The Future of 4G: LTE vs. WiMAX

LTE, the 4G mobile broadband technology backed by major cellular network equipment providers and operators, casts a long shadow across the WiMAX landscape—even though LTE products are thin on the ground and no operator has launched commercial service using it.

Verizon, however, has committed to rolling out LTE (Long Term Evolution)... (in joking mode they called it as "LTE: Late to Evolve") starting next year, delivering ten times the data throughput of current 3G technologies. Others, including NTT DoCoMo in Japan, France Telecom, Vodafone in the UK, AT&T, and T-Mobile, have also said they will adopt LTE rather than WiMAX.

Meanwhile, Sprint, Clearwire, and Comcast in the U.S., UQ Communications in Japan, and Yota in Russia are all aggressively rolling out mobile-capable “4G” networks using the current version of WiMAX, 802.16e (2 to 10 Mbps), in urban markets where they will inevitably compete with 3G (and later, LTE) providers.

The WiMAX Forum claims that 504 operators in 145 countries have deployed WiMAX, but many use older 802.16d technology that cannot provide mobile services, and many are small operators in developing countries or rural regions.

How will the market unfold? Are LTE and WiMAX on a collision course? If so, which will prevail. Or will the two technologies co-exist, even complement each other? The answers are far from clear, and depend to a large extent on who you ask.

Nokia N900 gives more than what you need

Nokia’s first Maemo powered handset, the N900, already hit others badly. The handset has many great features like Adobe Flash 9.4 support for the browser, a 3.5 WVGA touchscreen, a 5MP camera and Wi-Fi. The video below starts off with some talk about apps, a game called Bounce Evolution and then we see the browser in action. The screen is smooth and responsive and the browser zooms in/out by using your finger to make a circular motion on the screen, as if you were turning a dial. Clockwise zooms in, counterclockwise zooms out. A YouTube video is played in the browser and while the picture was clear, the movement was a little herky-jerky. Then we briefly get a look at a YouTube video playing from a thumbail in the UI. All in all, enough action to make you sit up and take notice, all the while hoping that a U.S. carrier will grab up this device. T-Mobile has been mentioned by one of our tipsters as a possible January destination.

Lenovo being the first IONIZED with IDEAPAD S12

The super-cute Lenovo IdeaPad S12 just earned the title of most powerful 12″ Netbook. Thanks to its NVIDIA ION chipset, the IdeaPad S12 can play 1080p HD content at full speed on its 12″ display or an HDTV (via HDMI). That erases one of the main critic regularly thrown at Netbooks: they can’t play video right. Most importantly, it can run recent games like Call of Duty 4 or the Sims 3 (and DX10 titles) at interactive speeds while these games don’t work at all on traditional Netbook graphics like Intel’s 945G.

Lenovo used NVIDIA ION’s revolutionary design to create a thin, lightweight, low-power laptop with a 12-inch screen and improved application compatibility. The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 has the graphics horsepower to support high definition media and many PC games which will not run on most low-cost small PCs. NVIDIA ION enables these capabilities with the industry’s best graphics performance for low-power CPUs.

“NVIDIA ION is one of the latest technologies available for the PC industry for small, low cost laptop PCs, and we’re excited to be among the first to use it,” said Stephen DiFranco, vice president and general manager of consumer and commercial channels, Americas Group, Lenovo. “With its 12-inch display, full-size keyboard and rich multimedia options powered by ION, the IdeaPad S12 balances an improved computing experience along with the size and affordability many consumers are looking for today.”

“The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 with NVIDIA ION graphics is a game changer for the industry,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GPU business unit at NVIDIA. “It’s a powerful testament to what a small PC can do if it’s optimized with ION. The thin and affordable S12 does everything you expect a PC to do including watching movies, playing games, flipping through vacation pictures or editing family videos.”

NVIDIA ION graphics support:
All versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7
Outstanding HD video including 1080p and Blu-ray movies
Stunning HD video through an external monitor via HDMI
Popular games including Spore and Battlefield Heroes
DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
Accelerated video enhancement and conversion using NVIDIA® CUDA™ technology

Quick Review of Ricoh GXR Digital Camera

Ricoh GXR is an interchangeable unit camera system in which lenses are changed by using a slide-in mount system to attach camera units to the body. The camera also features Built-in flash and accessory shoe, DMI connecto and a 3.0-inch 920,000 pixels transparent LCD.  The camera measures 114 x 70 x 29mm (4.5 x 2.7 x 1.1 in) and weighs 160g (5.6 oz).

Bug: Lessons for Developers

Sanitize all inputs. That includes every bit of data processed by the application, whether loaded from a Facebook user’s profile, loaded from a database, submitted with a form, or received from the query string of an address. Never assume that a given parameter will be clean or of the expected type.

Sanitize all outputs. When displaying a notice or error message, load predetermined strings instead of using dynamic inputs. Never reuse the address of a page without fitering it for injection attempts. Filter any information you output to an application page or via an AJAX interface.

Avoid user-generated HTML. Generally, users should never be allowed to input HTML, FBML, or other rich-text formats. When allowing rich-text data, use pre-built, tested code for processing and displaying it, rathering than trying to create your own filters.

Check every page. Many vulnerabilities appear in secondary pages, such as ad loaders or AJAX interfaces. Verify security precautions in every part of the application. If possible, consider storing secondary files in a folder other than that of the application’s canvas pages.

Verify Facebook sessions. Never rely on a cookie, a query string, or data generated within the application to verify the current user. Facebook provides applications with session information they can always check before making requests or loading information.

Use server whitelisting. If your application does not use AJAX or does not otherwise make requests using the Facebook JavaScript API, take advantage of the server whitelist feature in the application properties and only allow requests from your server.

Lessons for Facebook

Stop the charade. Nearly all instances of user information and content are essentially public. Many users have an understanding of privacy and control not reflected by the findings of this series and others. Either take necessary action to address these issues, or drop illusory privacy controls.

Talk to developers. Several resources exist for helping developers get started on the Platform, but Facebook has published much less content reminding developers of security precautions. If you associate your brand with third-party code, you have a reponsibility to help ensure the safety of that code.

Truly verify applications. The current Verified Applications program apparently does not address basic security flaws. Also, while opening the floodgates to any application has benefits, it also poses serious risks that may justify putting a few limits or checks in place.

Limit application access. While it’s encouraging to hear that Facebook will be adding granular access controls in response to the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, it’s disheartening that such steps took so long and are still nearly a year off from full implementation.

Take clickjacking seriously. This series has only begun to demonstrate the implications of clickjacking. Single-click authorization of applications, even when one exempts from the Platform, only adds to the danger of clickjacking on Facebook pages.

Improve request verification. The Facebook JavaScript API may provide much useful functionality, but it also opens the door to simple API requests with merely a session secret. Other means exist for ensuring that requests come legitimately from an application instead of an attacker.

Distinguish your brand. With the current Facebook Platform, any vulnerability in a third-party application becomes a vulnerability for Facebook. Either users should be able to trust applications to the same degree as Facebook, or Facebook should more clearly distinguish third-party content.

Educate your users. People click applications without a second thought to the risks of rogue applications or possible security problems. Users may seek to share personal information with friends, but fail to realize how that information is used by third-party code.

Windows Mobile 6.5 powers new phones

Microsoft and its partners unveiled a slew of mobile phones that are powered by Windows Mobile 6.5.

Omnia II

They showcased HTC Touch 2, LG GM730 and Samsung Omnia II, which are just some of the phones running the much-awaited operating system.

The software giant christened handsets with WM 6.5 as Windows phones — the name change was because the new OS is supposed to offer the same user experience as using Windows on the PC.

The first thing that users will notice is the new homescreen which is inspired by Microsoft’s Zune media player and an iPhone-like grid of applications to make it easier to select programs.