? How about a flower vase with fresh daisies? How about this STC wireless router that is also a flower vase that you can put fresh flowers from your rose garden in? Not only will this wireless router liven up your pad but it supports Wi-Fi, wired DSL and VoIP too. Saudi Telecom though that more geeks were in need of a flower vase that also connects people to the Internet. You can actually put water in the vase and put flowers of your choosing so it makes a perfect gift for the girlfriend! If there was a way to hide all those unsightly cables and for us to actually get a girlfriend to give this thing to then it’d be perfect!

-Ray

[Source: thegadgetblog]

Have you ever lost your USB thumb drive filled with your resume, passwords, and naughty pictures? Were you scared that the information would fall into the wrong hands? Well Ironkey solved that problem for you. Introducing their new USB thumb drive that holds up to 8 GB of data while introducing a new encryption chip that scrambles the data to become unreadable without a password. Not only does it scramble the data, but after 10 incorrect password attempts, the encryption chip self-destructs along with all the data in the flash drive. Ironkey made sure to make this USB thumb drive the most secure as the data in the drive are filled with epoxy. So this prevents the hacker from physically accessing the chip as he or she will most likely damage the chip. And if for some reason they got to the memory chips, they would be useless without the encryption chip. They even made the flash drive electron-shielded in order to prevent electron microscopes from entering. Your data, and more importantly your passwords, are securely stored in the hardware-encrypted area of the device, being first locally encrypted with 256-bit AES, using randomly generated keys encrypted with a SHA-256 hash of your device password. All of this data is then doubly encrypted with 128-bit AES hardware encryption. Basically it is impossible to hack. The USB thumb drive also includes the following features:

IronKey - The Bottom-Line

• Fast 30MBPS Read, 20MBPS Write
• Drive contents encrypted with AES CBC-Mode Encryption
• Onboard IronKey Password-manager keeps all your internet passwords safe
• Secure version of Firefox included that encrypts all your web-surfing traffic
• Encased in a potted metal case, not plastic, making it one of the strongest USB keys around
• Exceeds MIL-STD-810F military waterproofing standards
• The encryption chip self-destructs if an invasive attack is detected
• If your Ironkey is lost, you can restore from a secure backup to a new Ironkey in minutes
• Dual channel SLC NAND Flash for high-quality and read/write speeds
• Works great in Windows XP and Windows Vista, Linux and Mac OS X. Linux and Mac support requires Windows initialization, first.
• Sorry - due to export restrictions, we cannot ship outside the US and Canada.

Ironkey provided us with a demo. Click here to check it out. A price tag and release date has yet to be announced.

- Geoff

[Source: ThinkGeek]

It is quite funny to see where our priority lies as a society. We spend hundred of billions of dollars in weaponry, yet our government refuses to invest in its own citizens and invest in solutions to our problems at home. According to a report, the Pentagon is planning to spend $22 million on research for a Guided Bullet technology. Darpa, which is the Defense Department’s research arm, announced two contracts in which they will be developing a super, .50-caliber sniper rifle that will house guided bullets. The $22 million budget was distributed to Lockheed Martin and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, with Lockheed Martin receiving $12.3 million and Teledyne receiving $9.5 million. Darpa released the following statement:

“The use of an actively controlled bullet will make it possible to counter environmental effects such as crosswinds and air density, and prosecute both stationary and moving targets while enhancing shooter covertness. This capability would have the further benefit of providing increased accuracy and range while reducing training requirements.”

Now this is sad to hear. There are many people out there who are losing their jobs and their homes and millions more still do not have health insurance. Yet our government still has the audacity to pump more money into our defense system, which is by the way the most advance in the world. And to say this is all for national security is bogus. We possess the most active warheads in the world. I feel that the government should be more concerned about our problems here at home.

- Geoff

[Source: Wired]

The motherboard of the next Xbox 360 has been revealed. From leaks we can see a few unannounced features such as a 65nm graphics unit a new south bridge and 256MB of flash memory for internal storage. This will allow you to store XLBA games, same game info and store other information. No word on when this new and improved Xbox 360 is due out, stay tuned for any more info.

-Ray

[Source: gizmodo]

Are you one of those gamers who have too many peripherals, you just don’t know what to do with yourself? Well Sony has developed a new double AC adapter to help hardcore gamers charge all their peripherals. The double AC adapter is Playstation-branded, but it does not only work on Playstation 3 peripherals. Other non-Playstation peripherals can be charged with this double AC adapter, granted it has the right cables. The Sony double AC adapter will be available in December and will cost you around $25.

- Geoff

[Source: Gizmodo]

Toshiba has joined Sandisk in the memory card wars and have released a few of their own. Toshiba released a 16GB microSDHC card as well as a 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards with a maximum write speed of 20MB/s, which is pretty darn good. These new memory cards from Toshiba are aimed at DSLR camera and cell phone users and should be out in the next two to three months.

-Ray

[Source: gizmodo]

When Nintendo announced that their Wii Speak microphone peripheral will come with a one-time code to use for the “Wii Speak” download, many Wii fans were made because the one-time code will, in effect, make the Wii Speak microphone useless. Thus it would be impossible to trade it in. Now Nintendo has decided that they will allow customers to trade in their Wii Speak, even without the code. How it works is that consumers would have to call their local Nintendo Customer Services department, and they will give you a replaceable Wii Download Ticket number. Wii fans must love to hear that.

- Geoff

[Source: EuroGamer]

It has been announced that tomorrow, all Sony PlayStation 3 gaming consoles will be getting a new firmware update. Version 2.53 will not have much it though. It will add a full screen Adobe Flash support for web browsing. Although this may not be exciting PS3 news, hopefully the PS3 will be getting those price cuts. Look for the firmware update tomorrow and remember to come back and let us know what you think.

- Geoff

[Source: Gizmodo]

Just the other day we reported that the HP Mini 1000 supports 3G now it has been released that the Dell Mini 9 an HSDPA/EDGE 3G option. The option is priced at $125 with $120 of it being refundable with a 2-year AT&T contract at $60 a month. The XP versions of the Mini 9 will be able to upgrade to the Dell Wireless 5530 HSDPA internal Mini-card as well from Ericsson. These prices are bit a steep, but expect them to fall when 3G become more popular in notebooks.

-Ray

[Source: gizmodo]