Granted, this whole unboxing process took a tad longer than we're used to, but considering the absence of an Apple logo and the fact that the folks in Greece likely roll with a bit more patience than we gizmo freaks here in North America, we won't grouse too much. Still, the first widespread unboxing pictures (and a video for good measure) of the highly anticipated Neonode N2 have officially hit the 'net just under a fortnight after the launch party in Athens, and we must say it's looking pretty good. From the well appointed packaging right down to the matte black outfit, the N2 is (finally) yours to witness (psst, the video is after the jump).

Read - Neonode N2 unboxing
Read - Neonode N2 unboxing, part II
Read - Neonode N2 Interface shots

In 2005, Greek authorities discovered a plot hatched and executed by unknown sources which allowed the tapping of wireless phones on the Vodafone network belonging to the country's Prime Minister and other top officials, making it one of the furthest reaching covert infiltrations of a government in history. A recent report from IEEE Spectrum shows that the tap was made possible by a 6,500 line piece of code called a rootkit, the first-ever to be embedded in a phone switch's OS. The complex hack took advantage of aging phone systems by disabling transaction logs on calls and allowing call monitoring on four switches within the teleco's computers, thus sending the call to another phone for monitoring (similar to a legal wiretap). The spies covered their tracks by creating patches on the system which routed the calls around logging software which would have alerted admins, and were only discovered when they tried to update their software. The case clearly exposes holes in call security amongst providers (due largely in part to outdated systems), and suggests the possibility that this kind of thing could easily happen again... to you!

[Via textually]

Intelligently waiting until after the iPhone lived out its (first) 15 minutes of fame, Neonode has just now went and threw a launch party to celebrate the official debut of the Neonode N2. Yesterday, the firm went wild at the Babae Club in Athens, Greece as it celebrated with MyPhone (its distributor for south-eastern Europe) and announced that the handset would play nice with "operators such as Vodafone and Wind." Sadly, exact releases dates were obviously muddled through all the jumpin' and jivin' going on, but the N2 should be in "select shops in south-eastern Europe" very soon, with the rest of Europe and "other major markets" to follow suit shortly thereafter.

[Thanks, Sleepless]

You've got plenty of options when it comes to healing your own body, but patching up your domicile usually requires days of back-breaking labor and gobs of cash to boot. Thankfully, that awful process could be nearing its end, as a £9.5 million ($18.64 million) European Union-funded project sets out to develop self-healing walls for your average home. The idea is to develop "special walls for the house that contain nano polymer particles, which will turn into a liquid when squeezed under pressure, flow into the cracks, and then harden to form a solid material." The technology would prove quite useful in areas where earthquakes are prominent, and in an effort to test things out before shoving it out to contractors everywhere, a swank villa is being erected on a Greece mountainside to collect information. The house's walls will be built from "novel load bearing steel frames and high-strength gypsum board," but more importantly, they will contain a smorgasbord of wireless sensors and RFID tags meant to collect, store, and disseminate critical data regarding "any stresses and vibrations, temperature, humidity, and gas levels." Now, who's the lucky lad(s) that get to call this their home research dwelling?

[Via Physorg]

If you think (er, know) that fingerprint scanners just aren't up to snuff with your strict demands, a team of European scientists are developing a novel replacement for biometric security. Dimitrios Tzovaras and his colleagues at the Center for Research and Technology Hellas in Greece have established a system which relies on measured activity in the brain to form a security protocol that's "difficult to forge." Since electroencephalography (EEG) measurements are unique for every person, users begin by having their brain activity recorded and analyzed, producing an "EEG signature" which can then be used to allow or deny entry into buildings, data centers, or other top secret locales. The catch is that employees would be forced to walk around with a wired helmet on their noggin, which could "potentially chang the ambiance of the workplace" according to a researcher at the University of Cambridge. Notably, the method is just one of the security layers that are being scrutinized as a part of the Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behavioral Analysis (HUMABIO) project going on in Europe, which aims to "combine several different biometrics to create a more efficient and secure overall system." Of course, there's still some kinks to be worked out, especially considering that brain patterns are extremely dependent on "alertness," and we seriously hope they develop a less invasive (and gaudy) alternative to forcing blokes to rock oddly-shaped headgear as a part of their job.