Toys & Gadgets

As it turns out, Infineon may have been a little bit… optimistic when it said its SLE66 CL PE was “unhackable” — but only a little. The company should have put an asterisk next to the word, pointing to a disclaimer indicating something to the effect of: “Unless you have an electron microscope, small conductive needles to intercept the chip’s internal circuitry, and the acid necessary to expose it.” Those are some of the tools available to researcher Christopher Tarnovsky, who perpetrated the hack and presented his findings at the Black Hat DC Conference earlier this month. Initially, Infineon claimed what he’d done was impossible, but now has taken a step back and said “the risk is manageable, and you are just attacking one computer.” We would tend to agree in this case, but Tarnovsky still deserves serious respect for this one. Nice work, Big Gun.

Christopher Tarnovsky hacks Infineon’s ‘unhackable’ chip, we prepare for false-advertising litigation originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, there’s not much chance of popping down to your local hypermarket and picking up something with a Power7 roaring inside, but there’s also nothing stopping you from a bit of vicarious investigation, now is there? IBM’s eight-core, 1.2 billion-transistor Power7 chips have begun shipping as promised, with the entry-level Power 750 Express starting at a few bucks over $34,000. That offers you some truly supreme computing power, as each of the eight cores can run four simultaneous threads for up to 32 parallel tasks, with 8MB of embedded DRAM (acting as L3 cache) per core. The top-tier POWER 780 system maxes out with either eight 3.8GHz eight-core chips or eight 4.1GHz quad-core units, allied to a maximum of 2TB of DDR3 RAM and up to 24 SSDs — though you’ll have to call IBM to find out the price (presumably so that a trained professional can counsel you after hearing the spectacular number). Watch the video after the break while we try to cajole IBM into sending us one for benchmarking.

Continue reading IBM specs out Power7 systems, starts shipping them to your local server farm

IBM specs out Power7 systems, starts shipping them to your local server farm originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cubicles are the site of many of the worst cases of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so it’s perhaps a bit ironic that Quotient’s ADHD System looks an awful lot like a cubicle on wheels. It’s an automated machine that presents a series of games and challenges for a user to participate in, all while watching that user with a pair of cameras — one up top to monitor head movement and one below to look for a bouncing leg. We think the same could be done far cheaper with a webcam and a Yurex leg odometer, but the FDA has recently seen fit to clear parent company BioBehavioral Diagnostics to start marketing this thing, so look for these to crop up in every elementary school faster than a twitchy kid can say Ritalin.

Quotient system electronically diagnoses ADHD, oh look a bunny originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What could jaded Crave writer Matt Hickey buy himself to attract the perfect geeky girl? Vote in our poll–it’s almost Valentine’s Day and he needs your help.

Say all you want about how bad your local forecast is, it’s way more accurate than our local solar forecast. The last time we checked, solar storms are said to knock out GPS temporarily sometime in the next two years — the kind of window that would make even the most suave meteorologist smirk. With the launch of the new Solar Dynamics Observatory we’re hoping NASA can shrink that window down by, oh, at least a few months. The probe lifted off yesterday, perched atop an Atlas V rocket, and is now orbiting Earth. There it will study our sun with a series of optical and magnetic sensors, beaming data back at a rate of 150MBit/sec, making us ever so slightly jealous that this thing can get a better signal in space than we can down here on the surface. The launch fireworks are embedded below for those who weren’t glued to NASA TV yesterday morning.

[Thanks, Pavel]

Continue reading Summer-loving NASA engineers launch SDO probe to worship the sun (video)

Summer-loving NASA engineers launch SDO probe to worship the sun (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The end of the week means it’s time to share the week at Mobile Tech Manor with you. This week saw a little laptop arrive, and I tested (and quit using) a new browser. The Kindle gained new respect from me, deservedly so.

Remember the SV-100B “Document Viewer” from this time last year? It’s okay, we had to look it up too. With its $1,500 MSRP and exclusive release in Japan, it hardly made waves over here. We’re expecting the SV-70 to have a similarly ripple-free reception in the States, since it too probably isn’t coming here, but there’s no telling how Japanese businesspeople will take to it, ditching the Bluetooth module that gave its predecessor a bit of charm, and even the lowly 2GB microSD card that was formerly included on the way to a lower (but still high) $1,100 MSRP. Other specs remain the same, including a relatively expansive 9.7-inch, 1200 x 825 display, 100MB of internal memory, microSD expansion slot, and 83 hours worth of battery life. Why, that’s plenty of time to read even the lengthiest of pseudo-inspirational corporate memos.

Brother’s SV-70 e-book reader is a little bit cheaper, still $1,100 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This dazzling e-book is a must-have for “Cat” fans young and old. Same goes for two companion apps: “Dr. Seuss’s ABC” and Dr. Seuss Camera–The Cat in the Hat Edition.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

The Klipsch Image S4 earbuds won an Editors’ Choice award last year. We’re giving away a pair to one lucky winner in this week’s Crave giveaway.

Oh you’re tired of tablets, are you? Pray tell, how many multitouch 21.3-inch tablets have you seen so far then? A prototype of Wacom’s update to the ultra-high end 21UX has been shown off at a recent CAD presentation, so we figured we might as well take a look at the thing — given its predecessor’s $2,999 starting price, we’re unlikely to be buying one any time soon. So dive past the break for a glimpse — just a glimpse — of the new multitouch goodness taking place. After you’re done with that, you can check out the source link for more pictures of what’s sure to be the new state of the art in graphics tablets.

Continue reading Wacom Cintiq 21UX multitouch tablet caught in the wilderness of a live presentation

Wacom Cintiq 21UX multitouch tablet caught in the wilderness of a live presentation originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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