Filed under: Cellphones

During the first episode of the new season of Criminal Minds, FBI agent and resident neat-freak David Rossi just couldn’t shake the unsolved double homicide that he never could close a score ago. Oddly enough, that wasn’t the only mystery involved, as we’re still scratching our heads trying to figure out what’s so important on the lid of Mr. Rossi’s RAZR2. Maybe a super-secret 4G icon? Tommy Tutone’s most favorite dame’s number? The infamous Sad Moto face? Whatever it was, we’re fairly certain a highly concealed RAZR2 is superior to the lowly RAZR Derek Morgan is still getting issued. What’s a man got to do to get a leg-up, anyway?

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Filed under: Storage

We see so much insane USB crap around here that we were pretty apprehensive of a link entitled “Accordion USB drive,” but color us magenta if the damn thing doesn’t actually look incredibly useful — instead of an easily-lost cap, the connector simply pops back into the case. Sadly, it’s not a real product yet, just a concept by Polish design student Jacek Ryn, but we’ll be the first in line if it ever gets real — Engadget HQ is littered with far too many capless flash drives.

[Via MAKE]

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Filed under: Storage

Though it’s not the first box we’ve seen built to take your local backups elsewhere, the Datto Backup NAS drive could certainly fill a gaping security hole at many small / medium-sized businesses that are currently operating without any kind of off-site storage. Said devices come in 100GB and 500GB versions, play nice with Windows, Mac or Linux setups and pipe your data to secure external servers (using AES+ SSL key-based encryption, too) in order to keep the process load off of your machine(s). Granted, the annual service fee is $99 for 100GB and $249 for 500GB (monthly plans available), but that does include free support, 24 / 7 backup monitoring and the promise of bringing you back up to speed in under 24 hours should disaster strike. Both drives are available now for $399 and $599, respectively. [Warning: PDF read link]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Hey, remember that Microsoft / Alcatel-Lucent patent fight from 2006? Yeah, we didn’t think so — but the two companies have been duking it out in court over about ten different patents for a couple years now, and a jury ruled today that Microsoft infringed two user interface-related patents and owes damages to the tune of $376M. The two patents both cover touchscreens, with one describing a system of form data entry, and the other describing stylus data interpretation. Sexy, we know. The jury also found that the Microsoft had not infringed two other Alcatel-Lucent video-decoding patents, but the rulings doesn’t mean this is all finally over — Microsoft is planning on immediately appealing the decision, and there are still several other video-related patents being litigated. Yeah, we’re on edges of our seats here — tune in next time for another excitingly dull installment of Marshall Justice.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen software created in order to determine whether a subject is drop-dead gorgeous, but scientists at Tel Aviv University have seemingly concocted a program of their own that can “interpret attractiveness in women.” Before you ask, the researchers have yet to perfect the art of computing the beauty of males, but they’re attributing said omission to the difficulty in “defining” attractiveness in dudes. Nevertheless, the software was purportedly able to reach nearly the same conclusion as humans about how lovely (or not) a hundred different ladies were, as it broke down features like face symmetry, smoothness of the skin and hair color. We’re told the development could eventually be used in “plastic and reconstructive surgery and computer visualization programs,” but c’mon, this is totally meant to automate the grueling Hot or Not process.

[Via Physorg]

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