Hasta La Gadget!

It’s no secret that Apple’s been keen to monitor the lot of naughty jailbreakers, but it turns out the company has recently shelved iOS 4.0’s jailbreak detection API with no explanation given. While this has little effect on the average user, Network World explains that this is bad news for enterprise IT and MDM (mobile device management) vendors, who will now have one fewer channel for checking whether a user’s iOS device has been jailbroken and thus become vulnerable to attacks. That said, apparently this isn’t a huge loss for the MDM vendors, anyway; but the real question is why drop the API now? Could its presence alone be a threat? We’ll probably never know.

Fear not, though, as some folks have put jailbreaking to good use. The Register reports that come Tuesday, Stefan Esser of Sektion Eins will demonstrate a tool called antid0te, which reportedly adds ASLR (address space layout randomization) onto jailbroken iOS devices. In a nutshell, ASLR randomizes key memory locations to make it more difficult for certain attacks to locate their target data. According to the famed white hat hacker Charlie Miller, this technique is already present on Windows Phone 7 and desktop Windows since Vista, but Apple’s only dabbled with it on OS X and not on iOS. Now, this doesn’t mean that jailbroken devices will be fully safeguarded, but some protection is better than no protection, right?

[Thanks, wooba]

Apple mysteriously kills jailbreak detection API while hacker boosts iOS security, irony restored originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not to denigrate the numerous fine hacks that Kinect‘s undergone since its launch, but it’s always nice to see the professionals come in and shake things up a little. A crew from MIT‘s brain labs has put together a hand detection system on Microsoft’s ultra-versatile cam, which is sophisticated enough to recognize the position of both your palms and fingers. Just as a demonstration, they’ve tied that good stuff up to a little picture-scrolling UI, and you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s the closest thing to Minority Report‘s interactive gesture-based interface that we’ve seen yet. And it’s all achieved with a freaking console peripheral. Video after the break.

Continue reading Kinect finally fulfills its Minority Report destiny (video)

Kinect finally fulfills its Minority Report destiny (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Kotaku  |  MITCSAIL (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Every night we go to bed thinking that we’ve finally seen the best Kinect hack done and every morning we wake up to see something even crazier concocted with Microsoft’s motion controller. Today, it’s been mounted atop a quadrocopter — yes, man’s future worst enemy — and utilized essentially as a 3D radar, facilitating the bot’s autonomous maneuvering around a predetermined track. The random introduction of obstacles is also handled in stride, leaving us equal parts impressed, apprehensive, and eager for more. See the video after the break.

[Thanks, Glen]

Continue reading Kinect turned into a quadrocopter radar (video)

Kinect turned into a quadrocopter radar (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  pbouf77 (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

Tutorial guides Kinect hackers into iRobot territory originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The sound of the original theremin frightened audiences of spooky and science fictiony movies in the ’50s and ’60s, and while this digital replication is perhaps a little less chilling it’s also a lot less physical. It’s the so-called Therenect from Martin Kaltenbrunner, created using the Open Frameworks and OpenKinect libraries. To play just hold your hands up, allow the software to detect them, and then let the digital falsetto flow, as Martin kindly demonstrates for you below.

Continue reading Kinect theremin is just too late for the ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ remake soundtrack (video)

Kinect theremin is just too late for the ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ remake soundtrack (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Create Digital Music  |  Therenect (vimeo)  | Email this | Comments