Custom PC - UK (2020-06)

Formorecautiousfolks,theBluetoothfeature

canbequicklydisabledandenabledusingthe

newicon-basedmenusystem.Thispopsupon

thehigher-resolutionOLED,andit’scontrolled

in thesamemannerastheMini,usinga rocker

wheelonthesideofthedevicebody.

Forthemobileuser,Bluetoothwilllikelyprove

tobea must-havefeature.Aninternalbattery,

chargedusingthesameUSBType-Cconnector

usedforwireddatacommunication,letsthe

MooltipassBLErunentirelywirelessly,with

eachpasswordbeing‘typed’overanencrypted

connectionasthoughit werea Bluetooth

keyboard.Workis alsounderwayona mobile

versionofMoolticute,whichwillallowforfull

devicemanagementfrom

smartphonesandtablets.

Forthedesktopuser,

it’shandybutnotquiteso

important– whenconnected

viaBluetoothorUSB,

thedeviceis handledvia

Moolticutein thesameway.

That’snottosay,however,

thatthere’snoreasonfor

MooltipassMiniusersto

upgrade.TheMooltipassBLE

storesmoredata,supports

passwordsbeyondthe

originaldevice’s31-character

limit,andanin-development

firmwareupgradewillallow

it toactasa FIDO2second-

factorauthenticationtoken.

There’sa lotoffuture-

gazinghere,though.At

thetimeofwriting,the

MooltipassBLEwasstill

underheavydevelopment.

Whilethehardware–

impressivelyswishand,

aswithitspredecessors,

open-source– is

functionallycomplete,the

softwareandfirmware

sidehasyettobefinished.

Minithat’sstillunderactivedevelopment
andincorporatesa BluetoothLowEnergy
radioforwirelesscommunicationwith
compatiblehostdevices.
Theoretically,there’snochangetothe
securitymodeldespitethepresenceofthe
radio.Passwordsarestillencryptedusinga
keylocatedona smartcard,anda PINis still
requiredtounlockthekey.Also,unlessa
new‘simple’modeis enabled- a modethat
auto-fillspasswordswithoutrequiringthe
usertoconfirmthevalidityofeachrequest

• everypasswordrequestrequiresphysical
  confirmationbypressingthemulti-function
  wheelonthesideofthedevice.

TheBluetoothfeature,inparticular, is

provinga toughnuttocrack,andone that may

pushthedevice’slaunchdatebeyond the

targetedlate-April/early-Mayslot. During

testing,it absolutelyrefusedtofill in any

passwordsona Nokia7.2running Android

9,despiteotherbetaunitusersreporting

successwithsimilarAndroid9 devices.

Forthelatestondevelopment, follow the

developersattwitter.com/themooltipass;

whenit’sonsale,theMooltipassBLE will be

availablefromthemooltipass.com

ZXSpectrum

Nextfinallyships

ThecrowdfundedZXSpectrum Next

project(reviewedinboard-only format

inIssue176)hasfinallyreached a

successfulconclusion,withfully-finished

unitsshippingtwoyearsafterthe original

target.Recreatinga souped-up Sinclair

ZXSpectrumonanFPGA,the Spectrum

Nextincludesimpressivecompatibility

alongwithupgradedmemory, Wi-Fi and

evena RaspberryPicoprocessor, housed

ina keyboardcasingthatproved to be

lateindustrialdesignerRickDickinson’s

lastproject.A reviewofthetop-end ZX

SpectrumNextAcceleratedwill follow in

HobbyTechnextissue.

N EWSI NBRI EF

The BLE variant is slightly larger than the original

Mooltipass Mini, with a higher-resolution display

The Mooltipass BLE is supported by the same
Moolticute software as earlier versions

As before, the Mooltipass BLE is

protected with a smartcard and

PIN combination

A hidden tab in Moolticute offers features for
Mooltipass BLE beta testers