Obama to get Sectera Edge Blackberry?

  Barack Obama has been a keen user of the blackberry. Unfortunately it appeared that he would not be allowed to continue to use it. However, it seems like he might get to keep it after all. Speculation suggests that he will be getting a Sectera Edge… more on that after the jump.

The Sectera Edge is built by General Dynamics who are a defence contractor. Simply put, it’s a super secure version of a Blackberry. The smartphone was developed for the NSA and was designed to be a “secure mobile environment portable electronic device.” Some features of the Sectera Edge is it’s ability to use SCIP (Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol) along site HAIPE IS “High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor Interoperability Specification”. This will allow secure connections to government networks. Also the Sectera Edge can allow the exchange of secure email with government personnel.

As well as being super secure the phone can also switch to a normal unsecure mode by the touch of a button.

So, given all of that, could the Sectera Edge be secure enough for a U.S. president? It’s hard to say. One issue raised by my colleague Matt Hamblen at Computerworld is how the encryption would affect messages sent to non-government employees. (They would have to be given appropriate decryption technology to be able to read them.) A security expert also questions whether enemies could use the device to ascertain the president’s location, or even tap into his phone’s microphone and transmit his conversations.

The phone is rather cool and OTT for most of us regular users. Unfortunately we might never fully know what Blackberry Obama gets to keep as everything is just speculation here until it is announced (which I doubt it will be).

If you want to feel more secure for yourself and have $3350 spare then go and pick one up.

Via: GearCrave and PCW

Written by Gadget Venue.

Obama to get Sectera Edge Blackberry?

Lian-Li’s PC-888

We're not sure what percentage of each PC-888 sale goes straight to the owners of Dubai's Burj Al Arab, but it better be a lot. Lian-Li's latest eye-popping PC chassis looks pretty much exactly like the aforesaid hotel, and it's constructed from a significant amount of blue anodized aluminum. As you can probably tell from just looking, you can fit practically anything you'd ever need (as far as PC internals go) in here, with the case measuring in at 11.6- x 29.1- x 18.1-inches. A price has yet to be publicly disclosed, but a quick search brings up figures in the high $400s. Yeah, ouch.

[Thanks, John]

Hundreds Of Players Banned In Final Fantasy XI

From the folks who brought you the 18 hour boss fight, comes this: mass bannings! Square Enix has nixed a large number of players from online game Final Fantasy XI.

According to Square Enix, the company "discovered an issue that allowed players to create multiple items for certain treasures and rewards in areas such as Salvage and Assault by exploiting the game system."

This "issue" was apparently a bug — and a bug that many players had long known about before Square Enix handled.

During an emergency maintenance on November 26, 2008, Square Enix fixed this "issue" and discovered that players had already taken advantage of it before, in Square Enix's words, "it was addressed."

The company investigated a year's worth of logs throughout all areas of the games and then put the game's terms of use to, err, use.

"As a result of the investigation, approximately 400 players were temporarily suspended based on evidence gathered," Square Enix stated. "Approximately 550 players who committed more serious misconduct had their accounts banned."

Word has it that many of the damned and banned were long time FFXI players — perma banned, apparently.

IM-17 [BLUEGARTRLS Thanks, Josh!]

Nokia ships half a million 5800 XpressMusic handsets in 30 days

If this were coming from any other mouth, we'd definitely second guess it. As it stands, though, it's hard to dispute the words of Nokia's CEO when it comes to matters involving Nokia. Mr. Olli Pekka Kallasvuo stated rather proudly during the firm's Q4 results call that it had shipped just over 500,000 5800 XpressMusic mobiles (better known as the Tube) in just 30 days. That figure becomes even more impressive when you realize that shipments only occurred in select markets, though it should be noted that "units shipped" and "units sold to end users" could indeed be very different things. Still, half a million in just a month ain't too shabby in today's economy, so here's the kudos you're clearly due, Nokia.

Super-Tiny USB Card Reader

It seems as if this will be a day of mini gadgets here at GeekAlerts. First we had the Tiny Personal Alarm, then the Mini Airplane Mouse and now a small USB card reader.  

USB MicroSD/T-Flash + M2 Card Reader is a slim and tiny mobile card reader which direct read and write MicroSD/T-Flash or M2 memory card. It turns your memory card into a Pen Drive! This super mini Micro Drive goes with your mobile life.

Features:

• Compatible with MicroSDHC/MicroSD/T-Flash & M2
• With cap and wrist-loop
• Memory capacity depends on inserted memory card
• Fully compliant with USB v1.1/v2.0 specification
• Easy plug and play installation device
• USB bus powered, no external power is required
• Support MicroSDHC
• Support Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.0 or above
• Dimension: 18 x 39 x 7mm (approx.)
• Weight: 4g

The Mini USB MicroSD/T-Flash + M2 Card Reader is available from the USB Brando website for $12. There are two colors to choose from: black or white.

Skate 2 Review

The first time I popped open my copy of Skate 2, I knew I was in for a different kind of skating game. Not only are you able to get a crash course in boarding trickery at the local skate park, but you can also roam free around the city of New San Vanelona - jumping curbs, popping ollies, accepting challenges and running from the police Burnout Paradise style. I later found that Skate 2 kept me entertained, but at times it would make me oh-so-frustrated.

Skate 2 starts with you getting released from prison. Your friend Al picks you up and immediately takes you to Slappy's skate park to reclaim your place at the top of the skateboarding food chain. If you played the first installment of Skate (I didn't), you'll find that your city has been taken over and "rebuilt" by a mega-corporation and all your old favorite skating spots have been deemed useless. Plus, the police take skateboarding seriously and if you're caught skating on public property, you might get pinched if you aren't quick.

There are many things I liked about Skate 2, and some things that had me cursing the skating gods. To see what I mean, read more.

In Skate 2's career mode, you are climbing your way back to being the best skater in San Vanelona and reclaiming the city for your comrades. Doing so involves taking on different challenges from other skaters, racking up high scoring tricks, and participating in magazine photo shoots. All of this is easy peasy if you get the moves down. And that's a big if.



So when I tell you that learning the tricks in the game can be frustrating, it's only because I was sloppy at my timing or my control combos. It's funny cause I've seen kids around my old neighborhood doing these exact tricks, so I feel like it should be easy, but it's not. Just like in real life, if you aren't popping your board at the right second, you fail. You either land (hard) on your rear, or you just simply jump off your deck. But once you get it, it's really, really fun. Plus, there's a cool feature in Skate 2 that allows you to mark the beginning of your trick so that if you fail (which will probably be often), you can go back to that spot and try, try again.



Exploring the city is awesome since almost anything you see is "skateable", and you can engage in different challenges along the way to increase your score. You are also super strong (must have been all those gym hours in the Big House) and can move almost any object with ease to make your own little skating heaven anywhere you find a spot. But watch out for the police - those dudes are everywhere. Overall, Skate 2 is entertaining, engaging, and addictive. Even at my most frustrated times, I just wanted to keep going so that I could learn just one more trick. Although I could do without the citizens of San Vanelona getting in my way when I'm trying to race (Hello? I'm trying to race here), but I suppose that is how it would be if I were a real life skating bad ass, which will probably never happen.

Skate 2 is available today on your XBox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles.

Source

GoogleTube: The Best of Both Worlds

There's only one thing that GoogleTube does, but it does it very well: this Firefox extension adds a YouTube icon to your Google results so you can watch videos in the same window. No more opening multiple tabs, using the back button or getting lost within the many channels of YouTube.



Just click on the YouTube icon that shows up next to video results and a small, floating window pops out so you can watch it right there on the page. Sweet and simple.

Wooden MacBook case

Cut down a tree to save a Mac? Sure, it's better than using your face. These unpriced (hey, if you gotta ask...) wooden slip cases with leather lining and magnetic enclosures are designed and custom crafted by Rainer Spehl to fit 13-inch MacBooks or 15-inch MacBook Pros. While that's clearly a last-gen MacBook Pro pictured, we'll bet that Rainer will build the case to whatever dimensions you'd like just as long as you've got the cash to back up that pretty smile. Else, why not roll your own.

[Via SlipperyBrick and Notcot]

Snoopy USB flash drive in Pink is cute but not functional

There is hardly anything thing left which is totally unexplored in the sphere of USB. Whether its fashion, boys toys or cartoon, it’s all there. The Snoopy USB flash drive 2.0 measuring 2.17*1.57*0.35 in. is something which will surely be appreciated by the hardcore cartoon freak (who can’t hide his pansy love) It is certainly not something which can be counted as highly functional because it’s storage capacity is only 1GB which is a little meager for a flash drive. Deal Extreme has it for $7.

Source

Rumored Mac Mini refresh said to be Ion-based

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