Nov 05
In order to make a big impression at an upcoming job fair, electrical engineering student Jay Kickliter created this interactive business card that lights up a flashing ring of LEDs whenever it’s touched. More »
Nov 02
SMS phishing isn’t anything new. It’s been around for some time now, but researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered a vulnerability in Android that could bring back the practice in a big way. The vulnerability affects devices running Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean platforms for Android.
SMS phishing is just like how it sounds. If you downloads an app infected with malware, the app can make it appear as if you’re receiving text messages from someone on your phone’s contact list. Obviously, these fake text messages can solicit personal information from you, such as passwords for user accounts and bank information.
Google has confirmed the vulnerability and has said that a fix will be issued “in a future Android release.” Whether if this will be in an incremental update, such as Android 4.2.1, or even the next major release of Android, like the rumored Android 4.3 Key Lime Pie, isn’t yet known, but it seems Google isn’t too worried about it at this point.
For now, however, the researchers recommend simply just taking extreme caution when downloading and installing apps, especially from unknown sources. Plus, they recommend users pay close attention to text messages and confirm that you’re actually talking to someone you know, rather than a bot that is attempting to steal personal information.
[via Engadget]
Android SMS phishing vulnerability discovered by researchers is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 02
Coder extraordinaire Hexxeh earned much of his reputation from porting Chromium OS to just about everything, some of his targets more audacious than others. It’s about time he come full circle and port a Google platform to another Google platform, and he just recently did that with a very early Chromium OS conversion for the normally Android-based Nexus 7. Details are scarce other than that WiFi and touch input are working, although that’s really all that’s needed for something so web-centric, isn’t it? We’ll cut Hexxeh some slack when he says he’s in no rush to produce a more easily installed build for Jane and Joe Modder — when he mentions spending hours hacking the OS into the tablet just for fun, he probably deserves some leeway.
[Thanks, yo2boy]
Continue reading Hexxeh ports Chromium OS to the Nexus 7 simply because he can (video)
Filed under: Tablets, Software, ASUS, Google
Hexxeh ports Chromium OS to the Nexus 7 simply because he can (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 02:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 30
Holy Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Tetris ported to a jack-o’-lantern (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
What happens when you gut a pumpkin and replace its insides with heat-shrink tubing, solder, 128 LEDs, eight AA batteries, an Arduino board and clever programming? You get what self-proclaimed tinkerer Nathan Pryor calls “Pumpktris.” Over the years we’ve seen the classic puzzle game Tetris ported to some amazing things, but a piece of fruit? Just in time for Halloween, this high-tech spin on the jack-o’-lantern features a fully playable Tetris game controlled from the pumpkin’s joystick stem. Whether you’re a hardcore do-it-yourselfer, or a diehard Tetris fan hoping to top the system’s high score (9,800 points), you can build your very own Pumpktris. Of course, its creator estimates it’ll take around 12 hours or longer to build the custom LED matrix and joystem and carve up the gourd of your choice. If you’re up to the challenge, you can find a complete walkthrough of the project at the source link below. However, if you’d just like to see this quasi-organic gaming rig in action, check out the groovy video after the break.
Continue reading Holy Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Tetris ported to a jack-o’-lantern (video)
Holy Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Tetris ported to a jack-o’-lantern (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 28
Invisible’s ‘The New Obsolete’ showcases self-constructed instruments, touts a typewriter-driven piano (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
If you’re hip to repurposing old tech for new inventions, Invisible is right up your alley. The Greensboro-based unit calls themselves a “mechanical music museum” and “a reverse engineered folk science daydream” when describing their elaborate set of sound-making contraptions and recycled video equipment. The outfit’s effort The New Obsolete was part of the Moogfest happenings this weekend, and our curiosity was immediately piqued. This particular performance is labeled as “an exploded view of the strange romance between humans and technology.”
Among all of the self-constructed instruments is the Selectric Piano: a typewriter that uses both computer and piano parts to control a keyboard. Each keystroke by the typist corresponds to a note added to collective soundscape and a mounted video camera allows the audience to keep tabs on the textual component. The project also showcases an object known as Elsewhere’s Roof. The device controls a set of drum and percussion tools with water dropping into a few rather hi-tech Mason jars. In addition to arsenal of noise makers, multi-channel video and library of collected audio (via tape decks and turntables, of course) rounds out the lot. We were able to catch one of the stellar showings, so hit the gallery below for a look at the wares while a snippet of the action awaits beyond the break.
Gallery: Invisible: The New Obsolete
Invisible’s ‘The New Obsolete’ showcases self-constructed instruments, touts a typewriter-driven piano (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 24
Today book retailer Barnes & Noble confirmed that 63 of their retail stores have been compromised with tampered PIN pads. We originally reported the breaking news earlier this morning, but the company completed an internal investigation today that revealed one PIN pad in each of the 63 stores were tampered with, and that customers who used a credit or debit card on the machines were at risk of stolen personal information.
According to the company, the PIN pads were implanted with “bugs” that allowed the recording of credit card information and debit card PINs. Barnes & Noble ended up disconnecting all of its PIN pads on September 14, and is now only allowing credit card purchases directly through their cash registers for the time being.
Barnes & Noble says that the tampering affected only about 1% of all the company’s PIN pads around the US, and the 63 stores affected are only in a handful of states, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. To see if your local store was one of the affected locations, check out the full list of all 63 stores.
Barnes & Noble is urging customers who have swiped their cards at the affected locations to change their debit card PINs as a precaution, as well as keeping an eye on credit card statements for fraudulent charges. However, the company notes that their database hasn’t been breached, and purchases made elsewhere aren’t affected.
Barnes & Noble lists 63 stores affected by PIN hack is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Oct 22
Googler loads Ubuntu on an ARM-based Samsung Chromebook, gives solace to the offline among us
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Samsung’s ARM-running Chromebook is barely out of the starting gate, and it’s already being tweaked to run without as much of an online dependency. By a Google employee, no less. Not content to rely solely on Chrome OS, Olof Johansson has loaded Ubuntu on the Chromebook by partitioning an SD card, mixing OS components and booting from USB. The technique unsurprisingly requires being more than a little comfortable with a Linux command line as well as playing fast and loose with the warranty. It also won’t be cheap or quick — commenters note that you’ll ideally have a partitioning-friendly SD card, and running a desktop OS from a slower kind of flash storage creates an inherent bottleneck. Anyone who likes the Chromebook’s $249 price, but isn’t as enraptured with the cloud as most of the team in Mountain View, might still want to try Johansson’s step-by-step process for themselves.
Filed under: Laptops, Software, Samsung, Google
Googler loads Ubuntu on an ARM-based Samsung Chromebook, gives solace to the offline among us originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 19
The words ‘vinyl’ and ‘toy’ should never have been put side by side. At least not when it comes to describing those plastic miniature sculptures that are most often used as cubicle decor. But we’ll make an exception for Hannes Hummel’s Super Gigan, which has a tiny playable NES for a head. More »
Oct 17
For really no other reason than they could (and to probably sell booze) the folks over at Robofun created an Arduino-powered computer keyboard that uses cans of Staropramen beer instead of plastic keys. Users at the Webstock conference where it was unveiled simply had to gently tap each can like they were using an on-screen keyboard to register a keystroke. More »
Oct 11
Google patches SVG and IPC exploits in Chrome, discoverer banks $60,000 in the process
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Google revels in hacking contests as ways of testing Chrome’s worth. Even if the browser is compromised, the failure provides a shot at fixing an exploit under much safer circumstances than an in-the-wild attack. No better example exists than the results of Google’s Pwnium 2 challenge in Malaysia: the company has already patched vulnerabilities found in the contest that surround SVG images and IPC (inter-process communication) before they become real problems. Staying one step ahead of truly malicious hackers carries a price, however. Pwnium 2 winner Pinkie Pie — yes, Pinkie Pie — is being paid $60,000 in prize money for catching the exploits. That may be a small price to pay if it reassures a few more Internet Explorer users looking to hop the fence.
Google patches SVG and IPC exploits in Chrome, discoverer banks $60,000 in the process originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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