Blackberry Backdoor Exploit at DefCon

From Wired News: Blackberry a Juicy Hacker Target By Kim Zetter

"LAS VEGAS -- A computer security researcher says he's found an unexpected new path into company networks: the Blackberry.

Jesse D'Aguanno, a consultant with Praetorian Global, has developed a hacking program that exploits the trust relationship between a Blackberry and a company’s internal server to hijack a connection to the network. Because the data tunnel between the Blackberry and the server is encrypted, intrusion detection systems at the perimeter of the network won't detect the attack.

The technique is successful, D'Aguanno says, because most companies aren't equipped to detect someone trying to deliver an exploit from inside the network. It also works because few companies view the Blackberry as a plausible attack vector.

"Because it's a handheld device, most people don't think it's something that can actually harm the rest of your internal network," D'Aguanno said. "But a Blackberry is not your average handheld. It's not just a PDA that's connected (to your network) only when you're in the office. It's a code-running machine that's always on and always connected to your internal network and has direct access to whatever you give it access to. And most company architectures allow it unfettered access to everything on the internal network.""

Read the full article here.

New Treos Leaked...Again

Over the past few months a few very blurry pictures of various new Palm smartphones drifted through the Internet like flotsam. However, during the last week or so, something very interesting turned up! Yes, that's right, CLEAR pictures where the photographer wasn't moving, and likely, also in deep, deep trouble somewhere.

Oh well, more pics for us. (=

No one knows what it'll be officially called yet (Treo 750p? Treo Nitro? Treo Super-dee-duper?), but we do know it's GSM (Rogers/Fido in Canada), runs Palm OS 5.49016, has its card slots on the side, and everything else is being debated right now (i.e. RAM, SD or mini-SD, etc.).


Other pics have turned up of the new Windows Mobile-powered Treo, codenamed the Lennon, Hollywood, Lemon, or whatever people can come up with. Check it out. Looks pretty good with that Vodafone scheme though!

Sources:
Palm Infocenter
Treonauts
msmobiles.com

A Perfect Battery? Maybe Soon...

From ScienCentral.com: Super Battery

"As our portable devices get more high-tech, the batteries that power them can seem to lag behind. But Joel Schindall and his team at M.I.T. plan to make long charge times and expensive replacements a thing of the past--by improving on technology from the past.

Rechargable and disposable batteries use a chemical reaction to produce energy. "That's an effective way to store a large amount of energy," he says, "but the problem is that after many charges and discharges ... the battery loses capacity to the point where the user has to discard it."

But capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles created by two metal electrodes. Capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries. The problem is that storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the battery's electrodes, so even today's most powerful capacitors hold 25 times less energy than similarly sized standard chemical batteries."

Read the full article here.

Full Contest Prize List

Some of you may have been wondering what all the prizes were for the contest. Well here it is.

1st place (grand prize) will receive: EzRemote, Resco Sudoku, Resco Backup, Resco Explorer, Resco Viewer, Mobile Jigsaw, DragonEdit, Target Assistant, Zlink, choice of a Viex game, choice of a Deluxeware game (excluding Hedgehog and Toucan Tango), Binary Clock, NoviiRemote Deluxe, Boxwave VersaCharger Pro and miniSync, and a Brando Ultra Clear Screen Protector.

2nd place will receive: Resco Viewer, Card Reader, DragonEdit, Target Assistant, Zlink, choice of a Viex game, Astraware Sudoku, NoviiRemote Deluxe, and a Boxwave FlexiSkin in the colour of your choice.

3rd place will receive: Resco Explorer, Meteor Breakout, Target Assistant, Zlink, choice of a Viex game, Astraware Sudoku, and a Boxwave ClearTouch Screen Protector.

4th place will receive: Resco Backup, Jackpot Casino, choice of a Viex game, and Astraware Sudoku.

5th place will receive: Resco Sudoku and a choice of a Viex game.

Also, the following will be given out to first person drawn with a compatable device: USB Modem, LudusP, LudusW, SharkCache, and Initiate.


The winners will be drawn randomly on August 17, 2006 (Canuck PDA's 1-year anniversary). To enter, simply send an email to contest@canuck-pda.ca and say which Palm you currently own, and why you love the PalmOS.

Send in your entry today!



A special thanks to all the companys and developers who helped celebrate our 1-year anniversary with a donation. You guys are amazing!

Volume production of Treo 700p delayed

From Palm247:

Digitimes reports that Inventec, Palm's new Original Device Manufacturer, are running into production difficulties with the Treo 700p, mostly related to software intergration. They blame it on lack of focus by Inventec, as they appear to have split their resources between Windows Mobile, PalmOS and Linux. HTC, Palm's ODM for the Treo 700w and the upcoming Lennon, does not appear to suffer from this problem.

Whether this delay has caused any supply-side problems is not clear, as shortages at stores have not been widely reported. There are rumours however that demand for the Treo 700p is relatively low, and that on Verizon the Treo 700w still outsells the 700p.

Canuck PDA announces its 1 Year Anniversary Contest

In honour of Canuck PDA's 1 year anniversary (August 17th), we will be hosting our very first contest. All you need to do to enter is send an email to contest@canuck-pda.ca with what device you have, and why you love the PalmOS. 1 grand prize winner and 4 runner-ups will be chosen at random on August 17th.

The grand prize winner will receive, among many other things, EzRemote, Resco Explorer, Binary Clock, NoviiRemote Deluxe, Zlink, and a Brando Ultra Clear Screen Protector.

And the runner-ups will receive (depending on the order chosen) software such as Astraware Sudoku and their choice of a Viex game.

Send in your entry now!

Palm’s 10-K Filing

There was a huge surge of Palm news on Friday when Palm’s 10-K filing was made available. Some very good articles about this subject I found:

Six misconceptions about Palm's new annual report at David Beers on Mobile Computing Blog

"The annual report is actually one of the strongest statements of Palm's continued commitment to the Palm OS that we've had all year. It makes very clear that Palm wants to create products on a "next-generation version of the Palm OS" (even if they have to substantially make it themselves) and that there will be new products released on the existing version of Palm OS until that happens."

- and -

Palm, PalmSource, and Palm OS Linux at 1src.com

"Palm is currently “in negotiations with PalmSource to expand our development and distribution rights to the current version of the Palm OS.” I want to be clear about this: Palm is still going to release new products, and some of those new products will continue to use Palm OS 5/Garnet."