Gadgettes.com

Filed under: Networking

It’s always only a matter of time. A little less than a year after the first quantum cryptographic network was demoed, a group of researchers at MIT have announced a working implementation of a hack that’s been around in theory since 1998 but never implemented. Skirting around ol’ Wernie Heisenberg and that Principle of his, the team exploited quantum entanglement to read the encryption keys encoded in photon polarizations from their momentums, avoiding detection by either end — in other words, doing what was once thought impossible by cryptographers. The system isn’t perfect, however — in this early incarnation it can only nab 40% of transmitted data before giving itself away, and more importantly, it requires the invention of a “quantum non-demolition box” before the attacker can be anywhere but the same room as the receiver, since right now both attacker and receiver need to be using the same photon detector. Sounds like that might put a damper on that whole “undetectable” thing. Still, the researchers sound upbeat — they’re saying the work proves that no secret is truly safe. We’re just wondering if they’re pushing MIT to rename their department SETEC ASTRONOMY.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

More: continued here

Comments(0)

No press release yet, but wordfrom Fabian Rodriguez (a member of Ubuntu’s support staff) is that Dell’s going to offically support Ubuntu installations on their machines. And by support, we’re assuming they mean install and ship machines with Ubuntu as the main OS. Ubuntu, if you’re not familiar, is a very friendly and very easy to use—relative to other installs, that is—flavor of Linux.

More as we get the release, but this is pretty big news for fans. – Jason Chen

Utunbu [via Fabian Rodriguez via Boing Boing]

More: continued here

Comments(0)

Corsair has lifted the veil on its Flash Survivor USB 2.0 flash drives that claim to be the industry’s toughest USB drive. The Flash Survivor laughs at normal hazards such as water and shock, thanks to its CNC-milled aluminum case. Features include being water resistant up to 200 meters, vibration proof due to the rubber molded collar shielding, and is pre-loaded with a 256-bit AES encryption security application. The Flash Survivor delivers a sustained read/write performance of 34MB/s and 28MB/s respectively, which is nearly 500% faster than standard USB flash drives! The 4GB and 8GB models retail for $59.99 and $129.99 respectively.

More: continued here

Comments(0)

April showers brought a lot of Top 10 list love. Thanks, Letterman! Here’s our Top 10-heavy list of April’s most-trafficked posts here at Lifehacker:

• Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox extension)
  “I’ve compiled the best Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail into one handy Firefox extension, called Better Gmail. After the jump, put your Gmail on steroids with Better Gmail.”
• Lifehacker’s Top 10 USB thumb drive tricks
  “Developers and road warriors have come up with all sorts of innovative techniques for putting these tiny, roomy disks to good use. Step into my office for a list of our top 10 favorite thumb drive tricks.”
• Lifehacker’s Top 10 free computer system recovery tools
  “Don’t pay the extortionists at the computer repair shop 800 bucks to get your data back or start up your dead computer. Plenty of free tools can help you and are available for download right now.”
• Lifehacker’s Top 10 home networking tricks
  “By now you’ve probably got several connected computers at home, sharing an internet connection, maybe a printer and files between them. But are you getting the most out of your home network?”
• The top 500 fonts on the Web
  “There are five pages of really good fonts here, I don’t think I saw any that I didn’t like.”
• Control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse
  “You don’t need a hardware switch to share one keyboard and mouse amongst several different computers. All you need is the free, cross-platform application, Synergy.”
• Supercharge your Gmail
  “Today I’ll show you how to use Better Gmail along with a few other Gmail add-ons to turn Gmail into the best email application you’ve ever used.”

More: continued here

Comments(0)

Filed under: Household

Continuing on in the grand tradition of products designed to let you be a lazy as possible, the “All-Sound-Catch Cubic Pillow” doesn’t look particularly comfortable, but that doesn’t appear to be the point. The cushion lattice allows you to stretch out on the couch without muffling any sound, allowing you use the smallest possible amount of energy to, say, talk on the phone. We’re just worried that the Lazy Wii Guy will get a hold of one and cause, like, a negative energy vortex that destroys the universe.

[Via TokyoMango]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

More: continued here

Comments(0)

Yes, I still play with action figures. I spent a bit of time today playing with the Optimus Prime toy that I got today to give you this video review of how easy it is to unfurl into robot-ness, and who would win in a fight: New Optimus Prime vs. Old Optimus Prime vs. R2D2 vs. iPod vs. Moto Q. The results may scare you.

Well, maybe not scare you, but you’ll have a new found respect for Autobots and the ease of Ikea DIY. – Brian Lam

Hands-on With the New Optimus Prime Transformer [Gizmodo]

More: continued here

Comments(0)

If you just can’t seem to get enough Lego, now you can pack your lunch in one, available in your choice of pink, brown or blue. Unfortunately, that Lego cheeseburger isn’t included in the box, and there’s no word whether the lunchboxes interlock with each other.

Get yourself some Lego furniture to go along with this lunch carrier, and then all your need to do is build Lego a house and drive a Lego car, and the entire Lego illusion will be complete. – Charlie White

Product Page [Lego Store]

More: continued here

Comments(0)

We’ve heard a lot of complaining about the paucity of editing tools for the nascent AVCHD video format, and now Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus comes along with that capability and a lot more. With AVCHD originator Panasonic’s latest solid-state camcorders using the format, and Sony rocking more even cameras using it just the other day, the ability to edit that footage is long overdue.

Hey, that format’s fo’ reals, and is here to stay, right? Yep. Well, what else can Ulead VideoStudio 11 do?

Also along for the ride with this latest version is Windows Vista compatibility, an MPEG Optimizer that helps you get the most out of video compression, and Ulead’s wizard-based interface that makes it easy to accomplish complex tasks. And the Plus version also lets you author HD DVDs if you have such a burner.

We’ve used previous versions of Ulead VideoStudio, and found the software to be a good value. It’s a whole lot more stable than its Pinnacle Studio rival, which was also recently updated. VideoStudio is priced right at $70 for the standard version (no AVCHD editing capability) and $100 for the Plus version, and both ship sometime in May. – Charlie White

Product Page [Ulead]

More: continued here

Comments(0)

If you’re at all interested in the PlayStation Eye, the EyeToy for the PS3 generation, take a gander at this interview with its father, Richard Marks. Along with releasing four—yes, four—albums since 2000, Richard’s added many new features to PlayStation’s camera.

Among the issues seen as most important were low light environments, the 60 fps minimum requirement, compression block artifacts which led to uncompressed video, and the four-array microphone. Definitely a cool read if you’re planning on using the Eye to record your own Singstar videos and show them off online. – Jason Chen

Geek Out: The Playstation Eye is Nearly Upon Us. Dr. Richard Marks Takes Us Behind the Scenes of its Birth. [Newsweek]

More: continued here

Comments(0)

Filed under: Ask Engadget, HDTV, Home Entertainment

The week of Ask Engadget is still going strong. We’re committing a whole seven days to taking your questions — which you can hit up ask at engadget dawt com with — and putting the best ones up here for discussing by your fellow readers in the comments. Saturday we got specific with “No Trab” in an audio recording quest, now we’re going to open up a whole can of worms with a question from Dan, who’s looking for a TV:

“With the enormous variety of HDTVs out there - the various technologies (LCD, Plasma, DLP, Laser, OLED), the various specifications (HD formats, native resolution, contrast ratio), various inputs (HDMI, DVI, VGA, Component), and various tuners (NTSC, ATSC, QAM, Cable Card) - how does one go about choosing “the best” HDTV? Are there any tips / tricks that go into shopping for an HDTV? What are the absolute do’s / don’ts in shopping, purchasing, and using an HDTV?”

Naturally, there’s plenty of info for Dan to gorge himself on over at Engadget HD, but does anyone have a favorite resource / game plan / reality check / super-oh-my-gosh-HDTV-model to help the guy out with?

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

More: continued here

Comments(0)