Airborne Combat Engineer

iPhone hack vulnerability found

Hackers could take control of an iPhone if its owner visits a doctored Web site or Internet hotspot, security researchers reported Monday.

Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox said Apple is looking into ISE's report, but would not say if there are plans for a patch. "We always welcome feedback on our security," Fox said.

TIME

Apple should be issuing a patch soon.

It's wise to wait for the second or third version of revolutionary devices, letting the early adopters pay the high price and uncover the problems and limitations of the first version.

ACE's next cell phone will have 3G, to allow watching live TV (something the iPhone doesn't have).

iPhone could have had theft detection

Some are predicting a rash of iPhone thefts today as the highly-hyped $600 iPhone goes on sale. We'll see if that transpires.

It appears Apple has anticipated such things, but has not incorporated the patented technology into the first version.

A recently discovered patent filed by Apple in 2004, seems to point to a new feature that could help protect your portable electronics from getting stolen.

By utilizing the accelerometers built into devices such as the iPhone or MacBook, this new feature can look for certain movements that are characteristic of theft. In the event of your iPhone or MacBook being stolen, it could either turn on an alarm, lock itself up or even a combination of the two.

Gizmodo

LANdroid WiFi robots

LANdroid WiFi robots are the latest items from DARPA's technology wish-list. DARPA is soliciting proposals for intelligent autonomous radio relay nodes that are able to establish mesh networks in urban settings. Ideally, a LANdroid unit would consist of a robotic platform - small, inexpensive, smart, and mobile (as shown in the photoshop artist's conception above). Warfighters would carry lots of them (they should be roughly palm-size) and then drop them as they go.

Together, the units would form a self-healing mesh network - multi-path, multi-hop and multiply connected. If a particular unit is taken out by the enemy (or possibly grabbed by some kid as a cool toy!), the network will route around the lost transmitter.

Technovelgy

read about multi-hop RFID tags in the continuation

Sprint mobile broadband coverage in SE

Sprint claims to reach 204 million Americans in 220 SMSAs and 930 airports at this time (with over 100 million already on Rev. A). But, as this map illustrates, there are major gaps between cities. ACE is SOL around his lake place in Hartwell, GA (where the house symbol is).

Enter your zip code here to see if you're covered at home.

The question is: How fast will the gaps be filled? Sprint claims it is rapidly increasing coverage.

Sniffing out cell phones

The military knows a fair amount about jamming cell phones.  Detecting 'em is harder, oddly enough.  So the Army is on the lookout for a short-range cell-spotter for their secret facilities.

The ideal system would be able to detect the presence of transceivers within a five-meter range regardless of their operating mode, i.e. whether the device is powered down, powered on but idle, actively receiving, or actively transmitting.

Noah Schachtman @ Wired

Better phone network for troops

M. C. Dean Inc. in Dulles, VA received an $18.9 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for a second generation satellite-based internet-broadband service and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network in support of deployed military personnel. Locations for this contract will include Iraq and the Balkans.

[DID]

Why not the 'Stan also.

Prez Net

The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) has developed a six-year plan budgeted at $35 million to beef up presidential communications with a new top-secret network and multimedia Crisis Management System (CMS) designed to operate in a wide range of fixed locations, on Air Force One and on a new fleet of presidential helicopters.

[BB, FCW, 06FEB07] [h/t Defense Tech]