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Nintendo Announces Wireless GBA Adapter
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the Yahoo press release announcing Nintendo is using Motorola technology to produce a wireless adapter for the GameBoy Advance. According to the release, "The 2.4GHz radio frequency (RF) chipset enables up to five players to play each other wirelessly, allowing for flexible, mobile game playing", and it "...will be launched in Japan first half of 2004." Motorola is also hosting a picture of the device, showing how it connects to the GBA.
Great. now I have to worry about some students gameboy interfering with our campus' wireless network.
Like microwaves, and portable phones werent enough.
The real problem with WEP isn't the weak method it uses to generate RC4 keys. I've seen with my own eyes many networks that don't even have encryption enabled. The real problem is that encryption is: A. Optional. B. Difficult to set up. WEP isn't close to being "wire equivalent" because wires are, by default, pretty secure. You don't need to manually enable 'no-public-hub-ports-on-external-walls' mode with a wired Ethernet. A wire isn't just a way to get the bits from A to B - it also acts as a user interface for associating machines with networks. I bet you didn't think of the patch panel in the server room as a user interface, right? Actually, it's a pretty good user interface. It's much more intuitive than any GUI and very reliable (ok, so it's a little messy, but so is my desktop :-)
Here's an idea for how WEP could have been much closer to 'wired equivalent':
When you set up the device on your machine it scans for available networks and shows a list. You choose one. It then tells you to press a key at the same time as pressing a button on the access point.
If you have physical access to the access point you can do it yourself. Otherwise you call the admin on the phone and after checking your identity (usually it's just a matter of recognizing your voice) the admin tells you to press the key '...now!'. That's it. You're on the network, with securely configured strong encryption.
This can be much more secure that it appears - the key is exchanged using Diffie-Hellman key exchange so eavesdropping is not possible. Man-in-the-middle attacks are difficult in a shared medium such as wireless where everyone hears everyone else: if the two participants are careful they can detect such attacks. To prevent attempts to 'take a ride' and join the network at the same time as another machine the access point will verify that there are no other attempts to join the network within a certain period before or after the time window for 'simultaneous' button presses (actually within plus or minus a few hundred milliseconds).
Now, what are the chances of some company actually implementing this?
The linux hacker
Real question is does it matter? If 2k is all you need then your good. Before anyone pulls out Bill Gates 640K quote this isn't a computer, it's a gameboy which can't be upgraded by your common person and like consoles, developers are used to working within requirements. I'm sure the data port is fast enough for all GBA games here and future.
Frankly, I would believe that I live in a world where even evil terrorist hackers have better things to do than to try and hack into someones handheld game...
You don't frigging need any security when all you do is trying to outwit your mate in Pokemon. It's not like it's a critical system, or contains personal information. Leave it unsecure, it'll leave bandwidth and CPU power to what matter - the game.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
but it looks like this is the deathknell for the N-Gage already. The only thing it had going for it as a gaming system was the much touted wireless multiplayer gaming. Now that Nintendo has added the feature to the Game Boy, the only thing that the N-Gage is relegated to is an overpriced cellphone.
It looks like Nintendo isn't exactly ignoring the threat of N-Gage and Zodiac to its current market niche. Granted, this thing doesn't give the GBA the potential of N-Gage for multiplayer, since it doesn't tie in to GSM/GPRS, nor does it give the GBA any claim to serious business usability. But if they keep the price down, it should muddy the waters enough to ensure both appliances don't get much market share.
If Zodiac or N-Gage had some actual first-run games, especially a killer multiplayer game, they might still have a chance, but both platforms have been more interested in licensing tried and true games.. A pity, some competition might produce some better games; the GBA's software has been rife with movie tie-ins, console adaptations and sequels.
Weapons of Mass Analysis
Usually stuff gets released in Japan
Commoodre (before it went belly up) liked to release in the UK.
America is good for inovation but extreamly bad for first release of new technology.
Commodore did release one thing in the US first...
The Commodore 128.
Ops.
Oh yeah and that CD entertainment thing that was the death of Commoodre.. that was released in the US first.
Japan is more willing to pay over inflated prices just to get *defective* bleading edge.
So when are they going to start selling in america first?
Maybe when we stop recomending that everyone waits untill the price comes down.
No really let them buy the first generation units and when they get the bugs out and the price down we can get it here.
If your REALLY that hard up to get it price-no-matter then order one from Japan. Nobodys going to stop you.