Hasta La Gadget!

“Dominator I” sounds more like a monster truck than a collection of small boxes that collectively erase 20 years of relatively secure wireless phone service, doesn’t it? Alas, what you’re looking at here is a convenient, plug-and-play solution for exploiting the hard work the world’s hacking community has put into cracking the A5/1 encryption used on GSM networks in Europe and the US over the past few years. The system consists of two nondescript white boxes, two directional antennas that you’ll point in the direction of your victim, and a laptop that you can use to get a glimpse at all of the phones currently connected to your nearest cell site and record up to four active calls simultaneously — and if you’re more of the text messaging type, Dominator I’s got you covered there, too, with full access to SMS. The company claims that the system was “declassified only last week” and is completely undetectable both by the operator and the end user, putting it in this rare nexus of “awesome” and “completely terrifying.” It can’t do the 128-bit A5/3 used in UMTS, but now that it’s been cracked in a somewhat practical way, we’re sure the Dominator II can’t be far behind. Follow the break for Meganet’s video of the system in action.

Continue reading Meganet’s Dominator I snoops on four GSM convos at once, fits in your overnight bag

Meganet’s Dominator I snoops on four GSM convos at once, fits in your overnight bag originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s never a bad time to update some basic laptop-buying advice, and with this spring’s new crop of laptops and new components (and some left-field competition from Apple’s iPad), we decided it was a good opportunity to create a new version of our laptop buying guide video.

Got a Nexus One and the optional car dock you can buy for it? Did you know it also works as a tripod? We gave it a spin, and the results are pretty neat. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20004628-248.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Web Crawler/a/p

The Android OS may be flourishing in the U.S., but the “Google Phone” is clearly not. Sprint has decided not to sell the Google Nexus One only months after saying they would, a move that isn’t terribly surprising following the death of the Verizon Nexus One. Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein confirmed to Gizmodo Monday that the company wouldn’t be selling the Nexus One because of the “upcoming availability of the award-winning Evo 4G.”

It appears both Sprint and Verizon shied away from the Google Nexus One because they could instead have their own branded Android phones with just as much power or more. The Evo 4G, an Android 2.1 device with a 4.3-inch LCD screen and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, is widely expected to be released in a matter of weeks. Verizon has the HTC Droid Incredible, a well-reviewed Android 2.1 phone that is PCMag’s new Editors’ Choice for Verizon smartphones.

What’s a “premium” movie service these days without access on additional screens? Not much, which is probably why rumors indicate Showtime is about to follow EPIX HD and ESPN 3(no 60) by creating an online service for subscribers to view on their PCs and mobile devices. Don’t expect to watch Weeds, Dexter and The Real L Word on your iPad just yet (except for what’s already available on Netflix) as a spokeswoman had only a standard “nothing to announce to” offer Bloomberg Businessweek, but their sources indicate it will resemble the HBO GO service we tested out recently when it went live for Verizon FiOS TV customers. Heading online seems like a good followup to turning on interactive HDTV features, but we’ll see if that’s enough to keep viewers signing up for its service when there are so many alternatives available.

Showtime getting ready to go online? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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