Let's face it: despite the new Xbox 360 being joyously quieter and more efficient, the previous model still manages to seduce some of us with its sexy curves. Speaking of which -- according to Joystiq's source, Best Buy's going to kick off August by lowering the prices for the Splinter Cell: Conviction and Final Fantasy XIII previous-gen Xbox 360 bundles. For just $299 -- $50 off the current price point (and $100 off the launch price) -- you still get a copy of the corresponding game title, a 250GB HDD, and two wireless controllers. So that's gaming sorted for the summer; now put that $50 towards some cooling aid and you're good to go.

Best Buy to slash prices for old Xbox 360 special edition bundles tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In 2009, Chris Paget showed the world the vulnerabilities of RFID by downloading the contents of US passports from the safety of his automobile. This year, he's doing the same for mobile phones. Demonstrating at DefCon 2010, the white hat hacker fooled 17 nearby GSM phones into believing his $1,500 kit (including a laptop and two RF antennas) was a legitimate cell phone base station, and proceeded to intercept and record audience calls. "As far as your cell phones are concerned, I'm now indistinguishable from AT&T," he told the crowd. The purpose of the demonstration was highlight a major flaw in the 2G GSM system, which directs phones to connect to the tower with the strongest signal regardless of origin -- in this case, Paget's phony tower.

The hacker did caveat that his system could only intercept outbound calls, and that caller ID could tip off the owner of a handset to what's what, but he says professional IMSI catchers used by law enforcement don't suffer from such flaws and amateur parity would only be a matter of time. "GSM is broken," Paget said, "The primary solution is to turn it off altogether." That's a tall order for a world still very dependent on the technology for mobile connectivity, but we suppose AT&T and T-Mobile could show the way. Then again, we imagine much of that same world is still using WEP and WPA1 to "secure" their WiFi.

Hacker intercepts phone calls with homebuilt $1,500 IMSI catcher, claims GSM is beyond repair originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists believe that fly eyes are perfectly shaped for manufacturing efficient solar cells. Specifically, copying the eye of the Blowfly would allow solar cells to "collect sunlight from a larger area than just light that falls directly on a flat surface." More »

Most high-profile smartphones launch exclusively on one of the major carriers in the U.S. The Samsung Galaxy S, though, will come to market via all of them under different names, different industrial designs, and, in one case, with different input options. And yet, its screen's quality and size - big but not too big - will certainly make it a contender at all of them.

But the handset will encounter anything but a level playing field in its respective portfolios. The Galaxy S will provide a good lab in which to study how much motivation to push a high-end portfolio device counts versus the muscle of having the largest subscriber bases but stronger handset competition. With the Galaxy S's lack of exclusivity already dampening some carrier enthusiasm for promoting it heavily, it appears as though the handset's impact goes down as the number of carrier subscribers goes up. Let's look at the universe of Galaxy S distribution.

Continue reading Switched On: The Galaxy S paradox

Switched On: The Galaxy S paradox originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists are saying that the Triceratops dinosaur—you know, the three horned one—was actually a juvenile form of a Torosaurus, the three horned dinosaur you don't know. Apparently, dinosaurs' skulls can shape-shift. More »

Chikara Ohno's "Rolls" twists and turns through the air like giant silvery ribbons, using giant coils of aluminum siding as floor-to-ceiling decor and as chic glass topped tables. I hope the edges aren't sharp. More »

• Chrome Canary Build Provides Bleeding-Edge Updates Alongside Stable Chrome (Windows)
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• Power Strip Adds a Customizable Shortcut and Widget Dock to Android (Android)
  While Android has a few multitasking tricks built-in, Power Strip re-assigns your Home button to bring up a dock containing app shortcuts, folders, and even widgets that you can launch at any point, without returning to the home screen.
• DropFolders Watches Folders and Converts Media with HandBrake (Windows)
  HandBrake is consistently voted the best media converter and DVD ripping tool. DropFolders automates HandBrake slightly, having it watch a folder, convert what it finds, and drop it wherever you'd like.
• Freemake Is a Remarkably Simple, Yet Feature-Filled Video Converter and Editor (Windows)
  With all video converting apps out there, it can get a bit overwhelming. Freemake combines almost everything you need into a clean, simple, one-stop-shop for all your video converting, editing, and burning needs.
• Firefox 4 Beta 2 Adds App Tabs for Keep-Open Sites (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  Firefox is out with another beta of its improved and redesigned Firefox 4. This second early release gives Macs the same tabs-on-top look as Windows, and adds an "App Tabs" mode for sites you want to keep an eye on.
• Start! Is a Polished Start Page Alternative for Google Chrome (Chrome)
  If you're not enamored with the default Chrome start page, Start! offers a polished and customizable alternative.
• Edwin Speech-to-Speech Android App Expands Android's Speech Recognition Skills (Android)
  Right out of the box Android phones sport some impressive voice command tools. If you want to take voice command of your phone to the next level, however, Edwin supercharges your voice commands and gives you verbal responses to your queries.
• ChompSMS Is a Handy Replacement for Android's SMS App (Android)
  The SMS messaging app included with standard Android phones is decent, but it could do so much more to make texting easy. ChompSMS does those things, including quick replies from home or lock screens, a clever widget, and more.
• Radian Is a Radial Mouse-Centered Application Launcher (Windows)
  If you'd like to keep your shortcuts and favorite applications close at hand without jumping back to the Start Menu, Radian is an open-source application launcher that centers your favorite and frequently launched applications right around your mouse.
• uTorrent 3.0 Alpha Adds Web Interface Support for iPad, Android (Windows)
  Popular BitTorrent client uTorrent added a web interface, so you can remotely access your transfers from a web browser. Since then, they've added support for the web interface to the iPhone, and, more recently, iPad and Android devices.

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AMD had its turn in the high-end Dell desktop spotlight, but it's time for another Intel beast, as the company's quietly upgraded its tower lineup to support Intel's consumer-grade champion chip, the 3.33GHz Core i7-980X. While the new Studio XPS 9100 looks just the same as its predecessor on the outside and sports the same basic options and ports, internally there's a 525W power supply with enough juice for a Radeon HD 5970 2GB graphics card (a $580 option) and slots for up to 24GB of DDR3 memory. You won't be getting any of this pixel-pushing goodness on the $950 base model, of course, which has only a (respectable) quad-core 2.66GHz Core i7-920 and an Nvidia GeForce G310 512MB, but the machine looks like it could hold its own with low-end Alienware cousins if you get into $2,000+ territory. Call us crazy, but we think there's a configurator session with your name on it.

Dell Studio XPS 9100 arrives with six cores, little fanfare originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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