If CES, Macworld, WWDC, WinHEC, and the Beauty Revolution shows aren’t enough to fill your calendar, well then you’re headed to Boston this fall! A 3-day conference to be held November 13-15, 2007, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass. will highlight, well, mobile stuff. The Mobile Internet World Conference & Exposition will highlight the, “Evolving wireless and mobile broadband technologies are now enabling the next major wave—the Mobile Internet.”

“We are extremely pleased to announce today the launch of Mobile Internet World Conference & Expo,” said Eliot Weinman, President of Trendsmedia and conference co-chair. “During the next decade, the expansion of the Mobile Internet will likely represent the single largest definable growth marketplace in the telecommunications industry. Trendsmedia and Yankee Group have developed this event to assemble the entire ecosystem of emerging Mobile Internet companies. They will come together to examine the dynamics, trends, and ultimately, how to accelerate the development of profitable business models.”

Get your tickets now!

James Bond has had some pretty cool gadgets but I can never recall a more functional yet sexy gizmo as the Motorola Q in Bond’s collection. We got to play with the Q for over three months to really give it a thorough test and we’ll tell you right now, what we thought was just another gimmick turned out to be a surprising useful and enjoyable tool. With it’s built-in Internet EV-DO capabilities and the ability to let MacBooks attach to it and surf the Internet via Bluetooth, this has become one very special little guy to us. Too bad we have to give it back.

Read the entire (and very in depth) review on our Reviews page.

We live in an age where security doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg and where you can now monitor your home or office from anywhere in the world. Well, anywhere with broadband.

Swann Communications Do-It-Yourself (DIY) security kit aided a man in nabbing a thief in the heat o the moment…from the other side of the Atlantic! Joao Pedro Wettlauser is a businessman from Brazil and was in Cologne, Germany last week on business. He was alerted by his security system at home in Brazil of some fishy stuff to which prompted him to take a look from his laptop. What he found was a robber in the act of criminal ongoings thus prompting Wettlauser to contact his wife, not at home, and notify the police. The police surround the house and nabbed the thief. Nice!

SvenOnTech informed you of one way to watch Flash-based movies from your Mac last week and this week we’ll show you another one entitled Democracy Player. As America spoke yesterday with swinging the House to the Democratic party, the Participatory Culture Foundation has cleared its throat and brought to the Mac, Windows, and Linux world an interesting player for us all to enjoy and love for free.

Democracy Player is an open-source player that brings all sorts of content to you. With over 700 channels to chose from, you could spend a lot of time with this nicely laid out player. If you find a channel that you really enjoy, you don’t have to even view the movie in a small window. With a flick of a few keys or a click of a mouse, you can delight it in full screen.

But what really is Democracy Player? Well, the authors themselves tell us that it is a player that lets you get, “the best internet TV shows in one powerful application: any video RSS feed, video podcast, video blog, or BitTorrent file. Fullscreen, high resolution, 100% free and open source. New channels arrive daily in the built-in Channel Guide.”

In a nutshell, that’s it. Using the freeware Quicktime plug-in Perian, the Democracy Player will bring you hours and hours of fun to your Mac, PC, or Linux host for sure. Now go download it and waste esteem some time!

You know, we joked about the security thing in our IE 7 release announcement, but truth is, it was only half-joking since Microsoft just really isn’t known for “security”. Well looks like security experts Secunia have called Microsoft to the carpet and called its IE exploit found last November an Internet Explorer exploit and not an Outlook Express one that Redmond is claiming.

“Microsoft claims the recent IE7 vulnerability is an Outlook Express vulnerability,” Secunia CTO Thomas Kristensen’s statement claims. “This may be true, from an organizational point of view within Microsoft. However, the vulnerability is fully exploitable via IE, which is the primary attack vector, if not the only attack vector.”

Secunia won’t let up, either, and still has the exploit listed on its site for Internet Explorer 7.x. “Secunia finds it necessary and reasonable to flag Internet Explorer as being vulnerable if Internet Explorer provides a clear direct vector to a vulnerable component, which is included by default in a fresh clean install of Microsoft Windows,” Kristensen writes.

But to make things even more interesting, BetaNews tested this theory and installed IE 7 on a fresh install of VirtualPC and found, “The browser failed the MHTML content retrieval test. The issue involves redirecting the Web browser to a local resource.”

So the plot thickens and SvenOnTech will only continue to warn you to use IE of any sort with extreme caution. Use Firefox if you must use a PC at all or just get a Mac and forget all this nonsense.

[Via jCXP.net]

You waited long enough (like over five years!) and now it’s time to get that new IE for your desktop. Microsoft has proudly announced Internet Explorer 7 as, “A major step forward in ease of use and security.” It encourages you to explore the tabs, a tongue-and-cheek statement in reference to a new feature, on the web site to discover what’s new.

So what is new? Well, we’ve already told you tabs, which is not really new since Opera was the first with that years ago and then pretty much everyone else but Microsoft had it (until now.) You also get better printing (which is really good,) built-in RSS, and searching from multiple sources. Oh ya, the last tab is about security, but we won’t be a sucker for that one.

If you’re curious to what IE 7 is all about and want to have installed before it shows up on Microsoft Update on November 1st, then visit the Internet Explorer 7 page or go to its download section direct.

Good news Apple MacBook Pro users (and those with PCs equipped with an ExpressCard slot.) Dell is rebranding the Novatel’s Merlin XV620 with its own Texas sized name. Why would I tell all y’all that Dell, a PC manufacturer, is a good thing for Macs? ‘Cause the ExpressCard its putting out for sale at $179 is going slide right into your MBP and allow you to cruise the Internet at 500kbs to 1mps speeds. Good news for those not lucky enough to have the XV6700 hack I must say. Don’t worry about the high ticket either, ’cause y’all get one month of free Verizon based EV-DO access. After that, you’re frontin’ $59.99 a month if all y’all gots a Verizon voice plan or $79.99 a month if you ain’t. No worries on the drivers either, Hos, OS X rev 10.4.7 has got the needed drivers. Giddy up!

Is this the next version of OS X code named Leopard? Notice Internet Explorer there in the background in the larger version of the screenshot? Note the scroll bar isn’t that of OS Xs Aqua but rather the block like version of Windows. Also note the Boot Camp icon in the menu bar. One more notation, the Windows version is stated in the About window. Mmm, very interesting.

Now as many have pointed out, this could just be a really good Photoshop job. IE could actually be the WINE IE project that some have been able to successfully get running and the About screen an easy Photoshop hack. But if this legit, think of what this all means! This could make sales records for Apple like it hasn’t seen since the original Macinstosh 128k. Heck, maybe even since the Apple II!

My question really isn’t if this is fake or not, but if Apple does support virtualization for Windows, will Active X be supported? If so, this could allow many web sites to be displayed on a Mac that usually can not be due to the Active X requirement. QuickBooks online, for example, would no longer require a Boot Camp dual-boot or a start up of Parallel’s Desktop. That would be nice! And even better, if you get zapped with spyware, who cars, just your Windows apps are infected and just burn the Windows install and do a fresh install! Your Mac will be safe the whole time!

Anyway, we only have a little more than a month before WWDC which is where Apple will show off Leopard. All eyese will be focused on Steve Jobs when he sits down at the brand new Mac Pro to see if a little IE icon appears on the Dock. How sweet that day will be.

[Via MacVista]

If you have a MacBook Pro (or even a MacBook), then you know you have no chance using those EV-DO PC Cards for Verizon (or Sprints) EV-DO networks. Even though there are Mac drivers for some of the cards, those cards don’t fit into the ultra-small ExpressCard slot on the MBP. (Here’s a post on what does fit in there.) So if you’re hooked into Verizon and you’ve got that network all behind ya and all, what does a cutting edge Mac head do to get some of that Broadband Access? If you have a UTStarcom XV6700, you use Bluetooth, baby! ‘But Verizon killed the DUN profile,’ you say. Doh! Okay, we got that worked out, too.

Most people aren’t aware in order to have something on a device that uses the radio signal named after a Viking king, the manufacturer must fully support the protocol to its fullest. Thus, all Verizon phones that have Bluetooth in them started its life as a fully Bluetooth compliant device. It’s only after Verizon gets its greedy hands on the device is when it loses its DUN profile.

Knowing that much, it only takes a quick Google search and one will find the answer on how to bring that DUN profile back to your phone. In this case, the XV6700. Like the Motorola E815, you simply dial in a number and “send” it. Unlike the Moto, you need to verify your request with a passcode. After that, you’ll have full access to enabling DUN on the XV6700.

In fear the link to the magic of DUN will disappear, SvenOnTech will happily reprint the directions for you below.

• Go to the PHONE application (hit the green phone button on the XV6700)
• Enter ##3328873 (or ##feature) and press “TALK” (or Send)
• Enter six zeros for the code (000000)
• Now select BT DUN and Wmodem
• Click EDIT
• Select ENABLE from the drop down menu
• Tap the OK button (top right corner)
• Tap the OK button (again)
• OK the prompt to soft reset your device

Your XV6700 is now enabled to use its Bluetooth DUN profile. Now you just need to find the modem application and make a shortcut for easy activation.

• Using Explorer (be sure to enable “Show hidden files”), go to the Windows folder
• Find the file WMmodem. You’ll see an EXE and a LNK version. Make a shortcut of the EXE version (Resco Explorer 2005 does this and sends it to your Start Menu.)
• Move the shortcut to your \Windows\Start Menu folder

Now you’ll see the WMmodem application in your start menu (Programs). Tap on this and it’ll bring up a screen with mostly text, a drop down menu, and three traffic boxes. In the drop down, select Bluetooth. Then click the START button. Your XV6700 is now a full out Bluetooth modem waiting to be connected to.

On the Mac side, you’ll first need to pair your XV6700 and Mac to each other. You should be able to do this easily, but if you need some help, check out Apple’s site for direct documentation on how to do this. When pairing, select “Other” device from the list, not “Phone”.

Once paired, the last screen will ask if you wish to use the device as a modem and headset. Uncheck headset (unless you wish to use your phone to communicate with others on applications such as Skype.) Now follow these instructions for setting up the modem:

• Username: (Your full phone number) 408-555-1235@vzw3.com
• Password: vzw
• Phone Number: #777
• Mode Script: au cdmaOne Bluetooth Adapter
• Leave all check boxes checked
• Click CONTINUE
• Click QUIT

You’re now all set on the Mac side. You’ll now see a phone with a dot slash icon on your menu bar. Select it and choose “Connect”. Remember to have your XV6700 on, Bluetooth enabled, and the WMmodem application running Bluetooth mode with the START button activated. If all this is the case, you’ll be connected in seconds and your modem icon will display a counter next to it once connected. Enjoy the EV-DO!

Now a couple of notes. Not all areas have EV-DO yet. Verizon claims by the end of the year, nearly its entire network will have it. But until that time, you may only get 1xRTT speeds. While not true broadband (in the DSL sense), it’s still better than dial-up (which can’t be done out-of-the-box with the MBP anyway.) Further, you must have a data plan in order to connect to the Internet. You’ll want to have the unlimited plan as you’ll probably hit the 20 MB plan top end within minutes of surfing on your Mac. You can get it as low as $59 if you call and whine and as cheap as $30 if you have a business account (a little known fact that even most Verizon employees don’t know about.) Rumor has it the price will come down to $20 soon someday.

So, if you’re in an area that has no Wi-Fi and you have a Verizon XV6700, you have an alternate Internet connection. There probably is a hack for the Palm Treo 700w, too, but since we don’t have one of those here at SvenOnTech, we haven’t looked for it. Again, the Motorola E815 also has a hack you easily can find as well.