Hasta La Gadget!

Getting enough hydration while you’re in the middle of some strenuous workout or physical activity is important. However, a lot of people I know find having to carry a water bottle a hassle, since they also have to bring their keys, cash, cards, and other essentials with them.

A neat solution? The Kangaroo water bottle.

It looks like a regular old water bottle, but it’s actually got this handy plastic ‘pouch’ that pops open to reveal a secret compartment where you can store all your other essentials. There isn’t that much space, but it’s big enough to store the stuff that you absolutely have to take with you if your bottle is all you’re going to carry – like when you go running or something. There’s definitely enough room for a key some cash and a credit card or ID, plus 24 ounces or H2O, of course.

Kangaroo bottles are available online from Contigo for $12.99 each.

[via Gizmag]

Back before smartphones came along and made our lives easier, when we hit the open road we had to—hahahahaha—print out directions. Sometimes, if you can believe it, we used physical maps made of paper. Now that epic road trip you take is even easier to plan and execute with Roadtripper’s iPhone app. More »

It’s fun to dream about where you want to travel next, but it’s even better to actually go on a trip. There’s a lot of planning that goes into a vacation—flights, hotels, cars, reservations, etc.—and now you can take care of at least two of those in Expedia’s new app. More »

I’ve seen what seems like a million-and-one iPhone docks over the years – some good, some bad, and some just plain weird, but most of them have one thing in common – they aren’t particularly portable. Stycom’s Dock Card doesn’t have this problem.

At just 2.1″(w) x 3.3″(d) x 0.2″(h), this compact dock can easily fold down and fit in your pocket. When opened up, it can work in either landscape or portrait mode, and has a pop-up 30-pin dock connector. That little red part is a short cable which can be connected to your iPhone’s wall charger or your computer’s USB port.

It’s even got a little drawer with enough room to store an SD card, a spare SIM and a SIM removal tool. Pretty nifty, eh?

They’re available in three colors: white with red accents, red with white accents, and black with silver accents.

So what’s not to like? Well I can only come up with one thing – there’s no 8-pin Lightning connector version (yet), so those of us with the iPhone 5 or the latest iPod Touch are out of luck for now. But if you happen to have an iPhone 3/3GS/4/4S or an earlier iPod Touch, head on over to Amazon, where you can buy the Stycom Dock Card for $29.99(USD).

Security flaws in how airline boarding passes encode passenger approval information could open a loophole for terrorists, researchers have warned, after exploring the barcodes printed on US passes. Data on whether individual passengers have been cleared for the US PreCheck system is included in the barcode on the boarding documents, with Puckinflight highlighting that such information can be extracted using smartphone scanning apps. With it, passengers can discover whether they’ll be allowed to go through security without removing shoes and other clothing, and leaving items such as toiletries and laptops in their bags.

“The problem is, the passenger and flight information encoded in barcode is not encrypted in any way. Using a web site I decoded my boarding pass for my upcoming trip” Puckinflight’s John Butler writes. “[The information is] all there, PNR, seat assignment, flight number, name, ect. But what is interesting is the bolded three on the end. This is the TSA Pre-Check information. The number means the number of beeps. 1 beep no Pre-Check, 3 beeps yes Pre-Check.  On this trip as you can see I am eligible for Pre-Check.  Also this information is not encrypted in any way.”

While using a smartphone app could allow travelers to preview whether they’ll be allowed through PreCheck or not at the airport, the more worrying possibility is that online check-in could allow terrorists to actually amend the barcode so as to change their security status. A simple barcode generator could be used to switch the PreCheck value to indicate lower security was required.

PreCheck inclusion is either via random selection or, for a fee of $100 to the US customs agency for pre-approval, each time you fly over a five year period. Some airlines throw in PreCheck membership as a perk for frequent flyers

Butler suggests that security systems should check to see if the barcode has been tampered by online check-in users, validating it with the version airlines have on record. Alternatively, the PreCheck data could be encrypted, making it harder to decode from the boarding pass and then re-generate.

The TSA has declined to comment on the security loophole.

[via BBC]

Boarding pass barcodes open airport security loophole fears is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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