Hasta La Gadget!

Say what you will about traditional media and the continually shrinking size of print magazines, but we’ve got some proof right here that good ‘ol pulp still has a lot of life left. French publishing house les éditions volumiques has been doing research into new and… interesting ways to use the print medium and to combine it with mobile devices. The company’s site is like a playground for bookistas, with short videos showing off all sorts of wondrous things. One project is The book that disappears, a volume printed on reactive paper that turns black after 20 minutes. Another is The Night of the Living Dead Pixels, a graphic novel (shown above) that allows you to choose your path, with terminal pages featuring QR codes that trigger videos on your smartphone. There’s a board game that uses iPhones for pawns, and even a book that turns its own pages. All are demonstrated at the company’s site (in Flash, so watch out for Steve), and most are destined to actually see print by the end of the year. We’ve already made room on our bookshelves.

Boutique publishing house les éditions volumiques shows us that print is far, far from dead originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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if you feel like going through the process of typing in your PIN every time you unlock your iPhone is worth it thanks to the unconquerable security it implies, you might want to read this report from Bernd Marienfeldt about the chosen one’s security model. Yes, a PIN will keep casual users from picking up your phone and making a call with it, or firing off an e-mail to your co-workers saying that you’re quitting and becoming an exotic dancer, but it won’t keep someone from accessing all your data. Bernd and fellow security guru Jim Herbeck have discovered that plugging even a fully up-to-date, non-jailbroken iPhone 3GS into a computer running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx allows nearly full read access to the phone’s storage — even when it’s locked. The belief is that they’re just a buffer overflow away from full write access as well, which would surely open the door to making calls. Bernd believes the iPhone’s lack of data encryption for content is a real problem, and also cites the inability to digitally sign e-mails as reasons why the iPhone is still not ready for prime time in the enterprise.

[Thanks, Amit]

iPhone vulnerability leaves your data wide open, even when using a PIN originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 06:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starting Tuesday, Wal-Mart is knocking the price of the 16GB iPhone 3GS to its lowest price offer yet: $97.

That’s a savings of $100 when the iPhone is purchased new with a two-year contract. Not only is that the lowest price that Wal-Mart has offered, but it’s the lowest price on the handset in the U.S.

The 32GB version is still $297. Apple sells the 8GB version for $99, but it’s not currently available through Apple’s online store. This deal is only available in Wal-Mart stores and not online.

PCMag gave the iPhone 3GS a 4.5 out of 5 rating and an Editors’ Choice award. Read the Apple iPhone 3GS review for more information.

Wal-Mart started selling the Apple iPhone in December 2008.

Hear that? It’s the sound of your iPhone 3GS becoming rapidly obsolete. Apple today announced that it will be opening its annual World Wide Developer Conference with a keynote from Steve Jobs.

Jobs will take the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Monday, June 7 at 10am

No word on exactly what Jobs will use the platform to announce, but the smart money is on the final version of the 4th-generation iPhone, prototypes of which seem to have been showing up all over the place in the past couple months.

The event, which is targeted at Apple developers, sold out in eight days. It features “five key technology tracks,” including Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS. For the last couple of years, however, the key draw for the general public is the announcement of the latest version of the iPhone.

As our extensive KIRF library shows, China’s one wild country that can make almost anything you don’t want, so don’t mind us while we inspect this new finding with extra caution. This particular Chinese online seller not only claims to have parts for the next-gen iPhone, but also one white face plate — something not seen on iPhones thus far. While we drool over the thought of an all white Apple handheld, there are still questions to be answered here: the seller wasn’t able to explain what that silver bit above the speaker is, nor have we seen white back plates to match this. Furthermore, we were given a “maybe” for a bulk order of 15 to 20 units, which is quite a lot for something that’s not even out yet, but we were told over the phone that there’s always a back door to Foxconn as long as you wave cash at someone. Not that you should engage in such risky business, plus this piece’s authenticity will be revealed in about three weeks’ time, anyway. One more shot after the break.

[Thanks, Francesco]

Continue reading White front plate looks all set and ready for next-gen iPhone, or not

White front plate looks all set and ready for next-gen iPhone, or not originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 16:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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