Tony's Cabin

There’ve been rumors floating around for a while that cellphone maker HTC was planning on building a new tablet to rival Apple’s iPad. But Pocket Lint spoke with HTC spokesperson Eric Lin, who says that while the company is looking at the possibility, there are currently no plans to build an HTC tablet.

That doesn’t mean we won’t eventually see a tablet from the company. But as many Liliputing readers may know, dozens of companies in Taiwan and mainland China have been pumping out Google Android powered tablets for months… and Lin says HTC isn’t interested in putting out just another machine that looks like all the rest. Instead HTC will likely watch the space before deciding whether there’s a way to develop something that will stand out from the crowd.

Of course, HTC, Motorola, and other smartphone makers seem to be hell-bent on putting larger and larger displays into phones. So while HTC isn’t planning on launching an iPad-sized tablet this year, you could kind of argue that the company has already pumped out several tablets — which just happen to make phone calls as well. I mean seriously, have you seen the size of the HTC Evo or the HTC Touch HD2?


Posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010, 4:25 pm by Brad Linder
http://www.liliputing.com/2010/07/htc-not-launching-a-tablet-yet.html

Argentinean hackers have stolen the e-mail addresses, IP addresses, usernames and passwords of more than four million Pirate Bay users. Pirate Bay is the most popular BitTorrent site, a place to download pirated apps.

This time, it was Pirate Bay that was pirated. A trio of hackers in the Latin American country have claimed responsibility for the attack and even produced a video demonstrating their successful hacking tactics.

"The community caused problems to huge companies and corporations which turned into threats between this companies and them," wrote hacker Ch Russo. "What we have done, we did not do it with anger, or for commercial value. As always, we saw the change, the moment and decided to take it. The protocol or procedure done to achieve this wasn't anything out of the ordinary."

Pushing Software

Russo is well aware of how valuable that information would be to the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), considering the number of illegal song and movie downloads from Pirate Bay. However, Russo doesn't appear to have any plans to turn over the information to these industry associations.

"Probably these groups would be very interested in this information, but we are not [trying] to sell it. Instead we wanted to tell people that their information may not be so well protected," wrote Russo. Russo does seem to have a money motive, though. He's marketing his security-exploit software program called Impassioned Framework.

Pirate Bay moved quickly to take down the hacker video, which showed how malicious actors discovered and exploited several SQL injection vulnerabilities on the site. Pirate Bay was the victim of a similar attack in 2007, despite efforts to shore up security.

The Pirate Bay temporarily went offline for maintenance, offering the following message: "Upgrading some stuff, database in use for backups, soon back again. Btw, it's nice weather outside I think."

Is the MPAA Watching?

What happens with the four million e-mail addresses could make people feel uncomfortable about using the service, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. Then again, he said, with the MPAA's aggressive pursuit of Pirate Bay, he's not sure anyone should feel too secure about using the service anyway.

"The fact that this hacker could get these e-mail addresses would suggest that other people could do it as well and may have already done it and aren't telling anybody," Enderle said.

"This hacker is being vocal; another organization with a vested interest in penetrating the security of Pirate Bay may have already done so," he said. "Just because the MPAA is not talking about it doesn't mean they aren't monitoring the use of the site. It's not in their best interest to go around bragging that they penetrated the site."


By Jennifer LeClaire
July 8, 2010 01:52PM
http://www.newsfactor.com/mobile/?sid=74239&do=story

Opera surprised the mobile world when it overhauled its Opera Mini browser for Java phones last September. The tremendous improvement brought the browser a more attractive interface and sophisticated features, like tabbed browsing.

On Thursday, the browser company released an update to Opera Mini for select Nokia phones.

Opera Mini 5.1 tweaks the browser skin to allow more Web pages to be open simultaneously. Back-end updates have addressed scrolling speed in particular and processing speed overall.

In a press release, Opera "highly" recommends the update for handsets with limited memory or smaller screen sizes. The update targets performance issues, like out-of-memory errors or open Web pages that require reloading to view.

As for the models being called out, Opera specifically names the following handsets as ideal candidates for the update:

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic
Nokia 6300
Nokia 2700
Sony Ericsson K550i
Sony Ericsson W810i

by Jessica Dolcourt
July 8, 2010 3:18 PM PDT
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20010003-12.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Rapidly falling chipset prices are making WiMax well suited for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, but expensive Long Term Evolution (LTE) modules may be the only safe bet for the long haul, says Heavy Reading Mobile research analyst Tim Kridel.

According to the latest Heavy Reading Mobile Networks Insider report, "M2M on the Rise: The Technology Perspective," WiMax is becoming a popular, albeit challenged, technology for advanced M2M communications. (See M2M: Where WiMax Meets Lindsay Lohan.)

Most M2M apps today run on 2G or 2.5G networks and may never have a need for 3G, let alone 4G speeds, but carriers are pushing the technology anyway. Kridel says it’s a matter of future-proofing. If carriers shut down their 2G networks, as they have in the past with analog and cellular digital packet data (CDPD) networks, any 2G app is left stranded. (See Does 4G Have a Role in M2M?)

“AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)’s message is we are moving to 4G, and if you want an application in the field for several years you need to think about 3G and maybe even 4G,” Kridel says.

For anyone making that move today, the only option is WiMax. ABI Research forecasts there will be more than 40,000 WiMax-based M2M cellular modules shipped in 2010, and Kridel says he was shocked to find out how quickly prices are falling.

Singlemode WiMax chipsets ran about $20 in volume as of the end of 2009 or $35 to $40 for the entire module; and some chipset vendors expect prices to drop to $12 to $14 by the end of 2010. That’s cheaper than 3G modules and significantly less than LTE. LTE modules with 3G fallback cost around $120 to $190.

Granted, as a brand new technology, LTE chips haven’t begun to ride down the cost curve, but Kridel expects they’ll still carry a hefty premium for the next year or two.

That being said, he doesn’t believe that WiMax’s advantage is sustainable.

M2M apps have to be built with the long-haul in mind. Unlike in cellphones, most modules stay in place for 10 years or more. In addition to coverage gaps, WiMax faces the same obsolescence issue that some 1X networks do. If carriers migrate from WiMax to LTE, an idea even Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) has entertained, enterprises that don’t own and operate their own WiMax networks would be left without one. (See Clearwire Coverage Tops 50 Million People.)

“If it’s only going to be in the market a few years, then WiMax is a safe bet, but 5 to 10 to 15 years, there’s a lot of ‘what ifs,’ ” Kridel says. “LTE is not going anywhere. There’s too much money, carrier reputation, and vendor commitments behind it.”

T-Mobile USA is among the companies likely moving to LTE, but right now its upgraded 3G network High-Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) is more than adequate for its customers, says its national director of M2M, John Horn. The carrier has deployed HSPA+ in 25 markets, and Horn says two companies are already testing modules on it for telematics solutions and “are loving what they’re seeing,” but he doesn’t know when actual deployments will happen.

HSPA+ modules will be in the $80 range when they come out (HSPA modules cost $85), according to Horn, but they won’t make sense for apps that don’t need to transmit loads of data. Over time, as prices drop, it will be a different story, he says.

“Two years ago, [2G modules] were $80 and now they’re under $20,” Horn says. “The same will happen with HSPA+ models.”

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile



July 9, 2010 | Sarah Reedy

Garmin is starting to feel the heat from smartphones with built in navigation, so they’d like you to know (at least if you live in Europe) that some phone plans will make using your phone expensive. Isn’t that thoughtful of them?

Garmin's “study” showed that even a short trip could be expensive. Their example was from Calais to Paris, and Garmin suggested that trip could cost a phone user as much as $112 in data charges. Of course, it’ll depend on your phone, your plan, and Garmin is of course spinning it in their direction, but it is something to be aware of if you don’t have an unlimited data plan. I think they definitely see the change in the wind that PDA companies missed back in the day – their own extinction.

by Dave Freeman on July 8, 2010