You guys remember a few months ago when we were talking about the ADE 651, supposed to be the world’s greatest bomb detector because it could literally sniff out explosives from up to half a mile out?  And how we said that we were pretty sure it was a gigantic fake because its engineering was comprised of an assortment of science terms strung together semirandomly?

Well, as it turns out, there’s an update.  Seems that the heart of the device is a series of cards, that were supposed to detect various kinds of explosives.  You want to find, say, TNT, you insert one kind of card, and so on.

The problem is that the cards in question seem to be worthless.  They’re nothing more than RFID tags that haven’t been activated.

The device’s inventor, meanwhile, adamantly insists that his device isn’t worthless, saying this:

“We have been dealing with doubters for 10 years. One of the problems we have is that the machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.”

Over $85 million worth of these things had been sold over the course of the last ten years, so it’s not surprising that the inventor was recently arrested.  He’s currently out on bail and facing trial in as many as several different countries, and I have to admit, watching him defend the device against all these people calling it an utter fraud should be really interesting.

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It’ll be a long time, if not never, that Americans start using NFC (near field communication) to pay for their goods via a cell phone.  But just in case you want to be on the cutting edge and happen to have a need to read and send RFID signals than you’re in luck.  Wireless’ Dynamics just announced the iCarte 110, an accessory plugs into the iPhone or iPod Touch’s 30 pin connector and adds the aforementioned abilities to the handset.

NFC enabled cell phones has long been used in a few Asian countries to quickly pay for goods at say a quickie mart or 7-11, something called contactless payment – it essentially means your cell phone is a credit or debit card.  While I don’t see that happening here in the US anytime soon (it has been tested in the US), RFID is growing with popularity, albeit on the corporate level and is largely used for keeping track of warehouse inventory.

[via Slashgear]

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Maybe, just maybe, we spoil our pets a bit too much.

Oh, sure, we don’t think twice about the occasional chew bone or some such, but some dogs today eat better than some people do.  Plus there’s the add-ons–clothing lines for pets, Xbox Live subscriptions (when do they PLAY??), dog houses made of crystal, even health insurance for pets!  It’s crazy!  And it only gets weirder when I start talking about the electronic dog door.

Dubbed the Plexidor Pet Door, it’s an electronic dog door with a vertical sliding door that slides up when your pet, who’s wearing an RFID chip in his or her collar, gets sufficiently close to it.

It’s a great measure for folks concerned about burglars using the pet door as a means of entry (a la Home Alone), but still wanting your pet to have the maximum amount of freedom.  They cost a whopping eight hundred bucks a pop, and that’s before you add on the cost of professional installment.  This thing has to be HARDWIRED into your house’s electrical system.

Still, it’s terribly awesome, and if you like even having the latest gadgets for your dog, then this one should be on your list.

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The term, or acronym RFID has been just that for most people, that is until now.  For just $50 you can now snag the the Mir:ror, a consumer friendly RFID reader.  Included in the package are three RFID tags that you can stick to just about anything and two little RFID rabbits.  Just plug the Mir:ror into your computer, set a command associated with the RFID tag and when its placed within proximity of the device the command is executed – think ‘unlock your computer’ or ‘play music’.  You can buy 12 more RFID tags for $19.90.  Video demo below.

[Thanks, Mike]

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Microsoft’s Surface is far from becoming ubiquitous.  But that hasn’t stopped Australian design firm Amnesia Razorfish from printing Surface readable tags on all their employees’ business cards.  Toss the card on the Surface and it calls up the employee directory application, which contains their most recent blog posts, Flickr feed and Tweets.  Hit the video after the ‘leap’ to see it in action.

[Reghardware]

I had no idea, but player overheating, better known as heatstroke, is a serious issue on the football field.  Monitoring a player’s temperature can be challenging and perhaps even down right demoralizing.  HOT (heat obvservation technology) from Hothead uses an RFID transponder with a thermal heat sensor built-in to the helmet to remotely monitor the player’s body temperature.  Info is transmitted to a handheld device and if all is normal the player is represented by a green dot, red and the player is in danger of heat stroke and an audible alarm is emitted.  Hothead has plans to test the technology in other applications such as fire fighting and the military, but currently doesn’t have a release time line or price.

[Wired]

The makers of the Nabaztag Rabbit are at it again.  This time around they’re offering a device called the Mir:ror.  It plugs into your computer via USB and displays information associated with objects that are placed on its surface.  No, it doesn’t magically know what an umbrella or remote look like.  The Mir:ror package includes RFID stickers that you place on the object and once you’ve associated an item with the Mir:ror it will display the information accordingly, such as weather or TV schedule every time it passes its surface.

You can buy it here for $70.

[Technabob]