Technology Review has published a really cool visual tour showcasing what happens to the cell phones we discard. From refurbishing to battery salvage, all the way to the final smelting process for the totally obsolete at a plant outside Chicago.

Visit Technology Review for more words and imagery.

Sony says the thinness was achieved by dispensing with traditional backlighting and building white LEDs into the edges of the frame. The result: a 1080p model measuring an incredible 9.9mm thick and weighing only 12.2Kg despite offering a sizeable 40in panel.

Whether mounted on the wall or on its table-top stand, the BRAVIA ZX1's aura of cool minimalism need not be marred by wires from set top boxes or other devices, thanks to 'BRAVIA 1080 Wireless' technology. The two-part system uses a super-fast wireless connection to deliver a top-quality HD signal from the Media Receiver, which contains the MPEG4 AVC HD tuner(2), to the ZX1 in real time.

La desaparición de los cables (o, al menos, esconderlos lo máximo posible) es otra de las tendencias que estamos viendo en el IFA. La propuesta de Trekstor es que nuestros altavoces no estén ligados ni al ordenador ni a la corriente.

Para ello, presenta los Trekstor Wireless SoundBox, un sistema compuesto por un emisor que se conecta al ordenador a través del puerto USB y por los altavoces, de los cuales podemos añadir hasta 20 con un solo emisor, y que funcionan a pilas.

Los Trekstor Wireless Soundbox disponen de un rango de alcance de hasta 25 metros y se alimentan con cuatro pilas de tipo AA, aunque si no nos queda más remedio podemos conectarlos al puerto USB del ordenador para conseguir energía.

Los altavoces incluyen controles táctiles, con los que podremos manejar el volumen individualmente, y una entrada de línea, donde podremos conector reproductores de música externos.

Se venderán por 50 euros, incluyendo el emisor y un altavoz, y cada altavoz adicional costará 30 euros, estando disponibles a partir de octubre. Veremos si la autonomía y la potencia de los altavoces compensan el elevado precio, que no parece salir demasiado a cuenta a pesar de conseguir eliminar los cables.

Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) is the IEEE TaskGroupi’s solution for the security loop holes present in the already widely deployed 802.11 hardware. It is a set of algorithms that wrap WEP to give the best possible solution given design constraints such as paucity of the CPU cycles, hardwiring of the WEP encryption algorithm and software upgrade dependent. Thus, TKIP is significantly more difficult and challenging to implement and optimise than WEP. The objective of this research is to examine the cost/benefit of TKIP security mechanisms and optimise its implementation to reduce security overhead for better performance. We propose a modified TKIP (MoTKIP) with improved packet encapsulation and decapsulation procedure that reduces computation and packet overhead in classic TKIP substantially and optimises total wireless network throughput rates.

"BBN Technologies (...)  has been awarded $8.9M in funding by the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the third phase of its Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) program (...)  to develop and field network services that deliver critical information reliably even when no end-to-end path exists through the network."

BBN's press release.

Depending on the source, DTN stands for either "delay tolerant networks" or "disruption tolerant networks." The U.S. military favors the term "disruption tolerant" to better convey what they are trying to achieve. Today's IP networks rely on stable end to end connectivity. BBN's DTN is engineered as a self-organized network accounting for changing environments. This means that a continuous end to end connection cannot be assumed.

BBN deals with broken links by implementing a new routing protocol and persistent storage, keeping track of cached content. Eventually, when conducting either a search or an information request, the query will move through the network to meet information advertisements, thus linking "who wants to know what" with "who knows what."

The following video clip discusses Microsoft's take on wireless ad-hoc networks. While the context of Microsoft's research is focusing on taking down the digital divide by enabling affordable Internet connectivity in the emerging economies, this clip illustrates some of the underlying assumptions behind the notion of self-organizing networks.

Microsoft - video powered by Metacafe

Links of interest:

• Delay Tolerant Research Group

Relevant consultaglobal posts:

• MaNet: mobile ad-hoc networks
• Beyond web 2.0, ready to cut the cord?
• Beyond web 2.0, ready to cut the cord? (2)
• Beyond web 2.0, WiFi 2.0?

José de Francisco López
Chicago, IL     30 August 08

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Samsung's answer to the iPhone -- the Instinct -- will gain another distributor when RadioShack begins selling the smartphone over the Labor Day weekend with a four-day price promotion in its 4,400 stores, the retailer announced. Those who sign up for a Sprint Simply Everything Plan can buy the Samsung handset for $130. TMC Internet Telephony (8/28)

Direct Line (iTunes link) is a service that helps you automatically navigate phone trees to get right to an operator (exactly what companies don’t want you to do).   Install the application, browse of search the included companies, and select the one you want. Direct Line then calls the number and preselects the appropriate choices to get you to an actual person. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/direct-line-saves-iphone-users-from-automated-call-hell 8/28)

There's a huge security problem in the latest iPhone 2.0.2: if you have your JesusPhone password protected, using a very simple trick gives anyone full access to your cellphone private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts, and even Safari. The two-step trick is even simpler to the one used in the past to gain access to the phone to install unlocking cards or jailbreak. Fortunately, there's a way to avoid this obvious security breach until Apple fixes it. (http://gizmodo.com/5042332/huge-iphone-security-flaw-puts-all-private-information-at-risk 8/27)

Last May, Google announced the first set of winners in its two-part contest called Android Challenge. The challenge is meant to kick-start the creation of 3rd-party applications for its nascent mobile platform by enticing developers with a total of $10 million in awards.  Today, Google is releasing the names of its second set of winners, 10 of which receive $275,000 and 10 of which receive $100,000. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/final-winners-of-android-challenge-announced 8/28)

Sprint unveiled some of the content and location-based services that will be available as part of its planned Xohm WiMax wireless broadband network. The technology will enable high speed connections to be established while driving, which should lead to all kinds of navigation and location-based recommendation services. So far partners in the Xohm venture include:

• uLocate - chosen for its Where platform powering friend finding and other location based mobile services
• Yelp Inc. - providing user ratings and reviews of local restaurants, shops, doctors, etc.
• Topix - offering local news based on location
• AccuWeather - providing location based forecasts, radar/satellite images, etc
• Google - powering search functionality, Google Maps, etc

USB Retro Wireless Microphone

Como vocês podem observar neste blog, eu adoro gadgets com visual retrô. Este é para quem se identifica com a era de ouro do rádio. É um microfone sem fio com alcance de 3 metros. Pura nostalgia!

Fonte: www.geeky-gadgets.com

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Also creating a wireless ad-hoc network seems impossible for this USB unit. I tried it on both XP and Server version, and neither worked, even though its specification says it supports that. Maybe there are some security policies on the domain restricting that.

How to create a wireless ad-hoc network, here is an article for XP, and this one is for Vista. Don’t forget to connect to that ad-hoc network after you have created it.

Electropollution from all wireless microwaves, the wiring in walls, cell towers, wireless routers, WiFi networks, etc. is potentially as life threatening to the human body as asbestos, tobacco and lead paint. There are currently close to 3 billion cell phone users in the world and 80% of the planet is now wireless. Dr. Hyman will talk about what it is, why and how it is bad for you and pose the question, "Is there a solution to electromagnetic pollution?"

Since when has it become ok to view porn in public?  I can't imagine anyone doing so.

I'm always amazed that you can buy adult magazines in a newstand before getting on a plane.  Do people really "read" Playboy or other type magazines in airplanes?  What type of people would do this?

Should American filter their Internet?  I don't know about that, but why should this even be something we have to be concerned about?

The Android Blog is reporting that Google has officially announced the Android Market, an App Store like solution that allows publishers to upload programs and sell them online. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/android-to-get-its-own-app-market 8/28)

Love it.  A little healthy competition with the iTunes Application Store. An application deathmatch if you will. . .  Google= free and happy.  iTunes = got there first.  Who will win?  Still putting my $5 on iTunes at this point.

An internal source at AT&T discussed the problems fixed by the 2.0.2 update, explaining, in no uncomplicated terms, that the update controlled the UMTS power control in the phone. Each iPhone requires a small amount of power from the transmitter and that power is requested by the phone itself. If too many phones ask for too much power at once, the transmitter starts shutting down, resulting in dropped calls. The iPhone 3G was asking for too much power and, in 2.0.2, has been fixed to stop requesting that power so often. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/iphone-reception-problems-are-all-your-fault 8/28)

Adding to the pool of off deck content available for mobile users, Leap Wireless' Cricket Communications announced a flat-rate unlimited mobile video service allowing users to view one-to-four-minute-long video clips directly from select handsets. Videos available include music videos, artist interviews, music documentaries and sports clips from Fuel TV. (Cynopsis 8/28)

No he visto noticias interesantes, lo mas cercano a eso es, pues esto, un keypad inalambrico para el PS3 salido de Leipzig, se ajusta al control como se ve en la foto, aunque se dice que se puede usar por separado, pero se me haria un poco raro traer esa cosa en la mano.