2008 new year tech rant (before CES)
I am stuck writing this from my Thinkpad X31 (1.4 GHz, 1G RAM). I purchased it in September (along with all IBM accessories: docking station, external DVD, external/extended batteries, et al) for $300. My phone, the Samsung i730, which is now almost 3 years old, cost me $50.
While the Samsung Blackjack (which has no touch screen) and the Samsung i760 (which will not upgrade to EVDO Rev A) interest me, I can say that neither is a reliable or optimal replacement to my i730 PDA phone. When I say that my phone is showing its age, I mean it's getting old and falling apart as opposed to becoming replaceable because of technology advancements.
I've had my eye on the Samsung Q1 Ultra since before it came out. 8 months post-release, and it is still the world's classiest and best device (although I have not yet bought one). I've always been interested in the bottom model (Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC Q1U-EL, Mfg. Part: NP-Q1UAY01) because I'd rather add my own Bluetooth, video camera, and HSDPA^H^H^H^H^HEVDO Rev A. I'm also interested because it runs Vista, which means FDE / BitLocker support. I've always been curious if the processor (Intel A110 800 MHz CPU) supports the Intel XD-bit, but I know for sure that it's 32-bit, which I'm not too keen on. If I'm going to be upgrading and spending money on a new computer, it should certainly meet all my requirements and be forward-looking. I didn't keep a Cyrix-200+ with Adaptech UW SCSI-3 PCI on an FCI 1MB L2 cache, 83mhz FSB mainboard around for 10 years as my primary machine (went through upgrades of memory and disks, but that was it) for no reason. I like to think that I know what I'm doing.
Which is why I'm excited about my next 10-year computer, which should be announced at CES this week. Here are the stats on the Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium, which is a 1.33 GHz Intel Core Solo 2. Well, at least according to this article it's an Intel Core Solo 2. Either way, it's going to support an XD-bit and if Core Solo 2, it will also support 64-bit operating systems. This machine will be as fast as my laptop (with the same or more amount of RAM), but the size and format of my PDA Phone. The current Q1 Ultra can have an 8.5 hour extended battery (it also has an optional external 11 hour battery that less interests me). I somehow doubt the 1.33 GHz Cole Solo 2 will run in a device this size for 8.5 hours, but if anyone is able to perform such a feat, it's Samsung. Interestingly enough, Lenovo is going to release a similar device as the Samsung Q1 Ultra, but I don't trust them / love them as much as I did the IBM Thinkpad team.
Sure, I know that Apple is going to release a sub-notebook with flash disk at MacWorld, probably which will be available between February and May (not to mention the Axiotron Modbook which was recently announced). I clearly know that Apple is also going to release a probably completely badass 3G iPhone in June. But honestly look at the stuff above and tell me it's not better? You will rarely hear me say it, but I've analyzed the iPhone - and from what I can tell - the device is truly amazing (only hacked though, Apple of course dwarfs it, even the SDK will probably be much of a joke compared to homebrew). I am honestly considering purchasing even the current model. Mostly because it's like hacking the original XBox... I see it as a challenge and way of discovering / researching all sorts of new technology ideas. However, with the Samsung Q1U-EL making its price-range into the same category as the iPhone (and with a 16G version of the iTouch available at the same price), it's hard to decide - probably even post CES roundups and post MacWorld. I would much rather have an 800 MHz CPU running Firefox 3 + X-Lite under Vista with BitLocker at EVDO Rev A speeds than a 400 MHz CPU running Safari + Phone/Text on an iPhone (does the iPhone OS even support a homebrewed FileVault?) with EDGE. Twice the processing power with the web browser and all features (including security) I want with ten times faster network connection... all for the same price? Thank you, Samsung.
BTW - I really wish that people would start publishing their "Brightness" statistics. For example, the Samsung Q1 Ultra has `300 nits'. I really wish it wasn't called "Nit" because if you search for iPhone "nits" you get thousands of whiny Apple lusers complaining instead of talking about screen brightness. Either way, I'd like to see some sort of statistics around this easily published. While Motion includes lots of information on their View Anywhere technology, it doesn't really let me compare the brightness to the Samsung Q1 Ultra. The primary reason I really like Samsung and Apple compared to everyone else is that you can actually read the displays. This is where the Nokia 770 Tablet failed, as well as the successors (N800 and N810), even though their other successes are quite fantastic. I've always wanted to see how LUKS and Tinfoil Hat Linux concepts would port over to the N800/N810's operating system. The fact that you can run Karma along with WifiZoo and Metasploit db_nmap+db_autopwn on these devices is incredibly impressive - look at what ImmunitySec has done with Silica on the 770 Tablet. Certainly the N800/N810 devices are ideal for penetration-testing at least until Lorcon is ported over to Vista (with better airpcap support).
On the other hand, the Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium could make one of the best portable devices for software assurance. I run IDA, HexRays, BinDiff, EFS, Cenzic Hailstorm Pro, Burp Suite Pro, Suru, Absinthe, Fortify SCA, ImmDbg, and Metasploit on my laptop with no problems. My ex-boss has CANVAS, but he doesn't have all the fixings yet. I can always boot into BackTrack 3, ProTech, HeX, DVL, or LabRat (or any other SecurityDistros) if I need Linux. The Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium will certainly allow this as well (as it's Core Solo), although I'm not sure if the current models can boot Linux (it is a totally unknown Intel chip and platform). Leaving so many unknowns with the Samsung Q1U-EL, but I guess not as many as with the iPhone.
On to other topics... let's see. Wireless - 802.11n, WiMAX, etc. I don't know what's going to happen this year, but I am somewhat looking forward to both concepts taking off more. If I had to buy wireless gear today, I would purchase Soekris boards with Atheros CM9 802.11a/b/g miniPCI cards. I know it's not 802.11n, but oh well. It supports Pyramid Linux with HostAP, which can provide per-MAC WPA2-Personal PSK's, effectively making it more secure than WPA2-Enterprise. Instead of WiMAX, I'd opt to mesh-network a bunch of Meraki AP's (I would think 6 in star-formation per DSL line is probably a good number, but DSL rates are getting higher and higher). Meraki just seems simple and perfect, and I've always had great luck with RoofNet over OLSR or HSLS (or WiMAX for that matter). I say let everyone around you have free Internet access. The nice thing about mobile WiMax, should it ever arrive, are these sorts of implications. Then I can stop paying Verizon for 3G/3.5G before 4G rolls out.
If I had a dream for 2008, it would be the opening of books like YouTube has done for video. Sure, there are lots of ebookshare type sites, and I even pay SafariBooksOnline and the ACM (for Books24x7 membership) fees. This isn't enough for me. I want every book made available for free download online months before available on shelves, and I want the system to be reliable. I mean every book. No more $97 PDF's. These books need to be searchable (by themselves, by favorites, and all at once) and include active content (RSS, comments, similar content links, Ajax proxy support, et al). Somebody please help me with my book fix. The Kindle is a fucking joke! However, on my to-do list is to sign up for Audible.com. I would have already signed-up but my i730 only has regular SD, which causes the cards to pop-out all the time (as opposed to microSD or CF). The iPhone would be great at Audible.com (other than the crappy 2G download speeds), as would a Samsung Q1 Ultra or Windows Mobile device that has microSD. So I do need to get one of those.
It's strange that this year I plan on going back to using a planner (i.e. hard-bound Franklin-Covey binder) for time management. I may decide to nix this idea once I get a pocket computer like the Samsung Q1U (so I can use GCal and RememberTheMilk), but I'm just sick of having all my data accessible from the Internet. I do realize that BitLocker is a bit safer and faster (and certainly more realistic) than using one-time pads to write out my daily task-list. Maybe someone will port Zimbra server to the iPhone or at least get the offline Ajax working on it so it can be used remotely. Zimbra with an SSL-VPN is a bit safer than GCal+RTM, even though both of those support SSL. I bet all of these are vulnerable to Javascript/HTML/CSS framework/function/element clobbering, XSS of all kinds (including wormable presentation layer attacks), OSRF, CSRF, JSON API hijacking, server and client-side SQL injections, XDoS, and probably even command injection, path traversal, predictable resource locations, authentication/authorization attacks, scripting language injections (dynamic execution or file inclusion attacks), HTTP header injections, and timing / state / session-management attacks. In the case of a local Zimbra install, at least it's not connected to the global Internet and shared between millions of users.
Plus, I figure that by Christmas next-year I'll have R2D2 in my living room with a projector, but he will also be a home/pet robot that will speak English and tell me all the things I need to do. Just in time for analog television to go off-the-air (that's only one year away, folks). My R2D2 will be a trained hacker using advanced Markov chain technology and hierarchical task networks to make Metasploit db_autopwn and CORE IMPACT look like technology that's at least 5 years old. You will not want to turn on a Bluetooth or WiFi device anywhere in his range. Somebody I know will install nanobots into their brain that makes them smarter, but maybe that's a few more years away.
Speaking of projectors built-into things and digital television -- when do we get pocket projectors (oh shit, this is from last year's CES, here's this years') and cell phone TV? They've had this shit in Korea for 10 years now! I'm sure that I could setup an MP4 watch and Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks along with a Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium to provide real-time video conference Dick-Tracy 2-Way Wristwatch TV style using Stickam or Skype (Skype has an amazing 640x480 video call mode). I could even hook the Q1U up to an R2D2 projector for a huge, "realer-than-life" format (although he's not a real hacker robot like the one that I want).
I was thinking about blogs the other day, and I was thinking about RSS caching (Google Reader caches content from RSS feeds). Blogs are really an interesting future play for the world when you think that all the information is available to everyone and it also happens to be cached by Google as XML feed data (instead of just HTML, scripts, stylesheets, documents, video, and images). I don't know if you've used the search and sharing features in Google Reader, but along with Google Alerts (and other OSINT concepts) - these tools have basically turned me into an unbeatable research machine. What Google has done is basically the equivalent of creating a Semantic Web monster. Now, it's just a matter for me to add people (and get people using/sharing Google Reader/Alerts), feeds, and content. The Semantic Web is already here, you just aren't using it yet. Google Reader/Alerts now makes del.icio.us, LJ, Digg, SAForums, reddit, StumbleUpon, and everything else look like dead dumb data. Google really needs to integrate Google Reader/Alerts with other OSINT active content out there. What is available today in Google Reader alone is so simple and powerful; please start using it. My parents just got an iMac - I wonder if I can get them using Podcasts, RSS, Video RSS, and Google Reader instead of watching CNN (or worse, FOX news) and reading the newspaper. Although maybe I should start listening to NPR again (via USB radio instead of Internet).
If Google wins their 20 MHz slot on the 700 MHz band, then they are likely to team with Clearwire and/or ICO. Do you know what is going to happen to the world? Google is going to fuck up their Google Phone, and then some geeks are going to do something to the 2nd gen or 3rd gen iPhone to make it better than any Google Phone ever. Meanwhile, I'll be booting into an LTSP environment via a Samsung device where ALT+F1 is Vista/BitLocker 64-bit, and ALT+F2 is Linux/LUKS with both GRSecurity and SELinux/DTe. The drives will actually be a RAID-1 somewhere in a local data center with backups available on a small island / data haven. My boot key will be a 3072-bit RSA key burned into a USB smartcard along with a fingerprint match and a 43-character password that nobody knows but me.
For everyone's sake, I hope Apple does something equivalent. The security of the iPhone is abysmal, but so is Mac OS X security. Why don't OpenMoko and McObject just completely subvert both Google's Android project and the Apple iPhone by making their [Linux-based] OS available for the iPhone with Android support? Google is smart by releasing Android as just an SDK, and I really hope that they don't make the mistake of getting into the hardware business. Nobody is going to beat Apple (look at what they did with the iPod, and sheesh - the iPhone so far), not even my precious Samsung. But to trust Apple to software??? Apple should just stop making software. Apple software developers can write OpenBoot PROMs or something.
This leaves Microsoft in the dark, which I do not like. For me, Vista and Linux are important and need to live on. In my mind, Mac OS X needs to become the equivalent of NeXTStep and realize that it will never be as good as NetBSD (look what happened to FreeBSD!). Mac OS X, like Solaris, will always be a joke compared to Microsoft or Linux-based OSes. First of all, I'm not sure that the XBox360 and the Zune are complete failures. I know that I have not bought them yet, which makes them somewhat failures. However, I have been more inclined to purchase Zune + XBox360 + Windows Vista Ultimate + Windows Home Server than iPod Touch + Wii + iTV + iMac. First of all, the Wii doesn't fit (other than it's white and cool looking), yet all the Apple dorks have one and see it as fitting. Secondly, the integration of the Microsoft concepts is just better. The things that scare me are DRM and DRM (Microsoft and Apple varieties). I know there are hacks for both the XBox360 (Blaster360 looks cool) and the Wii (none of these look that great, including the cheap TCNiSO one), but what about my music and videos? iTunes has made some content DRM-free, but there are cheaper (and free if you're willing to steal) alternatives than iTunes.
Speaking of TCNiSO, the BlackcatUSB project looks great and an amazing success. I definitely want to get this going on some of my cable modems. Part of the problem is that Comcast (at least in my area) has completely shutdown uncapping and service-theft. It's no longer possible to change your configuration (they don't allow setting it remotely on DOCSIS 1.1 unlike other DOCSIS 1.1 networks that usually do -- and they don't even allow DOCSIS 1.0 anymore, although in most areas this works rather well to get an SB4200 and roll DOCSIS 1.0 only), and you can't clone a MAC address. If it was legal to do so, I would certainly spend more time on trying to figure out why this is and how to circumvent. However, DreamOS is also now a reality for BlackcatUSB owners. The future will be the SB6101 platform (note to self: buy a bunch of these), and not only because it supports channel-bonding. TCNiSO is also looking into branching out to other devices (besides Cable modems and Wii's). The suggestions mostly revolve around cable boxes (DCT2500/700, DCT2224/2244, DVI3000), satellite boxes, etc. I know that Dish receivers are already hackable, which would also be interesting to try out if it were not illegal. Whatever happened to my plan of moving to Canada? Either way, I feel like reversing some hardware at some point, but I'll probably just buy an SB6101, XBox360, Wii, iPhone, and Soekris board instead (or a few of each). Wow, none of this involves much hardware hacking anymore... it's all soft-modding and not really in the same way that soft-modding was on the original Xbox. In the case of hacking the iPhone -- you don't even need to take it apart (although hacking SIM cards with TurboSIM almost makes it hardware hacking if you're a Mac weenie)!
A lot to look forward to, and yet I don't even have the CES or MacWorld details yet.
While the Samsung Blackjack (which has no touch screen) and the Samsung i760 (which will not upgrade to EVDO Rev A) interest me, I can say that neither is a reliable or optimal replacement to my i730 PDA phone. When I say that my phone is showing its age, I mean it's getting old and falling apart as opposed to becoming replaceable because of technology advancements.
I've had my eye on the Samsung Q1 Ultra since before it came out. 8 months post-release, and it is still the world's classiest and best device (although I have not yet bought one). I've always been interested in the bottom model (Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC Q1U-EL, Mfg. Part: NP-Q1UAY01) because I'd rather add my own Bluetooth, video camera, and HSDPA^H^H^H^H^HEVDO Rev A. I'm also interested because it runs Vista, which means FDE / BitLocker support. I've always been curious if the processor (Intel A110 800 MHz CPU) supports the Intel XD-bit, but I know for sure that it's 32-bit, which I'm not too keen on. If I'm going to be upgrading and spending money on a new computer, it should certainly meet all my requirements and be forward-looking. I didn't keep a Cyrix-200+ with Adaptech UW SCSI-3 PCI on an FCI 1MB L2 cache, 83mhz FSB mainboard around for 10 years as my primary machine (went through upgrades of memory and disks, but that was it) for no reason. I like to think that I know what I'm doing.
Which is why I'm excited about my next 10-year computer, which should be announced at CES this week. Here are the stats on the Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium, which is a 1.33 GHz Intel Core Solo 2. Well, at least according to this article it's an Intel Core Solo 2. Either way, it's going to support an XD-bit and if Core Solo 2, it will also support 64-bit operating systems. This machine will be as fast as my laptop (with the same or more amount of RAM), but the size and format of my PDA Phone. The current Q1 Ultra can have an 8.5 hour extended battery (it also has an optional external 11 hour battery that less interests me). I somehow doubt the 1.33 GHz Cole Solo 2 will run in a device this size for 8.5 hours, but if anyone is able to perform such a feat, it's Samsung. Interestingly enough, Lenovo is going to release a similar device as the Samsung Q1 Ultra, but I don't trust them / love them as much as I did the IBM Thinkpad team.
Sure, I know that Apple is going to release a sub-notebook with flash disk at MacWorld, probably which will be available between February and May (not to mention the Axiotron Modbook which was recently announced). I clearly know that Apple is also going to release a probably completely badass 3G iPhone in June. But honestly look at the stuff above and tell me it's not better? You will rarely hear me say it, but I've analyzed the iPhone - and from what I can tell - the device is truly amazing (only hacked though, Apple of course dwarfs it, even the SDK will probably be much of a joke compared to homebrew). I am honestly considering purchasing even the current model. Mostly because it's like hacking the original XBox... I see it as a challenge and way of discovering / researching all sorts of new technology ideas. However, with the Samsung Q1U-EL making its price-range into the same category as the iPhone (and with a 16G version of the iTouch available at the same price), it's hard to decide - probably even post CES roundups and post MacWorld. I would much rather have an 800 MHz CPU running Firefox 3 + X-Lite under Vista with BitLocker at EVDO Rev A speeds than a 400 MHz CPU running Safari + Phone/Text on an iPhone (does the iPhone OS even support a homebrewed FileVault?) with EDGE. Twice the processing power with the web browser and all features (including security) I want with ten times faster network connection... all for the same price? Thank you, Samsung.
BTW - I really wish that people would start publishing their "Brightness" statistics. For example, the Samsung Q1 Ultra has `300 nits'. I really wish it wasn't called "Nit" because if you search for iPhone "nits" you get thousands of whiny Apple lusers complaining instead of talking about screen brightness. Either way, I'd like to see some sort of statistics around this easily published. While Motion includes lots of information on their View Anywhere technology, it doesn't really let me compare the brightness to the Samsung Q1 Ultra. The primary reason I really like Samsung and Apple compared to everyone else is that you can actually read the displays. This is where the Nokia 770 Tablet failed, as well as the successors (N800 and N810), even though their other successes are quite fantastic. I've always wanted to see how LUKS and Tinfoil Hat Linux concepts would port over to the N800/N810's operating system. The fact that you can run Karma along with WifiZoo and Metasploit db_nmap+db_autopwn on these devices is incredibly impressive - look at what ImmunitySec has done with Silica on the 770 Tablet. Certainly the N800/N810 devices are ideal for penetration-testing at least until Lorcon is ported over to Vista (with better airpcap support).
On the other hand, the Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium could make one of the best portable devices for software assurance. I run IDA, HexRays, BinDiff, EFS, Cenzic Hailstorm Pro, Burp Suite Pro, Suru, Absinthe, Fortify SCA, ImmDbg, and Metasploit on my laptop with no problems. My ex-boss has CANVAS, but he doesn't have all the fixings yet. I can always boot into BackTrack 3, ProTech, HeX, DVL, or LabRat (or any other SecurityDistros) if I need Linux. The Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium will certainly allow this as well (as it's Core Solo), although I'm not sure if the current models can boot Linux (it is a totally unknown Intel chip and platform). Leaving so many unknowns with the Samsung Q1U-EL, but I guess not as many as with the iPhone.
On to other topics... let's see. Wireless - 802.11n, WiMAX, etc. I don't know what's going to happen this year, but I am somewhat looking forward to both concepts taking off more. If I had to buy wireless gear today, I would purchase Soekris boards with Atheros CM9 802.11a/b/g miniPCI cards. I know it's not 802.11n, but oh well. It supports Pyramid Linux with HostAP, which can provide per-MAC WPA2-Personal PSK's, effectively making it more secure than WPA2-Enterprise. Instead of WiMAX, I'd opt to mesh-network a bunch of Meraki AP's (I would think 6 in star-formation per DSL line is probably a good number, but DSL rates are getting higher and higher). Meraki just seems simple and perfect, and I've always had great luck with RoofNet over OLSR or HSLS (or WiMAX for that matter). I say let everyone around you have free Internet access. The nice thing about mobile WiMax, should it ever arrive, are these sorts of implications. Then I can stop paying Verizon for 3G/3.5G before 4G rolls out.
If I had a dream for 2008, it would be the opening of books like YouTube has done for video. Sure, there are lots of ebookshare type sites, and I even pay SafariBooksOnline and the ACM (for Books24x7 membership) fees. This isn't enough for me. I want every book made available for free download online months before available on shelves, and I want the system to be reliable. I mean every book. No more $97 PDF's. These books need to be searchable (by themselves, by favorites, and all at once) and include active content (RSS, comments, similar content links, Ajax proxy support, et al). Somebody please help me with my book fix. The Kindle is a fucking joke! However, on my to-do list is to sign up for Audible.com. I would have already signed-up but my i730 only has regular SD, which causes the cards to pop-out all the time (as opposed to microSD or CF). The iPhone would be great at Audible.com (other than the crappy 2G download speeds), as would a Samsung Q1 Ultra or Windows Mobile device that has microSD. So I do need to get one of those.
It's strange that this year I plan on going back to using a planner (i.e. hard-bound Franklin-Covey binder) for time management. I may decide to nix this idea once I get a pocket computer like the Samsung Q1U (so I can use GCal and RememberTheMilk), but I'm just sick of having all my data accessible from the Internet. I do realize that BitLocker is a bit safer and faster (and certainly more realistic) than using one-time pads to write out my daily task-list. Maybe someone will port Zimbra server to the iPhone or at least get the offline Ajax working on it so it can be used remotely. Zimbra with an SSL-VPN is a bit safer than GCal+RTM, even though both of those support SSL. I bet all of these are vulnerable to Javascript/HTML/CSS framework/function/element clobbering, XSS of all kinds (including wormable presentation layer attacks), OSRF, CSRF, JSON API hijacking, server and client-side SQL injections, XDoS, and probably even command injection, path traversal, predictable resource locations, authentication/authorization attacks, scripting language injections (dynamic execution or file inclusion attacks), HTTP header injections, and timing / state / session-management attacks. In the case of a local Zimbra install, at least it's not connected to the global Internet and shared between millions of users.
Plus, I figure that by Christmas next-year I'll have R2D2 in my living room with a projector, but he will also be a home/pet robot that will speak English and tell me all the things I need to do. Just in time for analog television to go off-the-air (that's only one year away, folks). My R2D2 will be a trained hacker using advanced Markov chain technology and hierarchical task networks to make Metasploit db_autopwn and CORE IMPACT look like technology that's at least 5 years old. You will not want to turn on a Bluetooth or WiFi device anywhere in his range. Somebody I know will install nanobots into their brain that makes them smarter, but maybe that's a few more years away.
Speaking of projectors built-into things and digital television -- when do we get pocket projectors (oh shit, this is from last year's CES, here's this years') and cell phone TV? They've had this shit in Korea for 10 years now! I'm sure that I could setup an MP4 watch and Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks along with a Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium to provide real-time video conference Dick-Tracy 2-Way Wristwatch TV style using Stickam or Skype (Skype has an amazing 640x480 video call mode). I could even hook the Q1U up to an R2D2 projector for a huge, "realer-than-life" format (although he's not a real hacker robot like the one that I want).
I was thinking about blogs the other day, and I was thinking about RSS caching (Google Reader caches content from RSS feeds). Blogs are really an interesting future play for the world when you think that all the information is available to everyone and it also happens to be cached by Google as XML feed data (instead of just HTML, scripts, stylesheets, documents, video, and images). I don't know if you've used the search and sharing features in Google Reader, but along with Google Alerts (and other OSINT concepts) - these tools have basically turned me into an unbeatable research machine. What Google has done is basically the equivalent of creating a Semantic Web monster. Now, it's just a matter for me to add people (and get people using/sharing Google Reader/Alerts), feeds, and content. The Semantic Web is already here, you just aren't using it yet. Google Reader/Alerts now makes del.icio.us, LJ, Digg, SAForums, reddit, StumbleUpon, and everything else look like dead dumb data. Google really needs to integrate Google Reader/Alerts with other OSINT active content out there. What is available today in Google Reader alone is so simple and powerful; please start using it. My parents just got an iMac - I wonder if I can get them using Podcasts, RSS, Video RSS, and Google Reader instead of watching CNN (or worse, FOX news) and reading the newspaper. Although maybe I should start listening to NPR again (via USB radio instead of Internet).
If Google wins their 20 MHz slot on the 700 MHz band, then they are likely to team with Clearwire and/or ICO. Do you know what is going to happen to the world? Google is going to fuck up their Google Phone, and then some geeks are going to do something to the 2nd gen or 3rd gen iPhone to make it better than any Google Phone ever. Meanwhile, I'll be booting into an LTSP environment via a Samsung device where ALT+F1 is Vista/BitLocker 64-bit, and ALT+F2 is Linux/LUKS with both GRSecurity and SELinux/DTe. The drives will actually be a RAID-1 somewhere in a local data center with backups available on a small island / data haven. My boot key will be a 3072-bit RSA key burned into a USB smartcard along with a fingerprint match and a 43-character password that nobody knows but me.
For everyone's sake, I hope Apple does something equivalent. The security of the iPhone is abysmal, but so is Mac OS X security. Why don't OpenMoko and McObject just completely subvert both Google's Android project and the Apple iPhone by making their [Linux-based] OS available for the iPhone with Android support? Google is smart by releasing Android as just an SDK, and I really hope that they don't make the mistake of getting into the hardware business. Nobody is going to beat Apple (look at what they did with the iPod, and sheesh - the iPhone so far), not even my precious Samsung. But to trust Apple to software??? Apple should just stop making software. Apple software developers can write OpenBoot PROMs or something.
This leaves Microsoft in the dark, which I do not like. For me, Vista and Linux are important and need to live on. In my mind, Mac OS X needs to become the equivalent of NeXTStep and realize that it will never be as good as NetBSD (look what happened to FreeBSD!). Mac OS X, like Solaris, will always be a joke compared to Microsoft or Linux-based OSes. First of all, I'm not sure that the XBox360 and the Zune are complete failures. I know that I have not bought them yet, which makes them somewhat failures. However, I have been more inclined to purchase Zune + XBox360 + Windows Vista Ultimate + Windows Home Server than iPod Touch + Wii + iTV + iMac. First of all, the Wii doesn't fit (other than it's white and cool looking), yet all the Apple dorks have one and see it as fitting. Secondly, the integration of the Microsoft concepts is just better. The things that scare me are DRM and DRM (Microsoft and Apple varieties). I know there are hacks for both the XBox360 (Blaster360 looks cool) and the Wii (none of these look that great, including the cheap TCNiSO one), but what about my music and videos? iTunes has made some content DRM-free, but there are cheaper (and free if you're willing to steal) alternatives than iTunes.
Speaking of TCNiSO, the BlackcatUSB project looks great and an amazing success. I definitely want to get this going on some of my cable modems. Part of the problem is that Comcast (at least in my area) has completely shutdown uncapping and service-theft. It's no longer possible to change your configuration (they don't allow setting it remotely on DOCSIS 1.1 unlike other DOCSIS 1.1 networks that usually do -- and they don't even allow DOCSIS 1.0 anymore, although in most areas this works rather well to get an SB4200 and roll DOCSIS 1.0 only), and you can't clone a MAC address. If it was legal to do so, I would certainly spend more time on trying to figure out why this is and how to circumvent. However, DreamOS is also now a reality for BlackcatUSB owners. The future will be the SB6101 platform (note to self: buy a bunch of these), and not only because it supports channel-bonding. TCNiSO is also looking into branching out to other devices (besides Cable modems and Wii's). The suggestions mostly revolve around cable boxes (DCT2500/700, DCT2224/2244, DVI3000), satellite boxes, etc. I know that Dish receivers are already hackable, which would also be interesting to try out if it were not illegal. Whatever happened to my plan of moving to Canada? Either way, I feel like reversing some hardware at some point, but I'll probably just buy an SB6101, XBox360, Wii, iPhone, and Soekris board instead (or a few of each). Wow, none of this involves much hardware hacking anymore... it's all soft-modding and not really in the same way that soft-modding was on the original Xbox. In the case of hacking the iPhone -- you don't even need to take it apart (although hacking SIM cards with TurboSIM almost makes it hardware hacking if you're a Mac weenie)!
A lot to look forward to, and yet I don't even have the CES or MacWorld details yet.