Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Would You Pay for In-Flight Wi-Fi? [Qotd]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KE_BbBz-ZlY/would-you-pay-for-in+flight-wi+fi

Runway Girl Mary Kirby has been covering inflight Wi-Fi for quite a while. She notices that while Wi-Fi is going free in cafes, parks, and hotels, the airlines want you to pay.

There's obviously a cost in maintaining and expanding the air Wi-Fi network, but who should pay for it, the airlines or you? 50-50? Would you pay extra in a ticket to get Wi-Fi access? Maybe it should be free for longer flights?

Your answer in the comments. [Runway Girl]



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Posted by Augustine at 10:16 PM

Defense Department developing portable hacking device for soldiers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/defense-department-developing-portable-hacking-device-for-soldie/


It's not exactly news that the Department of Defense is looking at ways to make hacking a more practical weapon, but it looks to really be stepping up its game with its latest project, which promises to make complicated attacks as simple as a few button presses. That would apparently be possible thanks to a slightly mysterious device that'd be small enough to carry around in a backpack, but powerful enough to do everything from breaking into a wireless network to hacking into SCADA (or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems (used at power plants, nuclear facilities, and the like). While complete details are obviously a bit light, the system would apparently be able to, for instance, map out the nodes in a wireless network, cause them to disconnect, and watch them come back online to identify weak spots. It would then present the "hacker" with various attack attributes that could simply be adjusted using sliders on a touchscreen. No word if the soldiers will also be rewarded with Achievements.

[Via Softpedia]

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Defense Department developing portable hacking device for soldiers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 10:14 PM

Canonical giving Ubuntu the gift of Android apps

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/canonical-giving-ubuntu-the-gift-of-android-apps/


Well, here's a wild new spin on the Android for netbooks debate: Canonical, commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, is creating an Android execution environment that would allow Android apps to run on Ubuntu and other desktop-style Linux distros, which seems like the best of both worlds for netbooks in most cases. Canonical already has a working prototype of the execution environment, and plans on making the necessary changes to the kernel in its next version of Ubuntu to give Android all the juice it needs at the core level and will open source the project soon. Things are still early, and there's a lot of work to do before this is going to really make the highly specialized Java-based Android apps actually usable on regular Linux -- they're currently working on granting Android access to the Ubuntu file system, for instance -- but we love where this is headed.

[Thanks, Michael Y.; Image courtesy of Scott James Remnant]

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Canonical giving Ubuntu the gift of Android apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 10:13 PM

Sharp slings out industry's thinnest solar modules for cellphones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/sharp-slings-out-industrys-thinnest-solar-modules-for-cellphone/


Timely, no? Just a month after Sharp aided in producing the planet's first waterproof solar cellphone, the aforementioned outfit has just announced the industry's thinnest solar module for handsets. Checking in at just 0.8 millimeters thick, the LR0GC02 shouldn't take up too much space on your daughter's great-granddaughter's smartphone, and while Sharp isn't handing over too many details just yet, we figure it'll pretty much do what it says. You know -- charge the handset it's integrated into whenever sunlight is available. As for when we'll see these in cellphones everywhere? Take a wild guess, tree-hugger.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Sharp slings out industry's thinnest solar modules for cellphones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 10:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 12:41 PM

Nokia next-gen "Rover" tablet unveiled?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/25/nokia-next-gen-rover-tablet-unveiled/


After the spec rundown this morning of the long-rumored Maemo 5 tablet from Nokia, we've now got ourselves a potential name and image to pair with the wonderful promise of 3G and OMAP3. According to this shot obtained by Cellpassion, the next-generation Internet Tablet device is taking quite a bit of an N-series turn, with that 3.5-inch WVGA screen (instead of the 4-inch display on the N810), three-row QWERTY keyboard and other refinements making this look to be much more a smartphone than a tablet -- which is presumably exactly what Nokia is going for. Naturally, we can't vouch for the source, and there are enough oddities to the image -- which seems to be gleaned from a presentation slide of some sort -- to voice caution, but if this is truly the marriage of Maemo with handset we've always dreamed of, it's going to be a little difficult to rein in our enthusiasm.

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Nokia next-gen "Rover" tablet unveiled? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 May 2009 18:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 5:59 AM

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