The superrich and political élite will be able to fly from London to New York in three hours once 2015 rolls around. A new supersonic jet, the Aerion, is in development that will be able fly at mach 1.6—that’s 1,217 mph.

And it’s not like this is a mock-up or anything. The company has already received 50 $237,000 deposits for the first models.

The supersonic jet is being marketed as something that will change the way business is conducted. Need to go from SoHo to Soho Square to sign a contract post-haste? Hope on the America-made Aerion and be back home in time for dinner.

Again, not that any of us, or even any we know, will ever fly on this thing, but it’s nothing if not an engineering marvel even if it doesn’t look as fancy as the Concorde of yesteryear.

The iconic TX4 taxis that crowd the streets of London are going to be getting an overhaul. In the interest of reducing costs, improving air quality, and replacing the aging fleet, they’ll be introducing new TX4 E electric taxis starting in early 2009. I think we can all agree that the air in London could use a bit of scrubbing; maybe they could mount big filters on the tops of these things as well.

Pricing hasn’t been determined, but I think taxis pay for themselves pretty well, especially when the price of gas is taken out of the equation. In fact, the new taxis, running on the vaunted LiFePO4 batteries, will be running at the cost of about one American dime per mile. And yet you’ll still be paying a quid a minute for the privilege. Strange that.

Details of the much-discussed Oyster card hack have been published and released at a security conference that’s being held in Spain right now. What a long, awkward sentence.

The hack takes advantage of a security flaw in the Mifare Classic RFID chip. This chip is used in, among other locales, the Oyster card that’s used in the London public transportation system.

The researchers have defended their publishing of the hack by saying more harm would be done by not publishing the information. They added, hey, let’s assume Bad Guys (organized crime and the like) already know about the vulnerability, and may already be making money off it.

Besides, officials said they can detect if someone uses a modified/hacked Oyster card within the system.

The security paper can be read in its entirety here (it’s a PDF), which I found via Cryptome. Additional documents can be found here.

via BBC News

The highly anticipated (?) Nokia touchscreen phone, the company’s first, will debut next week at a big song and dance press event in London.

The phone is codenamed “Tube,” and not a damn thing is known about it.

Nokia has always stressed its commitment to making touchscreen phones, including both low-end and high-end devices.

And now we endure about a week’s worth of rumors, till the device’s unveiling on October 2.

Electronic Arts sure knows how to annoy people, especially unsuspecting British motorists.

The publishing giant staged one of those “free gas” giveaways at the weekend in London to promote Mercenaries 2. (Specifically, EA was handing out free gas cards worth £40.) Needless to say, people freaked out, traffic became a mess, and a politician now wants an apology, calling the stunt “irresponsible and downright dangerous.”

Reminds me of that time Microsoft had a Zune truck blaring music in the wee hours in New York a few years ago. No, not a legitimately dangerous, but just as annoying.

“Give me a good reason why you’re filming around.”

BakelBlog discusses some of the filming restrictions proposed in the UK and the resulting reactions of “community support officers” when folks try to film in public streets.
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A new art installation in London and New York lets passersby look clear across the Atlantic. The Telectroscope, a 37 by 11-feet telescope of sorts, connects the two cities using fiber optic cable, with an HD camera on either end. If you’re in New York, looking through the Telectroscope shows you London, and vice-versa. Pretty cool, and much better than other New York public art displays—”The Gates” comes to mind.

There’s a few videos of it on YouTube already.

It’s on display from now until June 15. I think I may use some of my holiday weekend to check it out.

via CNN

If the thought of sticking your dirty-ass feet into a new pair of shoes that you bought from a vending machine because you somehow lost your regular pair of shoes doesn’t appeal to you, then maybe this machine’s not for you.

Shoppers, hobos, and late-night footwear forgetters near Carnaby Street in London will be able to pick up a pair of emergency shoes at the new Onitsuka Tigers vending machine. It holds two dozen pairs of shoes spanning half a dozen different sizes. I’m not sure how much they cost, but I’ll be in London in two weeks so I’ll try to swing by, snap some photos, and get prices. I will not, however, be purchasing these shoes.

via Geekologie

If you’ve ever been to London, you’ve taken the Tube, and if you’ve taken the Tube, you probably got yourself an Oyster Card, that convenient wireless super-ticket. Well, those crazy Britons are taking another step towards being a futuristic, Blade-Runner-esque utopia with this trial run of a mobile-phone-based payment system. Oyster and credit card functionality have been built into a set of special handsets, which a few lucky Londoners will be able to deduct money from at various locations by simply passing the phone over a reader. Of course, in Tokyo, this functionality has been in place for years, and the Japanese have moved on to such things as having the phone transform into a personal robot companion, or a flying car. I guess we’ve got a long way to go in the USA, not even having decent 3G – or even a subway system, where I am. Time to move.

Pay-by-mobile phone trial starts in London [Reuters]

‘Ello from London. Remember the 5310? Meet the 5310 XpressMusic. The middle child in the Xpress line now takes a candy bar form factor, which I like better than the slider. Encased in a sleek metallic black case with red or blue accents, the tri-band GSM 5310 takes it up a notch with a 2-inch QVGA screen, built-in FM stereo radio with RDS, a dedicated audio chip (DAC-33) for Hi-Fi audio and the beloved 3.5mm connector for the audiophiles. With a MicroSD slot you can store as many as 3,000 songs on your device. Stand-by time is slated for 12.5 days with up to five hours of talk time. The 5310 is super tiny weighing in at just 80 grams and only 9.9mm thick. Just like the 5300, you’ll find dedicated music keys, Bluetooth A2DP and support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, M4A and WMA formats. The 2-megapixel camera takes 1600×1200 resolution JPEGs as well as QCIF video (177×144) on H.263 format. You even get a remote control with your new 5310. Look for it to drop Q4 for about $300. Details and hands on to come a bit later. Hit the jump for a few hands on photos.
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The city: London, England. The location: Old Billingsgate. The thing: Nokia press conference. My path happens to converge here with CrunchGear correspondent Peter Ha, so we’ll be tag-teaming this one. Stay tuned for the latest live happenings as we show you the latest GSMs out of Finland. We’ve got some idea as to what they’ll be showing, but we’re always expecting some surprises…
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Well, I guess someone paid off the Nokia folk to get a few pre-event photos of the five new devices that are going to be announced tomorrow. That’s a shame, but I’ll have some hands on and more details for you tomorrow. Most of the stuff has been out like the 5700 and N95, but now they come in black. Woohoo. What is of importance are the N81 (upper right), which is a gaming device and the 5310 (bottom right) and 5610 (center bottom) XpressMusic devices. I hate spoilers.

Gearfuse

Taken from the top of the Eye
Greetings CG readers from Merry Olde England. I’ve been in London for almost a week now and thought I’d say hello. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my trip so far including the usual tourist traps like Big Ben/Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. I’m in absolute heaven with football coverage everywhere I look. Believe it or not the weather has been quite pleasant and the sun being the elusive bugga that it is has even come out to play.

So you’re probably wondering how any of this is relevant to the usual rants you love to read from the Gear, but it is. Trust me. I’m not subjecting myself to 8 percent ABV beverages, people with funny accents and ungodly amounts of Fish & Chips and black pudding for fun. Oh noes. I’m here to bring you folks hot and exclusive news from Nokia. Starting tomorrow I’ll be showing you some new products you may or may not have heard of from the Finnish giant. Stay tuned, but in the meantime check out a few pics from my trip so far.
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Steve Jobs visited London yesterday. He might have been there just to hang out, getting himself a nice London tan, or he could, could have been there to finalise (note the British spelling) the details surrounding the European launch of the iPhone. Part of Apple’s London retail store is scheduled to be closed next Monday, leading some to predict an iPhone announcement then. Excitement!

Of course, if you’re in Europe and are just dying to see a living, breathing iPhone, don’t forget that our very own John “The Tool Man” Biggs will be in Budapest soon, very possibly showing off the iPhone. He may or may not wear pants.

Jobs in London, UK iPhone announcement imminent? [iLounge]

The City of London, financial district included, is now covered by a privately owned Wi-Fi cloud. The network was created by The Cloud, a company that provides similar Wi-Fi access across Europe. What makes this network different than, say, Google’s initiative in Mountain View, Calif. is that London’s is a mesh network. In the vernacular, this means you shouldn’t lose your connection even as you roam throughout the city.

Another major difference is that access to this network isn’t free. Rather, The Cloud has licensed it off to a number of companies, which will then offer wireless access at variable rates. The network’s backers think it should be popular with users looking to make VoIP calls from dedicated handsets. Approximately 355,000 people will be able to access the Wi-Fi network.

Switch on for Square Mile wi-fi [BBC News]