EPC’s Computer Recyling Blog

Cellphone Tethering: Is it a big deal?

Is a smartphone really that smart if providers put limits on how its data connection is used? Cellphone tethering, or using your cell phone to access internet services on your computer, is in the news because of recent actions by Apple, Palm, and Google.

Apple is releasing their new OS for their phones, dubbed iPhone 3.0, that includes tethering – unless you live in the US because AT&T tethering support isn’t available yet. Earlier this spring, Google pulled all tethering apps from the Android app store at T-Mobile’s request. Palm has sent a polite cease and desist to the “Pre Dev Wiki” website asking for tethering instructions to be removed because they might upset Sprint, Palm’s exclusive service partner in the US. Given that tethering has been available on phones for several years now, why are cell providers suddenly so concerned? Are they worried that customers would cancel their land based internet connections in favor of cellular based ones? Or that tethering would cut into the USB data card market? More »

Tags: apple, at&t, cell phones, google, internet, palm, sprint, t-mobile

Quick Hits

Here are a few quick computer and security news articles from this week:

• Mother sues Apple over exploding iPod Touch Supposedly the iPod was in her child’s pocket in the off position. The kid felt a hotness from his pocket, looked down and was on fire. The mother is suing Apple and 10 Apple store employees for damages.
• Army database compromised The US Army discovered a possible security breach on a web application containing personal information of about 1600 soldiers
• Cyber crime goes SaaS Want to buy a toolkit for attacking computers? No problem? Don’t have the expertise to run it yourself? No Problem, they’ll host it for you! Seems like this would make it easier to shut the attackers down since they have a common source.
• Rigged podcasts can leak your iTunes username/password Hackers can create malicious podcasts to hijack usernames and passwords from Apple’s iTunes software. iTunes 8.1 fixes “feature”

Tags: apple, cybercrime, ipod, podcasts, quicklinks, SaaS, security