Devices, Linux, Open Hardware, and Mobile Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 07, 2026

• Devices/Embedded

  • [Repeat] Krebs On Security ☛ Tech Firms Dismantle Botnet That Turned 1.3M TV Boxes Into Proxies

    A report from the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) said Google has severed ties with Videostrong Technology Co., a TV box manufacturer in China that GTIG and other industry experts concluded was responsible for including malware that enrolled more than 1.3 million set-top boxes in a botnet dubbed “XCPE” (named after one of the malware’s core code components).

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Bloatware in Aftermarket Auto Parts

    It’s interesting because it exposes all the insecurities in this piece of IoT software. But I think the real story is that a random person was able to do this reverse-engineering with the help of AI. Expect a lot more stories like this in the future.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Arduino ☛ Doubling down on solar power density with the Arduino® GIGA R1™ WiFi board

    As global adoption of solar energy continues to accelerate, researchers and engineers face a fundamental spatial challenge: how do you generate more electricity without consuming more land?

  • CNX Software ☛ Waveshare ESP32-S31-Zero – A tiny ESP32-S31 board with up to 32MB PSRAM, 32MB SPI flash

    Waveshare ESP32-S31-Zero is a small ESP32-S31 development board that follows the form factor of the earlier Waveshare “Zero” boards, such as the ESP32-C6-Zero-B, RA4M1-Zero, and ESP32-S3-Zero, among others. The new tiny board still features a USB-C port for power and programming, as well as eighteen through and castellated holes for GPIO and power signals,  but it boasts a more powerful ESP32-S31 dual-core RISC-V MCU clocked at up to 320 MHz, featuring 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 connectivity, as well as up to 32MB on-chip PSRAM and a 16MB or 32MB SPI flash chip.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ ESP32-P4 development boards combine RISC-V with Wi-Fi 6 or PoE

    SparkFun today launched two ESP32-P4-based IoT RedBoards, offering either dual-band Wi-Fi 6 through an ESP32-C5 companion or wired Ethernet with Power over Ethernet. Both boards feature dual-core RISC-V processing, 32MB PSRAM, 16MB flash, MIPI camera and display connectors, and Arduino-style expansion headers for embedded and HMI applications.

  • Raspberry Pi Weekly Issue #545 - Raspberry Pi–powered sorcery and a trip to a "washateria"

    A new episode of the Raspberry Pi Podcast is here! Howdy, Grab your headphones. A new episode of the Raspberry Pi Podcast has dropped. This episode demystifies product compliance, but it's funnier than it sounds — not one, but two excellent outtakes made it into the episode blog post. Inspired by videos of self-playing chessboards driven by magnets, our colleague Kat spent Halloween creating this Raspberry Pi–powered Ouija board.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Home Assistant-compatible board pairs ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4

    Crowd Supply has launched a campaign for LocalDot, an open-hardware board developed by AAElectronics that converts third-generation Amazon Echo Dots into Home Assistant voice devices. The 83 × 37mm PCB uses an ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4 for connectivity and audio processing while retaining the original microphones, speaker, buttons, and LEDs.

  • Arduino ☛ Unveiled at ROSCon: the easiest way to bring Arduino I/O into ROS 2

    To understand how Arduino_RouterBridge_ROS operates, we first have to look at Arduino_RouterBridge.

  • Pimoroni ☛ Tufty 2350 Powers Teacher's Presentation Controller

    Our range of Badgeware boards are proving to be versatile. YouTube subscriber milestones, thermal camera, and live public transport data, are just some of the projects built around these potent boards.

  • Hannah Robertson ☛ Here comes the sun[light]: An ambient Daylight Clock with time and space controls

    This analog clock has a 24-hour period, with midnight at the bottom and noon at the top. The lights around the circumference illuminate the current daylight span, based on the clock’s home latitude and longitude.

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Made from a smashed disposable camera, this cheap mirrorless lens still has an adjustable aperture and comes in multiple mounts

    Bold Lens isn’t the first company to make a cheap mirrorless lens meant to mimic the look of a disposable film camera. But the Bold Lens BL-32, is unusual in that the budget lens still uses an adjustable aperture rather than a fixed opening. The company says it's the first disposable camera lens remake to use an adjustable aperture.

  • Alessandro Muraro ☛ Upgrading my guitar

    And finally I shielded the internals of the guitar because those single coils were very noisy especially when connected to the computer interface, and now it is vastly improved.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • The Record ☛ Russian state-linked hackers target iPhone, Android devices in zero-click espionage campaign

    The investigation began after researchers discovered malicious code on the website of an unnamed Ukrainian gas production company. Further analysis uncovered similar compromises affecting other organizations, including a major U.S. chemical industry trade association and a far-right European political party.

  • Kev Quirk ☛ Fairphone 1: Still going strong after 13 years

    by Fairphone

    The Fairphone team talk through two examples of where the original Fairphone 1 from back in 2013 are "still very much in use", but I think this post is a little disingenuous.