Mobile phishing, aka "mobphishing," doesn't involve e-mail and bogus Web pages as standard phishing attacks do; instead, mobphishing refers to fraudulent Wi-Fi access points coming from a smart mobile device as opposed to a laptop. In a presentation at the 2007 RSA Conference, Carl Banzhof, VP and chief technology evangelist at McAfee, said that he noticed newer mobile devices were including 802.11 support and wondered if one could hijack a user's hot spot connection (a so-called evil twin attack) using his own code. Banzhof purchased a T-Mobile MDA and, after a bit of trying, succeeded. The advantages of this new attack include being stealth (no one would suspect a smart phone would be capable of this), the ability to be mobile (he could carry it in his pocket, anywhere), the ability to get close to his victims (sitting literally next to them), and the ability to get into places that ordinarily would not allow laptops.

In an evil twin attack, the criminal overpowers a victim's connection to a public hot spot, convincing laptop users to connect to their much stronger device and thereby acting as a man-in-the-middle conduit to the Internet. Once someone is connected to the evil-twin access point, a criminal could then sniff data packets passing through their machine on the way to the Internet or simply steal login credentials and other personal data. Banzhof said in the future the mobile-access-point attacker might also be able to export his or her collection of stolen personal data via a legitimate access point connection or via EDGE technology. He also hinted that it might be even easier to accomplish this attack with Apple's new iPhone, which will be running a BSD Unix-based Mac operating system. There are many BSD tools that would be easy to port over. While Apple insists its phone will be a closed system (meaning one can't add software), Banzhof doubted that the iPhone operating system would really be closed.

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Update: Velocity Micro informs us that it will actually be charging for the upgrade to Windows Vista Basic from Windows XP Home, via a coupon that lets you make the switch for $60. (11/10/06)

The news circulated earlier today that Microsoft has finally unveiled the specifics behind its Windows Vista Upgrade coupons. As of October 26, the company is going to allow vendors to offer an upgrade for all new Windows XP-based desktops and laptops. The upgrade path matches certain versions of Windows XP to their Vista equivalents. XP Home will earn you Vista Basic, XP Media Center 2005 gets bumped to Vista Home Premium, and XP Pro lines up with Windows Vista Business. You get the upgrade DVD by sending in the coupon or filling out a Web form.

We like this plan, but one thing bothered us. The details on Microsoft's official Vista blog weren't specific as to what the upgrades would cost. It pointed to a "nominal fee" for each, and said that it was up to the PC manufacturers and retailers to decide the specifics of upgrade and shipping-and-handling fees. So who's going to charge, you ask? So did we. Here's what we found out from the major PC vendors, except Sony who never called us back (where were you guys?).

Alienware: Won't offer the upgrade to XP Home, but will have no charge for the other versions. It will charge for shipping.

Dell: Will charge $45 to go from XP Home to Vista Basic; all other versions will be free; shipping costs apply.

HP: All versions will be free. It will also ship a DVD of Vista driver updates with the upgrade disc (nice touch). Might charge for shipping, depending on your location.

Gateway: For online customers, all versions will be free, with no shipping-and-handling fee. A few retail customers might get hit with S/H charges. Details for professional-channel customers have yet to be worked out.

Lenovo: Going from XP Home to Vista Basic will cost an amount that has yet to be determined--on top of the shipping and handling fee. XP Pro to Vista Business will have a fee for shipping and handling only.

Sony: TBD

Velocity Micro: No charge for any of the upgrades. Shipping-and-handling charges will apply via Microsoft. Made the point that all out-of-channel vendors (read: the smaller guys) will need to point customers to Microsoft directly, hence the shipping charge. The larger vendors have the option to absorb the fee.

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Break out the credit card for Apple's Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro
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The features are largely the same as the previous Core Duo models' and include built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth, FireWire 800 and 400 ports, an ExpressCard expansion card slot, and a DVI video output. Also standard are the illuminated keyboard and the motion-sensing technology that stops the hard drive if the system is dropped. Apple claims that the new models, which have 2.16GHz and 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, are up to 39 percent faster than the older 2.16GHz Core Duo MacBook.

Also released today is a new version of Apple's MagSafe detachable power qdapter. Called the MagSafe Airline Power Adapter, this $59 accessory connects to power ports in airline seats.

Here are the basic specs on the new MacBook Pro models:

15-inch model

To go on a proper energy diet, first you'd have to measure the power consumed around the house, outlet by outlet. Just like counting calories, that would take all the fun out of gobbling up electricity. But if you're really geeked about saving money and greening your home, then you might follow the lead of one Silicon Valley engineer who crusaded around his apartment with the Kill-a-Watt energy meter, measuring the appetite of nearly every appliance.

Eric Boyd calculated that over a year, his refrigerator, desktop PC, and iMac used the most electricity. He estimated that his stove, oven, and air conditioner demanded a bit less energy than the computers. (Government figures, on the other hand, list heating and cooling as the biggest energy gobbler.) The toaster, microwave, washer, and dryer were hungrier for watts than anything else in Boyd's home, but their infrequent use led to low operating costs overall. Lighting didn't cost much because he already used compact fluorescent bulbs instead of ravenous incandescents. And in case you needed more motivation not to clean the floor yourself, his Roomba ate up a piddling 43 cents of his annual electrical bill.

Unfortunately, Boyd concluded that he'd barely notice a dent in his utilities bills if he conscientiously unplugged every gadget from the wall when not in use. But various studies show that standby power drained by those dormant appliances might quietly eat up as much as one-tenth of your energy expenses.

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Averatec hopes you, too, will be this happy with the 2300
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We're eager to see whether the new laptop improves upon its predecessor, the Averatec 2260, which suffered in our battery-drain tests. Stay tuned for results from CNET Labs.

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Your secret's safe with the ThinkPad T60
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And this is why Lenovo announced plans to load select ThinkPads with software that works in conjunction with the laptop's fingerprint reader to encrypt the data on the hard drive. According to the company, the software meets encryption standards for U.S. government systems. (Take note, ING, Deloitte, EDS, Aetna, HP, Fidelity, the State of Florida, and others whose data has been exposed because of hardware theft.)

Meanwhile, Lenovo has also announced plans to update all ThinkPad lines with the option of Intel Core 2 Duo processors; at this point the manufacturer's Web site is showing the new processors only on T-series and R-series models. We're expecting review units in CNET Labs soon and will let you know how they run--if we can get past the security measures.

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Universal power for your laptop
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Compatible with most Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba laptops, the NP100 includes a series of interchangeable connectors and a switch to control output voltage for different laptop models. Of course, it would be great if laptop manufacturers would agree to a standard power cable (like desktop PCs), but we suppose they'll have to get in line behind the digital camera and MP3 player camps.

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Nvidia's GeForce Go 7950 GTX for laptops
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This week's DigitalLife show was Nvidia's choice to unveil its latest mobile GPU, the GeForce Go 7950 GTX, which the company claims is the fastest laptop graphics chip on the market. It's immediately available in select systems, including the newest revision of Dell's high-end XPS M1710.

Besides gamers, hi-def movie fans will be interested, because along with the rest of Nvidia's GeForce 7 series, the 7950 offers GPU acceleration of HD video formats such as H.264--a must-have for the next generation of laptops with built-in HD-DVD or Blu-ray dives.

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The Dell M1710 offers an overclockable CPU
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Digital Life, conveniently scheduled right before the big holiday shopping season, is a hotbed of new product announcements. Dell is hoping to get on some wish lists with its latest gaming laptop, which keeps the same model number as its predecessor but adds enough new bells and whistles to warrant a second look.

The new XPS M1710 offers high-end parts such as Intel's overclocker-friendly Core 2 Duo T7600G and the new Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX GPU. Dell won't overclock the processor for you in the factory, but just the fact that the company is encouraging it is a bold step (although not as bold as its overclocked XPS 700 desktop).

There are strobe lights built into the wrist rests that, according to Dell literature, "strobe, pulse, or fade the system's 16-color lights to the beat of a song or whenever a game character fires a weapon, moves, or gets fragged." It works with mainstream music apps, such as Windows Media Player and iTunes, but the compatible game list is still up in the air. The flashing lights are either massively cool or entirely lame, depending on your personal aesthetic sense. We'll leave it up to you to judge for yourself.

The revised XPS M1710 is available now. The tricked-out version with the components referenced above will set you back $3,498.

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Belkin's new laptop dock uses your ExpressCard slot
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Belkin aims to make the laptop dock useful again, with its universal ExpressCard Notebook Expansion Dock. With a router-like form factor, the dock uses your laptop's ExpressCard slot (which, honestly, probably wasn't being used anyway) to connect, providing much more bandwidth than a standard USB 2.0 connection, particularly useful for playing back high-res video.

Key features include: