Filed under: Cellphones

Hey, hackers! Now that we’ve got the attention of millions upon millions of incredibly talented individuals, here’s your next challenge. India’s Airtel — which is offering Apple’s iPhone 3G at a near-stratospheric price — has claimed that “even the most deadly hackers on the planet won’t be able to crack the codes that support the iPhone’s Airtel applications with rival company SIMs.” Just so you know, it appears that Airtel worked with Apple to develop “operator-specific iPhone applications,” which is an interesting tidbit in and of itself. But let’s focus on the task at hand here, and that’s proving that making ridiculous claims about impenetrability always comes back to bite ya.

[Image courtesy of Zedomax, thanks Akshay]

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/nintendo/The_Wii_finally_gets_DVD_playback_no_thanks_to_Nintendo’;
Carrying on the rich hacker tradition of picking up the slack for companies that are unwilling or unable to provide the functionality users need, a team of Wii coders have given the console what Nintendo could not: DVD playback. By installing a small, hidden channel on a system, this package blesses the console with a libdi file (DVD access library), and allows you to watch your favorite videos with the MPlayer application, an open source media player. The install file will run on modded and unmodded systems, and the software is also capable of playing media from SD cards (though it’s experimental right now). Finally Wii owners can join the ranks of, well… pretty much everyone else.

[Via TehSkeen; Thanks, brakken]

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Filed under: Networking

Considering that mechanical beings will be fighting our real wars here in just a few years, it’s no shock to see more focus placed on the areas where actual humans will still be the ones waging. DARPA is looking to create what it calls a National Cyber Range, which would essentially act as a training ground for cyber warriors. The setup would enable defense gurus to simulate battle against attacks our on nation’s most highly prized data, and of course, give victors over virtual phishing scams immense bragging rights. Come to think of it, Estonia could have totally benefited from something like this last year.

[Via Information Week, image courtesy of Sandia]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We know, hackers tend to get a pretty bad rap these days, but with some of ‘em out there creating ginormous gridlocks in Los Angeles and shutting down networks in enemy territories, we sort of understand the sentiment. Most recently, it seems that hackers are being blamed for “penetrating power systems (sound familiar?) in several regions outside the US, and in at least one case, causing a power outage affecting multiple cities.” That’s according to Tom Donahue, a CIA official, who failed to dole out critical details such as where or when the attacks occurred nor how many folks were actually left in the dark. ‘Course, Bruce Schneier, CTO of security firm BT Counterpane, warns that these attacks could in fact be aided by individuals with administrative access to said systems, implying that “human vulnerability” could share at least some of the blame. Don’t worry guys, we’re faxing CTU right now, they’ll be right on it within 72 business hours.

[Image courtesy of WPS]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In yet another “innocent prank” that turned out to have very real-world effects, a 14-year-old Polish boy has admitted to modifying a TV remote in order to manipulate the junction-switching devices on the Lodz tram system, resulting in four derailed trains and 12 injuries. According to reports, the teenager snuck onto tracks to study the switching mechanisms, and used the resulting knowledge to re-direct trains “like any other schoolboy might a giant train set,” as a police spokesman put it. The young man now faces charges in juvenile court for endangering public safety.

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Filed under: Features

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

The better part of a trade show keynote and six months of anticipation preceded the iPhone’s launch, but a casual post on Apple’s Web site signaled its relaunch as a platform supported by third-party native applications. Apple’s attempt to protect the security of a wireless network by encouraging Web 2.0-based applications taking advantage of Ajax technologies could not realistically mimic the capabilities provided by native applications, at least without some way to provide offline functionality using developing technologies such as Google Gears. Furthermore, there were a host of utilities that have evolved on other smartphones (such as system-wide search or alternative input methods) that were beyond the scope of such an approach.

So, come February, Apple will return to its PC heritage and extend its party to third parties. Developers get their iPhone. Users get their applications. And normally reticent bloggers emerge from their keyboards and podcasting microphones like woodland creatures after a storm, just a little more likely to share their timid opinions with the world. Unfortunately, the rationale of all iPhone hackers cannot be swept away as easily as a fingertip switches among open Web sites in the iPhone’s Safari browser.

Continue reading Switched On: iPhone SDK won’t chase hackers away

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