Abstract:

Setting up secure associations between end-user devices is a challenging task when it needs to be done by ordinary users. The increasing popularity of powerful personal electronics with wireless communication abilities has made the problem more urgent than ever before. During the last few years, several solutions have appeared in the research literature. Several standardisation bodies have also been working on improved setup procedures. All these protocols provide certain levels of security, but several new questions arise, such as “how to implement the protocol so that it is easy to use?” and “is it still secure when used by a non-technical person?” In this paper, we attempt to answer these questions by carrying out a comparative usability evaluation of selected methods to derive some insights into the usability and security of these methods as well as strategies for implementing them.

Direct link to PDF

Via: Putting People First

Interesting stuff. I am curious to see how easy wireless USB will be to pair in the future. Right now Bluetooth pairing is slow. I miss IR "beaming" back in the day when I used to have a Palm (NSDQ: PALM).

Enjoy!

Source: eBay

3GSM is going to be wicked.

Some background information: jkOnTheRun is owned and operated by Kevin C. Tofel and James Kendrick. They have some of the most informative video reviews I’ve ever seen on the net, period. The only people who seem to produce video reviews of the same, or even better quality, are the fine folks at GottaBeMobile.

While reminds me, Dear Nokia (NYSE: NOK): Please hook up GottaBeMobile with a Nokia N800. They do lengthy, quality, and in depth video reviews. I would love to see their take on your device. Rob Bushway has already expressed interest in the N800.

Anyways, back to what Kevin has to say:

Our kids have a two-hour school delay due to some ice and snow, but that didn’t stop the FedEx man from swinging by a few minutes ago. Have a look-see above for what was in the package: a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet! This is just a loaner for the next two weeks or so and it just goes to show you that attending CES is a must if you’re addicted to tech like we are. I stopped at the Nokia booth in the last few hours of the last day of the show: you know, the time where everyone is fighting with the crowds at the airport? I was lucky enough to get as much time as I needed with the Nokia reps to discuss the N800 and after further conversation, made the right contacts to have the device sent out. A huge thank you to all of the Nokia folks I spoke with that day!

This will be interesting as this is my first true Linux-based device; after some "getting acquainted" time, I’ll be sure to sure thoughts, impressions, likes and dislikes.

Source: jkOnTheRun

Recently InformationWeek published an interesting business-technology buyer’s guide to the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), Linux, Mac OS X, Palm (NSDQ: PALM), Symbian, and Windows Mobile platforms. Besides the solid perspective of all smartphone platforms, the article also brings an illustrative road map for smartphone operating systems.

Back to Symbian. According to author of the article (and as we all know it), Symbian is bolstering security. In the latest versions, applications need permission to access sensitive phone capabilities, helping IT departments lower the exposure of their corporate data. However, what Symbian lacks is presence in the United States, where it has only 10% of the market, with Cingular being the only U.S. carrier that sells Symbian phones.

In conclusion, as Symbian’s main challenges, author sees RIM’s popularity (in the U.S.) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Windows integration. Plus, they have a Q&A with Symbian’s CEO – Nigel Clifford. Nice read.

fMSX is a program that emulates MSX, MSX2, and MSX2+ 8bit home computers. The program will run MSX, MSX2, and MSX2+ cartridge files (.rom and .rom.gz). The new version also supports disk images (.dsk and .dsk.gz).

Starting the games is easy – place your files into “E:\Others\fMSX”. If your phone has no keyboard, or its keyboard is folded, always select the joystick option in games: the dialpad will act as a joystick.

More information and download instructions are available from here.

Thanks to the SymbianGuru and Slashphone, we have a short video of the upcoming Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E65. Recently approved by the FCC, the E65 brings the element of style in the ESeries lineup. Enjoy the video.

Take an S40 phone. Leave it alone until it goes in to screen saver mode. Hit a number on the keypad. What happens?

The screensaver turns off, and the number you hit on the keypad is now on your screen.

Take my Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E61. It’s in screen saver moder. Hit a number on the keypad. What happens?

The screen saver turns off. That’s it. At this point I have to push that number again for it to show up on my screen.

When I was using the N93 I didn’t have this problem because it was a flip phone. Now that I’m back to using my E61 I never realized how annoying this bug is!

Is it the same on your candy bar S60 devices?

Fact filled table all the way at the bottom of this IDC press release:

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) ends the year much in the same way it began the year, as the undisputed worldwide leader in mobile phone shipments. Having reached a new shipment record—more than a million units on average each day during the quarter—Nokia experienced downward pressure on its profits from the same quarter a year ago, the result of shipping massive volumes of entry level devices. At the other end of the product spectrum, Nokia’s converged mobile devices continued to outpace all other vendors shipping 11.1 million units, making Nokia the worldwide leader in this space as well.

Compared to 2005 shipments Nokia gained 2.3% market share.

This is the interesting stat: Motorola (NYSE: MOT) gained 3.8% of the market in the same 1 year period.

Motorola growing faster than Nokia? We shall have to see how 2007 turns out.

UPDATE: This isn’t fake at all. Open a standard browser, go to nokia (NYSE: NOK).com, click north america, then click canada. Now select "compare phones." Seems he added a soundtrack to the site. Quite catchy if I do say so myself.

Someone do something, stat!

Proof: Nokia’s Compare Phones page

Here is a screenshot (I resized it to fit a standard XGA screen):

Source: Tech-o-rama

When I was tagged a few weeks back I immediately felt … warm on the inside. To know that there are people who I’ve never met before in my life, who want to know a little bit of information about me, it’s just one of those things that make you feel good about yourself.

The second feeling that came soon after that little abrupt burst of happiness was confusion and frustration about what to tell you guys.

In order to make this experience more interactive and rich, I’ve asked anyone who reads my blog to list as many questions as they would like for me to answer. On top of that I also removed that silly cap of only 5 factoids. So let’s dig in:

1. Yes I still speak Romanian, perfectly. I have to since my father’s English is extremely poor. The last time I went to Romania, and Europe in general, was the summer of 1997. I’ve been dying to go back. I repeat: I love Europe.
2. I don’t check websites daily any more, I use RSS. My reader of choice: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Reader. I have 145 feeds I’m subscribed to.
3. Music … this is tricky. I love techno, particularly the subgenres of Hardcore, Hard Dance, Ambient, and Drum and Bass. I like gangster rap from the late 80’s to mid 90’s.  The more vulgar and violent the lyrics the better. I like classical music, particularly from Russian and German composers. I like Indian music, especially soundtracks from Bollywood films. I love metal from the Nordic regions of Europe. Finland, Norway, and Denmark: they are probably the most metal countries on the face of this earth. I love mid to late 90’s dance music. British Pop is also a genre I dig.
4. If someone at Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) or Motorola (NYSE: MOT) offered me a job I would take it in a heart beat. I think Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is in the best position to help make the ideas I have in the back of my head a reality, but I have no problem working with an underdog to help them rise to the top. Sony, I believe, can overtake Nokia in the mid to high end space if they played their cards right. Motorola … I really don’t like them, but the experience and knowledge I would gain from working there would be priceless and essential to a future career in the wireless space.
5. Pizza Toppings: I can not emphasize how much of a carnivore I am. If it’s from an animal then stick it on my pizza! On top of that I usually get mushrooms, broccoli, black and green olives, and onions.
6. 3 things I would change about the Nokia N70: make it use S60v3FP1, add a 3.5 mm headphone jack, let it take standard SD cards.

Well I hope I’ve answered your questions fully. Now time to reveal some information about me:

1. Nothing makes me happier in this world then driving. Eating the finest foods, waking up from a full nights rest, having sex with a woman, they don’t even come close to the feeling I get when I am behind the wheel of a car. I don’t remember the name of the first girl I kissed, or the first girl I shared my bed with, but I can tell you exactly what I was driving and on which highway I broke 100 mph on for the first time in my life.
2. Germany is my Mecca. I want to do laps on the Nürburgring for eternity. I want to visit the factories of Porsche, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, and Volkswagen. I want to go to Oktoberfest and drink the finest, freshest German beer all day and visit the various breweries around the country.
3. I have a speech impediment that only shows itself when I get highly excited. The best metaphor I can think of is a hard drive buffer. When I’m on a date with a beautiful woman, I have all my lines stored 10 sentences in advance. I control the direction, subject, and content of the conversation. My brain is calm since it’s practically idling. My only goal is to act suave and come off as someone interesting. This doesn’t take much processing power.

   When I’m speaking publicly, the same thing, I know what is going to come out of my mouth. I don’t have to think about it. My brain is using 0% of its resources.

   When I get in to a heated argument or conversation, in an area that I am highly interested and knowledgeable in, my thoughts are moving infinitely faster than my lips. While thinking about a million memories and facts, all the while trying to speak, the buffer in my brain empties and I get stuttering and pauses. Just like Windows Millennium Edition.

   My best friend, every once in a while tells me to just slow down whatever is happening in my head. I can’t or am having a huge difficulty controlling my thought processes. It’s a hindrance, but I’m getting better every year.

4. I feel more comfortable with strangers then I do with people I know. When I’m with strangers I don’t feel the need to impress or act perfectly since their opinion is temporary and irrelevant to me. When with people I know however … the pressure to perform, and that’s what it is: a performance, gets to me. My true friends, the ones who I can act naturally with, without fear of acceptance, I can count them on one hand.
5. I’ve tried running away several times. I lead a life of extreme comfort and in turn it has caused extreme boredom. I like risk, I seek danger, mystery is my drug of choice, and I get none of that in my current environment. I miss New York City, and most of all I miss Europe.
6. My trust is nearly impossible to gain. I say impossible, but there is one guy I trust. He’s been my mate since we were 9 years old so that gives him quite the head start.
7. I love to act. Not in movies, or commercials, but in situations. I took a summer class at a local community college once, where I knew no one. For those 9 weeks I was a British man, 22 years old, from Rochester, who happened to be a part time mechanic. That thrill of playing out such a part, convincingly, is definitely exciting.
8. I love art. Particularly classical Greek and Roman works. I have the highest respect for sculptors. Capturing life with nothing but marble or clay is something I find extremely fascinating.
9. My favorite meal: Fish and Chips with a pint of New Castle (Brown Beer).
10. I am addicted to my RSS reader.
11. I hate talking to people on the phone for extended periods of time. Nothing beats face to face. Ironic considering that I want to work for Nokia.
12. I’ve always wanted to be a body builder. I’m still working on it really; I just need more time and dedication. School is draining me.
13. I don’t want to end up working behind a desk, alone, in a cubicle. I’d rather work as a Post Man so I can be social, and move about.

That’s all I can think of for now. This post is a whole day late, and I apologize for that. I really wasn’t in the blogging mood yesterday since I just came back after hanging out with my friends for a good 18 hours.

Back on topic: Who do I want to tag?

1. Rafe Blandford
2. Steve Litchfield
3. Phil Schwarzmann