Since iPhone is a computer in miniature, malware authors and anti-malware experts are already wondering on its impact on the security side of computing.

Kasperky (Web, blog entry) believes that the iPhone will be a target of malware activity, and that its operating system, OS X, will carry vulnerabilities much like its big sister.

McAfee (Web, blog entry) thinks that 2007/2008 will be a new era of malware for mobile malware, characterized by fully-functional malware, since the iPhone (and the mentioned Nokia N800) almost have the same capabilities (though in a limited way) as that of a Mac (or Linux box for N800).

The biggest implication – for me, at least – is that anti-malware and computer security companies will have to develop a solution for such platforms. This phone will be targeted by malware authors, specially if it becomes successful (as lots of people thinks it will).

Off-topic: here’s a hands-on description on the iPhone. Read the comments.

In both sides of the ocean, Nintendo is thumping Sony in new console sales. In Japan, the Wii has outsold the PS3 end-December, despite the fact that PS3 had a headstart as it was released earlier than the Wii. And then, in the US, the Wii has also outsold the PS3 in November.

Only time will tell if this trend will continue. Sony will do price cuts, and maybe those who found the launch price as too expensive will finally buy PS3. Is the Nintendo lead due to the innovativeness of its console? Or is it just novelty?

PS3 has a lot of bells and whistles built into it; heck, it is a computer. However, it has no difference with PS2, except for better technical specs. In short, Sony has offered nothing new to gamers, only a souped up, expensive unit.

As the euphoria over the iPhone subsides, the fireworks begin.

Firing the first salvo, and as expected, Cisco sues Apple over the iPhone trademark. This will probably end up in settlement (and with Cisco leaving the battle a few bucks in its corporate wallets richer, few bucks=million dollars), or it could slug it out and win (as what had happened with its perennial war vs. Apple Corp). Nokia’s reaction is subdued, calls iPhone “interesting“. Japan, the home of the most advanced mobile phones, barely even took note of the news.

It will be interesting to find out the comments by other mobile phone manufacturers. BTW, what will happen to Apple’s tieup with Motorola?

Meanwhile, I think of the exclusive tieup with Cingular with mixed feelings. Either it can help iPhone gain market share that fast, or it can alienate non-Cingular users in the US. It’s like being exclusive to Smart.

Also, being a non-3G phone defeats the function of the iPhone as a mobile Internet device (maybe that’s why Japanese scoffed at it). Sure, it has Wi-Fi, but what about using it in non-Wi-Fi places? Would you want to download a 3MB music or podcast on the go from iTunes using only GPRS? I use GPRS from time to time, and I tell you, it’s like dialup (and I am on dialup at home). It’s ugly. It’s slow. And did I say dialup is slow?

But on the plus side, it is touchscreen. I am currently using Nokia 7710, a touchscreen phone. It can be tough if you were used to keypads, and you have to get used to sending SMS using a stylus. However, I am not sure if iPhone has handwriting recognition (it is not stated in the iPhone Web site). If so, it’s a big negative for me. Most of the time I use the handwriting instead of QWERTY, specially when I’m on a moving vehicle.

Anyway, iPhone is a promising gadget, and until the units are in consumer’s hands, any comments on its real capabilities are just speculations. We will know more for sure in June.

UPDATE: AT&T is set to phase out the Cingular brand name, uses single name across all products and services. Ma Bell consolidating its reclaimed power.

Apple has joined the mobile war with the announcement that confirms the rumors last year. Apple is going to release the iPhone this year. The blogsphere is abuzz with reactions, from the ecstatic to the cautious. I agree with Jozzua’s comments.

Here are the specs of the iPhone (taken from The Age):

US$499 for a 4GB model, US$599 for an 8GB model
GSM+EDGE phone technology (though 3G is promised “in the future”)
3.5-inch touchscreen, at 160 points-per-inch resolution
11.6mm thick
2 Megapixel camera
Incorporates video iPod
Syncs music, video, contacts and internet favourites with iTunes on Windows or Mac
Gesture-controlled user interface
On-screen virtual keyboard
Random-access voicemail (via Cingular)
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
SMS “conversation” interface
Full high-resolution web browser
Google Maps
Weather and stock market “widgets”
Battery life 5 hours talk/video/Web browsing, 16 hours audio only

I must admit I’m no Apple fan. I don’t think iTunes is intuitive enough, that’s why I am not using an iPod (aside from it is not the best portable player out there, it is expensive). Safari is not the best Web browser out there, and the battery life on paper is disappointing. The projected price will pit iPhone against Nokia’s N series phones (N80, N91, and N93) and Sony Ericsson’s P990 and W950i. Note that there is no touchscreen phone in the N series; both mentioned SE phones have touchscreens, no Wi-Fi though.

It is a good phone, nevertheless, but without 3G, it’s not worth the price. At that price you can get a phone with the same specs and more. It’s too early to tell if Apple has really reinvented the phone (though I am not convinced, since iPhone has offered nothing new except running on Mac OS X), but we can be sure that it will have a following worthy of the iPod success.

Apple has also dropped the word Computer from its name, telling the world that it is no longer just a computer manufacturer. Nokia is way ahead – it doesn’t have to drop anything from its corporate name, and it calls its N series phones as enhanced multimedia computers (though I dispute that notion).

And a legal problem for Apple: Cisco already owns the IPhone name. I can sense Cisco is already counting the money it will receive in settlement, as both companies are now in negotiations. Ca-ching!

And as a footnote: a Web site was taken down because of traffic generated by queries for the word iPhone. Nope, I won’t link to it, but here’s a pic with the URL:

Click on the image to enlarge.

Finally, I have started playing Final Fantasy XII on PS2.

Initial Comments:
* The opening movies/scenes give me a feeling that I had seen them before (think Star Wars Episode 1 for the wedding parade and Lord of the Rings for the battle for Nalbina fortress).
* The gameplay is unique for the entire Final Fantasy series, although my brother wondered about the similarity between FFXII and the PS2 Castlevanias.
* I really hate the ACTION wait (FFX fanatic). FFXII is somewhat confused. Is it an RPG or an action game? And mice can have that long attack range? Gimme a break!
* I have mixed feelings regarding the character design. They are smooth, but so alien to the series. And why an almost androgynous lead? Is he a male overflowing with estrogen? Or a female who took a lot of testosterone shots?
* This game tends to move a bit slow. Too much background info presented at the beginning.
* Please bring back Nobuo Uematsu. Please.

But I really like the game overall, although it is too early to give an honest assessment at this point.

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When I started playing Samurai Warriors 2, my brother asked, tongue-in-cheek, “Where’s Kenshin Himura?”

And where, indeed. This cousin of the icon Dynasty Warriors is one controller basher of a game. You know, in DW, you have to press the attack button several times and then press the charge button once, and watch the fireworks. (That’s why I like Lu Bu; press attack twice and charge once. I even had a character created using DW:XL destiny mode, and I was lucky enough to pick up a halberd, Lu Bu’s weapon.) In SM2, well, you have to push and push and push.

NB: There’s one irritating bug/snafu/whatever whenever I play Sakon Shima (or maybe it is just my controller). I usually do the attack-twice-charge-once button mashing, and one-in-two it won’t work. But it always work on other characters. Which leads me to believe that there will be a Samurai Warriors 2:Xtreme LegendsEmpires (well, actually there is, but unsure if it would be released in the US).

The gameplay is straightforward enough, and tends to get stale in the long run. Not too much variety. There’s the Sugoruku board game, if the real game bores you. Or take the survival mode.

Well, it’s a good game, but not in the long run.

UPDATE: Samurai Warriors 2: Empires slated for US release on February, 2007.

When Nokia introduced the 7650 model almost three years ago, it has single-handedly changed the way we use a mobile phone. The 7650 was the first Nokia phone to carry a camera. Now a prospective mobile phone buyer looks not for a cellphone with a camera, but asks how many megapixels that a mobile phone camera has.

And the creation of applications that allow camera-enabled cellphones has led to what I call mobile pornography.

I find it sad that some women, in the name of love, actually allow for their lovers to take their pictures in the nude. And what saddens me most is the fact that some even allowed videos of them taken in flagrante delicto. Love can really make a fool out of us.

And again, business-minded fools are not far behind. You can even get these cellphone “scandals” in VCD and DVD forms. Heck, if you know where to find, you can probably get them from those cellphone stalls in bazaars and malls, for a fee. The scandal involving a starlet and her basketball player-boyfriend is just a symptom of what’s possible with a cellphone.

The camera-enabled cellphone is just another piece of technology that we have to take back from the realm of the malicious.

technorati tags: takebackthetech

I think a new SOHANAD variant is in the wild.

I had received a suspicious message from a friend via YM. Actually I had received several messages, but it contains one link only. Unlike other SOHANAD variants, the link is not disguised as such; the link address is what is stated in the message.

So I tried looking at it, and it was a PHProxy page. But when I viewed its source, it was just just a frameset with two frames, both SRCs are located OUTSIDE the Web site itself. One points to a Vietnamese-like Web site (with a Vietnamese-sounding URL), and another from a Yahoo!-hosted page (no longer available at the moment).

So viewing the Vietnamese-sounding Web site and its source, I am convinced it is a SOHANAD worm. The source contains a VBScript typical of SOHANAD carriers that exploits MS06-014.

Basically what it does is to download a file from the Vietnamese-sounding Web site, save it on your computer, and using the exploit to execute the downloaded file. Voila!

So far, here are the messages that I had received:

Beauty KIDs… http://cso[BLOCKED]2.net
For iTunes hacker, the freedom of the open code … http://cso[BLOCKED]2.net
How Windows XP Wasted $25 Billion of Energy… http://cso[BLOCKED]2.net
Oh my GOD #… http://cso[BLOCKED]2.net

The file to be downloaded is named VNN.EXE.

YM users are advised to be careful when handling links sent via IM, even if it came from your friends. BTW, FireFox users can view the page safely, as it ignores VBScript.

The invention of the Webcam spelled the beginning of online exhibitionism and voyeurism. Not contented with text and voice chats, real-time video added a new dimension to the sleaziness that pervades a part of the online world.

And for the first time, exhibitionists and voyeurs found a medium well-suited to their “needs”. Unfortunately, capitalists took notice and set up businesses that cater to online voyeurs.

Unconvinced? Here are some links:

Task force rescues women, arrests a couple for trafficking
2 foreigners killed in raid on cybersex den
Cops arrest 20 in ‘cybersex’ den raid
19 girls rescued from cyber exploitation

On Google search for “raid on cybersex den”, and see what I mean.

But I always feel sorry for the women who had unwittingly became victims of Webcam abuse. While I respect everyone’s personal conduct on the Web (I’m no puritan), I hope women will be more circumspect, specially when using Web cams.

There are some scrupulous individuals (mostly males) who looks for women chatters in instant messenger chat rooms. They always look in “sleazy” chat rooms and for women chatters with Web cams. When a victim is found, they convince her to do things. And the fools take a screen capture, and distribute the compromising picture to anyone interested.

This racket can even be used for black mail. After all, who wouldn’t protect someone’s reputation?

The Webcam is another piece of technology that is abused. Another sad evidence of man as a perverted animal.

technorati tags: takebackthetech

The Web is a facet of technology that has become ubiquitous to human kind. It is a big infrastructure well-suited for sharing information and media. It is also a medium of communication guaranteed by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Article 19).

The Web is a reflection of man – complicated, complex, convoluted. And as an invention of man, it has a lot of uses, from the sublime to the divine, from the mundane to the inhumane.

Violence can be defined as “any act of aggression and abuse which causes or intends to cause injury, in some cases criminal, or harm to persons, and (to a lesser extent) animals or property” (Wikipedia). The Internet in general and the Web in particular are simple tools to violate other’s rights and persons. How simple can it be? All you need is twenty Philippine pesos.

Probably the simplest form of violence inflicted against women using the Web is pornography. The prevalence of this violence is due to the fact that “(Internet pornography) allows people to view pornography (essentially) anonymously in the comfort and privacy of their homes. It also allows access to pornography by people whose access is otherwise restricted for legal or social reasons” (Wikipedia). This makes the violence more criminal, more foul; it is pornography in a large scale.

True, that most of these are for-pay services. False, that it is a valid excuse. A complex Google search will generate results that will show FREE pornographic materials available online.

For a simple signup, a perverted user can join Web groups and browse pornographic materials for free. Or an email-based group, perhaps. The point is that exploitation is not always equal to financial return.

The problem is serious. For one, the victims are getting younger; exploitation and loss of innocence is not limited to the primary victims.

Unfortunately, despite getting paid for using their bodies for satisfying other’s carnal desires, women are victims in whatever way you look at it. And there can be no justification for exploiting unwilling victims of this violence.

What can be done?

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What can YOU do?

1. commit: commit yourself to 16 days of blogging about violence against women and technology.
2. _email:_Email ideas@takebackthetech.net, with your blog address and name/handle/nick if you want to sign up as a Ka-BLOGger, if possible, before 25 November. f you don’t have a blog yet, this will be a great place to start! Email us, and we’ll send you links on how to start your own blog
3. identify: make it known by putting a takebackthetech icon on your blog — create your own or grab a few icons from our Campaign Tools and Materials.
4. post: post something about the how you think violence against women connects with information communications technology? have a story? heard something quirky? snap a picture? think this is serious? doesn’t make much sense? anything at all! just commit one post a day from 25 nov to 10 dec on thinking about violence against women
5. tag it: use “takebackthetech” to tag your posts;
6. link back: send in your bloglinks and we’ll rss your posts to the campaign website throughout the 16 days.
7. expand: widen the campaign to your readers by linking your blog to the campaign site.

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Raul Gonzalez is at it again.

Known for his uncontrollable mouth, the target this time of his comment is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Artemio Panganiban. The Secretary commented that the Chief Justice should refrain from appearing in social functions and giving comments to the media.

Panganiban is a high-profile chief justice; from all the chief justices that I know (Narvasa, Davide, Panganiban), he is the most vocal. While I agree that this might cast doubt on the impartiality of the chief justice, Gonzalez should have the propriety and proper breeding to know that his comment is uncalled for. After all, he is part of a branch that is co-equal with the judiciary, and his comment has the effect of effectively telling Panganiban to shut up. Gonzalez, who was disbarred, should know better.

Mr. Gonzalez, is Mr. Panganiban a puppet of your boss?

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The same can be said to Gloria Arroyo and Jose de Venecia. In a forum attended by jurists from around the world, the two had called on the Philippine Supreme Court to uphold the people’s initiative being led by Sigaw-Ulap coalition.

Mr. de Venecia, the proper forum for doing so is in the session hall of the Supreme Court. You went out of bounds. Is Mr. Panganiban a puppet of your boss?

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DJB claims that time is running out for all Chacha plans, and that an opposition Senate is in the offing, thus making Arroyo’s impeachment possible. John Marzan disagrees.

Both are essentially correct. All surveys show an opposition gaining the upper hand in the Senate. However, as long as the House is in Arroyo’s hands, impeachment is close to impossible. Therefore, two things must happen: an opposition House and clean elections in 2007.

I hope that once its opposition to Chacha has finished, One Voice will concentrate on a campaign for clean elections in 2007, and a wide, grassroots education of voters on voting wisely.

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MLQ3‘s column for today, “Advertising a Threat“, shows the real gameplan behind all the Chacha moves, and the end moves in case of defeat – a simulated people power, which can turn violent, which in turn, will force Arroyo to use her military powers.

I pity the pawns of this game – Abueva, Ramos, et al – intellectuals who willingly surrendered their intellect to advance their lost causes. After all, pawns are usual sacrifices to save the queen.