passport

So, you just bought a new car that came with a built-in iPod cable. Great, right? Well, maybe not. Unfortunately, the cable is only compatible with the previous generation of iPod products and not your brand new iPhone 3G, Nano 4G, or Touch 2G.

A bummer? Yes. However, Scosche is on this like an Apple fanboy is on Steve Jobs' every word. Or close to that, at least.

On Thursday, Scosche announced the Passport, which is now on sale at Apple stores, although I was unable to find it at Apple's online store at press time.

The Passport utilizes … Read more

On Monday, Western Digital introduced its new 500GB capacity portable USB drive for its My Passport Elite and Essential lines.

Features for both of the USB-powered Elite and Essential lines include synchronization software that lets users sync their changes and protect their information with 128-bit encryption, as well as plug-and-play capability with gaming consoles to make it easy to play music and view photos and video files on a TV.

My Passport Elite portable drives are available in bronze, titanium, westminster blue and cherry red. Additional features include:

What is Google thinking? For those who didn't catch Ina Fried's perceptive review of Google Chrome's terms of service Tuesday, ReadWriteWeb piles on Wednesday. In the terms of service, Google claims "a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."

This may not be as dire as it sounds. It could be simply a way for Google to retain the right to post content that users expressly authorize it to publicly … Read more

Using attacks similar to those used to break .Net PassPort, a group of students at the Ruhr Universitat Bochum in Germany claim to have stolen CardSpace's security tokens from a compromised machine. But Microsoft dismisses the attack, saying an attacker would need a user's help.

CardSpace is included within .NET Framework 3.0 and allows users to create personal information cards that are shared with participating Web sites for authentication. A user creates a CardSpace card for a site and the .NET software then obtains a digitally signed XML token from the site issuer. What the students in … Read more

When asked how RFID worked, a group of novices responded to a recent academic survey with "witchcraft" and "magic."

In a talk Monday at USENIX Usability, Psyschology and Security Conference (UPSEC) 2008 in San Francisco, Andrew McDiarmid of the University of California, Berkeley, shed light on how ordinary people perceive RFID-enabled cards in their day to day life. He said while novices and intermediates were familiar with times when RFID-enabled smart cards such as work access cards or transit cards didn't work, they couldn't explain it. On the other hand, advanced users knew enough … Read more

There was only one product at CES 2008 that I couldn't wait to get--a new model of safe from the Sentry Safe company. I even tried to buy one from Sentry's website one evening while I was still in Las Vegas, but that turned out to be impossible; it has to be shipped by truck freight, so I had to place the order with Sentry over the phone to make those arrangements.

I ordered the safe when I got back home, and it arrived here last week--a good bit sooner than the company predicted. I've got it … Read more

LaCie may be one of the more flamboyant players in the market, but it's not the only one producing hard drives that are making fashion statements.

Western Digital is adding some vibrant splashes of color to its already-stylish "Passport" line of portable hard discs. Realizing that there's more to the spectrum than basic black, the company is introducing models in green, red and white, according to Chip Chick. We fully anticipate cables by Prada and Armani next.

We've seen this compact portable hard drive listed at up to twice the price. Today Dell Home offers it for 88 bucks, shipping included, when you pay with PayPal. Easy setup, light weight, compact size and great speed make this a convenient solution for non-Mac users.

To quote CNET Reviews:

The bad: Sync software works with only Windows XP and 2000; phone support may eventually become expensive.

The bottom line: Western Digital's Passport Portable External Hard Drive … Read more

Here's the latest indication that RFID passports--and concerns about the security of the scannable information embedded in them--are going mainstream.

Until recently, passport pouches and wallets designed to block RFID signals from hackers have ranged from industrial-strength versions that resemble burlap sacks to Italian leather goods that go for $50 to $180. But now there's a reasonable compromise from Magellan's Travel Supplies, whose "RFID Blocking Passport Wallet" lists for $19.85. It may not be hand-crafted by European artisans, but it does claim to be top-quality leather.

Now if we can just find a … Read more