Google Earth: a terrorist attack's planner

Google is discussing with military agencies in Iraq after learning that terrorists attacking British bases in Basra appear to have been using aerial footage from Google Earth to pinpoint strikes.

The military agencies decided to discuss this issue with Google after seizing documents, which were obtained in raids on insurgents' homes, that were printouts from photos taken from Google Earth. These photos show the location of buildings, tents, latrines and lightly armored vehicles.

This seems to be the way terrorists are planning terrorist attacks in this technology-era, by identifying the location of the most vulnerable areas using satellite pictures on Google Earth.

Source: CNET News

Joost: HDTV over IP

The founders of Skype have recently announced that they will launch a new Internet-based television service, which will be named Joost, that consists on the very first high-definition television content transmission service over the Internet.

This project will host not only content from the big media companies, as well as independent content from media users (kind like YouTube but with piracy-awareness control), and it will be totally free since it will work under a business model based on advertising.

However, the service will only be up and running for everybody on the summer of 2007. You could apply for beta testing, though.

Source: Reuters Tech News

How you're gonna pay for that: cash or credit card? Neither, with my cell phone!

I've been dreaming about something like this for a long time now: using the cell phone like a wallet, using its communication features to act as a payment system. This could simplify a lot of the daily shopping :-)

Now, we're getting close to that. Visa, the company with largest payment system in the planet, and Nokia, one of the world's largest cell phone manufacturer, joined forces to launch a global system to turn mobile phones into wallets. Users can pay for groceries and other purchases by swiping a phone over a reader that electronically communicates with a microchip on the phone. But phone owners must confirm the purchase with the push of a button (for security reasons in case your phone gets stollen) and complete the deal.

The wireless standard that will link mobile phones with payment systems in stores and elsewhere will be the Near Field Communication (NFC) chip, which will be hidden under the phone cover and makes contact when swiped over a reader.

Source: Reuters Tech News

Apple's iPhone is here!

What a great way to start the new year. Finally, Steve Jobs has presented the most awaited device: the iPhone.

Even though a lot of people have tried to guess what the iPhone would look like, nothing came close to what was really unveiled.

It's quite a piece of work, not that innovative from the individual features point of view, but quite impressive when everything is put together: a mobile phone, an iPod and a wireless internet device.

You can find interesting features such as:

• widescreen iPod with touch screen controls for music and video
  
• web browsing and mail
• integrated google maps (no GPS support though)
  
• all kinds of widgets (weather, stocks, etc...)
• multi-touch screen (very handy for zooming maps and photos)
• advanced sensors (to detect when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape, or an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light)
  

Mobile phone manufacturers should look out for the iPhone. It looks quite impressive.
However, Apple should also prepare for other issues, like fighting for the 'iPhone' trademark.

Now, all we have to do is wait for the release of the iPhone and see what users will say about it.

Internet Explorer 7 for Google

That's right! Here's a new version of Internet Explorer specifically customized for Google. What does this mean?

• Personalized Google homepage
• Integrated Google Ioolbar
• Google as default search engine

Homepage: IE7 for Google

There's a new "memory" in town!

Say goodbye to the "old" flash memory. Apparently, IBM, Macronix, and Qimond are working on a new "species" of memory, called the "phase-change" memory, which appears to be 500 times faster and uses half the power to boot than the flash memory.

But, what is exactly the "phase-change" memory? Does anybody know?

Source: Engadget

"Evil Twin" Wireless Routers: the new hacking approach

Hackers started using a new technique to get hold of private information from public wireless routers' users. It's called the "evil twin" approach and the technique is based on the following principles:

• The hackers go to an area where there's a public wireless access point
• In this area they deploy a new wireless access point with the exact same name and properties as the public wireless access point
• This way the users are mislead in using the "evil twin" access point instead of the real one and all transfered data can be monitored by the hackers
  
• In doing so, the users share private information, such as passwords, links and emails without even knowing

This kind of activities have already been detected in a first-class private lounge of an airline company in a USA airport and in a specialized workshop for luxury cars, which had a room where their costumers could use public Wi-Fi access while waiting for their cars to be ready.

Source: Módulo Security News (Brazilian Portuguese)

Don't turn off your phone! Somebody might be listening...

Apparently, the FBI has discovered a new way to "eavesdrop" on criminal's cellphones. Using a specific software (which can be installed remotely or by getting hold of the phone), the FBI can listen to conversations nearby the phone, once this is disconnected.

The software misleads the criminals in thinking that they have just turned off the phone, when in fact the phone is actually "calling" to the FBI.

So, "bad guys", a piece of advise: take off your batteries. That's the only safe option :-)

Source: New Scientist Blog

More rumours on the iPhone

New rumors from a "solid" source regarding the iPhone:
- Going to be coming out in January
- Really small
- The OS is supposed to be "cool"
- Doing some unique things
- Two batteries, one charger. One for MP3 portion and one for Phone.
- 4GB ($249) and 8GB ($449)
- Flash memory, Slide out keyboard
- Maybe touch screen?

Promising...

Source: MacRumors

Yet another study saying "no link between cell-phones and cancer"

A huge study from Denmark offers the latest reassurance that cell phones don't trigger cancer. Scientists tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including 52,000 who had gabbed on the gadgets for 10 years or more, and some who started using them 21 years ago.

They matched phone records to the famed Danish Cancer Registry that records every citizen who gets the disease -- and reported Tuesday that cell-phone callers are no more likely than anyone else to suffer a range of cancer types.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the largest yet to find no bad news about the safety of cell phones and the radio frequency energy they emit.

But will the debate end?

From: SiliconValley.com