By Andrew Liszewski

I’m pretty tired of all the supposed ’spy’ gear on the market because to be perfectly honest, if it wasn’t developed by the CIA or MI6, it ends up being pretty crappy. But I’m cautiously optimistic that this video-capable covert watch might actually not suck that much. The design is surprisingly something that most people would wear, so it doesn’t look like there’s a video camera stashed inside, and instead of capturing sub-webcam quality 640×480 clips, it’s actually able to record pseudo-HD quality 1280×960 VGA videos at 30 fps.

The watch is only water and dust resistant so you won’t be capturing any spectacular underwater footage, but a little rain shouldn’t put it out of commission either. A subtle light indicator lets you know when the recording function has been activated, but it only remains on briefly so others don’t realize why you’re awkwardly pointing your watch face at them, and all videos are stamped with the date and time for later analysis. Somewhere on the watch you’ll find a miniUSB connection for charging the watch and transferring videos to your PC, and the ~$450 price tag from Spycatcher makes me think this might actually be more than just an expensive novelty.

[ Watch with HD Camera CCTV/Stills + sound ]

During the Cold War, the CIA hired a master magician to teach them deceptive maneuvers. Here are a handful of tricks, recovered from a super secret manual the government thought it had destroyed over 30 years ago.

Our spooky spy friends Bob Wallace and Keith Melton—the guys behind the amazing spy-gadget bible Spycraft— uncovered one of the supposedly incinerated “magic” journals. Their new book, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, is in part a verbatim reproduction of that manual, but, thrillingly, it also shares the (declassified) history of CIA trickery from the beginning, including the formation of the double top-secret and sometimes sinister MKULTRA division. MKULTRA was supposed to have been erased from history in 1973, but—in true spy fashion—the few shreds of paperwork that remained ended up telling its whole story.

The discovered manual was penned by John Mulholland, the David Copperfield and/or Blaine of his day. Though Mulholland knew more than anybody since Houdini about pulling fast ones, his challenge was to teach people who were not necessarily pros to pull off tricks in front of an audience that didn’t know it was an audience. Perform a lousy trick, and you don’t get booed—you get beheaded.

Here Wallace and Melton have kindly shared some newly created illustrations of tricks from the book, CIA sleights you could employ to escape from a water-bottling plant, poison a friend, send messages with your shoelaces, steal single sheets of paper, look dumb, and of course, kill Castro. Not all of the tricks below come from Mulholland’s original manual, but they were all devised at Langley, and are all lovingly described in the book—a $16 thrill of a read for anyone with even a passing interest in spyology:

Thanks to Bob Wallace and Keith Melton for sharing their book’s illustrations with us. If you’d like to know more about the book, check out its sales page on Amazon (there’s a Kindle version too), or visit the authors’ new website, CIA Magic.

During the Cold War, the CIA hired a master magician to teach them deceptive maneuvers. Here are a handful of tricks, recovered from a super secret manual the government thought it had destroyed over 30 years ago.

Our spooky spy friends Bob Wallace and Keith Melton—the guys behind the amazing spy-gadget bible Spycraft— uncovered one of the supposedly incinerated “magic” journals. Their new book, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, is in part a verbatim reproduction of that manual, but, thrillingly, it also shares the (declassified) history of CIA trickery from the beginning, including the formation of the double top-secret and sometimes sinister MKULTRA division. MKULTRA was supposed to have been erased from history in 1973, but—in true spy fashion—the few shreds of paperwork that remained ended up telling its whole story.

The discovered manual was penned by John Mulholland, the David Copperfield and/or Blaine of his day. Though Mulholland knew more than anybody since Houdini about pulling fast ones, his challenge was to teach people who were not necessarily pros to pull off tricks in front of an audience that didn’t know it was an audience. Perform a lousy trick, and you don’t get booed—you get beheaded.

Here Wallace and Melton have kindly shared some newly created illustrations of tricks from the book, CIA sleights you could employ to escape from a water-bottling plant, poison a friend, send messages with your shoelaces, steal single sheets of paper, look dumb, and of course, kill Castro. Not all of the tricks below come from Mulholland’s original manual, but they were all devised at Langley, and are all lovingly described in the book—a $16 thrill of a read for anyone with even a passing interest in spyology:

Thanks to Bob Wallace and Keith Melton for sharing their book’s illustrations with us. If you’d like to know more about the book, check out its sales page on Amazon (there’s a Kindle version too), or visit the authors’ new website, CIA Magic.

By Evan Ackerman

There’s an inverse relationship between the size of a Bluetooth headset and the amount of annoyingness it can be responsible for, which makes this “Invisible Bluetooth Earpiece” by definition the most annoying thing in existence. But if you’re wearing this, you won’t care, because you’ll be too busy playing spy. The earpiece comes with a transmitter that hangs on a cord around your neck, and attached to the transmitter is a cable with a button at the end. Pushing the button sends a beep to your handler, which enables you to send back information without having to say anything (which would be a dead giveaway, obviously).

If you have any sense, right about you’ve probably started wondering just how you get this thing out of your ear. It’s easy! Just slap the included super strong magnet to the side of your head, and it sucks that puppy right out. Sounds foolproof. The whole kit is yours for $200 from SkyMall.

[ SkyMall ] VIA [ RGS ]

The Milipol exhibition in Paris is where all the pros play with the military-industrial complex’s hottest toys. I used special commando skills (and a press badge) to infiltrate the premises and show you the world’s freshest, most mind-blowing security tech.

To bypass the gallery format, click here. And no, this is not a holiday gift guide.

OSA PB2 “Less-Lethal” Multipurpose Pistol
Ever since I watched Rosa Klebb trying to kill Bond with her shoe-dagger, I considered the Russians the world experts in tiny hideaway weapons. The PB2 is an eeency-weeency little double-barreled “less-lethal” pistol weighing less than 7 ounces, firing anything from rubber bullets to flares to flashbangs. It’s also got a safety and integral laser sights, which can be upgraded to near-Scott-Summers strength on order. Just don’t practice on some poor country bumpkin like they did here. [OSA]

DrugWipe by Securetec
The DrugWipe is what makes the customs guys all-knowing. It’s a tiny drugtest in a pocket. These plastic sticks can test up to four classes of illegal drugs in a single go. According to Securetec’s PR guy, your saliva can give you away 12 hours after doing—or even just being near—cocaine, weed, opium, meth or whathaveyou. All the government grunts have to do is wipe your tongue. Won’t open your mouth? They can also swipe your sweat and random stuff you’re carrying. [Securetec]

Spy Watch
When I approached the director of a small security/protection company to ask about this normal looking watch, he wouldn’t tell me a whole lot. What I managed to squeeze out of him is that although it’s normal size, it also records audio and video. Near the 2 o’clock mark you can see a tiny lens, activated by buttons on the side. He wasn’t the only cagey guy on the show floor—the guys in a nearby booth forbade me from taking pictures of their micro surveillance gear.

Trikke uPT
The Trikke uPT (ultralight personal transporter) was the funnest (and funniest) thing at the entire expo, and that’s saying a lot when you’re surrounded by a pirateload of guns. It’s an idea so simple, the company’s European director, the dark-suited Dutchman whizzing around on it, couldn’t figure why his potential buyers would spend any money at all on the wayyyy more expensive Segways parked in the next booth. The uPT is a trike tricked out with a 250-watt electric motor and a 22-mile range lithium-ion battery; it weighs just over 37 pounds. And like that blasted Segway, there are plenty of models to choose from. [Trikke]

RiotBot by Technorobot
The RiotBot is billed by its makers as “the first robot for riot control.” It uses a PS3-looking remote controller to zip this PepperBall-equipped metal beast at 12 miles/hour into all kinds of riots. The carbine fires at 700 rounds per minute and can be operated for 2 hours. [Technorobot]

MaxFit Gloves
It’s usually next to impossible to do precise tasks with gloves on. Most of the time, your hands move around in the gloves, you can’t feel what you’re holding and you end up feeling as useless as a eunuch in a whorehouse. But the MaxFit workgloves are fanfriggintastic. They were the thinnest, grippiest workgloves I had ever worn. Their try-out test was having me grip an Armor-All lubed PVC tube, then try to twist it out of my hand—it didn’t budge. Unfortunately, though the site advertises that it’s good for construction, DIYers and “fall yardwork,” I couldn’t help but wonder what ulterior activities they were promoting it for at a security show. [MaxFit]

Piexon Guardian Angel
The Guardian Angel is a tiny plastic toy that looks like your niece’s water pistol, but it’s actually a lightweight, disposable two-shot explosive-propelled pepper-spray gun. The cartridges give it way more range than a spray can. Just don’t carry it around in Scandinavia or other places where it’s banned, or they’ll arrest you for it (like they nearly did with me two months ago). By the way, it’s interesting to note that the Piexon website names “liberal politics” as a chief reason for needing more protection these days. [Piexon]

Rimmex 288 Prototype Amphibot
The Rimmex 288 is a prototype amphibious robot that can roll straight into water—streams, rivers and lakes mostly, or just very muddy terrain—and then roll right back out again. Its single arm with 6 degrees of freedom can be swapped with whatever you like—from a gun to an x-ray, apparently, depending on your, uh, objectives. [ROV Developpement]

Apoorva Prasad is a freelance writer and photographer based in Paris, France, who recently covered the Milipol 2009 military-police expo for us. He has a thing for holo-scoped assault rifles, and sounds disappointed when admitting he’s never been Tased.

By Andrew Liszewski

The next time you leave a room you don’t have to wonder what everyone is saying about you. You can simply whip out this compact eavesdropping device and find out for yourself. It looks a bit like the business end of a stethoscope, but uses an electronic internal sound amplifier to boost the noises coming through a wall, door, window and even steel plates. (So you can listen in on conversations inside a tank?) It’s rechargeable via USB and includes a set of headphones you’ll probably want to instantly dispose of, and is available from ChinaGrabber.com for $62.99.

[ Next Room Ear Amplifier Spy Wall / Door Eavesdropping Device ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]