Will 'unlocked' cell phones free consumers?

By Marguerite Reardon
Photo from PhoneScoop.com

The major cell phone operators' hold on which devices U.S. consumers can use on their networks may be slipping as large manufacturers like Motorola and Nokia dabble in selling "unlocked" phones. Up until recently, unlocked phones--handsets that can be used on multiple carrier networks--have been available only in "gray" markets where Americans have bought phones from overseas. Now manufacturers are selling them on their Web sites and through certain retail channels.
"Cell phones rank just behind keys when it comes to items that Americans don't leave home without," said Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research. "And as cell phones become the most important thing people carry with them through their day, they will look for products that fit their lifestyles better. And believe me, they will want more than 5 to 20 choices. They'll want hundreds of options."

"In general, phone makers do better in markets where the handset purchase is separate from the service purchase."

--Albert Lin, analyst with American Technology Research

Walk into any supermarket in the U.S. and it's easy to see that Americans have more choices, in terms of products they can buy, than most people in the world. But, when it comes to choosing a cell phone, consumers in the U.S. are limited to a handful of devices offered by a few manufacturers, and those devices are sold solely through a single service provider.
This means that Verizon Wireless subscribers are limited to phones sold specifically for the Verizon network. And Cingular Wireless subscribers are limited to handsets that Cingular sells. It also means that when subscribers switch from one service provider to another, they are unable to take their phones with them. This is true even if the carrier they are switching to offers the same phone made by the same manufacturer. For example, a Motorola Razr sold for Cingular's network won't work on T-Mobile's network, even though both Cingular and T-Mobile use the same underlying network technology, GSM.
Worldwide, the cell phone market is split about 50-50 between phones sold through carriers and phones sold through other channels directly to consumers, says Lin. In Asia, about 80 percent of cell phones are sold independently of a carrier. And in Europe, roughly 70 percent of cell phones are sold unlocked. But in the U.S., between 90 percent and 95 percent of cell phones are sold through a mobile service provider.
The subsidy game
The driving force behind the carriers' control in North America is the fact that they subsidize the cost of the handsets. Typically, for customers signing a two-year service contract, operators knock off $50 to $80 from the cost of the phone. As a result, some consumers get phones for free instead of paying $100 or more for a device. This has greatly expanded the market by making phones more affordable, but it's also given mobile operators complete control over the relationship with consumers. The carriers decide which cell phone manufacturers they will work with and which devices they will sell. They also decide which features can be activated on their network. As a result, only a fraction of a manufacturers' total line of products is offered. For example, even though Nokia introduced roughly 50 new products into the market last year, only a handful were offered by operators in the U.S.
"In general, phone makers do better in markets where the handset purchase is separate from the service purchase," Lin said. "More brands compete in lower concentration, which means more suppliers are competing in the market. It's also good for consumers because, in these markets, products come in a wider range of prices with a lot more feature variation."
Last year, Nokia opened several of its own retail stores in the United States, including its flagship store in Chicago. In these stores, Nokia is pushing unlocked versions of its high-end, smart phones. It also sells its fashion phones unlocked through retailers like Neiman Marcus. Stores such as CompUSA are also buying unlocked Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones from distributors and selling them.
While it's clear that phone manufacturers are testing the waters in the U.S. market, the companies are reluctant to make a major push that might upset carriers they do business with. "We would welcome a path that provides more direct sales access to consumers, so we can promote our brand," said Bruce Brda, a vice president at Motorola. "But today the carrier subsidizes the phones, and that's great because it makes our phones more affordable to more people. Until that goes away, I see unlocked phones being a very small piece of our business in North America." Indeed, price is the major barrier for cell phone makers looking to sell directly to consumers. It makes little sense for someone to buy an unlocked Motorola Krzr, which costs $330 from Motorola's Web site, when Cingular offers it for $200 with a two-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate. What's more, unlocked phones require much more programming and manual updating by users than phones purchased through a carrier. For example, an unlocked Krzr that is used on Cingular's network won't get the automatic over-the-air updates that the same device would get if it was purchased through Cingular. This means features like voice mail or the mobile Internet might work one day on an unlocked phone, but not the next.
Unlocked phones are also available only for GSM networks. In the U.S. market, that means they can be used on two of the four large nationwide carriers, Cingular and T-Mobile. Major phone makers today do not offer unlocked versions of their phones for networks based on CDMA, which include national carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel.
In Asia and Europe, all the operators use GSM technology. They have built their networks using standardized equipment and software, making it very easy for cell phone manufacturers to sell devices that can be used on all networks. Because of network differences, operators in the U.S. claim it is important for them to certify phones used on their networks to ensure quality. "We only allow devices on our network that have been approved," said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless. "People come to Verizon Wireless and stay with our service because of the quality of the experience. And that includes the network and the quality of devices used on the network."
The current business model in the U.S. also gives mobile operators tremendous control over which features and services can be accessed from the handsets. The phones and new multimedia services that consumers most often see are branded by the carrier. In this way, Verizon is able to offer its V Cast video and music service and Sprint can offer its PowerVision service. "If I were a carrier, I would drag my heels too," said Andrei Jezierski, a partner at the consultancy i2 Partners. "It's not clear if the carriers will make money from these value-added services. So if the economic model is still unclear, why give away more control earlier than you have to?"
But, experts say tiny cracks are forming in the current model that could challenge mobile operators' dominance whether they like it or not. Apple, with its iPhone, has the brand recognition and established retail channel to easily sell millions of devices on its own. Initially, that device, whose price starts at $499, will be sold exclusively through Cingular. But experts say it's possible that Apple may eventually sell it directly to consumers. "I think the first time there will be a threat will be if Apple unlocks the iPhone and sells it in its stores," said Lin. "It's already priced near the high end, so subsidies won't make much difference, and Apple already has such good brand recognition."
Experts also see smaller carriers and handset manufacturers potentially upsetting the status quo. For example, regional carrier Metro PCS came out of the Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction last year with more licenses that could help the company build a nationwide network. Metro PCS has already been competing against the big four national carriers in some regions of the country with low-cost prepaid services. And in those markets, it's been able to garner 15 percent of the market in as little as 18 months, Jezierski said. It could compete with bigger carriers by allowing subscribers to bring their own devices and then offer them a lower cost pre- or post-paid service without a service contract.
New hybrid services that combine cellular, Wi-Fi and eventually WiMax services could also put pressure on mobile phone operators to change their business models. Consumers could download music or videos, use Google or Yahoo for messaging and search, or even use voice over IP applications such as Skype to talk over a Wi-Fi network and completely bypass the carrier's cellular network. "Once one carrier breaks ranks or hybrid Wi-Fi services start skimming away customers who might use advanced services, then I think we could see the market becoming more open," Jezierski said. He conceded that the path to a truly open market will be a slow and steady one with real change at least three to five years away. "I don't see major changes anytime soon," he said. "The subsidy offered by the carriers will definitely have to go away for it to make economic sense to consumers."

Christian Grandmother in High Court over Abortion Campaign

by Jennifer Gold

A Christian grandmother is going to the High Court Tuesday, 23 January to clarify the law on her human rights and free speech, after she was convicted under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 for trying to "educate" pharmacists who dispensed the 'morning after pill' to "another point of view", the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship has told Christian Today.
In 2004, Veronica Connolly, a devout Roman Catholic, expressed her anger over the right of pharmacists to dispense the 'morning after pill' over the counter, but her actions led to three convictions.
As a Catholic, she believes an unborn baby is a child of God, and as such, abortion is a form of murder. She also believes that the 1967 Abortion Act should be repealed. In 2004, an article in Catholic newspaper The Universe suggested readers should write to pharmacists who stock the ‘morning after pill’, voicing their concerns on the issue of abortion. From 2004-5, Mrs. Connolly wrote to pharmacists, attaching photographs of aborted fetuses to highlight her concerns, having first telephoned them to ensure they stocked the ‘morning after pill’, and, to seek their permission to send the photographs. If a pharmacists did not grant her permission to do this, she did not send the photographs, the LCF says.
On 10 February 2005, one pharmacist made a complaint and the police were called. On February 13, Mrs. Connolly was taken to Solihull Police Station for questioning. She was then arrested without warning, and in the presence of her daughter and five-year-old granddaughter. She was held at the police station for approximately seven hours, and in that time she was provided with very insignificant facilities for a woman in a wheelchair. Mrs Connolly suffers from a condition known as Myalgic Enchymylitus, which means that she cannot stand for long periods and she has to use a wheelchair, explains the LCF.
Mrs Connolly was charged under the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Essentially, the Act states that if a communication is either ‘indecent’ or ‘grossly offensive’ and that one of the purposes of sending it is to cause 'distress' or 'anxiety', then an offence has been committed. Consequently, Mrs Connolly was charged, and on 13 July 2005, she entered a plea of ‘Not Guilty’ at Solihull Magistrates Court. On October 6, she was convicted of offences contrary to the 1988 Act. On 27 January 2006, she unsuccessfully appealed against her conviction.
Mrs Connolly, who has instructed civil rights barrister Paul Diamond to represent her in court today, said: "My cases raises fundamental human rights issues, including freedom of religion, and manifestation of religion, under article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and freedom of expression, under article 10. The court said the pictures I sent were offensive, and that the purpose of sending those pictures was to cause offence. Yet, I was only seeking to express my deeply held views on the issue of abortion, and seeking to communicate those views boldly, but peacefully. Surely in a free and Christian country, and indeed a pluralist society, I should be able to express my faith in ways which I feel are appropriate?"
"Tomorrow, we are seeking clarification on a point of law. If the law, as used in my case, really means that you cannot debate, demonstrate or try to educate people towards another point of view simply because they, or anyone, can claim their are sensitive and offended by your actions, then freedom of speech and expression, and democracy has been killed off by a little-known Act of Parliament, and should be repealed." Andrea Minichiello Williams, public policy officer for the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, which supports Mrs Connolly in her appeal, added: "Surely there must be many more cases worthy of prosecution under the Malicious Communications Act 1988."
"Mrs Connolly’s case is seemingly far from the most serious example of an ‘indecent’ or ‘grossly offensive’ communication. Mrs Connolly asked the permission of highly qualified and educated people, dealing daily with the moral, social and ethical issues surrounding abortion, if she could send them information giving another side to the debate. These clinicians, who, even as pharmacology students, would have seen far worse pictures, agreed and only one person made a complaint. This Act was used to the extreme to suppress freedoms of expression and speech. Any form of religious expression can, of course, be offensive, in that other members of society will often disagree with it. But that is often the nature of the expression of religious views."
"What this case demonstrates is the suppression of an unpopular political viewpoint, and specifically, that it demonstrates a suppression of biblical teaching on the sanctity of life."

Editorial: If the UK government gets away with this sort of oppression for religious expression, then you can bet the current liberals on the US Supreme Court will look to international law and case precedent to suppress our Christian values in America. IF that happens, you can kiss freedom itself goodbye -- as only popular opinion and the sway of the mental whims of those in power will matter. Truth, justice and freedom will suffer tremendously.

Northrop Opens First U.S. Laser Weapons Plant

The defense company says it hopes to benefit from rapid growth in the new class of weapons that are cheaper to operate than traditional missiles.
Northrop Grumman Corp. Tuesday opened the first U.S. production facility for high-energy laser weapons, saying it hoped to benefit from rapid growth in the new class of weapons that are cheaper to operate than traditional missiles. "We see this capability emerging very quickly. The government is moving in this direction," Mike McVey, president of Northrop's directed energy systems business, told a teleconference. "We're positioning ourselves to be ready when they want more capability."
McVey declined to say how much the new facility in Redondo Beach, California, cost but said it could be used to build three 100-kilowatt lasers at the same time, and could also do classified work for the military. He gave no further details. "Powerful military lasers, with their speed-of-light targeting capabilities and cost-effective operation, have the potential to transform the way we equip our armed forces defending our country abroad and protecting it at home against terrorist threats," Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector, said in a statement.
The company aims to build and demonstrate a 100-kilowatt solid state laser by the end of 2008, McVey said. A weapon of that size could be used to shoot down rockets, artillery and mortar from ground, air or sea-based platforms. Northrop officials said the life cycle cost, including operations and maintenance expenses, of a laser system was one-quarter of the cost of a traditional missile-based system. Because lasers require only electricity to operate and no other munitions, they can keep firing at targets indefinitely, McVey said. "As long as you have fuel, you never run out of bullets ... You can keep firing," he said.
The new plant was an important step toward making lasers affordable weapons for the military to use. Northrop said the plant could create up to 50 jobs. The Pentagon has been working to develop laser weapons for over three decades, aided by Northrop, Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., and Boeing Co. The military already uses lasers to guide bombs and in laser sights and rangefinders, but has balked at fielding lasers as weapons in their own right, while it weighs international law and other issues.
Northrop said it obtained a U.S. marketing license and last week briefed the Israeli government on a system called Skyguard that would use lasers to shield airport and other installations from rockets, ballistic missiles and other threats. The system would generate a shield of five kilometers in radius, with the cost of shielding a typical airport put at around $25 million to $30 million.
McVey said Northrop was one of four to five bidders, and Israel expected to choose a rocket defense system soon. Northrop also expected to finalize a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by the end of the week to study the possibility of using Skyguard to protect U.S. airports.

Source: InformationWeek

No Proof That Growth Hormone Therapy Makes You Live Longer, Study Finds

By Science Daily

Surveyors of anti-aging elixirs tout human growth hormone (HGH) as a remedy for all things sagging- from skin to libidos - and claim it can even prevent or reverse aging. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine say there's no evidence to suggest that this purported fountain of youth has any more effect than a trickle of tap water when it comes to fending off Father Time. "There is certainly no data out there to suggest that giving growth hormone to an otherwise healthy person will make him or her live longer," said Hau Liu, MD, a research fellow in the division of endocrinology and in the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, and first author of a review study to be published in the Jan. 16 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. "We did find, however, that there was substantial potential for adverse side effects."
Those negative side effects included joint swelling and pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and a trend toward increased new diagnoses of diabetes or pre-diabetes. "You're paying a lot of money for a therapy that may have minimal or no benefit and yet has a potential for some serious side effects," Liu said. "You've got to really think about what this drug is doing for you." Growth hormone is widely promoted on the Internet and its use as a purported anti-aging drug has caught the attention of the popular media, ranging from the "Today Show" to Business Week.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 people in the United States used growth hormone as an anti-aging therapy in 2004, a tenfold increase since the mid-1990s, according to the authors of an unrelated study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005. This increase comes despite both the high cost of such therapy - often more than $1,000 a month - and the illegality of distributing growth hormone for anti-aging therapy in this country. Those numbers prompted Liu and some colleagues to see if the medical literature provided any support for such therapy.
Growth hormone is naturally produced by the pituitary gland, a pea-sized organ at the base of the brain. Production is highest during childhood and the hormone-drenched adolescent years, then typically starts tapering off around age 30, continuing to decline into old age. Growth hormone is critical to proper development in children, particularly their height, and injections of growth hormone are considered a legitimate treatment for short children and for adults whose pituitary glands don't produce enough growth hormone to maintain normal metabolism. But most promoters of growth hormone as an anti-aging therapy target the healthy elderly.
Liu's team undertook a systematic review and analysis of published studies, excluding any that looked at diseases for which growth hormone is an accepted therapy. They focused solely on studies using growth hormone to treat the elderly, specifically those whose main maladies were nothing worse than age and being mildly to moderately overweight. They also included only studies that evaluated the use of the hormone in randomized, controlled clinical trials. Of all the papers contained in two of the largest databases of medical literature in the world, only 31 met the team's criteria. The 31 studies had a combined total of slightly more than 500 participants, and the average duration of therapy was about a half-year, said Liu, adding that he was surprised at the limited amount of data in the literature. "These studies were designed to look at what happens when you give growth hormone to a healthy elderly person," said Liu. "For example, what happens to their bone density, to their exercise levels and to their exercise capacity."
The researchers found that growth hormone had a modest effect on body composition, increasing lean body mass, or muscle, by slightly more than 2 kilograms and decreasing body fat by roughly the same amount. But, Liu said, "It did not change other clinically important outcomes, such as bone density measurements, cholesterol and lipid measurements, and maximal oxygen consumption." In short, the studies provided no real evidence that the therapy resulted in increased fitness. "From our review, there's no data to suggest that growth hormone prolongs life, and none of the studies makes that claim," said Liu. That finding, according to Liu, highlights one of the fundamental problems in the whole debate over the use of growth hormone to combat the effects of aging-misinterpretation of the data.
The promotion of growth hormone as an anti-aging treatment took off in 1990 when a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine presented results of a small study in which 12 men over the age of 60 were injected with growth hormone three times a week for six months. At the end of treatment, they had statistically significant increases in lean body mass and bone mineral, unlike a group of nine men who had received no treatment. The authors of that study made no claims that the treatment had reversed the aging process and stated that many questions remained unanswered, but they did note that the increase in muscle and decrease in fat were "equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred during 10 to 20 years of aging." That statement triggered a wave of misinterpretation - inadvertent or otherwise - that persists to this day, despite repeated efforts by the journal to play down the sensational claims now made for growth hormone or growth hormone "releasing agents" widely sold on the Internet. The original study was accompanied by an editorial warning against the general use of growth hormone as a therapy in adults.
In 2003 another NEJM editorial specifically addressed the issue again, as the 1990 paper was receiving as many online "hits" in a week as other 1990 articles got in a year, owing largely to promoters of growth hormone citing it as supporting evidence.
The researchers participating in this study were supported by grants from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institute of Aging. Other Stanford researchers participating in the study were Dena Bravata, MD, senior research scientist in medicine; Ingram Olkin, PhD, professor emeritus of statistics and of education; Smita Nayak, MD, who is now an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh; Brian Roberts, MD, research fellow in the division of endocrinology; Alan Garber, MD, PhD, the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor, and Andrew Hoffman, MD, professor of medicine.

Technology History: Ctrl-Alt-Del

Do you know how the personal computer reboot sequence came about?
Purdue University graduate David Bradley devised the most famous three-key combination in computer history: Ctrl-Alt-Del. In 1980, David Bradley was one of twelve IBM engineers working to create the IBM PC. Needing a simple way to restart the computer, should it fail, Bradley wrote the code for a reboot sequence. The Ctrl-Alt-Del program was written in about five minutes.

Biological Aging Predicts Heart Attack

People Who Age Fast Are at Highest Heart Attack Risk; Statin Drugs May Help

By Daniel DeNoon

People who age fast -- as measured by DNA shortening -- have a higher heart disease risk. Statin drugs may help, a Lancet study suggests. Every time a cell in the body replicates, the DNA string (the telomere) at one end of the chromosome gets shorter. When it gets too short, the cell dies. Current scientific thought holds that this process is directly related to aging. Telomere shortening happens at different rates for different people. This suggests that our chronological age (the number of years since our birth) is different from our biological age (as measured by telomere shortening).
Does our "biological age" really predict death and disease? Scott W. Brouilette, PhD, and colleagues have previously shown that telomere length in people who have heart attacks before age 50 and in people who are candidates for triple bypass surgery tends to be shorter than telomere length in healthy people of the same age and sex. In their current study, the researchers looked at people enrolled in a clinical trial of the cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol. Over five years, 484 patients developed heart disease. The researchers compared their telomere length in white blood cell DNA to that of 1,058 matched people who remained free of heart disease. Sure enough, those who got heart disease had telomere lengths similar to those in the comparison group who were six years older. Study participants in the top third of telomere length were about 50% less likely to have heart disease as those in the middle or lower third in telomere length.
"Our findings lend support to the hypothesis that premature biological aging might contribute to the risk of coronary heart disease," Brouilette and colleagues suggest in the Jan. 13 issue of The Lancet. Oddly, the heart risk seen with shorter telomere length did not increase beyond a certain point. "This finding suggests that, especially with increasing age, there could be a threshold beyond which further shortening of telomeres does not confer additional risk," the researchers theorize.

Do Statins Slow Biological Aging?
Interestingly, Pravachol -- one of the "statin" family of cholesterol-lowering drugs -- dramatically lowered the heart disease risk of people with shorter telomeres. But the drug seemed to have little effect on heart disease risk in people with the longest telomeres. Brouilette and colleagues suggest that statin drugs may slow biological aging not by lowering cholesterol but by increasing blood levels of a molecule that stabilizes telomeres. The researchers suggest that by measuring telomere length, doctors could identify those patients most likely to benefit from statin treatment.
However, a Lancet editorial appearing alongside the study casts doubt on this idea. Ioakim Spyridopoulos, MD, and Stefanie Dimmeler, PhD, of the University of Frankfurt, Germany, agree with Brouilette and colleagues that biological aging could contribute to heart disease risk. But they note that different people start out life with different-length telomeres. An individual's telomere length, they suggest, says nothing about how fast that person is aging.
Looking at telomere length in a large number of people may provide insight into the relationship between biological aging and disease. But they flatly reject the idea that telomere length could predict an individual's risk of heart disease.

Mass Media Makes Jihad Against America and Its Judeo-Christian Heritage

The following is an article that appeared on MovieGuide.org last Summer. In light of all the recent liberal "news" coverage, I thought it appropriate to re-run the article. It's time to take action -- redeem or defeat!

MediaGuide / Dr. Ted Baehr

What happens when the newspapers and the mass media become so anti-American that they take the side of Osama Bin Laden and his chauffer and trash the Founding Fathers?
Well, that's exactly what's been happening lately. The New York Times imperiously contends it has the right to leak information that will undermine America's efforts to stop terrorism. Imagine if they had asserted this right in the great war against Adolf Hitler and his godless minions?
The New York Times, and many other media outlets, have also spent a lot of time and paper recently moaning about the alleged rights of unlawful combatants and other terrorists. Then, the Los Angeles Times spent its entire op ed page on July Fourth on mean-spirited editorials calling the Founding Fathers a bigoted “bunch of sexist, slave-owning 18th century white men in wigs and breeches” and accusing anyone who flies the American flag in their front yard a buffoon acting like “incredibly stupid explorer.”
This was only a few short weeks after their media critic also attacked the Christian beliefs of the Founding Fathers and called the terrorist detention center on Guantanamo Bay an "American gulag." (Of course, this detention center only houses and feeds about 500 or so unlawful combatants or accused terrorists and war criminals while the Soviet Union's Communist, leftist gulag or prison system murdered, enslaved and/or starved hundreds of thousands of regular citizens, if not millions! And, contrary to popular belief, most of America's Founding Fathers were not deists but Christian. Many of them also were big supporters of anti-slavery groups.)
Most media-wise families will not be twisted by the media's stream of traitorous reporting, but younger people will. Even those who go to Christian schools and colleges get confused by the misinformation and historical revisionism spewed out of the mouth of the mass media, not to mention all the radical left-wing college professors getting paid gobs of taxpayer money to indoctrinate our children and grandchildren. People living overseas can also be victims of this atrocious media bias, which puts the lives and liberty of all of us at risk.
There are at least two ways to combat these mean-spirited attacks on the USA and its heritage of liberty, justice and the American Way. Firstly, seek good sources of information by consulting such outlets as WorldNetDaily, the Family Research Council, and MovieGuide. Secondly, use your time, money and prayers to support groups like MovieGuide which are working hard to redeem the values of the mass media using years of solid research and expertise. These outlets and groups are protecting you and your family from the mass media's secular progressive, socialist jihad against America and its Judeo-Christian, European heritage and values.
Newspapers like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and the politicians and media executives they support, have decided to side with terrorists, perverts and criminals, including, sometimes, even child abusers. They must be redeemed or defeated.
In the movie BEN-HUR, starring Charlton Heston, the Roman villain is asked, "How do you fight an idea?" He replies, "With another idea." By consulting and supporting positive groups like MovieGuide, we can defeat the bankrupt, immoral, deceitful ideas of the mass media's jihad against America with better, more worthwhile ideas – ideas that celebrate the Good, the True and the Beautiful.

Your In-Car Hotspot: Autonet Mobile

WifiPlanet article by Eric Griffith

There's no lack of hardware to give you a Wi-Fi connection with a 3G-based backhaul, but the latest targets one specific area: the inside of your car. Autonet Mobile this week announced a wireless unit with the eponymous name of Autonet. The $399 product will make its debut at CES 2007 next week in Las Vegas. The difference between this and, say, the JunxionBox, is that Autonet will act as your Internet service provider. You won't need a separate relationship with Verizon Wireless, Sprint, or Cingular for 3G backhaul. Autonet will charge $49 a month for that access. Oh, and this product plugs directly into your car cigarette lighter port for power.
"Our goal was to deliver seamless connectivity to the car," says Sterling Pratz, the president and chief executive of Autonet. "It's a new-age media center for the car."

The Autonet unit will come with the radios inside for the 3G backhaul connection. You won't need to have a separate EV-DO or HSDPA card to plug into the hardware. Using a network layer they call TRU Technology, Autonet will manage the network connections. End users won't necessarily even know what 3G provider is in play, as Autonet hopes to have relationships with all the mobile carriers providing 3G. Whether the hardware will carry multiple radios, to support both EV-DO (used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint) and HSDPA (from Cingular) is under discussion.
Also inside is the Wi-Fi radio for use by multiple end-users (with the exception of the driver, of course) to connect laptops, PDAs, smart phones, gaming handhelds, etc. "TRU technology allows us to have multiple users on the same session," says Pratz. "Each user has individuality, they're own VPN if they want, but they don't have to be an IT manager to set it up."
Autonet will launch this fall with at least one partnership with a major rental car company. Already the unofficial word is out via the New York Times that Autonet hardware will be an option later in 2007 from Avis Rent A Car. Avis will charge users $11 a day to run the unit, with no extra charges for backhaul.
Once the Autonet hardware is ready for consumers, it'll be resold through rental car partners like Avis and through car dealerships. Autonet has already struck a deal with Price Family Dealership Group, a car dealership with several locations in California, as a reseller channel. Autonet will also sell it online.
Pratz claims the unit, which was in trials during 2006, gets coverage on 100% of roads in metropolitan areas of the United States, and 95% coverage on most other U.S. roads. This isn't necessarily full EV-DO speeds at this percentage, as EV-DO radios will dummy down to 1xRTT speeds when out of range of an EV-DO tower.
His comment on the "new age media center" brings up what he considers something very interesting for families. He says 40% of SUVs and stations wagons coming with media centers that support DVDs, but people don't always remember to bring the movie disc. With Autonet, they have found kids especially embracing the on-the-move Internet access for surfing and IMs. He was especially intrigued by kid's using the Internet as a tie-in to the young-adult faux-diary called Cathy's Book which ties the book to an online game.
Considering the portability of the Autonet, what's to prevent people from using it just about anywhere? The only limitation is probably getting electrical power, admits Pratz. "We have some people using it on trains. A lot of shuttle services in California use it. We haven't seen too many home applications... [but] they do exist. What we do find is a lot of executives take it. They like to use it in lieu of Starbucks. They bring their own VPN connection during a customer meeting, then can sit in the parking lot afterward and send a presentation or e-mail. It's their own network on their own terms."
The price of $49 a month for service is also $10 less per month than what most 3G broadband providers are charging per month for access on a single device. Whether the hardware will ship with the car cigarette lighter plug and an AC adapter is also under discussion. "That home model is a new focus for us," says Pratz. "We're starting to look at that more. Right now, the focus is more in the car."

Its a Month of Apple Bugs; for Some!

Source: TechTree

A zero-day vulnerability in Apple Computer's QuickTime media player has been posted, kicking off a project quite strangely titled as the "Month of Apple Bugs" (MoAB).
What has also been posted is an exploit that can be used by hackers to compromise, hijack, or infect computers running Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X.
The QuickTime vulnerability lies in the way the media player software handles Real Time Streaming Protocol or RTSP. An attacker can create a special RTSP string in a rigged QuickTime file that would cause a buffer overflow. The vulnerability affects QuickTime 7.1.3 on both Mac OS X and Windows systems. Previous versions of QuickTime could also be vulnerable.
A sequel to the 'Month of Kernel Bugs' project, MoAB is hosted by a hacker who goes under the initials, LMH, and a researcher, Kevin Finisterre, who has posted several such Mac vulnerabilities on his Web site.
MoAB takes upon itself the task of announcing a new security vulnerability in Apple's OS or other Mac OS X software each day of this month. Of the QuickTime vulnerability, LMH says, "The risk is having your system compromised by a remote attacker, who can perform any operation under privileges of your user account. It can be triggered via JavaScript, Flash, common links, QTL files, and any other method that starts QuickTime."
Both LMH and Finisterre write about the vulnerability on the MoAB Web site, saying that exploitation of this bug is trivial, and that the associated exploit code has been tested on Mac OS X running on Intel-based systems, and works against QuickTime 7.1.3, the current version of the player. However, Danish security major, Secunia, has given the bug a 'highly critical' rating. Apple, on its part, continues to remain non-committal. In an email, a spokesperson for Apple has said the company takes security very seriously, and that it welcomes feedback on how to improve security on the Mac.
In any case, till such a time this potential bug is patched, users are advised to cripple QuickTime's ability to process rtsp:// links. As regards users of Microsoft Windows, they are advised to launch QuickTime, select Edit|Preferences|QuickTime Preferences, click the File Types tab, expand Streaming, and clear the box marked "RTSP stream descriptor". Users of Mac OS X are advised to select System Preferences|QuickTime|Advanced|MIME Settings|Streaming|Streaming Movies, and clear the "RTSP stream descriptor" box.

Technology History: Netscape

Hoping to reverse a market slide, Netscape announced (in January, 1998) that its web browser would thereafter be free. They also announced that the development of the browser would move to an open-source process.
Later in 1998, AOL purchased Netscape with a $4.5 billion stock transaction. The longer than expected merger process slowed new browser releases -- and Netscape never recaptured its momentum. The good news is that the Mozilla Firefox browser was born out of the open source Netscape project.