Tetris comes to chip and pin terminals

Researchers at Cambridge University have managed to hack tamper-resistant chip and pin terminals so they can play a game of Tetris. Stephen Murdoch and Saar Drimer, researchers at the Security Group at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory managed to open up the terminal and replace most of the inner workings that control the screen, card reader and keypad. 'Steven suggested that in order to show that it is completely under our control, we should make it play Tetris (similarly to the guys who made a voting machine play chess),' said Drimer on their blog. ...more

XP in embedded form gets its SP1

Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for the embedded version of Windows XP, a form of the operating system designed to run in embedded devices. The announcement was made at the third annual Microsoft Windows Embedded Developer Conference in Las Vegas. Possible applications for the embedded OS include home gateway systems, various thin client systems (such as shop terminals and the like) and set-top boxes. ...more

Typing style is the new fingerprint claims US academics

According to Forbes, researchers at a US university have discovered a unique property of humans that could be used to identify users and authenticate them on computers: their typing style. Researchers at Louisiana Tech and Penn State have successfully completed a five-year project that analysed the periods between keystrokes, and the time it took to hit a key. So impressed are security specialists BioPassword that it has signed a joint licensing agreement - the first such commercial agreement for the university. ...more

NEC unveils 50in monitor

Electronics company NEC has launched a new revolutionary 50 inch monitor. The new monitor is a high-definition PDP (Plasma Display Panel), which can display two kinds of data on the same screen. So the 50in monitor can display graphics data from a PC and video footage from a digital source at the same time using this unique "double picture function". ...more

Sony puts Blu-ray into its Vaio range

Sony is powering its Blu-ray campaign with a new Vaio notebook and desktop complete with the next-gen optical plumage and HD features. The Vaio AR-Series totes a double-layer Blu-ray Disc optical drive, coupled with 200GB of hard disk space. Even so, that's only four of the 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs. ...more