3M creates portable ID scanner for mobile Napoleons
To its product portfolio of lint rollers and innovative stationary, 3M now adds the machinery of iron-fisted authoritarian rule. Its mobile ID reader scans passports and visas just like credit cards, verifying a citizen's ID for all those with the need and inclination to do so. It runs Windows Mobile 6 and includes a fingerprint panel for those who neglect to carry their papers. There's even a full 8GB of storage, so plenty of information can be stored on it.
Someone working for the British civil service won't even have to leave one on a train to create the government's next personal data scandal, either: it has WiFi and a GSM modem for wireless hook-up to back-end systems, to ensure it's always accessible to anyone with the right equipment.
Give Away Your Identity Faster Than Ever, in a Single Swipe [Wired: Gadget Lab]
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Is the non-QWERTY pad intended to discourage texting during lulls at the border?
wow, i really wish the guys at the Turkmenistan border crossing would have had one of those when I got off the boat from Azerbaijan. Would have saved about, oh, 8 hours.
Countries have Homeland Security computers in their border stations but none of the doodz "know" how to use them. S'funny because they can figure out how to play Indian beastiality pr0n on there and install Winamp but I actually watched a woman transcribe my details into a carbon-copy ledger 9 times WITHOUT USING THE CARBON COPY.
I would like to note that their choice of OS is also a great help for would-be hackers.
WiFi and Windows.