Archive for May 9th, 2008
Privacy advocates have long since pointed out that the sniff-ability of Bluetooth signals were cause for concern, but now one University of Bath researcher has a little data to back that up. Vassilis Kostakos placed four Bluetooth receivers in the city’s center for four months, during which he and his team tracked over 10,000 BT-enabled mobiles. According to Mr. Kostakos, they were able to “capture and analyze people’s encounters in pubs, streets and shops.” He continued on to mention that “Bluetooth is now more of a privacy threat than the more frequently publicized RFID chips,” and he encouraged worried denizens to turn off the BT function on their phone to help curb the paranoia. Of course, that won’t stop Big Brother from seeing your every move whilst in the UK, but whatever helps you sleep better is alright with us.
If you’ve got a PSP-2000 and a hankering for some VoIP on the run, Sony has finally brought its Skype-friendly PSP headset to US retail. Unfortunately, it won’t work with those original fatty PSPs, and at $30 you’ve gotta ask yourself how much you’ll really be using it for — the original price was set at $20. That said, it’s undoubtedly the easiest way to get up and running with Skype and in-game voice chat on the PSP, since it used to require two separate accessories to pull it off. Oh, and if you’re Skype curious, be sure to check out the how-to guide over at PSP Fanboy.
If you weren’t enthused about the SteelSeries 7G for whatever reason, Gigabyte looks to have another alternative headed down the pike. At the company’s Spring Break event and Plug-Fest 2008, folks from Tweaktown were able to spend a few hurried minutes with the GK-K8000 gaming keyboard. We’re told that “design issues” were holding ‘em up from being released right now, but we get the impression that it’s certainly nearing completion. Initial thoughts were that typing felt great and the unit itself seemed mighty sturdy, but why take our word for it? Hop on down to the read link for a few more snaps.
We’re not at all certain what led Dell to ship European Vostro 1310s and 1510s with, ah, revised QWERTY keyboards, but it looks like the company is making good on its promise to remedy the situation. According to Dell, all affected customers will be contacted and offered a replacement keyboard beginning today. Apparently the switch isn’t too hard to make, so you’ll be able to either do it yourself, or Dell will send out a tech to do it for you at no cost. Sounds like Dell’s doing its best to make this right — but c’mon, how did this not raise all kinds of red flags during the design process?
P.S.- If you’re a touch-typist who’s having major issues, you can also jump to the front of the pack by emailing Dell — check out the read link for directions.
[Via Pocket-lint]
Given the absurdity of the AlphaGrip Handheld Computer, we’re pretty stoked to see something fairly snazzy emerge from entries in Microsoft’s Next-Gen PC Design Competition. The Illusion PC is a 8.25-inch cube that hides a Mini-ITX motherboard, 200-watt power supply, slot-loading DVD burner and provides room for two internal hard drives. Theoretically, a 6-inch LCD and TV tuner card could also be thrown in, but we’re digging the minimalist feel, personally. Hit the read link for a gallery of shots — heck, the magician even reveals his secret to pulling the whole thing together. Like, that never happens.
[Via SlashGear]