Hasta La Gadget!

This is a map of everywhere I’ve been for nearly the last year. Everywhere. I didn’t carry around a special tracking device. The FBI isn’t sending goons in unmarked vans to track me. All I did was use an iPhone. And if you have an iPhone, you’re being tracked right now, too, whether you like it or not. More »

Crime, it just doesn’t pay. Well, actually it does, to the tune of £53,612, but then you get caught and you have to work off that salary with two years at Her Majesty’s pleasure. One Ashley Mitchell, an enterprising 29-year old from Devon, England, managed to break into Farmville maker Zynga‘s mainframe, hijack the identities of two of its staffers, and procure for himself a cool £7 million ($11.4m) in virtual poker chips. He then proceeded to sell about a third of them for the above sum, while consuming a big chunk of the rest in satisfying his own gambling habit. Ashley already had a history of digital malfeasance, having previously hacked into the systems of Torbay Council, his former employer, and is now on the receiving end of a two-year prison term for his current crime plus the activation of a 30-week suspended sentence. There’s a warning in this tale of woe for us all, however — Monsieur Mitchell piggybacked on his neighbors’ unsecured WiFi networks in order to do his dastardly deeds. Slap a password on that router, won’t you?

Hacker nets two years in jail after pilfering £7 million in virtual poker chips originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that massive security vulnerability that Adobe identified in its Flash Player, Acrobat and Reader software? Well, shockingly enough, it hasn’t yet taken over the internet and ground productivity to a halt, but Google’s been proactive about it and patched the flaw by itself. Of course, the fix applies only to its own Chrome web browser, Firefoxes and Internet Explorer types will have to wait for Adobe’s fix, which is expected any minute now. Still, it’s good to know someone’s looking out for the security of our data, even if that someone already has access to most of it anyway.

Google patches Flash vulnerability in Chrome, leaves other browsers hanging originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Worried that the fancy-schmancy SYNC system you just ordered up in your Mustang will soon be outlawed? Fret not, speed demon. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will reportedly not push for restrictions on handsfree phones or in-car technology until “the government conducts further research.” There are generally two prevailing trains of thought: one feels that any type of calling — be it handsfree or otherwise — is a terrible distraction to the driver, while the other feels that properly integrated technology is safe enough for use on the road. As the story goes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating whether systems like SYNC post a “cognitive distraction,” while some automakers suggest that motorists are going to goof off with their phone anyway — might as well make it as safe as possible for ’em. Of course, things could change in short order once this so-called “research” gets finalized, but for now, feel free to request that your OnStar system read on to the next post. Your OnStar system can read Engadget, right?

Transportation secretary Ray LaHood: no restrictions (yet) on in-car information originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uh oh, Verizon’s got itself into a bit of hot water with the old FCC. An outage during a snowstorm last month has reportedly resulted in a whopping 10,000 calls to 911 not being connected by the big red carrier. That would be bad enough in itself, but the less-than-pleased Communications Commission also notes that the emergency services that missed out on these calls were not alerted to the connectivity failure — in fact, Maryland’s Montgomery County officers were the ones to inform Verizon of the fault it was having, which was then promptly repaired within 15 minutes. The FCC is now curtly asking the network to check its entire footprint for similar vulnerabilities — as the January events were apparently “not unique” — and to propose remedial actions and monitoring systems to prevent it happening again.

Verizon dropped 10,000 emergency calls during January snowstorm in Maryland, FCC finds it ‘alarming’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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