I don’t know exactly what people are buying novelty spy cameras for these days, but I guess babysitter surveillance is as timeless a concern as any. Brando’s newest motion-activated spy gizmo takes the shape of a small luxury automobile. More

I was playing the Splinter Cell: Conviction demo after turning my Xbox on for the first time in a month, and thought, “man, it’s easy to stealthily snap necks.” JETProtect ’s CS300K Long Range Counter Surveillance Camera would’ve gotten me killed. More

DARPA wants to let you all know that its plans for the robot apocalypse are still going strong. The agency’s got IBM working on the brains , has an RFI out on the skin , and is handling propulsion and motor control in-house. Next up? Eyeballs.

HT4Sight seems like something only available to rogue agents who break people’s legs and shout out their lungs every time they want to know where a nuclear head is, while nobody—except a hacker with permanent PMS—believes in them. Except that HT4Sight is real, and available to anyone with deep enough pockets. The system allows anyone to route video signals from UAVs—or any aerial surveillance craft or satellite—to any cellphone around the world, using an encrypted data signal. The signal gets transmitted in real time to a command center. Then, HT4Sight compresses and encrypts the video, sending the stream to any phone in a cellular, Wi-Fi, or satellite network.

Cyber Technologies ‘ CyberQuad UAV, implementing four silent, ducted fans in lieu of traditional rotor blades, has already been used to survey damaged oil rigs. Someday it will be used to transport troops in campaigns to exploit interplanetary resources. The CyberQuad, an “electric ducted quadrotor Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV),” gains significant maneuverability from its fan-based technology, including a “perch and stare” function which allows it to hover in one place with increased stability and endurance. That is, until it’s attacked by flying extraterrestrial fauna. Last month, on our own planet, the CyberQuad successfully investigated an oil platform fire, beaming high-definition video back to operators stationed at a safer location.

So, Iraqi insurgents found a way to hack into Predator drones’ unencrypted video feeds with cheap Windows shareware. Ridiculous? Obviously ! But also kind of minor —the story was more embarrassing than alarming; a gaffe, not a disaster. Then, this . Wired’s Danger Room found the whole situation kind of bewildering, so they went to their military sources to find out exactly what happened: The military initially developed the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver, or ROVER, in 2002.

Privacy advocates and career criminals alike are in a lather over reports that between September 2008 and October 2009, Sprint Nextel ponied up customer location data to various law enforcement agencies more than 8 million times. Speaking at ISS World 2009 (a conference for law enforcement and telecom industry-types responsible for “lawful interception, electronic investigations and network Intelligence gathering”), Sprint Nextel’s very own Paul Taylor, Manager of Electronic Surveillance, lamented on the sheer volume of requests the company’s received in the past year for precise GPS data for Sprint customers. How did the company meet such high demand? Apparently, his team built a special “web interface” which “has just really caught on fire with law enforcement.” We’re glad that Sprint’s plans to streamline the customer service experience don’t stop short of those who serve and protect, but as the EFF points out, plenty of nagging questions remain, including: How many individual customers have been affected? Is Sprint demanding search warrants? How secure is this web interface

Cernium’s just announced something that should really please the ‘I know the cat is putting my stuff on Ebay while I’m at church’ crowd. The Archerfish Quattro is a full scale, no messing aroung video monitoring and recording system that pays attention to the little details while you’re not around. Analyzing info in real time, if the Archerfish Quattro spies something funky, it’ll send a message to your mobile phone or email. The system is expandable so that you can have as many cameras in the setup as you want, and best of all? It’s available at Amazon now, so you can order it without having to leave home — which you don’t want to do yet. It’s just not safe.

Next Room is kind of like a mash up between a stethoscope, MP3 player and an old fashioned drinking glass. According to the product page, you can hear what is being said through wooden walls, doors, windows—even steel plates. It features an internal sound amplifier, a 3.5mm jack for headphones and a USB port for recharging. Nice, but if you really want to take this whole scumbaggy espionage thing to another level, you go with the SIM card spy ear .

The Mole webcam infiltrates your inner sanctum, records the goings on and automatically sends the footage to YouTube. It can also notify you via email or Twitter. In other words, this would be a great, inexpensive home surveillance cam. It’s supposed to be a snap to set up, and you can access the feed and control the pan and tilt of the camera from any PC or internet capable cellphone. For $300, Astak also throws in motion detection, night vision, two-way audio and a built-in DVR. I have to believe this is as good a feature set as you will find on a webcam at this price point.