Hasta La Gadget!

Well folks, after a long week, we’re back from CES 2013. We covered a lot of stuff during our time there, and while you can find all of our coverage by navigating to our CES portal, we’ve also put together a few wrap-ups that bring together the most impressive of what we saw. First up for the day was our PC and Windows 8 wrap-up, which was shortly followed by our Android CES wrap-up, and then finally our gaming wrap-up. Considering the massive amount of news that came out of CES, you might be thinking that the number of wrap-ups seems a little low. You’d be right – we’ve got more wrap-ups coming this weekend, so sit back and watch as we recap all of the biggest stories to hit during the show.

Of course, the news and rumors never stop, and with one show behind us, it’s time to begin looking toward the next one, with new whispers claiming that Huawei will unveil a new 8-core processor and a new P-Series phone at MWC 2013. The HTC M7 and Sense 5 UI suffered another leak today, and we heard that Facebook is testing a new $100 charge to message strangers. The CST-01 watch hit its Kickstarter funding goal in just 48 hours, with HP and Lenovo facing a tough battle in the PC sales space in Q4 2012.

The Lenovo IdeaTab A2107 has landed at AT&T for $199, and iOS hacker Pod2g has launched PodDJ for iPad. Nokia has confirmed that HTTPS traffic is temporarily decrypted on its servers, and a new Windows RT jailbreak is getting some potential Surface homebrewers excited. There’s also new hack that could turn Cisco desk phones into a way to secretly listen in on conversations you probably shouldn’t be hearing, which is very unsettling news indeed.

The Nexus 4 is getting updates to Jelly Bean 4.2.2 in some countries, and Mojang said today that Minecraft sold more than 15 million copies across all platforms in 2012. Black Ops II was unsurprisingly declared the best-selling game of 2012, while the Xbox 360 has the distinction of being the best-selling console for two years running. Of course, we have plenty of hands-on posts from CES 2013 that went up today, including looks at the Pentax MX-1 digital camera, the Moen MotionSense Touch-Free Faucet, a pair of Galaxy S III cases from Pelican, Ion Scratch 2, Vizio’s new Windows 8 Tablet, and finally, the company’s upcoming Windows 8 all-in-ones and notebooks. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the weekend everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: January 11, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you work in an office that uses one of the various Cisco branded IP phones, word has surface about a hack that might make you uncomfortable. Reports have indicated that Internet phones sold by Cisco Systems are vulnerable to hacks that can turn them into remote bugging devices allowing nefarious sorts to eavesdrop on calls and conversations close to the phone. Cisco warned about the flaw this week.

Cisco’s warning came after security experts demonstrated how people that have physical access to the phone could execute malicious code allowing eavesdropping. Cisco plans to release a software patch later this month to plug the security hole. The vulnerability has been confirmed to affect several models of desk phones in the CiscoUnified IP Phone 7900 series.

Cisco has also confirmed that the security vulnerability can be exploited remotely over a corporate network. However, Cisco has already issued workarounds that makes those attacks more difficult to execute. The security researchers who discovered the vulnerability are Ang Cui and Salvatore Solfo from Columbia University’s engineering department.

Details of the vulnerability were presented at the 29th Chaos Communications Congress. The hack was demonstrated using a device that connects to the local serial port of the Cisco phone. Once the device was attached to the phone it was able to inject attack code giving the attacker control over the device. The attack allows the hacker to monitor phone calls and turn on the phone’s microphone unbeknownst to people nearby. Cisco has promised to rewrite the underlying firmware to eliminate this vulnerability. Check out the video below to see the researchers outlining the hack.

[via ArsTechnica]

Hack turns Cisco desk phones into remote listening devices is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Cox Communications continued to build on its investment in live TV streaming, unveiling its latest mobile app at a CES presser. Developed in partnership with Cisco, the yet unnamed app will feature 90 live channels, On Demand content and personalized video recommendations for up to eight household members. Folks who don’t quite feel the recommendations they receive will also be able to “like,” “dislike” or “suspend” them. Cox apparently plans to place its proverbial eggs into this one basket, eventually integrating all its mobile applications into the app. Cox has been busy releasing all sorts of digital offerings in the last few years, including the Cox TV Connect app in late 2011 as well as its Cox Mobile Connect apps. The new app is slated to debut on the iPad first but will be available on more devices by the end of the year. For more details, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Cox doubles down on live streaming with new TV app

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

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Source: Cox Communications

Looking backwards, the automobile of today looks almost superintelligent. While some of us may have expected (read: hoped for) the flying car by 2013 and, sure, the internal combustion engine still reigns, the majority of vehicles today are basically computers on wheels. The average car today has around 50 microprocessors, give or take. But, given how quickly automotive technology is advancing, it’s clear that we’re just beginning to scratch the surface. Hell, California recently legalized road-testing of autonomous cars, and Sergey Brin thinks self-driving cars will be on public roads in the next five years.

Today, Cisco and NXP Semiconductors announced their intention to join the smart car bandwagon and help push automotive technology forward. The companies this morning announced a dual investment in Cohda Wireless, an Australian developer of hardware and software solutions for connected vehicles that allow cars to wirelessly communicate with one another (and with infrastructure) to prevent collisions — among other things.

The investment and strategic partnership essentially aims to bring the “Internet of Everything” to the automotive industry in the hopes of building a safer driving experience, reducing traffic congestion, collisions, runaway Priuses, curbing bad drivers and so on. By making car communication systems faster and more responsive — in a word, smarter — Cohda believes it can potentially prevent over 80 percent of crash scenarios, reducing injuries and fatalities on the road along the way.

In turn, Cohda is also enabling so-called “car-to-infrastructure” communication, which, in conjunction with in-car apps, attempt lower greenhouse gas emissions by changing traffic patterns, alerting drivers of hazards, like oncoming collisions, nearby out-of-control vehicles and by re-routing them to avoid traffic congestion. Via radio technology and smart sensors, car-to-infrastructure comms can enable cars to communicate with smart devices, allowing traffic signals to alert cars that the upcoming light is about to change, for example. Saving you from embarrassment and from causing a 10-car pileup because you were scanning your playlist and didn’t notice the change.

Of course, to work at scale these types of connected-car communications require sophisticated and secure data exchange between moving vehicles, whether in the city or in Podunk — in other words, in a variety of conditions. Yet, while the technology has an array of potential applications and implications, these inter-communications systems are naturally more effective the more vehicles (and anything else for that matter) integrate the technology.

So, to help get the tech on the roads, Cohda has enlisted a dozen European carmakers which have agreed to install its solutions into various lines beginning in 2015 and is currently testing integration in Detroit with eight U.S. carmakers.

While the companies remained silent on the size of their investment in Cohda, it likely isn’t chump change and was enough to bring three mature companies (and two giants) together in a strategic partnership with plans to collaborate in an effort to bring the solutions to market.

While NXP brings its semiconductor and chip tech that’s used in smart automotive, industrial, mobile and wireless applications (it’s also the co-inventor of NFC, along with Sony) and Cohda brings the software and hardware that make advanced radio communication possible, Cisco is leveraging its networking prowess to help supply the Internet. Over the last few years, Cisco has become increasingly interested in enabling the wired car, even creating a separate division dedicated to investing in and developing connected vehicle technologies.

In conversation with the WSJ, NXP’s general manager of car entertainment Torsten Lehmann said that NXP and Cisco put in a lot of due diligence and both concluded that “Cohda’s technology is by far the best.” Throwing their weight behind Cohda, the networking and semiconductor giants are on a mission to help the startup bring its technology to market. And for drivers, that should be great news — even if they have to wait.

More in the announcement here.

Top image source: U.S. Department of Transportation

We get the impression China isn’t very happy that the names of Huawei and ZTE are being dragged through the mud in the US. Almost directly mirroring some American stances, state-backed Chinese media outlets such as China Economy & Informatization and People’s Daily are raising alarm bells over Cisco’s presence in a large amount of local network infrastructure, alleging that it’s a potential backdoor for espionage; CE&I goes so far as to cite purported experts insisting that the US government could take over Chinese communications in a crisis. China Unicom is acting on the threat by phasing out Cisco gear, the magazine says. Other allegations point to 72 members of Congress possibly being influenced by their Cisco shares and the ever-controversial Patriot Act aiding any nefarious plans. Given the publications’ ultimate benefactors, the chances of politics skewing the agenda are high — although the collective stance underscores just how much tension has surfaced ever since Chinese tech giants got the evil eye.

Filed under: Networking

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Via: Tech in Asia, The Register

Source: Sina (1), (2), People’s Daily