Hoga-Boga

LG's SD910 Duo Slide for twice the fun:

Filed under: Handsets, LG

We just love us a new form factor now and then, and LG is really giving it their best with this new LG-SD910 Duo Slide phone. As the picture suggests, you just shift the screen to see playback controls, and slide the whole unit to reveal a keypad. Otherwise it seems to be a rather basic handset despite its bulk-inducing slider magic, with a mere 1.3 megapixel camera and MP3 player to keep it entertained. The phone also includes that MBank service that is making its way into more and more Korean handsets. No word on price or availability. But look! It slides two ways!

(Via Engadget Mobile.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 9:29 PM 0 comments

Nokia releases S60 compatibility logo for developers:

Filed under: Software, Nokia, Symbian

Even with its healthy market share, the Nokia-led, Symbian-based Series 60 mobile operating system continues to lag far behind both Palm and Microsoft in terms of third-party application popularity, with many users unaware that they are even running Symbian, much less of the aftermarket software that is available for their devices. Well Nokia is looking to change that perception with a recent branding change for the OS -- "S60: Open to new features" -- and a just-announced logo for developers to attach to their products -- "Developed for S60 devices" -- certifying Series 60 compatibility. In order to sport the new tag, developers must prove that their apps are Symbian Signed or Java Verified, as well as list the individual models that each program is compatible with. Please note that our use of this new logo is merely for illustrative purposes, and does not constitute a guarantee that Engadget Mobile will render properly on your S60 handset.

[Via All About Symbian]

(Via Engadget Mobile.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 4:50 PM 0 comments

Asus P525 smartphone with 2 megapixel cam:

Filed under: Handsets, ASUS, Windows Mobile

Asus was showing off a business-oriented Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC Phone Edition-powered candybar-style handset at CeBIT last week, featuring WiFi, Bluetooth, and hopefully like its P305 sibling, UMTS. The P525 sports a 416MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, and 2.8-inch QVGA screen, along with a miniSD slot and hearty two megapixel camera. No word yet on which countries and carriers will see this model, or what the price is going to look like.

[Via PocketPC Thoughts and PPCSG]

(Via Engadget Mobile.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 4:48 PM 0 comments

Hack Media: Podcasts:

This is coming in a day later than usual; I got my new dual-core Mac mini on Monday and built a new iTunes Library on my NFS server. I then crashed it twice which turned into literal fscking nightmare. So I finally got it back up last night and started listening to my backlog of podcasts (which has grown enormously now that I can subscribe to them so easily). Highlights from the shows after the jump.





A big Thank you to everyone who has stopped by
my Facebook profile to wish me a Happy Birthday
today. I’m 25, my NFS server is running rock-solid, so is my new mini, and I got an official job offer in the mail, so
today has been treating me really well. Happy birthday to my twin sister Adele, even though the
international date line means I already missed it.

Security Now! 29 Ethernet Insecurity 52:14 covers how ARP works and
why it is so insecure. This is something that everyone should know, but it may be easier to understand if you read
Steve Gibson’s accompanying article. He mentions in the podcast an old story
about a security researcher’s comments that a lot of hotels still use hubs instead of switches; I found the
story on Schneier. I think
Irongeek’s article was my first introduction to the
subject of ARP spoofing.





BellCoreRadio 24 45:35 Not much here, but the running joke is pretty
funny: Phoneswarm posts an interesting payphone number each week. Last week’s was
310-394-9052, a payphone on the Santa Monica pier that just happens to be
visible on this webcam. The first time PonyBoy got someone on the phone
it was a group of geocachers that needed their photo take by the cam.





PaulDotCom Security Weekly 17
59:56 My favorite quote: ”... to show the guys how they can use CORE IMPACT to test an IDS” “Aww, sweet!” They mention
the “startkeylogger” IRC DOS attack. They’ve got a
post rounding up security podcasts as
well.

CyberSpeak Mar 4 51:46 This week they talk to
Dave Merkel from MANDIANT about their First Response tool that
is currently a free download.

Live Ammo Digital Forensics
and Hacking Investigations, Part 4 36:15 More hardware/software tools and ARP.





Blue Box #18 35:57 Covering SPIT, SPam over
Internet Telephony.





TWAT 74 BitViper WRT Hacking 36:39 I listened to all of the podcasts that came
from TWAT radio this week, but this was by far my favorite. If you’ve got a Linksys WRT54G and don’t know where to
start, BitViper and PowerStick do a kick ass job covering all of the ins and outs of the device and the multiple
firmwares available. Even if you are well informed about the WRT, you will probably enjoy their personal story about
doing a long run with multiple WRTs and some clever hardware hacking: start at 27:00. Great job guys!

In the Trenches 1:00:48 I think the idea of the test crashing during an
MCSE exam is hilarious. They’ve also got a funny story about
using a $600 Cisco router in the home. It ended up giving them 8Mbps instead of the regular 2Mbps from the Linksys
WRT.

If you are interested in Weblogs, Inc. or just where this company came from you should check out the
interview with my boss... or at least follow the
link to see whose t-shirt he’s wearing.

...and if you’re following Catty Girls Discuss you’d hear
Brigitte’s plans
to buy an inflatable boat.

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© 2006 Weblogs, Inc.

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(Via hack a day.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 4:51 PM 0 comments

Geek to Live: Top Windows tweaks:

by Gina Trapani

After I wiped my hard drive clean and reinstalled Windows XP last week, I booted up into an pristine, default operating system - that felt a lot like a hotel room just before I rolled my luggage in, tossed my jacket on the couch, unmade the bed and set my toothbrush next to the sink. I had no idea how many changes I'd made to Windows to fit my preferences over the years until they were all undone.

• Re-locate the the taskbar

  I've got a wide screen and I like to see as much information vertically as possible, so I drag and drop the Windows taskbar to the left hand side of my screen (not right, because it interferes with scrolling) to maximize vertical space. The pleasant side effect is that open windows stack on top of one another, freeing up more real estate for viewing and working with them in the taskbar. See also: Ask Lifehacker: Moving your Windows taskbar.

• Enable Quick Launch with large buttons

  It's probably because my love affair with Mac OS X has gotten me fond of large buttons on a dock, but I can't live without the Quick Launch toolbar on Windows taskbar. I'm a no-icons-on-the-desktop girl, so my top dozen or so programs and documents go in Quick Launch: including the "Show Desktop" button and a shortcut to the "My Documents" folder. To enable Quick Launch, right click on your task bar and from the Toolbars menu choose "Quick Launch." Drag shortcuts to programs, files and folders onto Quick Launch to add 'em and use the right-click context menu to delete items.

  
  To enable the large button setting, unlock the toolbars (right click on the taskbar, and uncheck "Lock the taskbar"). Then right-click within the Quick Launch bar and from the View menu choose "Large Icons." Since my taskbar is vertical, I like to create two columns of big fat Quick Launch icons so I can read open windows' title bars, too.

• Remove MSN Messenger, MSN Explorer and Outlook Express

  
  Ever since Windows Update had its way with me, the little green MSN Messenger guys moved into my system tray, showing up every boot-up without ever asking. I don't use MSN Messenger (currently Trillian and GAIM are battling it out for my IM client of choice), yet right-clicking on the MSN guys in my systray offered no "Quit and don't automatically start up again" option. (Shame on you, Windows, that's just so TACKY.) To evict 'em (and the other two MS-specific programs I don't use, Outlook Express and MSN Explorer), from Control Panel's Add and Remove Programs, go to "Add/Remove Windows Components" and uninstall those suckas.

• Install Windows PowerToys: ClearType Tuner and Alt-Tab replacement

  
  Also as a result of my Mac affair, somewhere down the road I became a complete font diva. Windows default font settings are atrocious and pixelly; I had no idea how bad we had it until I saw the other side. Now I can't live without ClearType. The ClearType Tuner Windows Power Toy - a free download from Microsoft - smoothes out your fonts all pretty-like and lets you tune the settings for maxim font gorgeousness. Once the Tuner's installed, hit up the Control Panel and select the ClearType Tuner applet to turn on Clear Type and get it working perfectly for your monitor configuration.
  

  
  While they're all good, the other essential Windows PowerToy is the Alt-Tab replacement. I'm a big program switcher using the Alt-Tab key combination, so I really appreciate this PowerToy, which displays a preview of the program window you're tabbing to and over, instead of just the program icon. Very useful for tabbing to exactly where you want to go.

  

  Download the ClearType Tuner and Alt-Tab Replacement at Microsoft's web site.

• Set Start menu to classic view

  I don't like my Start menu all big and fat and different every time I look at it, because I'm cranky like that. Right-click on the Start menu and choose Properties to switcherback to the Classic view (my preference), or, if you're of a more tolerant persuasion, wade around the the XP Start menu's Customize dialogs to get your menu just how you like it.

• Disable Error reporting when programs crash

  Windows developers who deal with what I imagine are millions of program crash reports every day reported from Windows? I truly appreciate what you do to improve the computing world's experience every day. However, I never send error reports to Microsoft after a program has crashed - at that moment of utter frustration I'm feeling less than helpful, you see - so I disable the dialog which says "This program just ended unexpectedly. Send an error report to Microsoft?"
  

  
  To do so, from the Advanced tab of the System dialog box in Control Panel, check off the "Disable Error Reporting" radio button.

• Show the underlying file system, no matter what

  
  I love that Windows tries to save me from breaking any of the delicate china by hiding file extensions, special system files and the operating system's internal folders. Actually, that's a lie. I despise it. It's my computer, and I want to know what's happening under the hood, even if it means a file ends in "ini."
  

  
  To set Windows to display exactly what's going on in every nook and cranny of your hard drive, from Explorer's Tools menu, choose Folder Options. From the View tab, uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types," check "Show hidden files and folders," check "Display the contents of system folders," and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" (XP will ask AGAIN about this, but just tell it you're indeed sure).
  

  

  
  Last, since I'm the type of girl who really likes to sink her teeth into the dark troublesome world of (gasp!) file systems - with such complex and confusing concepts as file paths and extensions - I also check "Display the full path in the title bar" so when I'm Explorering around my hard drive I know where I am at all times.
  

This list is not exhaustive, and obviously these are all a matter of personal preference. I'd love to hear what unique Windows settings work for you and why, so let us know how you customize your Windows desktop in the comments or in an email to tips at lifehacker.com.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, is concerned she just offended all her friends who work at Microsoft. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

(Via Lifehacker.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Penny Arcade switches to Macs:

Filed under: Humor, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Macbook Pro

Roughly 14 thousand people sent us a link to today's Penny Arcade (a web comic that the gamers seem to enjoy) which details one of the main characters switch to the 'light side,' as some people have put it.

This is a case of art imitating life since Tycho, one of the dudes behind this cult hit, has recently gotten himself a MacBook Pro which seems to have him questioning his entire PC life.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 9:00 PM 0 comments

Hack Media: Security podcasts:

Here are some security podcasts from the last week. Feel free to suggest additional ones. There is never a shortage of podcasts on the internet, about the internet.





Security Catalyst 19 The Secrets of Risk Management (With Ron
Woerner) 25:33 SC was suggested last week by sometimes co-host [matt yoder].
It’s a nice interview with Woerner about his experience implementing a risk management program at a large company. I
was happy to hear about several upcoming security conventions in Omaha (i.e. ones I don’t have to fly to). Michael
Santarcangelo does a great job hosting too.

Security Now! #28 Listener Feedback Q&A #4 40:24 [sentinel]
corrected me last week; the ARP spoofing show is next week. This episode does maintain some interest because it is
structured by listener questions. Leo mentions that he might make his OPML file public since he tracks about 50 sites.
I was thinking about doing this. I’ve currently got about 160 sites in Bloglines (I
trim the fat from time to time). It’s certainly no comparison to the 500+ monster that the Engadget writers
maintain.

PaulDotCom Security Weekly -
Episode 16 51:18 was suggested by co-host [Larry Pesce]. This is a pretty fun group podcast. They mentioned a
favorite quote by Geer at ShmooCon, “We need security because at any moment the bad guys are only 150ms away; just ping
China”. They also pointed out that there is a GPL version of the Spinning
Cube of Potential Doom.

CyberSpeak Feb 25 72:08 Lots of
interesting stuff coming from the feds. It starts with Mike Younger discussing some of the problems in validating email
since Outlook and Lotus Notes both let you edit messages you’ve already received and ones you’ve already sent. They
point out a nice deny hosts script
to prevent brute force dictionary attacks. Check the entry’s comments for other solutions. They also mentioned that
you should check for firmware updates for your firewire write-blocking devices if you want to read the HPA of a drive.
The LiveAmmo podcast from last week specifically stated that you should avoid USB and Firewire write-block devices
because they might not be able to access HPA.

LiveAmmo: Digital
Forensics and Hacking Investigations, Part 3 46:12 is not nearly as dry as it was the previous weeks. It covers the
data collection process and what sort of slip-ups might happen. They suggest reading NIST Special Publication 800-61:
Computer Security Incident Handling Guide.

SploitCast #007 44:01 As promised last week, this
is an interview with Lance James. This is my favorite podcast of the bunch this week. Lance covers many of the
techniques that phishers are using. They’ve been going so far as do distributed hosting of their phishing websites on
0wned computers. Lance also talks about the server-side tools he has been developing to fight malware. The burden is
being placed on the server since you can’t expect the users to keep themselves safe.

Blue Box #17 41:00 Another week, another
excellent VoIP security podcast.

I promised my friends Cara and Brigitte that I would promote their podcast
“Catty Girls Discuss” hosted by the local paper. I hadn’t heard
it at that point, but the title kinda gives it away. Here are the highlights from the first show: 10:00 they realize
they’ve run out of topics, 15:00 they realize they’ve run out of topics, 20:00 they realize they’ve run out of topics.
No, it’s not really that bad and can be pretty funny. Direct links to episode
one and
two.

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© 2006 Weblogs, Inc.

(Via hack a day.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 6:38 PM 0 comments

Cyber Snipa USB Keypad:

Those companies sure do know how to appeal to us gamer types. We thrive on purposeful misspellings! The Cyber Snipa is a USB keypad that was designed with the first-person-shooter in mind. It is essentially replicating the left side of your already existent keyboard to accommodate to gamers. Anybody out there actually use keypads for gaming and notice a preferred difference? Why not just use the keyboard? You have more buttons, save a USB port and save upwards of $32 that these devices generally cost.

Cyber Snipa Keypad [Red Ferret]

(Via Gizmodo.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 8:51 PM 0 comments

Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook Q2010 hands-on: desirable?:

Filed under: Laptops

And now, the question you've been dying to have answered after yesterday's big announcement: Is the Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook Q2010 really the world's "most desirable laptop," as the company would have us believe? (What, did you think we were talking about that other announcement?) Well, mmeier got to try out the svelte, sleek notebook at the Fujitsu Siemens press conference (and snapped some great pics, as well), and came away impressed with its "crazy and awesome design and build quality," which includes a magnesium case painted with jet-black piano lacquer. Connectivity was smooth, thanks to the unit's HSDPA support, and the Q2010 proved to be incredibly thin and lightweight. Big downside? Well, in addition to the price (about $5,000), there's the matter of battery life. While Fujitsu is reporting it as eight hours, the included battery will only give you two. For the full eight, you'll need a larger battery that sort of defeats the purpose of an ultralight fashion laptop like this. Of course, if you can afford this, you can probably just buy a couple of extra two-hour batteries and have your minions carry them around for you.

(Via Engadget.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 8:39 PM 0 comments

Apple iPod Hi-Fi hands on:

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

We'll admit, there's not a huge amount to say about the Apple iPod Hi-Fi. We'd heard this was coming, and it's caught our attention namely because it's Apple's first true foray into the iPod accessories market, along with their new leather iPod cases. We did get a good listen in some of the rooms Apple set up on campus to demo the sound in a "real world" environment (our fav was the teenager's space, replete with dirty laundry strewn about), and yup, it sounds pretty good. You know how we wish it was, well, a little less iPod-centric for being a regular old piece of consumer electronics and all, but hey, you know how they play the game. So how's the thing feel? Well, let's be straight up, the Hi-Fi is heavy. Like, way too heavy to want to carry with you to the cabana or the beach, as they described you might despite its alternate six D-cell power source. Click on to see some more shots!

(Via Engadget.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 8:38 PM 0 comments

Enigma code cracked by M4 project:

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

What Alan Turing and the cryptographers of Bletchley Park started, distributed computing has finished. The M4 Project, which started its work less than two months ago, has cracked the first of three encrypted Nazi messages from 1942, which were never decoded during World War II. Using open source software, the team cracked a message that was apparently sent by a German sub, which said it was "forced to submerge" during a battle. Next up: two more messages leftover from the war, after which we assume the project will tackle the Vernam cipher.

[Via News.com]

(Via Engadget.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 8:34 PM 0 comments

Hands-on with the Sony Ericsson M600:

Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, UMTS

Sony Ericsson had a press event here in New York this morning where we were lucky enough to get our hands on the M600, their new flagship GSM/UMTS smartphone which sports a 2.6-inch, QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) display, 80MB of internal memory, Bluetooth, a Memory Stick Micro card slot, and one of those QWERTY keypads where they've put two letters on each key. We only got to play with it for a few fleeting moments, so we didn't get to test out the keyboard or anything, but the M600 definitely felt very nice and solid. Click on for a bunch of pics.

(Via Engadget Mobile.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 8:18 PM 0 comments

Hands-on with the Sony Ericsson W950:

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, GSM, GPRS, UMTS

These shots definitely do NOT do this handset justice, but this morning we also got play with the W950, Sony Ericsson's new high-end Walkman phone that'll come with up to 4GB of internal memory (and is way sleeker than it's fellow 4GB musicphone, the Nokia N91). Not sure how much this bad boy is going to cost, but it can't be cheap to squeeze 4GB of memory into a phone, right? Either way, the perfectly flat keypad was more tactile than we'd expected (though it might not be so hot using it every day), and the 2.6-inch, QVGA touch screen was nice and crisp.

(Via Engadget Mobile.)

# posted by Khaled A. @ 8:18 PM 0 comments