Hasta La Gadget!

We admit, we’re pretty jaded when it comes to PC casemods, having seen everything from the inscrutable Edelweiss to Russian Ark of the Covenant-like monstrosities. Jeffrey Stephenson, though, charmed us with his wood-carved Level Eleven case, and now he’s back with Usonian, inspired by the work of famed Fallingwater architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Split-level cantilevered roofs made of teak, mahogany highlights, all that Cherokee Red and Covered Wagon coloring – it’s enough to make an architecture nerd swoon. Beneath all that fine styling it sports an Intel Core i7-875K on a Gigabyte Mini-ITX motherboard, with 8GB system memory. There’s a 256GB SSD along with a 2TB hard drive, so it’s not just built for looks; Wright, after all, emphasized utility over pointless fashion. Still, it’s very pretty to look at. More pics in the source link and after the break.

Continue reading PC modding takes an architectural twist with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian

PC modding takes an architectural twist with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already had some success getting Netflix for Android up and running on an officially unsupported phone (a Droid X), but those not able to get it to work simply by transferring and installing the .APK now have another option. As some folks on XDA and Reddit have discovered, you can apparently just edit a few system settings to make your phone (or Nook Color, for that matter) think it’s actually an HTC G2, which is apparently all it takes to satisfy the Netflix app. It doesn’t work with every phone, of course, but quite a few seem to have had success with it. Unfortunately for some, you’ll also need to first root your phone in order to make those changes, but the steps are fairly simple once you’ve done that. Hit up the links below for all the details, and let us know how it worked out for you in the comments below. Just remember: when in doubt, back up.

Workaround brings Netflix to more (rooted) Android users originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google spent a lot of time yesterday talking up WebGL, but UK security firm Context seems to think users should disable the feature because it poses a serious security threat, and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is encouraging people to heed that advice. According to Context, a malicious site could pass code directly to a computer’s GPU and trigger a denial of service attack or simply crash the machine. Ne’er-do-wells could also use WebGL and the Canvas element to pull image data from another domain, which could then be used as part of a more elaborate attack. Khronos, the group that organizes the standard, responded by pointing out that there is an extension available to graphics card manufacturers that can detect and protect against DoS attacks, but it did little to satisfy Context — the firm argues that inherent flaws in the design of WebGL make it very difficult to secure.

Now, we’re far from experts on the intricacies of low-level hardware security but, for the moment at least, there seems to be little reason for the average user to panic. There’s even a good chance that you’re not vulnerable at all since WebGL won’t run on many Intel and ATI graphics chips (you can check by clicking here). If you’re inclined to err on the side of caution you can find instructions for disabling WebGL at the more coverage link — but come on, living on the cutting edge wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun if it didn’t involve a bit of danger.

[Thanks, Tony]

WebGL flaw leaves GPU exposed to hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoops. If you’ll recall, Sony held what can only be described as an emergency press event in Japan a week ago in order to issue a number of assurances about the resumption of service as it relates to the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. Seven days later, things are still as dead as they were pre-Cinco de Mayo. This evening, the company’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications Patrick Seybold punched out a quick update to let the world know that they could actually leave the house and find something else to entertain ’em — like it or not, PSN isn’t coming back online today. The reason? On May 1st, Sony was apparently “unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers,” and now, it’s spinning its wheels in order to restore security on the network and “ensure” that user data is safe. Mr. Seybold seems to understand that you’re overly anxious about getting back into the swing of things, and he’s even going so far as to ask your trust that Sony’s doing “everything [it] can” to get the lights blinking once more. Oh, and if you were planning on visiting that source link just to find the new ETA… don’t. Sony’s planning to update you “as soon as it can.”

[Thanks, Alex]

Sony misses promised PlayStation Network and Qriocity restoration date, begs for more patience originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 May 2011 03:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple released iOS 4.3.3 on Wednesday, but as it did with 4.3.2, neglected to patch the untethered jailbreak exploit in redsn0w 0.9.6rc9 (since updated to rc15). Looks like that’s a hat trick for the iPhone Dev Team. The hack works with most devices (even the Apple TV), but there’s still no solution for iPad 2 owners — we’re sure that the underground powers that be are hard at work searching for holes that Apple overlooked. Installation instructions remain unchanged, so if you’ve been eager to get your iPhone tracking fix on without bricking your device, grab the latest IPSW and head over to our source link for the download links.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

redsn0w untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.3.1 works with 4.3.3, still no iPad 2 support originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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