August 03, 2005, 5:22 PM PDT
Your printer, the informant
Posted by: Elsa Wenzel

Printer makers did the Secret Service's bidding to fight counterfeiting when they buried hidden codes within color laser printers to show who, where, what, and even when you've made a print. Digital privacy advocates are disturbed that little yellow dots, visible through a magnifying glass, may betray your secrets, as PC World reported last fall. But maybe cops don't need such secret digital codes after all. British scientists have found that no two sheets of paper look alike, as with fingerprints. Within its texture, every sheet of paper bears a unique signature--which neither crumpling, soaking, nor cooking can erase. So if you're a bad guy who's left a clipping of that ransom note at home, burn it.

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August 03, 2005, 3:59 PM PDT
"Matchbook" MP3 players from JVC
Posted by: Jasmine France

OK, so that's not the name of JVC's new flash players, but that's how the company is describing them. The 512MB XA-MP51, available in dark blue or silver/white, and the 1GB XA-MP101 (black) are roughly the size of a book of matches, measuring 2 inches square. At 1.5 ounces, they certainly weigh more than said fire starters, but not so much that you'll notice the player in a pants or shirt pocket. Features include a four-line LCD, a voice recorder, and an FM tuner, from which you can also record your favorite broadcast radio shows. Five preset EQs, a playlist editing function, and bass boost are also on board. MSRPs for the players are $149.95 for the 512MB version and $199.95 for the 1GB version--arguably lofty in the current flash-MP3 marketplace.

Note: The picture above is not to scale. All players are the same size in reality.

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August 03, 2005, 3:59 PM PDT
The comeback kid: PDAs?
Posted by: Bonnie Cha

Aha! I knew it. You guys still like and find value in PDAs. In fact, worldwide handheld shipments are on pace to surpass the 13.2 million sales record set in 2001. As reported by CNET News.com, a Gartner study found that worldwide shipments of PDAs totaled 3.6 million in the last three months, and if these trends continue, unit sales will hit the 15 million mark by the end of 2005. Here in the States, we saw a 1.3 percent increase in sales, equaling 1.4 million units, but Western Europe led the charge with a 94 percent growth in the second quarter. Gartner attributes this surge to falling prices and wireless connectivity, and it does not include smart phones, such as the Palm Treo 650 and BlackBerrys. However, this news comes on the heels of a contradictory report by research firm IDC that said global handheld shipments fell by 24.9 percent to 1.7 million units in the second quarter.

Obviously, this is very confusing--are PDAs making a comeback or not? No matter what the numbers say, I believe there's still a viable market for handhelds. I see people using them every day--on the bus, at work, and at the gym. Yes, smart phones may be the future, but I think we still have a little while to go in terms of finding a good compromise between form factor and features. Plus, not everybody needs all that functionality. What do you think? What is the future of PDAs? TalkBack to me by posting a comment below.

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August 03, 2005, 1:00 PM PDT
The Car Whisperer (I kid you not)
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

Trifinite.org is offering a new tool that allows one to eavesdrop on individuals driving some high-tech cars with Bluetooth-enabled headsets and hands-free units. The "Car Whisperer attack," as it is known, takes advantage of a common flaw in Bluetooth implementation wherein some auto manufacturers simply use the same passkey of 0000 or 1234 for authentication and encryption. With the Car Whisperer tool from Trifinite, one can use a Linux laptop and a Bluetooth antenna to listen in on insecure, hands-free conversations or even talk directly to the individuals inside another car. Trifinite urges automakers to vary their passkeys; in the meantime, you should switch your hands-free unit to Invisible mode so that no unauthorized device can make a connection. The researchers at Trifinite also point out that not all Bluetooth car kits use default passkeys and that quite a few now use random passkeys or require users to enter a passkey of their own.

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August 03, 2005, 9:58 AM PDT
What's the temp, Firefox?
Posted by: Molly Wood

When there's nothing else to talk about, at least you've got the weather. (Or Apple's new mouse.) Weather.com has launched a local weather extension for Firefox that ostensibly gives you one-click access to forecasts, current weather, weather alerts, and the like. I was ready to download and try it, like, instantly, but then I checked out the comments on the download page and they indicated it was bloated and full of links to Weather.com. I'll be trying out their recommendation, Forecastfox. Overall, though, I'm happy to see weather plug-ins for browsers and widgets like the suddenly free and trustworthy Konfabulator add-ons (thanks, Yahoo!). I'm still smarting from the pushy adware hangover I got from my last seemingly innocent little weather application.

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