Microsoft Offers Researchers Money For Enhancing Windows Security

Windows has had it’s share of vulnerabilities in the past, so now Microsoft is offering more than $250,000 in cash and prizes for contestants who can come up with new ways to mitigate exploits. Anonymous and LulzSec are out there after all, taking companies down.

Microsoft will pay $200,000 for the best “novel runtime mitigation technology designed to prevent the exploitation of memory safety vulnerabilities.” Two runners up will also receive $50,000 and a MSDN Universal subscription valued at $10,000. I’d say that is lots of incentive to come up with some new tricks, wouldn’t you?

[Ubergizmo] VIA [darkreading]

Elecom faucet iPad/iPhone stand

This sexy Elecom stand designed by Nendo is pretty unusual and cool. It’s not very practical, but at least it looks stylish. It’s made from polycarbonate and ABS faucet parts and is designed to look like a faucet with water flowing out of it.

It will be available in clear, black, blue and white, but there is no word price or the availability. It is certainly unique.

[Ubergizmo]

Teclast P72 Android Tablet

Teclast is offering their new Android tablet called the P72. As far as specs, the device has a 7.0-inch 800 x 480 resistive multi-touch display, a Renesas ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, and 1GB of RAM.

Other specs include 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot, Flash 10.2 support, 1080p Full HD video playback support, WiFi, 3G card support, a 4000mAh battery and Android 2.2. The P72 will cost you 799 Yuan ($125). Interested?

[Techfresh]

Verbatim Ergo Mouse

Verbatim’s Ergo Mouse is an ergonomically designed mouse that features an ultra-smooth, rubberized grip and scroll wheel designed for comfort when you’ve been using it for long hours.

It connects to your computer using the 2.4GHz wireless frequency and comes equipped with a nano receiver that can stay in your laptop. It comes in blue, red or black and retails for $29.99.

[Verbatim]

Sharp Galapagos A01SH Android Tablet

The Sharp Galapagos A01SH Android tablet features a 7-inch (1024 x 600) display, a 1Ghz nVidia Tegra 2 chipset and the Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS.

Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, a 2-megapixel secondary camera for video calls. The battery will deliver up to 7.5-hours of battery life. The Sharp Galapagos A01SH will arrive in Japan later this month.

[Techfresh]

Rezurrection Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack to be released August 23rd on Xbox 360

Fans of Black Ops have something to be very happy about. The latest map pack titled “Rezurrection” will be coming to the Xbox 360 followed by PC and PlayStation 3 later. Sadly these maps will not be multiplayer maps though.

You get a new map level called “Moon” along with four re-mastered zombie maps: “Nacht der Üntoten,” “Verrückt,” “Shi No Numa” and “Der Riese.” They should be released on August 23rd for the XBox, with PS3 and PC following later.

[Ubergizmo]

Verizon Retiring The Samsung Fascinate?

The Verizon Fascinate was the last Samsung Galaxy S variant to hit the U.S. and the carrier is doing its best to keep the phone up to date with software updates, even though some of them caused problems for users. Interestingly, Verizon is now listing the phone with a “retired” label.

You can see the red watermark embedded all over the device page. It says the phone is retired and so has already been removed from the carrier’s online store. So what would they replace it with? Probably the Galaxy S II variant for Verizon (whether it will be called Samsung Galaxy S II, Function, Fascinate II or Stratosphere).

[pocketnow]

No Sony PlayStation Vita handheld this Christmas in US and Europe?

Say what? Sony’s new handheld console already passed through the FCC and the rumor was that it had an October release date. But now it looks as if Santa has let us down this year.

Bloomberg is reporting that Kazuo Hirai says the Vita won’t launch in the US and Europe until early next year, but Japan is still getting the device before Christmas. We hope this is not the case. It’s like getting coal in our stockings several months early.

[Engadget]

Roland TR-808 flash drive

This 8GB TR-808 flash drive is perfect for DJs and other music enthusiasts. You can pre-order it now for $40. Sadly it doesn’t also function as the real thing, but at least it looks authentic in a mini form.

It might be fun to fool your friends and tell them that you’ve shrunk the real instrument. Hopefully they won’t ask you to play it and prove it.

[Engadget]

Toshiba Qosmio F755 arriving August 16th, for $1,699

The Qosmio F750 glasses-free 3D laptop is now called the F755. August 16th is the date when you’ll be able to pick up Toshiba’s latest 15.6-inch media machine starting at $1,699. The notebook packs in a Core i7 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard disk.

Other features include a Blu-ray drive, and GeForce GT 540M GPU. It won’t be able to convert 2D games to 3D out of the box, but Toshiba is working with Nvidia to deliver that feature by November, if you can wait that long. It starts shipping in about two weeks.

[Engadget]