Verizon Sets Monthly Text Message Record

Incredible!

Verizon Wireless has announced that its customers sent and received more than 10 billion text messages (or SMS messages) last month, a new company record and the highest reported total of any mobile carrier in the United States. In June Verizon Wireless customers also sent and received more than 200 million multimedia messages (MMS), which include picture and video messages.

Both figures represent an increase of more than 100 percent from September in 2006, when Verizon set a company record of five billion monthly text messages!

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Plants tell sensor when they need a drink

University of Colorado researchers have developed a prototype that monitors when crops need to be watered. The current prototype still uses wires but will eventually be outfitted to rely on RFID.

This technology allows not only the data, but also the power to be transmitted wirelessly, eliminating the need for batteries.

The sensor would be clipped permanently to a leaf during the growing season to monitor moisture content and chemical signatures that can indicate when the plant is undergoing water stress.

The chemical signs, such as an increase in salt and sugar content in the cells, occur much earlier than physical signs, such as drooping leaves, that many farmers rely on now.

Because it can only transmit a signal about half a metre away, the RFID tag can do one of two things with the data: it can transmit it to RFID tags nearby, which would then push the signal along to other tags in the network until the data reaches home base.

Alternatively, it can deliver the signal to a nearby base station, which would have enough power (using a battery or solar panel) to transmit the data directly to the farmer's computer.

Software on the computer would then analyse the data and could alert the farmer by email or text message. Or the computer could be set up to go one step further and automatically turn on the irrigation system.

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iPhone, iPhone, iPhone

I think I'm just going to do one iPhone post a day, if not I think I would have to rename this blog.

• iPhone hacked allowing for tethering
• 3rd Party Battery for iPhone half the price of Apple
• AppleCare for iPhone now available
• iPhone toolkit available with "Apache, python, shell -- and a pile of associated binaries like ls, rm, echo, csh, and tsh" already developed

I would link directly to the source wiki, but it says no. So, google search away

Troubleshooting Windows Mobile Phones

So I have a Cingular branded HTC phone and I've loved it as a PDA. However, recently I've noticed that it seems to run much slower than when I first bought it. Apparently this is common and Avec Mobile has a few tips and tricks to check on free memory, running programs etc. The instructions didn't quite match up to my phone but were close anyway.

The following tips are intended for situations when your phone runs considerably slower than before, occasionally freezes, gives frequent low memory error -messages, won’t run applications that ran earlier, or has developed odd behavior in some other way.

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AT&T Loophole Provides a Free Phone

Pay for your iPhone using a loophole when signing up for new service.

Usually when you buy a subsidized handset, there is a penalty when you upgrade early, but as the iPhone is not subsidized, adding one to an existing plan incurs no such fee.

To use an example from PhoneNews.com, if you buy a Nokia N75 from Amazon on a two year contract, it'll cost $20 (minus a $25 mail-in rebate). Go grab an iPhone, activate it and add it to the AT&T plan. That's it.

Link (via Wired Gadget Lab)

iPhone Vulnerable to Web Hacking

Its about time. Security researchers at Baltimore based ISE have announced that the iPhone could be turned into a mobile spammer if the user visits a specially crafted web page. Details will not be released until the Blackhat Conference on August 2nd in Las Vegas.

"You could have a million iPhones dialing the company's main line and overwhelm it that way," Miller said.

In addition, hijacked iPhones could be used to send spam by cell-phone text message, which computers generally can't. Any personal data on the phones, such as private phone numbers and text messages, would be accessible as well.

The flaw applies not only to the iPhone, which was launched just three weeks ago, but also to Apple computers running Mac OS and the company's Safari Web browser, a version of which comes with the iPhone. It does not affect Safari running on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows systems.

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Wireless USB Products Certified

Six consumer products have been certified by the USB Implementers Forum for wireless USB

Certified Wireless USB allows users to connect up to 127 devices and deliver up to 480Mbps at 3 meters, or up to 110Mbps up to 10 meters. The technology is based on the WiMedia Alliance Ultra-wideband Common Radio Platform.

The six certified products include:
* Dell Inspiron 1720 notebook and the Lenovo ThinkPad T61/T61p 15.4-inch widescreen notebook.
* D-Link's Wireless USB Adapter (DUB-1210) and a 4-port Wireless USB Hub (DUB-2240).
* Iogear Wireless USB Hub & Adapter Kit.

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Cisco Wireless ARP Storm Vulnerabilities

DOS possible in latest released details for Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. Workarounds and updates available.

The WLC contains vulnerabilities in the processing of unicast ARP traffic where a unicast ARP request may be flooded on the LAN links between Wireless LAN Controllers in a mobility group...
If the client sends a unicast ARP request with a destination MAC address that has not been learned by the Layer-2 infrastructure, that request will be flooded to all ports in the Layer-2 domain after egressing the WLC. This allows the second WLC to reprocess the ARP request and incorrectly reforward this packet back into the network...
If the arpunicast feature has been enabled on the WLC, the WLC will re-forward broadcast ARP packets targeting the IP address of a known client context. This creates an ARP storm if more than one WLC is installed on the corresponding VLAN...
In a Layer-3 (L3) roaming scenario, a wireless client moves from one controller to another where the wireless LAN interfaces configured on different controllers are on different IP subnets. In this scenario, a unicast ARP may not tunneled back to the anchor controller, but may instead be sent by the foreign controller out to a local VLAN...

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iPhone Ringtone maker

Stop paying ridiculous prices for ringtones for your iPhone when you already have the music file

iPhoneRingToneMaker lets you create your own ringtones for the iPhone from your .mp3 files. It features simple one click ringtone transfer to your iPhone so you can select your own custom ringer. It's out now for Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

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AT&T Profits Rise Despite iPhone Disappointment

With all the hype of the iPhone, activations fell short of the expected 250,000+ depending on analyst. We'll see as all of the eBay activations start to come in and what happens in the ensuing months.

AT&T Inc. on Tuesday posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on strong wireless subscriber growth, but failed to excite investors as the first two days of iPhone sales fell short of forecasts.

AT&T, the sole U.S. service provider for Apple's first phone, said it activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers in the first two days after launch on June 29.

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Pa. Company Promises Wireless Power

I've ruminated about this many times before but never thought it would actually happen (so soon I guess?).

It works like this: a transmitter can be placed anywhere--in a lamp, for example, that is plugged into the wall and sits on a table. The transmitter in the lamp sends out a continuous, low RF signal. Anything with either AA or AAA batteries set within its range--and equipped with a Powercast receiver, which is the size of your fingernail--will be continuously charged.

Powercast must be built into new products instead of being an add on (currently) and so far only Phillips has signed on. I wonder if we'll ever be over saturated with RF signals? The spectrum already is so it would have to attempt to avoid interference from 802.11a,b,g,cordless phones etc. Many of the commenters pose similar concerns, but also mention the reduction of batteries in landfills. Clearly there are many possible benefits.
Link (via BoingBoing)

WiPhi Testing

I'm currently connected to the WiPhi network. I do live near the corner of Spring Garden. Signal strength is 80 - 95%. Only my local wireless connection is higher. I've obtained an address and its in the 10.2 range. Currently I have 10.2.15.101, netmask of 255.255.252.0 and default router of 10.2.12.1. Its set to channel 11. I'm curious as to how they planned the channels out, if they're only using 1,6 and 11 or if they chose to use 1,4,8 and 11 or if they let the actual AP choose its channel based on signal interference. I see also there is another network named FeatherSecure which is not supported by my PSP. Completely unrelated, I've found an access point named Cisco_CallForAccess2679188524. I'll follow up on that later. All in all it seems to work well from where I'm sitting.

RFID Theme

Monochrom, a group of goofy "art-technology-philosophy basket weaving enthusiasts" have created a tune dedicated to hacking RFID in the key of the Village People's YMCA. I prefer the "Bratlfettn" version as it keeps more with the original. The "Rohkost" version sounds like an unplugged folk version.

It's fun to hack the RFID
It's fun to hack the RFID
They want to store everything about you
But there's plenty of things you can do

Ownage, it's the way to resist,
I said ownage, let's call it "digital fist"

Link (via BoingBoing)

Free WiPhi

Wireless Philadelphia is well under way and Earthlink is currently offering a free trial run until January 21st. The map above shows the areas currently covered by Earthlink. To log on to the network "simply click on Feather by Earthlink from your computers list of available networks to get surfing." I'll be trying this out when I get home as I should be blanketed in coverage. After the 21st, the plan is only $17.95 per month. Now if only GMail would go completely SSL.

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