Series80
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Lenovo ThinkPads bring biometric HDD encryption, Merom, and draft-N
While fingerprint scanners on laptops are becoming all the rave lately, from what we can tell most of them don't encrypt and decrypt data with the swipe of a finger. Today, Lenovo announced that all new models in the ThinkPad 60 series will include Ultimaco's SafeGuard Easy 4.30, software which enables the option of biometric hard drive encryption that meets the FIPS 140-2 certification -- what the Feds require for government-purchased encryption products. On the Core 2 Duo side, models T60, T60p, R60, R60e, X60, Z61t, Z61p and Z61e are getting the bumped processor treatment, while the same laptops, plus the X60s, (but not including the Z61e) are also to be offered with 802.11n. Lenovo told us that all of these new features are due out later this month, but we don't yet know how much of a premium they'll fetch; we'll keep you posted as soon as the intel comes in. [Via The Associated Press]
Play Snake on your Nokia Series 60 / 80 by flexing your biceps
A Finnish fellow named Arto Holopainen on the Nokia forums has just come up with a way to control your cellphone without touching the phone -- that is, controlling it via Bluetooth-enabled EMG monitoring devices hooked up to your biceps. Holopainen took a Series 60 (or 80) phone, a small battery-operated Bluetooth-enabled two-channel electromyogram device (you know, the one that takes measurements of electrical muscle activity) and the MuscleMonitor application to run on his phone, and then managed to map various muscle activity levels to cellphone functions. Specifically, he's made it possible to play the classic game Snake through muscle flexing to control the various movements in the game. Holopainen elaborates that one could further map the software so that you could even text message by just flexing your muscles -- why one would want to do this, we have no idea, but we're sure that he looks absolutely ridiculous trying to get a workout by playing Snake.
Nokia handsets to get iPass WiFi connectivity client
Owners of WiFi-enabled, Series 80- and S60-powered Nokia handsets will soon have "one-click" access to over 50,000 hotspots worldwide thanks to a new software client being developed in conjunction with trusted connectivity services provider iPass. Already available for Windows, Macintosh, and Windows Mobile devices, the iPassConnect client gives people an easy way to connect to any hotspot across some 28 different networks, including T-Mobile, Wayport, and The Cloud, offering both a consistent user experience and simplified billing. The first models to receive the iPass treatment will be the 9300i and 9500 Communicators, which should see the new software sometime this summer, followed by a version for E-series devices by the end of the year.[Via PC World]
