Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 15, 2010 by CyberNet.

Windows only
If you’ve ever wanted to do something on a computer without leaving a trace you’ll definitely want to check out the free and portable DemocraKeyX. It is the epitome of anonymity, and includes a variety of tools that you can carry with you to do everything from surfing the web to editing documents in a secure and private way.

What is bundled with DemocraKeyX? Here’s a list of the five various apps along with a description as to how each will help in protecting your anonymity:

• Tor Browser (powered by Firefox) – For anonymous web browsing without using an insecure anonymous proxy
• Clamwin Portable – To check the host computer for viruses, and to clean before surfing anonymously
• Thunderbird Portable – Send anonymous email or encrypted email with Enigmail and GnuPGP
• TrueCrypt – Create hidden volumes and encrypt your files so they are unreadable
• Abiword – View and Edit Documents from your secured directories

After you’ve downloaded DemocraKeyX you can throw it on your USB drive so that you can safely accomplish any of these tasks regardless of what machine you’re on. Plus if you put DemocraKeyX at the root of the drive it will automatically start whenever you throw the USB key in a computer. Pretty nice.

UPDATE: Bad timing on this one guys – they started charging for this software right as our post went live. You can still download the freeware version here.

DemocraKeyX Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Search, browse and buy. Traveling by train is now as easy as buying a song

In the U.S, the only people to ride railway trains are hobos, and tree-hugging hippies taking the Caltrain into San Francisco to work their tech-industry jobs. In the UK, trains are a much used (and outrageously overpriced) way to get around.

The new Train Tickets app from CrossCountry Trains won’t help with the prices, but it makes finding routes and buying tickets a lot easier. You can search on any train journey in the UK and view timetables. You can buy tickets from within the app, and depending on what kind of train you’re taking, you either get an “m-ticket” or you can print a paper ticket using machines at the station.

You don’t even have to sign in to use the app, meaning that you can buy tickets with some amount of anonymity.

I think the idea is fantastic, and all rail networks should do something similar. Unfortunately you can only get the free app from the UK App Store, which cuts out all foreign visitors — people who would surely appreciate such a thing.

And presumably Apple gets its regular 30% cut of ticket prices, which pretty much proves that the existing ticket prices really are too high. I have a request for Gadget Lab readers over in the UK: If you buy a ticket with this app, check your iTunes Store receipt and see if it has any details of your journey on there. It would be ironic indeed if the rail company didn’t have your ticket details, but Apple did.

Train TicketsBy by CrossCountry Trains [iTunes. Thanks, Stephanie!]

Our Train Tickets app [CrossCountry Trains]

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• Crowd-Sourcing iPhone App Live-Tracks NYC Subway Trains …
• Free WiFi comes to British Trains
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Continue reading Nokia N9 begins shipping at not inexpensive prices

Nokia N9 begins shipping at not inexpensive prices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boom! The Social Bomb forces your friends to pay attention to you, instead of something more interesting

The very best thing about a concept design is that you don’t have to explain how it works. It’s like being a kid again, where a pair of toilet paper tubes become a telescope, or an upturned traffic cone becomes the biggest — and therefore best — ice-cream container ever.

So we won’t attempt to peek inside the black box that is Hugo Eccles’ Social Bomb, a “covert device, intended to disable technologies invisibly and without consent.” The idea is that you twist a timer on its top and it will somehow disable any social networking in a 30m (90 foot) radius. Think of it as a TV-Be-Gone, only for Twitter, Facebook and e-mail.

Eccles’ design is part of the Slow Tech exhibition at this year’s London Design Festival, curated by Wallpaper editor-at-large Henrietta Thompson. The idea behind Slow Tech is not just disconnection, but using technology in less obtrusive ways. The Social Bomb might force your friends to listen attentively to your boring anecdotes, but other designs use technology for good, not evil.

Samuel Wilkinson’s Biome, for example, is a Tamagotchi-like terrarium, a real-life bottle of flowers that you nurture using a connected phone app. And Kiwi & Pom’s Flip is an old-fashioned flip-board which will display incoming Tweets and appointments in clackety plastic characters.

I remain somewhat unconvinced. Downtime is important, if only to take a rest, but technology can enhance real life, too. My iPad became a useless chunk of glass and plastic on a recent holiday to Tunisia, thanks to no connectivity, anywhere. Contrast that with a previous vacation with fast 3G access: We were able to explore the nooks and crannies of towns, the pieces of a country that can never be found just by wandering the streets.

Plus, Instagram is like the best vacation photo tool ever. Just sayin’.

Slow Tech [Protein. Thanks, Henrietta!]

See Also:

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Boing boing! Ron Arad’s steel-wheeled bike is totally rideable

If you were to idly doodle a picture bike whilst chatting on the telephone, you might slip from realism into fanciful embellishment. And if your were placed on hold during that call, or if you’d smoked a little something before it, you might come up with something like Ron Arad’s WOW Bike.

Arad’s design is like a fixed-gear 29er rendered coming via your grandmother’s wallpaper. Everything about it is familiar except for those wheels, each fashioned from 18 strips of steel. These strips are bent and pinned to make a kind of chromed chrysanthemum.

The bike was designed for the fancy W hotel chain, and can be ridden by any guest brave enough to do so. Currently the bike is in the Leicester Square branch in London. So how does it ride?

Surprisingly well, says Arad’s design director Marcus Hearst. And he means “surprising” — the design was put together in just two weeks, with no testing, and no real idea of whether the wheels of steel would even work. The result is a softer ride than you’d get on regular wheels, but still quite practical.

The bike will be at the London W until October 29th, after which it will be auctioned. Any Gadget Lab readers who take it for a spin on London’s rain-slicked streets and live to tell the tale should tell us about it in the comments, or just e-mail me direct from your hospital bed.

Soft-Ride Bike Has Steel Tires, And You Can Ride It Now [Fast Code via Jon Fingas]

See Also:

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