20 June 2009 | NewScientist | 17

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MOBILE gadgets of the future could be programmed to destroy any personal data they contain if they are stolen or lost, says IBM in a US patent application .

This could prevent personal or confidential files falling into the wrong hands, and make stolen laptops, MP3 players and cellphones useless to ID thieves.

One possibility is for the owner to send a “delete my data” email to a stolen device, which will be picked up as soon as someone connects it to the internet.

Alternatively, you could pre-program a device to check for signs that it has been stolen, for example, using GPS technology, low battery or a timer to detect unusual usage patterns . It will then attempt to contact its rightful owner and if that proves unsuccessful, the device could delete all user data.

Small car, big future A CONCEPT car that attempts to

sidestep the three main hurdles to the

dream of hydrogen-fuelled highways

was unveiled in London this week.

Like other hydrogen cars, the

Riversimple Urban Car (pictured)

is powered by a fuel cell that

combines hydrogen with oxygen

from the air to release energy and

nothing more toxic than water.

Ordinarily, these pose a problem for

manufacturers as they contain

expensive platinum, are difficult to

make powerful enough to propel a car

and use an explosive gas that is

difficult to store. Yet by designing the

RUC to be light and efficient these

three problems are overcome, says

Hugo Spowers of Riversimple.

The RUC is driven by four electric

motors, one in each wheel. These

recover energy from the wheels

during braking, recouping as much

RIV

ER

SIM

PL

E

TECHNOLOGY

Self-destructing data foils ID theft

as half of the energy that would

otherwise be lost. It uses a small and

relatively cheap 6-kilowatt fuel cell,

compared with the 100-kilowatt cells

in other hydrogen cars, such as

Honda’s FCX Clarity. The fuel tank

stores just 1 kilogram of hydrogen,

but that is enough to travel

320 kilometres, says Spowers.

The car’s overall design, but not

that of its components such as the

motors and fuel cell, will be open

source ; freely available for any

person or company to use as long as

they make public any modifications

too. Spowers hopes to lease fleets

of the car within five years .

A DYING cellphone battery is a hassle at the best of times, but in an emergency it could be a matter of life and death. Now Apple is developing software that devotes every last drop of battery juice to keeping an emergency call going.

Modern cellphones are essentially small computers that run high-speed processors, bright colour displays, and internet and Bluetooth connections, all of which can drain a fading battery fast. So if an emergency number is called, the software cuts out all unnecessary background processes, doing things such as

This is no time for Twitter

making the processor idle and dimming the screen . Power-hungry applications – for example, those that use Wi-Fi to search for emails or tweets – are disabled too.

The software, described by Apple engineer Michael Lee in a US patent application last week, has two other emergency aids. It requires confirmation when the caller tries to hang up an emergency call, making it harder for a distressed caller to end a call by accident. And if someone can’t speak – because of an asthma attack, for example – they can send a preset voice message to the operator, while a speech synthesiser reads out the coordinates of their location.

–Saving fuel is the secret–

Proportion of IT staff who snoop on colleagues using their access privileges, according to a survey of 400 workers

Source: Cyber-Ark

35 %

Geek.com blogger Matthew Humphries on the Green Dam internet filtering software that will

be required on all PCs sold in China after 1 July. As well as being easily hackable, the program

appears to contain large chunks of code stolen from US firm Solid Oak Software

“Pretty much everything about this software stinks”

“The fuel tank stores just 1 kilogram of hydrogen, but that is enough to travel 320 kilometres”