(Photo: Firebox.com)

Want to check your phone from the pool, but too afraid that your warranty plan won't cover water damage? The folks at Firebox have a solution for you: it's a condom. For your phone. Yeah:

"You never know when you’ll get lucky… enough to take your phone to the beach, or on a boat, or cycling in the rain, or driving a rally car, or riding a camel in the desert.

But thanks to the sleek and stretchy Condoms for Smartphone, you’ll never have to say no to an unexpected bit of excitement again."

They also make them for iPads, because you never know when you'll want to get hot and heavy with your electronic device.

Think it protects against digital STDs?

Serial numbers, plz. (Photo: flickr.com/lynxman)

Apple is reportedly attempting to poach members of the Google Maps team. You know what they say: If you can't beat 'em, steal 'em. [TechCrunch]

The latest boat lifted by the rising tide of the New York tech boom: accounting firms. [Crain's New York]

Apparently NYPD officers were stationed outside Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship, asking new iPhone 5 owners to register their serial numbers in case of theft. [Yahoo]

Meanwhile, in New Zealand: A court has ordered an investigation into whether Kim Dotcom was the victim of "unlawful spying." [BBC News]

Get off the phone, CEO guy. (flickr.com/perspective)

Attendees at the EuSecWest-sponsored World Security Professional Summit in Amsterdam are participating in a contest called Mobile Pwn2Own. Contestants are, yes, basically revealing that our mobile devices can be easily pwned by someone with the know-how. Quell your bubbling phone fanboy or fangirl rage right now: it looks like both Androids and iPhones are vulnerable. The Next Web describes the Android pwnage, which was partially done, by the way, via near-field communication, or NFC:

The 0day exploit was developed by four MWR Labs employees (two in South Africa and two in the UK) for a Samsung Galaxy S 3 phone running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Two separate security holes were leveraged to completely takeover the device, and download all the data from it.

The first, a memory corruption flaw, was exploited via NFC (by holding two Galaxy S 3s next to each other) to upload a malicious file, which in turn allowed the team to gain code execution on the device. The attack isn’t limited to NFC though; it can also be abused via other attack vectors, such as malicious websites or email attachments.

A second malware infiltration gave attackers complete control over the Galaxy S 3. They gained the ability to transfer whatever data they wanted--emails, texts, photos--to wherever they wanted. The Next Web reports MWR Labs will publish a detailed blog post about the hacks only after the vulnerabilities have been eliminated.

The Dutch researchers who found a vulnerability in the iPhone 4S pursued the exploit because they felt the Apple product was a hard target. ZDNet reports on their exploit:

The hack, which netted a $30,000 cash prize at the mobile Pwn2Own contest here, exploited a WebKit vulnerability to launch a drive-by download when the target device simply surfs to a booby-trapped web site.

"It took about three weeks, starting from scratch, and we were only working on our private time," says Joost Pol [...], CEO of Certified Secure, a nine-person research outfit based in The Hague. Pol and his colleague Daan Keuper used code auditing techniques to ferret out the WebKit bug and then spent most of the three weeks chaining multiple clever techniques to get a "clean, working exploit."

The researchers couldn't get everything a real hacker might be after. They managed to snag contacts, photos and videos and web-surfing data, but SMS and email records were too deeply encrypted to reach.

Mr. Pol and Mr. Keuper say the WebKit bug can be found in iOS 6 as well.

Mr. Pol also noted that if someone wanted to use the exploit "in the wild," they could perhaps embed it in ad networks, which would be dangerous to all unwitting mobile web surfers.

Mr. Pol also sounded a warning every mobile user should hear, regardless of brand affiliation, telling ZDNet that CEOs "should never be doing email or anything of value on an iPhone or a BlackBerry."

Now is the part where I throw my head back and laugh. (Photo: flickr.com/oreilly)

Do we detect a little extra joy in Jeff Bezos's supervillain laugh lately? Well, a spot of plotting does warm the heart, and it sounds like he's cooking up something big. Judging from a Bloomberg report this morning, it's looking like that Amazon smartphone may very well be more than mere rumor.

Anyone from Microsoft might just want to go ahead and leave the room; coming on the heels of that Vanity Fair article, this'll just upset you.

Bloomberg cites two people "with knowledge of the matter," who claim an Amazon smartphone designed to compete with iPhone and Android is on its way. According to one of those sources, the company is already working with Foxconn on the device.

But the bulk of the article rests on a recent patent-buying spree by Amazon:

Seattle-based Amazon considered buying wireless patents from InterDigital Inc. before the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania- based company said in June that it will sell the assets to Intel Corp. for $375 million, two people said. Amazon is taking pitches and setting up briefings with other sellers, the people said.

Amazon isn't confirming jack, and the company's spokesman refused to comment for the piece. But given the increasingly ugly tone of the patent wars--for example, good luck getting hold of a Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the U.S.--Amazon may very well just be taking steps to protect its existing hardware business. After all, Google coughed up billions for Motorola and its patent portfolio.

Nonetheless, someone should probably check on Steve Ballmer's office furniture.

"Should we just shrink it?"

Hard on the heels of last week’s Facebook phone rumors comes new smartphone pot-stirring on the part of Wired. The question: Why shouldn't Amazon take its foothold in the tablet market and tackle smartphones? Uh, we can think of a couple of reasons.

This isn’t the first mention of an Amazon smartphone. Back in November, All Things D got hold of a note that predicted the device would be launched by the end of the year, based on backdoor intel (called channel checks) from Amazon's Asian suppliers. The memo suggests the phone would cost $150 to $170 to build--and of course, Amazon has never been shy about cutting it close on margins. Now that it's already May, Wired runs the pros and cons. The ability to sell on its own homepage is not to be underestimated as an advantage. ABI Research analyst  Aapo Markkanen--who calls a smartphone “a logical next step” for Amazon--points to the “lock-in effect” of the company’s content ecosystem:

If Amazon builds up a sizable customer base for its devices, and many of those customers find its content offerings appealing enough, then that would mean a tougher market environment for Apple, as well.

But it's worth noting that the Android smartphone space is a whole different kettle of fish than the Android tablet space upon Amazon's advent. There’s already a whole bunch of competitors fighting for position, and Amazon wouldn't exactly be able to waltz in as the heir presumptive. Nor has Amazon’s relationship with app developers always been rosy, either.

All this follows yet another spate of ill-sourced speculation regarding Facebook’s long-rumored smartphone. DigitTimes claimed HTC is developing such a device with an eye to a Q3 launch, but there’s a good chance that’s utter nonsense.

Given all the rampant rumor-mongering, we can’t help but wonder what might be percolating in the minds of those behind “Newco,” Barnes & Noble’s nascent Microsoft-funded, Nook-making subsidiary. Let’s take another look at the kicker to yesterday’s press release:

Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have settled their patent litigation, and moving forward, Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products. This paves the way for both companies to collaborate and reach a broader set of customers.

Just saying. 

via modernmechanix.com

If you're being generous, one could say your smartphone already grants some version of comic book superpowers. The mobile browser lets your feign omniscience at will; email-in-your-pocket lets you be everywhere at once. Scientists at the University of Texas at would like the add X-ray vision to that list.

As the British tech site The Inquirer reports, electrical engineering professor Dr. Kenneth O and his team developed an imager chip that could let your smartphone see through walls . . . and wood and plastics and paper and more.

The University's news site offers some background on how the technology works:

The electromagnetic spectrum characterizes wavelengths of energy. For example, radio waves for AM and FM signals, or microwaves used for cell phones or the infrared wavelength that makes night vision devices possible.

But the terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum, one of the wavelength ranges that falls between microwave and infrared, has not been accessible for most consumer devices.

Dr. O's team developed a chip using Complementary Metal-Oxid Semiconductor (CMOS) technology that can detect frequencies in that terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum. And because CMOS chips already form the basis of devices like PCs, HDTVs, smartphones and game consoles, their invention is applicable for consumer devices.

“CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips,” Dr. O said. “The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and receiver on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects.”  Due to privacy concerns, Dr. O and his team are focused on uses in the distance range of less than four inches.

Can you believe what they're charging for a data plan these days?

Betabeat has been using the original Droid since 2009, and with the occasional factory refresh, it's been an amazing phone. But as much as we love the old girl, she's reaching the end of her usable life. After reading some horror stories about how Android was being ruined by crapware from the manufactures and carriers, we were planning on getting the iPhone 5. But after spending a few weeks with Motorola's new flagship phone, the Droid Bionic, we may end up sticking with Android after all.

The phone has  a big, sharp screen, but is lighter than the original and fits as easily in a pocket. The big difference, of course, is that this is a 4G LTE device, and the speed when connecting to web apps in the wild is extremely satisfying. The wifi in my apartment has been a little spotty lately, so it was a relief to have the 4G hotspot, which had my laptop streaming video without a hiccup.

In terms of the native software, there is a great widget for favorites which puts all your top contacts in a slick set of drop down tiles. The camera turned on quickly, although photo resolution left something to be desired. Twitter integration seemed a little off, I kept getting alerts about old direct messages, even after opening, replying and deleting them. But the GPS was amazing, helping Foursquare to find me nine times out of ten.

One of my favourite new things about Android is the Google+ app, which automatically uploads photos to a private page and has me creating more albums after weekend jaunts. I found the battery on the Bionic lasted me through a full day, even when I was uploading photos. The only real battery killer was the 4G hotspot, which is to be expected.

There is no physical keyboard on the Bionic, which was one of our favourite features on the original Droid. But the phone gives terrific haptic feedback when you type, along with an intuitive scroll to jump to any part of a word and a good auto-correct. It was this set of features which really left Betabeat with that man-melds-to-machine feeling worthy of the moniker (An)droid Bionic.

Watch your back Apple

The bombshell news this morning that Google is trying to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash is not actually that big of surprise. Anyone who read our article about what a nightmare the Android ecosystem has become for consumers knows that Google was having problems with its OEM partners. The real question now is, can Google build its own hardware business and mantain good relationships with its licensees. "No one has ever successfully licensed a platform and competed with licensees at the same time," tweeted Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. "Apple tried it (twice) as did Palm & Nokia."

The faint praise for the deal coming from Google's partners this morning is revealing. "If you are one of Google Android partners, of course you are going to want to put the best possible spin on this and applaud the deal," Mr. Gartenberg told Betabeat by phone this morning. "But the truth is that HTC, LG and Samsung are stuck between a rock and a hard place."

While Google stated in its blog post this morning that it plans to run Motorola as a separate business, honor existing partner agreements and avoid favoritism at all costs, this language far more about anti-trust scrutiny than future plans. "Google sees that Apple has gotten bigger than Exxon as a vertically integrated company going after the top of the smartphone and tablet market. With a Motorola purchase, they can now do some really interesting things, including subsidizing the cost of high end Android phones way, way down. No partner wants to be the one chasing the scraps of the low-end mass market."

Samsung, LG and HTC have built a sizeable portion of their business around Android. "What are they going to do, push Windows? Ballmer is already in bed with Nokia," says Mr. Gartenberg. These companies could comfort themselves with Google's past failure in the hardware space, but that was before they had a team with Motorola's deep experience. "It's not clear how well the 800 lb. gorilla can swim," tweeted Gartenberg, "but when it jumps in the pool it tends to make a big splash. #GOOGMOTO"