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RadarCast is the newest weather app from the people who developed the popular NOAA Hi-Def Radar, but this app brings you future weather predictions along with several other features.

Built for checking the weather around you or at another specific location, RadarCast gives you the latest data from local radar sites using real-time animated weather overlays. There's a lot of room for customization as well. You have the option to look at map, satellite, and hybrid views, and you also can control the weather pattern loop speed, the interval between individual frames, and change the number of frames in … Read more

My fondness for big speakers is longstanding, but I'm almost as big a fan of smaller speakers that sound big. Take Definitive Technology's StudioMonitor 55 speaker ($299 each). Measuring 13x7.8x12.3 inches it's not all that big, but it weighs a hefty 15.4 pounds. The StudioMonitor 55 is a handsome, but conventional-looking design, until you peel off the cloth grille on the top of the speaker and see the "racetrack bass radiator." It's a unique Def Tech feature, and one that really helps the StudioMonitor 55 outperform similarly sized speakers.… Read more

LAS VEGAS -- From journalists hacking the press room Ethernet to RFID skimmers swiping your ID without even touching your credit card, the war stories you've heard about Black Hat and DefCon are true more often than not.

The best way to avoid getting hacked at the annual security conferences is to not show up. Go somewhere disconnected, like a nice mountain retreat, instead of hitting the paranoia pills with several thousand other security professionals and obsessives in Vegas' urban playground.

But if you must go to Sin City, there are some actions you can take to protect your … Read more

Pour some acid on me.

Some musicians refuse to come to terms with the terms that digital downloads offer.

A few, such as Garth Brooks and AC/DC, have refused to allow their music on iTunes.

Def Leppard, the English rock band that some people rather like and others fail to comprehend, is another that just isn't amused by the digital age.

Now the band has leaped on a new, radical strategy to get a better deal for its music: it's covering its own songs and releasing them themselves.

As Billboard hums it, the Leppards and Universal Music … Read more

Siri may not be able to search for businesses outside of the U.S. or understand Asian accents, but Singaporeans need not fret. They now have Def!nd.

Just launched by local telco SingTel, Def!nd is a digital concierge app that's able to do some things Siri cannot. Def!nd can locate nearby restaurants and amenities, book taxis, and find shopping deals. Through the app, users can even book a restaurant and receive an SMS confirmation.

The best part? You don't have to be a SingTel subscriber or own an iPhone 4S to use Def!nd. … Read more

At DefCon III in 1995, the young crowd of 470 spent their time jamming a local radio station broadcast and playing Hacker Jeopardy at midnight when they couldn't drink at the bar. "Free Kevin" stickers were plastered everywhere protesting the jailing of fugitive hacker Kevin Mitnick, and a 14-year-old ran away from home to attend the event. (I know because I was there.)

At DefCon 19 this year, plenty of the nearly 12,000 attendees had gray hair, most work as security professionals, and some even brought their children. Mitnick was there signing copies of his latest … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Johnny Long used to be known for Google hacking--finding vulnerable servers on the Internet using specific search terms. Now he's helping humanitarian groups, street kids, and police in Uganda learn how to use computers and keep malicious hackers out of their systems, as well as matching other information security professionals to charities that need help.

Long, who started the Hackers for Charity nonprofit in 2008, launched a new program at the DefCon hacker conference here this weekend that he's calling InfoSec without Borders and which is modeled after the Doctors Without Borders program.

"The volunteers are … Read more

LAS VEGAS--A 10-year-old hacker who goes by the pseudonym CyFi revealed today at DefCon 19 a zero-day exploit in games on iOS and Android devices that independent researchers have confirmed as a new class of vulnerability. The girl from California first discovered the flaw around January 2011 because she "started to get bored" with the pace of farm-style games.

Speaking to CNET about an hour before her presentation, CyFi said, "It was hard to make progress in the game, because it took so long for things to grow. So I thought, 'Why don't I just change … Read more

LAS VEGAS--In retaliation for arrests, the AntiSec hackers say they've released their "largest cache yet" of data stolen from law enforcement agencies in the U.S., including personal information, private e-mails, passwords, training files, data from informants, Social Security Numbers, and stolen credit card information from an online sheriff's store.

The news of the latest attacks comes on the second day of the DefCon hacker conference here, where attendees have been playing a digital hacker version of "Where's Waldo" to try to spot one of the more notorious hackers associated with the group, … Read more