Welcome to Gahtan’s Technology and Internet Law Blog

Philips is apparently joining Netgear, Belkin and others in announcing PC-less cordless Skpe-compatible handsets. However, unlike Netgear and Belkin, who have announced wi-fi based handsets, the Philips offering will be based on DECT standards. Sounds like that means it will operate like a home cordless phone but without the need for a PC. For more information, see PCWorld.

I wonder when we will actually see these devices available for sale. In May and June, Netgear starting taking pre-orders for a June 30th launch. However, its now 2 months later and they are still not shipping.

The current version of Califoria Assembly Bill 2415, as last amended on August 21, 2006, may make it much more difficult to prosecute someone who piggybacks off someone else’s wi-fi service that is not password protected.

It states that:

There is disagreement as to whether it is legal for someone to use another person’s WiFi connection to browse the Internet if the owner of the WiFi connection has not put a password on it. While Section 502 of the Penal Code prohibits the unauthorized access to computers, computer systems, and computer data, authorized use is determined by the specific circumstances of the access. There are also federal laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. Sec. 1030 et seq.), that prohibit the intentional access to a computer without authorization.

Since I last surveyed Canadian options for high speed wireless data:

- Rogers has raised the cap on its top EDGE plan (C$100) from 100 MB to 200 MB
- Bell and Telus have imposed caps (250 MB) on their EVDO 1x plans (C$100) which can be expected to provide better performance than currently available EDGE technology

Meanwhile, the US cellular carriers continue to offer uncapped high speed data plans at lower rates than their Canadian counterparts:

- T-mobile EDGE (US$49.99)
- Cingular EDGE (US$60 with voice plan, $80 without)
- Verizon EVDO 1x (US$60 with voice plan)

Got some sensitive or confidential business data that needs to be deleted off an old laptop? The following article describes some useful disk wiping utilities that can be used.

Since being bought out by Rogers, FIDO has posted rate increases for many of its services.

Read more…

A number of personal VPN services are available to protect users of public wi-fi hotspots or even wired hotel networks where data can also be intercepted:

- AnchorFree’s HotspotShield (free)
- HotspotVPN ($8.88-$13.88/month) - PPTP or IPSec
- JWire’s SpotLock ($39/year) being replaced with Hotspot Helper ($25/year or 30 minutes free per day)
- PublicVPN ($59/year)
- Witopia’s PersonalVPN ($39/year) - IPSec

As TechDirt again reminds us all, just because a carrier says their service is UNLIMITED in large letters doesn’t mean it isn’t subject to bandwidth and usage caps that can result in the service being cut off for unsuspecting users. Wireless Broadband services are not really a substitute for DSL.

According to the Business 2.0 Blog, the people who brought us Napster and Skype now want to bring us a peer-to-peer television service. While there are already a number of TV over-the-internet services already available, a P2P based service would save on the huge bandwidth costs.