Gadgety News

WowWee just loves bots that can spy on folk.

Now there’s a new one and it goes by the unsneaky name of Spyball.

This spherical snooper is designed to roll around before popping out a webcam to beam live pictures over the web (MWAHAhahahahaahh!).

Like other offerings from WowWee the Spyball can be controlled from any web connected PC, and can also connect to any local PC, games console or even mobile phone.

It’s packed with Wi-Fi so once hooked up to your network it’s ready to snap stills or moving pictures.

As well as rolling around, it’ll manage 360-degree turns too - and it’s a stealthy little blighter as it moves around hardly making a sound.

So, whether you want to make sure that your partner has actually put the dinner on, spy on the kids or just wanna scare the cat when your bored at work I reckon Spyball will suit all occassions

Passing a lump of shaped metal into a corresponding orifice then twisting it just to open or secure your abode too much for you?

Well those tool-meisters, Black & Decker, are to launch a “state-of-the-art remote wireless residential access control solution” that could see you locking your front door remotely.

Black & Decker’s motorised electronic deadbolts can be locked and unlocked remotely, with no direct human interaction.

Not very satisfying for the almost OCD of you out there who like to rattle the door 5-10 times before leaving but I’m guessing ideal for the more lax that tend to get that  “did I lock the door?” moment when stepping on to the plane.

Word is that it’ll be due in the new year - I’m interested to find out just how secure the remote code signal is.

I dread to think of the queues that this is going to cause if high-street stores bring this in but if it actually makes my transactions more secure and the threat of fraud lower then chalk me down for one.

This new card from MBNA has a built-in numeric keypad, and when you put in your PIN, it’ll display a security code like the one sites always ask you for now - perhaps you already have one of those small calculator code jobbies for online banking as well?

Hopefully this extra stage will make spending a lot of money with a stolen card significantly harder if not impossible online.

Now, if my next laptop comes with a biometrically secured keypad to go along with my keypad locked hard-drive………………..

Ok, so this is a bit like, “my dad’s bigger than your dad” but for you mobile computing junkies the question of who has the best WiFi access is a serious matter.

Well, London continues to be the world capital of WiFi with an amazing 12,276 access points - this is according to the latest from the annual Wireless Security Survey conducted by RSA.

London beats New York City by roughly 3,000 whilst Paris rules the year-over-year increase category with a stupendous 543 percent gain over last year!

NYC did manage to capture the top spot in the much coveted ‘corporate encryption’ category, with about 97 percent of corporate access points now employing some type of encryption, while about 20 percent of London’s business access points remain totally, completely, embarrassingly, nakedly unprotected.

The last figure is all the more startling when married with what Richard Thomas said at the RSA Conference Europe 2008 on Wednesday.

He stated that there had been 277 data breaches reported since last November. Thirty of which were classed as ”serious incidents”, in both the public and private sectors and are still under investigation.

Hmmm………….

But YAY LONDON! 

Slashdot

The word on the interblogweb street is that Apple’s iPhone 3G is getting yet another software update this month, speeding up its operating system and ironing out security and GPS bugs.

According to AppleInsider, the handset’s lagging contacts list (something I’ve noticed but just put down to the many contacts I have) will be fixed by a September software update.

The source of the rumour is pretty good as it is none other than Apple boss Steve Jobs, who apparently responded to angry customers directly, unveiling the update to one who accused his firm of using customers as “beta testers.”

So - get ready to update people - via AppleInsider

Remember back in January I reported about Tri-bot and Rovio?

Well it looks like Rovio is available for pre-order from Red5! :0)

Just to remind you lot why you should get this bot - you can control it from anywhere in the world and keep an eye on your home via streaming video and audio through a built-in camera via the interweb it does also come with its own remote control.

The neck-mounted camera is adjustable as are its audio settings and different movements.

You can also set Rovio up to patrol set routes so that you can get sloshed and still know that your faithful security-guard will be looking after all that tech you have back at home - it will even recharge itself when getting low on juice!

by Nilay Patel

Sure, we’ve seen several newfangled hard drive enclosures and flashdrives with fancy biometric security options, but why put yourself at risk of having a finger lopped off (or worse, simply copied, Mythbusters style, when you can lock down your data with a simple PIN and still keep that MI6 vibe? IOTEK’s ezSECU ez850 is just your ticket, then — the USB 2.0 enclosure accepts any 2.5-inch SATA drive you might have lying around and works with Windows and Mac OS X — but won’t allow access to your data unless the right PIN is first entered on its old-school touchscreen LCD. There’s not much more to it than that — we’re hoping it at least beeps and plays a cheesy animation when it unlocks, but since we’re unable to find out if this thing is ever going to make it out of Korea, we’ll just have to keep making our own sound effects.

Via SlashGear