Researchers find cracks in WPA wireless security
Two researchers plan to provide details at next week’s PacSec 2008 conference in Tokyo on how Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is vulnerable to attack. Of course, this does not mean that WPA is as vulnerable to compromise in the same way that Wired-Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is, far from it in fact. The weakness in WPA is being reported by Martin Beck and Erik Tews, two graduate students in Germany. The attack could make it possible to compromise certain communications in less than 15 minutes.
The researchers found the weakness in the lesser of two WPA security protocol, Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). Attackers can use the techniques to decrypt limited communications and can recover a special integrity checksum and send up to seven custom packets to clients on the network, according to SecurityFocus.
“The new attack on WPA is not a complete key recovery attack,” Tews said in an email to SecurityFocus. “It just allows you to decrypt packets and inject packets with custom content. But there is only a single short-term key recovered during the attack.”
Journey catalog track becomes first to 2 million downloads, legally
According to Nielsen SoundScan, the Journey track “Don’t Stop Believin’”, originally released in 1981, has become the first catalog digital download in history to reach the 2 million sold milestone.
“Believin’” is at 2.03 million downloads since it reached legal download services in April 2003 and has seen increased popularity through famous placements such as during the final scene of “The Sopranos” and in episodes of “Family Guy” and “Laguna Beach.” The recent addition of a new lead singer and a tour has also helped bring the song back into the spotlight.
“They are one of the most important artists we have,” Sony Music Entertainment Commercial Music Group president John Ingrassia says. “We’re constantly working with the band and our team to create new products or highlight the catalog.”
Ingrassia added, “We always do search engine marketing and promotion through the Web sites of TV shows or other partners, but now we can go to DSPs (digital service providers) and say, ‘We can do a lot more with this if you’ll work with us.’”
Well done Journey.
Pirate Bay reaches 22 million peers
The infamous BitTorrent tracker, The Pirate Bay, is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. The site announced that is has reached 22 million peers this week, an increase of 10 million peers since April this year. Earlier this year, the tracker had set itself a goal of reaching 20 million peers and recently smashed that figure in much less time than was expected.
The site currently is host to over 3 million registered members and is evidently used by multiple times that figure. The site has survived attempts to shut it down from all angles, but its users have never suffered any major inconveniences or outages from those efforts. The site ridicules legal threats and other notices from legal reps of content companies and publishes them for all to see, and has had no problem standing up government pressure.
The site maintains that it is, and always has been operating legally since it does not offer any illegal content whatsoever to its users.
Panasonic shows 11-Series plasma TVs
Panasonic presented the complete new 11-series product family of plasma televisions on Monday. The models come in 42-, 50-, 58- to 65-inch sizes support up to Full HD (1080p) High-definition video content. All are equipped with 18-bit signal processing equipment. The new TH-42PH11EK/ES has a resolution of 1,024 x 768 at 42-inch in size. Also immediately available is the TH-50PH11EK/ES 50-inch with a resolution of 1,366 x 768. Both sport 1,400cd/m2 brightness and a 15,000:1 contrast ratio.
The new TH-42PF11EK model is just 42-inch in size but offers a native resolution of 1920 x 1080, and is joined by the TH-50PF11EK (50-inch), TH-58PF11EK (58-inch) and TH-65PF11EK (65-inch) models in offering the Full HD effect. While these models have a slightly lower brightness at 1,200 cd/m2, they are marketed as having a 30,000:1 contrast ratio.
The televisions are available first in Germany, with the 42-inch and 50-inch models available (Full HD and 720p models) with the rest due to be released next month.
JVC offers 3D projector for home theater use
JVC has offered up a new product for anyone who is looking to go out of their way to make their home theater system a little bit different. The company has unveiled its first (and claims the world’s first) home 3D projector, built for use specifically with home theater systems. The JVC DLA-RS2 model is intended for people who like an illusion of multi-dimensional movies without the need for those infamous glasses.
JVC uses D-ILA projection and stereoscopic video processing to provide the 3D effect from “compatible content” without the need for the specialized glasses. The projector can produce Full HD (1080p) content and uses second-generation SENSIO 3D technology. It is noted as managing an image contrast ratio of 30000:1.
Obviously “3D content” is required for this projector to be any way special, but of course it will also look great when connected to your DVD-Video, Blu-ray, console etc. hardware. It will debut sometime in 2009 and currently has no price details.
Panasonic’s AVC-Intra codec wins award
Panasonic received the Hollywood Post Alliance Engineering Excellence Award for its development of the AVC-Intra 100 video codec yesterday, at the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) Awards gala in Los Angeles. The codec can achieve compression ratios good enough to encode full resolution, 10-bit independent (intra) frame HD video at up to 100 Mbps. The codec allows users to capture master-quality video with exceptional color depth and higher encoding efficiency.
“Panasonic is pleased that our peers at the HPA have acknowledged the accomplishments of our AVC-Intra development team,” said Michael Bergeron, Chief Technologist at Panasonic Broadcast. “For some time, our customers and technology partners have been asking for a 10-bit, full raster, intra-frame HD codec, capable of operating in field acquisition equipment as well as in desktop hardware and software.”
AVC-Intra is available in Panasonic’s new P2 HD VariCam camcorders (AJ-HPX2700 and AJ-HPX3700), AJ-HPX3000 P2 HD camcorder, and the AJ-HPM110 P2 Mobile recorder/player. AVC-Intra is suitable for portable field acquisition as well as making master archives. “We have been able to meet these challenging industry requirements so soon — at an unprecedented 100Mbps with the AVC-Intra codec — as a result of the hard work of our talented engineers and an organizational commitment to continuously advance technology,” Bergeron commented.
The Engineering Excellence Award was created to showcase and reward inventors, manufacturers, vendors and companies for outstanding product or technology application offerings.
Wal-Mart starts Blu-ray promotions
Wal-Mart has begun a new promotional campaign dubbed Operation Main Street in which many products will see huge price cuts for a limited time.
From the full promotion however, Blu-ray products seem to be leading the pack. The Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray player is selling for $198 USD, down from $229. The player is Profile 1.1 compatible and will upconvert standard definition DVDs to 1080p.
Potential buyers of the most popular Blu-ray player, the Sony PlayStation 3, should be delighted by the promotion as well. The $399 USD 80GB PS3 will come with a $100 USD Wal-Mart gift card that can be used on any items available at Walmart.com. PlayStation 2 buyers will receive a $30 USD gift card if purchasing the aging $129 USD
Other deals not involving Blu-ray include a 2GB Sony Walkman media player for $49 USD and a 15.4 inch Compaq CQ-139WM notebook for $298 USD.
Blu-ray player prices to see steep fall this holiday season, says ABI
According to ABI Research, prices for older model Blu-ray players should drop to $150 USD for the holiday season, a steep price drop over their current average $200-250 USD price tags.
The analyst group says the price drops will be necessary to fight off pressures from emerging HD movie download services. The group also believes the studios will need strong Blu-ray sales for the holiday following the current economic downturn.
The sales prices will most likely be on older Profile 1.0 and 1.1 players that lack BD-Live Internet capabilities.
“Blu-ray vendors and dealers are starting to realize that for Blu-ray to become the next DVD, they need to lower player prices in order to generate interest and build volumes,” notes ABI Research’s principal analyst Steve Wilson.
HD download services, especially those rolled out recently by Netflix, TiVo and Amazon, will be Blu-ray’s biggest competition for the time being, noted ABI.
Warner offers digital rentals in China to undercut piracy
Warner Bros. is attempting to curb piracy of its products in China by offering a legal alternative to the country’s 1.3 billion population. In co-operation with a Beijing-based media company called Voole, Warner Bros. will offer new titles from its vaults as digital rentals for a significantly reduced price compared to the street pirates. Bootlegged disks typically go for (GBP)£1 or less on the street.
Warner’s plan is to offer the digital alternative rental service at a price of around 30p - 70p per download (based on the movie in question, one could only assume). The level of pirate products sold in China is in the area of 90%, but Warner and other concerned content companies cannot ignore the fact that China has one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Of course, the downloads will be protected by DRM, and the users will be able to download them and watch them from their computer or stream them over the Internet. Warner recently announced a similar plan to curb growing piracy in Korea.
Panasonic intends to acquire Sanyo
Panasonic Corp. has announced that it intends to acquire its Japanese rival Sanyo Electric Co. in a move that would create Japan’s largest electronics maker. The acquisition has an estimated price tag around $8.8 billion, a price Panasonic would pay to gain competitiveness in rechargeable battery production and solar power technology. Panasonic, the world’s largest plasma TV maker, is sitting on $10 billion in cash.
The deal has many problems to be solved however. Panasonic needs to figure out what to do about Sanyo’s loss-generating divisions which include microchips and home appliances. “Strategically (the deal) makes sense, though it doesn’t necessarily make sense for Panasonic to take on every single bit of Sanyo Electric,” said Hannah Cunliffe, fund manager at Germany’s Union Investment, which holds Panasonic shares. “There has to be some relatively aggressive restructuring.”
Due to the demand for rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, notebooks, portable media players and even cars, Panasonic would like to capture Sanyo’s leading position with the technology. Additionally, Sanyo is the world’s seventh largest manufacturer of solar cells. “Adverse business conditions are making it difficult for us to achieve the kind of growth we have been striving for,” Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo told a news conference. “We need a new growth engine within our group.”
The potential deal has more historic significance in Japan. Panasonic was founded, and until recently named after admired entrepreneur Konosuke Matsushita. In the early days of the company, Konosuke Matsushita’s brother-in-law Toshio Iue worked as his right-hand man, until he broke away and formed Sanyo.
