Gadgets Mobile

You got to give credit to these guys who have such sharp eyes that they can see even the smallest details of approval documents coming to the FCC. These guys must have really sharp eyes or the FCC is intentionally disregarding confidentiality of information with regards to documents submitted to them by manufacturers seeking their approval.  Thus, we keep on discovering information about new devices even before they are released for official announcement by their manufacturers.

The latest of these FCC sightings is an entry bearing the mark OZ2, and the manufacturer happens to be Pantech, who is the maker of the Helio Ocean. The Ocean had the same mark when it its prototype was submitted before the FCC prior to its release as Helio Ocean. Naturally, we can’t help but deduce that this FCC entry is for Helio Ocean 2.

According to the picture accompanying the document at the FCC site, OZ2 would have a camera, Bluetooth, microSD below the battery slot, and it is definitely made by Pantech. These features are also found in the original Helio Ocean. Aside from this, there’s nothing much to see about this alleged Ocean 2 from the FCC entry.

The Helio Ocean may not be the most advanced mobile phone when it was released, but it had the distinction of being the first phone with dual slider. We’ll see if Pantech would come up with something better and more innovative in Ocean 2, granting that the FCC documents were indeed for Ocean 2. With the current crop of high-end mobile phones today, a touch-screen feature seems to be the only way to go for the Helio Ocean’ successor.

Via [Heliocity]

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Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho of Hawaii seem to have been smoking too much stuff lately. I’m saying this because on March 21, they filed a lawsuit in a district court in Honolulu, Hawaii against the European Center for Nuclear Research or CERN. This lawsuit seeks to place a temporary restraining order on CERN’s latest and greatest project ever: the Large Hadron Collider. And what is it that the L. H. C. does, you ask? Oh, nothing. It just recreates the Big Bang. You know, that awesome explosion that started the Universe?

For those that don’t know (or haven’t read Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons), a large hadron collider has the ability to supercharge protons up to seven trillion electron volts and then afterwards let them collide to recreate the energies and conditions resulting from a “Big Bang.” CERN aims to further understand these forces and presumably apply them for the good of mankind, but the two concerned complainants are worried about something else occurring in the aftermath: black holes that could quite possibly eat up the earth, and even the whole universe. What?

CERN says it has done a lot of previous testing and can attest to the L. H. C.’s complete harmlessness. And the Safety Assessment Group was even set up to do another anonymous review of the said project last year. But still, Wagner and Sancho won’t give up easily, even though the party they are trying to shut down is at least a few thousand miles away, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Now I know most people would have mixed views regarding this matter, but judging from the popularity of Sci-Fi pop culture movies and the like, I think more people would agree with the complainant’s arguments, at least at first. And from what most of us were taught back when we first learned of it, isn’t a Big Bang supposed to naturally cause a black hole to appear anyway? I’m no Physics major, but judging from the facts, I think it’s quite safe to say that there really will be a black hole after the blast. But then again, people at CERN say that there should be absolutely no cause for panic, as the large hadron collider is tested to be problem-free (both by in-house physicists and trusted third-party experts). But for now, no one can say for sure what the effects will be after this projects is initiated. Will a black hole grow and eat earth, or worse, the universe? Will the colliding particles release so much energy that will it tap the inner core and send all volcanoes across the world exploding? No one really knows. Maybe it will just turn out the lights.

Read [NY Times] Image [Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times]

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MSI has announced their new enhanced version of the GX-6000 gaming laptop.

The GX600 notebook is equipped with MSI’s Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) technology to ensure optimal performance and application compatibility with even the most advanced games and applications.

The GX600’s overclockable yet stable performance makes it an ideal laptop for gamers. With the newest features and its aesthetical appeal, the GX600 gives gamers a stylish and performance-driven alternative to the traditional laptop.

MSI’s TDE technology enables you to increase the speed of the CPU up to 20 percent simply by pressing the silver Turbo button on the keyboard while in AC mode.

With this technology the boot time for the GX600 notebook is less than 40 seconds, compared to traditional laptops that take at least one minute to start up.

The GX600 weighs 6.16 pounds and is available in two versions: the MSI GX600 Extreme Edition, which features a flame graphic on the exterior, and the MSI GX600 Performance Edition.

Specs and Special Features of GX600 Extreme Edition

• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology
  o Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0 GHz)
  o Intel® PM965+ICH8-M Chipset
 o Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection
• MSI’s exclusive Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) technology
• 15.4″ WSXGA+ Non-Glare LCD Display
• 2GB DDR2/ 667MHz System Memory
• NVIDIA® GeForce ® 8600M GT 3D Graphic Card with 512MB VRAM
• 250GB SATA HDD
• Latest E-SATA Support
• Racer-Class Metal and Micro Processed 3D Speaker Aperture
• Colorful W/A/S/D Buttons for Gamers
• HDMI Output
• Digital/Analog 5.1 Channel Headphone Output
• DVD Super Multi
• Built-in 1.3 Mega Pixel Webcam

How long does it take you to earn $10,000? For Charlie Miller, of Independent Security Evaluators and former NSA employee, it takes him about two minutes. Last Thursday, Miller won the PWN 2 OWN competition at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, by successfully hacking a MacBook Air. In fact, Miller isn’t a newcomer. He is well-known as the first to successfully hack the iphone back a year ago.

The PWN 2 OWN contest involved a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810, and a MacBook Air that were up for grabs to the first person able to hack into one of the machines and read the contents of a file. On the first day of the contest, no one was able hack any of the computers when they were strictly limited to an over-the-network “0day” attack, which is a method of exploiting an unknown or undocumented software vulnerability. However, on the second day, the organizers relaxed the rules a bit and allowed the contestants to trick the “judges” into visiting a malicious website or open an email attachment. In about the time it takes you to microwave a Hot Pocket, Miller was able to successfully execute his code and seize control of the MacBook when the “target” visited his booby trapped website. With 20 onlookers cheering him on, he took home the prized $10,000 and the first of three laptop computers.

Unfortunately, a condition of the contest rules was that all winners be under an nondisclosure agreement until the contest sponsor, TippingPoint, has notified the vendors. So, Mr. Miller isn’t talking about how he did it, yet. However, TippingPoint has revealed the 0day attack used to control the macbook air was a Safari exploit; Apple has already began work on a patch.

Read [New York Times]

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USB hubs are always welcome in my home, especially with the vast amount of USB gadgets in the market these days. Some USB hubs come with a poorly-designed exterior, where the ports are placed too close together that you can’t make use of all of them whenever you’re faced with USB products that have rather fat connectors. The USB Rotatable 4-Port Hub offers the convenience of utilizing all four USB ports available, since it can be rotated accordingly. No harm in dropping $12 for a gadget like this IMHO, as it will definitely come in handy on your travels.

Binary Clock
The Binary Clock, the ultimate gizmo for people who laugh in the face of time, play tiddlywinks on the lap of destiny, and boil bratwurst in the kitchen of fate.

You can have this for £29.95

Let’s face the facts - the ipod doesn’t exactly come with the largest display in the world now, does it? Being a portable media player to boot, screen real estate is a very important criteria to consider if you plan to watch countless hours of video on it.

This is the portable DVD player that integrates with 5th Generation video iPods, allowing you to watch iPod videos on a 8 1/2″, 16:9 widescreen LCD that is 2 3/4 times larger than the iPods screen. Using active matrix technology, the LCD can redraw images faster than typical LCD monitors, resulting in a sharper, more detailed resolution. An iPod slides into the front of the video player and is protected by a clear plastic cover, and the dual headphone jacks allow two people to use the video player without disturbing fellow travelers. The device has an AV port for output to a television, charges an iPod while in use, and has an on-screen menu display for quick set up. Rechargeable battery allows three hours of continuous DVD playback on a five-hour charge; four hours of iPod® video playback. Includes AC and DC adapters, carrying case, headphones, remote control, and a strap for attaching to a car headrest. Supports DVD, VCD, CDs, MP3 CDs, and iPod® video/music files.

Hammacher is currently carrying this item for $269.95.

The Nokia N96 seems to be the epitome of an all-in-one. It has a nice, large 2.8-inch QVGA screen that displays up to 16.7 million colors. Stereo speakers are built-in for audiophiles, as well as a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. It will let you connect to all the right places using a Mini-USB port, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, WiFi, HSDPA, and DVB-H TV Tuner. It’s got a whopping 16GB of internal memory and that can be supplemented with up to 16GB MicroSD cards via the previously mentioned Mini-USB port. And it’s got a 5-megapixel camera like most other top-notch camera phones currently available. Now although these are all a bunch of really great features, I have to say something’s missing. And that, my digital camera loving friends, is the Xenon flash. Don’t you agree?

Perhaps this is the one thing that can bring the Nokia N96 to “the next level” and a member at the Esato forums almost confirms that this wish will be granted by Nokia. In a forum post, user Daedalus85 says:

“Ok, this isn’t official news, but it’s as official as I can get. Our Nokia rep, who think’s we’re great told me something intriguing today. He’s said the N96 hasn’t been given the complete green light yet (I’m guessing Nokia wanted to get something that resembles the real thing out in time for MWC). And the delays are due to them adding (at the last minute) a Xenon flash, ala N82!”

He further comments that this actually fits the situation nicely, since Nokia is taking its time in delivering the highly-anticipated Nokia N96. Perhaps they’re still deliberating what other features to include in it, such as the rumored Xenon flash. I can’t say how many Nokia fans are going to go nuts over this, but I’m quite sure there’ll be a lot of them.

Via [Just Another mobile phone Blog]

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The highly rumored WiMAX-enabled Nokia N810 may have gotten “unofficially” confirmed with an image spotted on Nokia’s Tableteer site, which comes a few days shy of CTIA. It appears the sneak peak at the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition was unscripted, as the teaser image and related links can no longer found on the website. Judging by the picture, it looks exactly like the old N810 Internet Tablet, except the WiMAX version sports a black suit. At this point, little else is known; however, Nokia is scheduled to roll out a press release on Tuesday, the same day CTIA begins, called “Press Conference in the Sky”—which should settle this rumor once and for all. Stay tuned.

Read [Internet Tablet Talk]

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Google, trusty search engine and email provider for many actually has a clause within its fine print which states that those under 18 are not permitted to use the site, or any of its features. The Google conglomerate covers Google’s search, Gmail, YouTube, news and images.

The Terms of Service state that:

“You may not use … Google’s products, software, services and web sites … and may not accept the Terms if … you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google.”

Of course to those within the USA, the legal age to form a binding contract is 18, meaning anyone under the age of 18 is currently violating Google’s terms, which judging from a huge number of YouTube videos, that number is going to be high.

It is funny how Google’s simple interface looks very child friendly, not to mention their recent ‘Doodle 4 Google’ contest where school children could draw a logo for the homepage. Certainly sends a mixed message. While the message is unclear, I find it hard to believe that Google would actively enforce this policy, but instead use it as a good way to protect themselves should something happen with a juvenile. In a way its kind of funny, at least one Gadgetell member has a young daughter, who searches Google daily, and even has a personal Gmail account.

Read [CNET]

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