Gadgets Blog

The Wii’s Twilight Hack has been a big hit for the homebrew crowd. Using the software flaw, they’ve been able to play Tetris on their Wiis and even create some custom Wii channels. Nintendo tried to shut that program down, but 8 hours later, it was back. Nobody can keep the homebrew devs down, and over the past week there have been two more major breakthroughs in “hacking the Wii.”

A group called Waninkoko has created a custom firmware for the Wii which allows writable DVDs to be read by the system. This means that downloading Wii titles to your PC, and then playing them on a burned disc could be right around the corner. The second crack for the Wii came from teamshift. They were able to create a PSP emulator that can play whatever games you wish.

Of course, neither of these hacks have actually been confirmed, so take heed before you try to install the Waninkoko hack. Do so at your own risk. The PSP emulator rumor from teamshift comes from a single image posted on NintendoMax showing Puzzle Bobble Pocket playing on a Wii. The image doesn’t hold much credence, and could be completely fake, but if it’s real then PSP games may become the new black for a while in Wii owner’s homes.

As more information is revealed on this, we’ll let you know.

Read more at engadget and DCEMUuk

I love playing Mob Wars on Facebook because it’s one of those pointless games that you just can’t help but play every day at work

So here are my Facebook Mob Wars tips trick and cheats

First you should try to gain experience. Basically when you start playing Mob Wars on Facebook try to do jobs only in order to gain experience and make money.

Invite all of your friends to join your mob. Make sure you invite the maxium amount of people per day because the more people you invite the more money you will get.

 Just do the jobs and let your energy regenerate and keep doing jobs. Once you have some money…say 60,000, you should try and buy a city. Go to city and buy an empty lot and a restaurant. If you do that you will get money by the hour.

The more cities you buy, the more money you make per hour. So keep doing jobs, and buying cities.

When you reach level 10 the I would suggest you start to fight. Go into you stockpile and look at the weapons and cars.

To get some good weapons you will need around 150.000.

Buy an Armed Range Rover for 90,000. Buy an assault rifle and some body armor. You can start to fight people and by fighting them you will gain experience and sometimes money. So mainly, do jobs, build cities, fight, and INVITE.

Always attack people who have hotels and casinos because when you attack them and win you could potentially win around $70.000 per fight

That’s it, now go to Facebook and start playing Mob Wars

Mob Wars - An epic game of Mafia warfare, played on Facebook.

Motorola will be releasing its VE75 cell phone in China, making it yet another dual SIM handset to hit the Asian country. Guess dual SIM phones are pretty popular there eh, could the people there actually prefer to keep two lines on a single phone instead of lugging around a couple of handsets? Well, the Motorola VE75 will be equipped with the following :-

• 2.6″ display with 16:9 aspect ratio and a 240 x 400 resolution
• 2 megapixel camera
• Multimedia playback
• microSD memory card slot
• USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity

So sad for those hoping that the blackberry Bold would be landing shortly at T-Mobile here in the US, but instead pricing information has been announced for T-Mobile Germany.

The price is set at €219.95 (about $350 US), which is a bit higher than the $299 that has already been announced for Rogers, which will begin offering their version next Friday on July 25.

T-Mobile Germany currently has the available date simply listed as July, with the option to reserve now, but it is rumored to be coming on July 21, which is this Monday.

Coming back to the US release, at this time we have only seen a confirmation come from AT&T, but they are still having trouble setting an official availability date.

Product [T-Mobile] Read [Mobile Bulgaria] Via [Engadget Mobile]

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Use of disk encryption is a growing trend for individuals and companies alike. But new research carried out at the University of Washington points to a few cracks appearing when encryption is used in a certain way.

The research covers encryption used only on a section of a hard drive, rather than a fully encrypted disk. We can set these areas up on a drive, much like a partition, to allow us to have a secure area on disk to store files. The problem is that certain programs functioning inside the encrypted area don’t operate within its boundaries.

Examples include applications such as Google Desktop or Microsoft Word. Even though they may be located inside the encrypted area of the disk, this doesn’t stop them placing files outside of that area. One clear example is Word’s auto-recovery folder, which allows you to get your work back after a crash. This can be placed outside of the encrypted partition, meaning the documents you think are secure are actually there for all to see.

The research was carried out by Tadayashi Kohno along with Alexei Czeskis, David J. St. Hilaire, Karl Koscher, Steven D. Gribble and Bruce Schneier from BT. Tadayashi is an assistant professor at the University and commented:

Information is spilling out from the encrypted region into the unencrypted region … [it is] a problem with the way these applications interact with these encrypted virtual disks … I suspect that this is a potentially huge issue. We’ve basically cracked the surface.

The results of their research are presented in the paper entitled, Defeating Encrypted and Deniable File Systems: TrueCrypt v5.1a and the Case of the Tattling OS and Applications (PDF). It is set to be presented at the HotSec 08 conference on July 29.

Read more at InfoWorld.com

Matthew’s Opinion
This isn’t an issue with the encryption software being used, it’s to do with the applications not considering security when creating temporary file storage on a disk.

Encryption hasn’t really been a major feature to consider when designing software such as the latest version of MS Word. They didn’t think that Word would be operating from within an encrypted partition and therefore didn’t limit where temp files are created.

In future this does need to considered and steps taken to ensure everything remains within the encrypted area. I’m not sure if applications like TrueCrypt could also help on this front. Possibly just a warning on detection and instructions on how to fix the issue when it happens?

Amazon has launched a new service for its customers in the U.S. that allows them to buy and watch streamed movies and TV shows. To begin with it will be available to a limited user base of selected customers, but by the end of the summer is expected to open up to everyone.

Amazon already has a digital download service called Unbox, but this is the first time no download is required. Instead, the content is available immediately and streamed to a user’s PC. All purchases are stored by Amazon in a customer’s account through a “Your Video Library” section. That means you have access to the content purchased whenver you want; and from any PC or Net-connected TV.

Bill Carr, Amazon vice president of digital media said:

For the first time, this is drop dead simple … Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.

The e-tailer isn’t standing still on the issue of getting content to your TV via the service either. A deal has been struck to allow the digital streaming store to be accessible via the Sony Bravia Video link device and to be included in future Bravia TV releases. Amazon are also working to develop similar tie-ins with other TV manufacturers.

Initially Amazon Video on Demand will carry TV shows and movies from most of the major studios. The one notable exception being Disney.

Read more at the New York Times

Matthew’s Opinion
This certainly sets the standard for what a digital entertainment streaming service should be. Content you buy is accessible anywhere, is always available with a login and has growing support from the major studios.

I am interested to see the pricing structure compared to buying a DVD or Blu-ray. I’m hoping it is significantly lower not only to spur people to try it, but because of the type of access you are getting to the content.

So how many of you welcome this kind of service for your entertainment purchases? I do like having a physical copy of the item I’ve bought, but this service, like a lot of the digital music sites, offers a lot of flexibility and accessibility.

A few weeks ago, we covered Creative’s latest Portable Media Player (PMP), the Zen X-Fi. Believe it or not, Creative has already rolled out another PMP with the Zen Krystal.

The Zen Krystal looks like the Zen Stone Plus with Display (a PMP which I highly recommend), but has a more rectangular look. It appears to only be available with 4GB worth of memory, which is enough for about 2,000 songs. Songs and other audio files are easily downloaded with the drag and drop function with no drivers to install.

In addition to its 10 hour battery life, the Zen Krystal has a lot of other nifty features like a voice recorder and a radio with 32 preset stations. It even has some nifty motion-sensitive games programmed on it like Hurdle Race, Catch & Dodge, and Dice Roll.

It appears that the Zen Krystal is targeted for the sports and fitness crowd. It has a pedometer built-in, which is a first for Creative. It allows you to track your calories burnt, and you can use the stopwatch for your workout with the included bundled wrist strap.

The Zen Krystal just appeared on Creative’s Hong Kong site, and so there is no real word as when it will become available or price.

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In this world where going green is the in thing, how about this method that involves getting power from waste parts of the cassava plant? You might be more familiar with tapioca as the common name though, and thanks to the efforts of Nigerian engineer Dr. Joseph Adelegan, this devised method collects cassava waste which in turn is transformed into a biogas that generates electricity as they turn small turbines. The electricity produced will be enough for basic needs such as lighting and low-powered electronics, although heavy duty usage like your Xbox 360 and refrigerator will still require the services of a grid.

In this world where going green is the in thing, how about this method that involves getting power from waste parts of the cassava plant? You might be more familiar with tapioca as the common name though, and thanks to the efforts of Nigerian engineer Dr. Joseph Adelegan, this devised method collects cassava waste which in turn is transformed into a biogas that generates electricity as they turn small turbines. The electricity produced will be enough for basic needs such as lighting and low-powered electronics, although heavy duty usage like your Xbox 360 and refrigerator will still require the services of a grid.

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 4:15AM

With a name like instant-on, it just has to be quick, right? Well, sort of. The cool cats over at Laptop paradoxically got to play with ASUS latest ExpressGate-equipped desktop, the Eee Box. Upon mashing the power button and clicking the stopwatch, it took 11 seconds to get to the main ExpressGate page, where users could select the browser, photo viewer, Pidgin chat or Skype button. Upon clicking browser, they found that it took 25 more seconds to push through and get Firefox up and running, putting the grand total for quick clickers at 35 seconds from startup to being on the web. Hit the read link for more coverage of the ExpressGate Olympics, complete with a video that takes 1 to 10 seconds to load depending on connection speed.

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