Could the Blackberry London be the first device to run BBX?

Details have begun to emerge of what could be Research in Motion's next generation Blackberry smartphone running the BBX operating system. According to an exclusive by The Verge, the reportedly named Blackberry London will be the first device to launch using the new OS.

Internals are said to include a TI OMAP 1.5GHz dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB of on-board storage, a 2-megapixel front facing camera, and a 8-megapixel camera on its rear. Most of the front bears a reported 3.7" touchscreen display, with no traditional keyboard in sight.

Aesthetically the London is alleged to be thinner than the iPhone 4, with dimensions roughly similar to the Samsung Galaxy S2 Android smartphone. "The phone can be stood straight up on one of its sides (suggesting more boxiness than can be seen in the picture)," said Joshua Topolsky of The Verge. In many respects it actually looks a lot like the Nokia N8, with cues from the BlackBerry Porsche.

The report caused some confusion considering the first rumoured BBX device was said to be named the Blackberry Colt. Another story by BGR appears to have dispelled any uncertainty, however. They confirmed the device was in fact real, according to a trusted source. "Our source told us that the BlackBerry Colt, the first QNX-based handset RIM had been working on that looked just like a smaller PlayBook, was scrapped in favor of the BlackBerry London."

The new smartphone is pinned for a third quarter release in 2012, though that's far from solid given that two of RIM's most vital tools, BES and BBM, are reportedly non-functional with the new BBX software right now.

Research in Motion is clearly hoping this new smartphone and the subsequent BBX devices that follow will bring around a change of fortunes for its phone business. Recent failures of its core services and the huge public outcry that followed have done little to help the current financial concerns they are experiencing.

Cybersecurity weaknesses could prevent US from waging war

A former presidential cybersecurity advisor stated at a conference on Monday that U.S. computer networks are so vulnerable to attack that they should think twice before going to war with other nations.

The shocking claim was made by Richard Clarke, former cybersecurity advisor to three presidents, during the conference joined by a number of U.S. military and civilian experts. According to Clarke, the U.S. military is entirely dependent on computer systems and the seriousness of the problem could result in them entering a battlefield where "nothing works."

Clarke said that if he were the current advisor to the President, he would caution against attacking other countries because a number of them, such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia, have the capability of launching devastating attacks on the country's infrastructure, destroying power grids, banking networks and transportation systems. "The entire U.S. economic system could be crashed in retaliation ... because we can't defend it today."

"I really don't know to what extent the weapon systems that have been developed over the last 10 years have been penetrated, to what extent the chips are compromised, to what extent the code is compromised," Clarke said. "I can't assure you that as you go to war with a cybersecurity-conscious, cybersecurity-capable enemy that any of our stuff is going to work."

General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command said to the conference crowd that the U.S. needs to start doing a better job of eliminating network vulnerabilities and much more aggressively seek out malware and viruses in corporate, military and government systems.

Clarke added that it was about time the U.S. made it clear to countries like China and Russia that their continued efforts to use cyber-attacks against America would not go unpunished, as they represented a "persistent threat to U.S. economic security." He further added that until there are real consequences for massive espionage, countries like China will still keep stealing.

Last week the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive released a critical report labelling China as its most persistent cyber-attacker, with Russia also present in the list paired with China as the two "most aggressive collectors" of U.S. trade secrets.

GeForce driver v267.52 could overheat GTX 590

SweClockers along with other tech review sites have discovered a flaw that could cause Nvidia's new dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 to burn up in a plume of smoke. After frying two sample cards, the Swedish site blamed the driver they were supplied with. When overclocking the GTX 590 with GeForce driver version 267.52, the card supposedly draws more power than it can actually handle causing it to overheat. SweClockers has documented the issue on video:

The solution? Avoid driver v267.52 like the plague -- especially if you intend to overclock your GTX 590. Nvidia has released a new driver (v267.85) with improved overcurrent protection and SweClockers has confirmed that this solves the problem. It may be common sense, but Nvidia says that anyone who's overclocking or running stress tests should use the latest driver available on the company's website instead of the disc-supplied driver, which is inevitably outdated.

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Although driver v267.85 has enhanced overcurrent protection, Nvidia notes that it's still risky to raise your card's default clocks and voltages. The company recommends leaving the GTX 590 at its stock voltage when overclocking with air cooling, while folks with liquid cooling should remain within 12.5-25mV of the default voltage. Nvidia believes SweClockers pushed the GTX 590 beyond its limits by running it as high as 1.2V instead of the default 0.91V to 0.96V.