Tag archive: GSM

Speaking at the Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin, noted mobile security expert Karsten Nohl claims that all GSM mobile phones—that means about 80 percent of all mobile phones on the planet—are potentially vulnerable to attacks that can let others eavesdrop on conversations, as well as send texts and place calls from other people's phones—potentially ringing up exorbitant changes to premium phone and text… Read More

Financial institutions are falling over themselves to introduce mobile payment services, but so far the results have been a bit underwhelming in most of the world. The industry seems to be waiting for near-field communication (NFC) solutions to become reality outside Japan, fulfilling a science fiction-ish notion that mobile phone users will just wave their phones near secured payment points to authorize transactions. Although Google Wallet… Read More

UPDATE: A Sprint representative tells Ars Technica that it will not offer the iPhone 4S with an unlocked micro-SIM card slot, despite earlier reports that it would. Instead, customers must use Sprint's international GSM roaming service. The Sprint spokesperson also said that Verizon's device likely works the same way. There is no evidence that AT&T will offer its version unlocked either. In other words, if you buy the iPhone 4S… Read More

Recently shown off at a recent competition for security professionals, a new design on the classic bulletproof vest created by Laipac Technology includes GPS technology as well as a variety of body sensors built within the vest. Ideal for military soldiers, tactical law enforcement and VIP clients, the GPS integration allows for a separate team to track the location of the vest as well as the speed of travel and the general direction. In… Read More

If you've seen or heard an ad about a cell phone or wireless plan lately, you may have noticed that a lot of new buzzwords are being thrown around. Words like 4G, LTE, and WiMax seem to have replaced the last set of words we barely understood: 3G, GSM, and CDMA. But what does it all mean? Is it all a bunch of marketing nonsense or are these words you should know and understand? We've got the scoop in our official mobile broadband… Read More

Built by Mike Tassey and Richard Perkins, the Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform (otherwise known as the WASP) is a flying drone that has a 6-foot wingspan, a 6-foot length and weighs in at 14 pounds. The small form factor of the unmanned aerial vehicle allows it to drop under radar and is often mistaken for a large bird. It was built from an Army target drone and converted to run on electric batteries rather than gasoline. It can also be… Read More

Apple has a new iPhone product listing in its online store, but it's not the long-awaited handset upgraded you've been looking for. The iPhone 4 can now officially be purchased unlocked, meaning that it isn't tied to a specific wireless carrier, TUAW has learned. You'll be paying $649 for a 16 GB model and $749 for a 32 GB model. So, not cheap. Don't break out the champagne bottles and start planning a party just… Read More

Apple failed to make any mention of announcing a new i-handheld device at WWDC, but new rumors we've reported on suggest the wait may not be quite as long as we thought. We most recently heard Apple planned to launch the iPhone 4S in September, giving the iPhone 5 a 2012 release date. But according to Apple Insider, reports are making the rounds that Apple will introduce the iPhone 4S in late July or August. As expected, the device is… Read More

To the delight of Droid X fans everywhere, the Droid X2 will land in stores this week. Now, we don’t expect news of a Droid 3 leak to overshadow the Droid X2′s launch in the slightest, but it’s still worth noting for Android loyalists who can’t get enough of the brand and their mega-sized screens. “Leaked” photos of the Droid 3 allegedly surfaced over on Howard Forums a week ago, revealing a slideout QWERTY keyboard with the minor… Read More

Verizon CEO Fran Shammo told Reuters today that the carrier’s unlimited data plans are no more. Verizon will introduce its new pricing strategy this summer, which will now be based on tiered packages – bad news for data hogs. Shammo says the network will beging to offer family plans for its data coverage. “We had individual minutes for individual users. Then we eventually got to what we call family share where everyone in the family shares the… Read More

Apple is reportedly testing a model of its popular iPhone for the T-Mobile network, according to Boy Genius Report. The rumor is backed up by pictures of a device with, sure enough, a little “T-Mobile” on the indicator bar on the top of the phone, which these days only reads “AT&T” or, now, “Verizon,” in the United States. According to BRG, the model number on what appears to be  a white iPhone (but not… Read More

Under certain conditions, Verizon's iPhone 4 is significantly slower than AT&T's, according to a new study released this week by mobile analysis firm Metrico. Metrico looked at several iPhone handsets running in five U.S. cities on both of the wireless providers' networks. The study confirmed what some had already suspected: on overage, the Verizon iPhone downloads data at about half the speed of AT&T's iPhone.… Read More

Teardowns of the soon-to-be-released Verizon iPhone 4 shows promising signs that  a “world phone” iPhone could soon be on the way. The giveaway is Apple's use of a Qualcomm chip that is both GSM- and CMDA-compatible. Inside, it's been discovered that the Verizon iPhone is, surprisingly, powered by a Qualcomm MDM6600 chip. The reason this is significant is, this particular chip is dualmode GSM and CDMA compatible. This… Read More

Verizon is getting the iPhone on Feb. 10 and AT&T is nervous as hell. In a desperate attempt to make itself look good, the wireless carrier is shooting out e-mails to its existing customers, reminding them of the one known advantage AT&T has over Verizon: talking while using data. The ad (seen above) shows a woman talking on the phone while searching for movie tickets on Fandango, reports Gear Live. The woman is using Bluetooth, since… Read More

Sony unveiled its NGP (Next Generation Portable) yesterday, but left many questions unanswered. While the device appears to be a solid successor to the PSP, we don't yet know how many original games it will have, what it will cost, how it will use 3G, or what kind of battery life the dual quad-core device will get. Historically, small questions like these have meant the difference between a successful handheld game player and a failure.… Read More