Hasta La Gadget!

Today, ElcomSoft is integrating a wireless sniffer into Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor. The integrated sniffer turns Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor into a one-button, all-in-one solution ready to be used by corporate security officers without specific experience in information security.

Call us crazy, but if you’re a C-level security officer with no specific information security experience then maybe you shouldn’t be sniffing people’s data packets. Then again, we’re sure ElcomSoft will happily sell their $1,199 pro software or $399 standard edition to any hacker willing to pay, white hat or not.

Continue reading ElcomSoft turns your laptop into a one-touch WiFi cracking system

ElcomSoft turns your laptop into a one-touch WiFi cracking system originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD’s Eyefinity technology is one of the best ways to fill every inch of your peripheral vision with pixels. However, it’s certainly not the cheapest, relying on DisplayPort-capable monitors — inputs that even some current models lack. This has left many gamers buying $100 DisplayPort-to-DVI adapters, significantly raising the cost of adoption, but AMD has announced an unusual plan to tackle that: cheap adapters. The company is helping to develop converters that are expected to retail for just $30, still not as disposable as the VGA-to-DVI blocks you have cluttering up your junk drawer, but considering these are active plugs it’s probably about as good as we’re going to get. So, who’s up for some six-monitor Starcraft II?

Continue reading AMD makes Eyefinity easier with line of budget-minded active DisplayPort-to-DVI adapters

AMD makes Eyefinity easier with line of budget-minded active DisplayPort-to-DVI adapters originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ATI, the Canadian graphics-chip company born back in 1985, is dead. After being acquired by AMD in 2006, and spending the intervening four years locked in the Californian chip-maker’s cellar, forced to try on dresses that “make it look purty”, the deed has finally been done: the ATI name has been erased from all products.

The acquisition brought one of the Big Two GPU-makers (the other is NVIDIA) into the AMD’s CPU business, but ATI managed to keep its name on its inventions until today. From now on, there will still be Radeon and FirePro cards, but they’ll be called AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro.

Why? AMD is moving firmly into combined CPU-GPU systems, which put everything together for energy and space savings. Think of the Intel GMA 950 which was used in MacBooks and Mac Minis, along with PC hardware. These “integrated graphics” systems share the main RAM with the CPU, further saving money but also offering lesser performance. AMD decided that these combined systems would be too confusing with all the different branding, and dropped ATI like the hot girl drops the dork with a car after they arrive together at the school prom.

Best of all, AMD has redesigned the stickers for its chips, and there are actually two sets. One drops all mention of even the AMD name, replacing it with the word “graphics” so when its discrete graphics cards ship in Intel boxes, the names won’t clash. So goes the complex corporate maze that lies behind those ugly stickers found on all PCs.

AMD jettisons ATI brand name, makes Radeon its own [The Tech Report]

See Also:

• ATI
• AMD's ATI Uber Graphics Card, DirectX 10 Delayed
• Intel Pays AMD $1.25 billion To Settle All Disputes
• AMD

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Um, oops? ATI’s latest Catalyst driver release has dished out some info that we imagine the company didn’t want to reveal quite yet. The names of some Southern Islands have been spotted — Cayman and Antilles appear to be the flagship chips — suggesting a refresh to the critically acclaimed Evergreen line of GPUs may not be far off. Rumors have been swirling for a while about ATI’s reputed shift to island-based nomenclature, and while hard specs are nowhere to be found, we can see that the Red Team is planning an overhaul with no less than 10 new additions to its roster. Hardly unpredictable, but good to know that ATI has something to counter NVIDIA’s heart-stealing GTX 460.

[Thanks, Jack]

ATI leaks out Southern Islands codenames for next-gen GPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There comes a time in any electronic gadget’s life when it becomes useless and although it’s inevitable, the length of the useful lifespan can vary greatly. In recent years firmware updates have really helped extend the life of devices, but when the manufacturer has no financial incentive to support older products, it can mean a premature end (at least from the customer’s perspective). Well after three years that time has apparently come for FiOS TV subscribers who own ATI Digital Cable Tuners (and many other CableCARD devices). Now before you get too up in arms about this, it isn’t really Verizon’s fault, you see said company wants to be able to use Cisco and Motorola devices in the same area and this means it needs a tech called Simulcrypt. This is good for most customers as it will likely bring better prices and selection. And although this is a CableLabs certified technology, a firmware update is required to ensure the device handles the encryption properly. So while a company like Ceton or TiVo has already released updates for its devices, ATI and other TV manufactures have long since given up on the CableCARD market, and hence, supporting any legacy devices. The only good news is that you now have the perfect excuse to justify replacing your obsolete device. Don’t like this option? Well you can get a FiOS DVR (with it’s 2002 circa 160GB HDD) or just file a complaint to the FCC — this won’t do much, but might make you feel better.

[Thanks, Scott!]

Verizon FiOS Simulcrypt rollout will break most CableCARD tuners originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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