Hasta La Gadget!

Love Amazon’s renowned two-day shipping? How about organic eats and other miscellaneous environment-friendly products? If so, then today’s your very lucky day. Adding to the endless list of shopping sites it already owns, Amazon has just introduced Vine.com; a site which aims to be a one-stop web store for folks looking to snag anything from organic ingredients to beauty products like all-natural shaving oils and Kiss My Face foam soaps — and yes, as we stated earlier, there’s an option to get that speedy two-day delivery service. While chatting with Bits Blog, a Vine representative said the goal isn’t “necessarily about saving the planet,” but that his team does “feel the products are useful in that regard.” Currently Vine.com is live in beta form, though that doesn’t mean folks interested can’t go browse around and order some goodies — to do that, give the source link below a quick tap.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

Amazon launches Vine.com for shoppers who live life on the ‘green’ edge originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This gadget is quite old in Internet Age, but the concept behind it is sound. If you find yourself playing “Where’s the Keyhole?” when you come to your home at night, you’re either drunk, a character in a horror flick that’s about to die or it’s just too damn dark at your doorstep. The Locklite can help with that last bit.

Made by True Utility, the Locklite is simply an LED in a rubber case. You then attach it to a round-headed key using the included two-piece steel casing. Unfortunately if you don’t have a round key, it’s not of much use.

Below is a demo video made by I Want One of Those:

Yesterday we talked about a huge hack that made its way to some Samsung devices, in which visiting a link that contained a line of malicious code would automatically send your phone into factory wipe mode without it being stopped. However, it looks like this hack isn’t just isolated to Samsung devices. It turns out the hack was able to be replicated on HTC, Motorola, and Sony devices as well.

Thankfully, the exploit has been patched on the Galaxy S III, but the bad news is that it’s not just limited to Samsung devices. It’s been reported that the hack is working on the HTC One X, HTC Desire, Motorola Defy, Sony Xperia Active, and the Sony Xperia Arc S.

So, what’s the problem exactly? It turns out the hack goes through the Android dialer, which supports specialized strings of characters that can do things from displaying your phone’s IMEI code to factory wiping the device. If a device is vulnerable to the hack, the dialer treats these special characters the same as a regular phone number, which can allow a website to factory wipe a phone without the user’s permission.

Luckily, a website has been put together where users can see if their Android device is vulnerable to the hack. As with any new service that can’t quite be trusted yet, use it at your own risk! And until your phone manufacturer patches the exploit, it may be a good idea to download and install an alternative dialer just to be safe.

[via The Next Web]

Remote wipe hack not limited to Samsung devices is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It has been frequently rumored in the past that Apple has been considering the use of carbon fiber in its products. Such rumors were on a temporary halt, thanks to the iPhone 5 launch, but it seems that they are back.

The Cupertino-based company is yet again rumored to be looking into the option of carbon fiber use for its future products. According to reports, sources close to Apple have revealed that the company has ordered samples of carbon fiber products. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5 prank tells it as it is, DIY nano SIM card for unlocked iPhone 5,

The Wikipad is an anomaly. It’s a 10.1-inch, $500 Android tablet aimed squarely at gamers — an expensive portal to a platform many mobile game developers have abandoned due to piracy. It’s got an IPS display with 1,280 x 800 resolution, an NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30 quad-core 1.4GHz processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (at launch). So … it’s not quite as sharp in the graphics department as some other tablets on the market, nor is it as pretty as its main handheld gaming competition, the PlayStation Vita. On top of that, it’s from an engineering firm that you’ve never heard of — Wikipad is also the name of the business behind the tablet, and this is the company’s first product launch. Oh, and did we mention that the main selling point is an attachable game controller that frames half the tablet in a mess of plastic buttons, joysticks, and speakers? And no, the controller won’t be sold separately, nor will it work with any other tablet.

Defying all logic, however, the Wikipad feels like a surprisingly solid piece of equipment (regardless of the fact that the prototype model we used was hand-built). From the light but solid construction of the tablet’s chassis, to its grippy molded rear — which helps both for gripping the tablet without the controller attached and assists sound amplification when the device is laid down — nothing about the device feels cheap. As a tablet, it’s speedy and responsive. Apps load quickly and smoothly, and it’s got extra loud speakers for gaming without headphones (or for David Guetta, as was demonstrated to us). The custom skin it was running felt a bit rough — the apps get reorganized with a gaming focus and slapped onto a flippable cube, which caused some visual stuttering from pane to pane. Another feature of the custom OS is a special 3D game launcher, which includes sections for Nvidia’s Tegra Zone, PlayStation Mobile games, GameStop-suggested titles, and Google Play. There are some less than exciting ad banners attached to this launcher, but they’re easily ignorable. Though Gaikai is still working with the Wikipad post-Sony buyout, CEO James Bower told us the game streaming service won’t be there at launch — he’s hoping it’ll arrive by year’s end, “but that’s up to Sony.”

Continue reading Hands-on with Wikipad, the $500 Android gaming tablet (video)

Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile

Hands-on with Wikipad, the $500 Android gaming tablet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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