August 11, 2005, 5:40 PM PDT
SMS spam: if it's not here yet, it's coming
Posted by: Molly Wood

Via Engadget, a new study finds that 80 percent of all European cell phone users have received some sort of SMS spam. Less than an estimated 10 percent of U.S. users can say the same thing. But when we start getting more, you can expect us to be rude, loud, and obnoxiously piggy about it.

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August 11, 2005, 4:27 PM PDT
Sex and the cell phone
Posted by: Kent German

MSNBC reported this week that Cingular is mulling a deal with HBO to offer programming from the cable network over its forthcoming 3G UMTS service. Although specifics have yet to be announced, an agreement could mean that HBO favorites such as Sex and the City and Six Feet Under could make it on to Cingular cell phones. Cingular currently has a six-city UMTS network that it inherited from AT&T Wireless, but the carrier has promised it will add more regions by the end of the year and increase its lineup of 3G-capable handsets. AT&T introduced the UMTS-equipped Motorola A845 last year, but Cingular has not actively supported the mobile since the merger. If a deal is signed, Cingular would compete with Verizon's 3G V Cast service, which streams video content from a handful of TV channels.

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August 11, 2005, 2:16 PM PDT
Xbox 360 launch lineup leaks
Posted by: Robert Dubbin

Where would we be without the hapless retail outlets who routinely leak details of products before they're announced through official channels? It seems that EBgames has inadvertently tipped Microsoft's hand, announcing the Xbox 360's launch lineup a full three months before the console's anticipated release date.

Check out the full list here (via digg.com), and note that, for now, you can click through to individual game pages on EB's site, then mutter to yourself upon noticing that they all appear to be priced in the vicinity of $59.99. Now, if only EB could start leaking coupon codes and free gift certificates and maybe just start direct-mailing Xbox 360s to people, then we'd be getting somewhere.

Update: EBgames has since put up a disclaimer saying that prices aren't official. Though the pricing and release dates you see on its sites are likely close to accurate, you'll want to take them with a few grains of salt.

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August 11, 2005, 1:08 PM PDT
Surfin' USB
Posted by: Dan Ackerman

A waterproof optical mouse? We sure could have used that yesterday, when an ill-advised attempt to cram a wide Airborne pill into a narrow-necked water bottle led to some unintentional splashing and a malfunctioning mouse.

The iKey AquaPoint USB mouse (PS/2 version also available) is designed for harsh industrial environments, like factories and maybe water parks, so a little spilled Poland Spring should be no problem. Fans are popping up all over the blogosphere, so maybe high-tech beverage mishaps are more common than we thought.

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August 11, 2005, 11:12 AM PDT
Public exploit threatens IE
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

Antivirus vendor Trend Micro is reporting the existence of an exploit based on one of the patches issued last Tuesday by Microsoft; an exploit often preceeds the appearance of a new virus or worm. In this case, the exploit, which takes advantage of COM Object Instantiation Memory Corruption Vulnerability in IE, was originally written to exploit the HTML Elements vulnerability in IE reported by Microsoft last December within its Security Bulletin MS04-040. The HTML Elements exploit was recently updated to include vulnerabilities in the JView Profiler in IE, which Microsoft patched in Security Bulletin MS05-37. The latest version of this publicly available exploit includes a simple modification to the Class Identifier (CLSID) to take advantage of the MS05-038 flaw. Since all of these vulnerabilities affect Internet Explorer, the CNET Virus Threat Watch meter has been raised to Medium. This doesn't mean we expect to see a virus or a worm; rather you should use this opportunity to update your computer and check that your antivirus app and firewall are working properly in case a virus or a worm develops.

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August 11, 2005, 9:53 AM PDT
Pick your podcast poison
Posted by: Molly Wood

So, today I got a news release about a company called Laridian that's released a complete version of the Bible (with "dramatized audio," even) for use on the iPod. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle has a story about how porn has come to podcasting ("podnography"). It's your iPod, you decide. We won't judge. Much.

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August 11, 2005, 7:47 AM PDT
Nvidia: 2, ATI: 0
Posted by: Rich Brown

Today's announcement of the $449 Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT graphics card is certainly newsworthy in its own right. Our early test results show that it's only a step or two behind the $600 GeForce 7800 GTX. But what's even more interesting is that while Nvidia's releasing its second next generation part, ATI still hasn't even answered Nvidia's SLI yet, let alone a new chip. We thought this was supposed to be a two horse race (sorry Matrox).

As for speeds and feeds on the PCI Express GeForce 7800 GT:

- 256MB of 256-bit DDR3 SDRAM
- 400MHz core clock, 500MHz memory clock
- 350 watt power supply recommended

The card should be on sale today from Nvidia's board partners.

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August 11, 2005, 6:32 AM PDT
Logitech pushes weights
Posted by: Rich Brown

We suspect that bringing a mouse with a customizable weighting system to a LAN party is like bringing your own cue to the bar. You'll look real dumb if you don't know how to use it. We'll be seeing more of these before the end of the year, but Logitech's G5 Laser mouse, announced today, is the first we've gotten to play with.

The G5 includes a small plastic tray into which you can insert up to eight Altoid-sized metal weights. The weights, stored separately in their own tin, come in 1.7 gram and 4.5 gram increments. The idea is that, in first person shooters, a heavy mouse accommodates slow and deliberate targeting, sniping, for example. Lighter is better for faster, run-and-gun style gaming. It's also the second mouse from Logitech (and we loved the first) that uses a laser for tracking movement, as opposed to a less-sensitive LED.

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