Phoenix DRM Reads Your E-Mail

martensitic writes "eWeek reports that Phoenix has developed a utility allowing users of its laptop DRM BIOS (last discussed here) to 'check their Outlook data on a notebook computer without needing to boot the machine.' Since Longhorn is still several years away, Pheonix is developing their own trusted apps to sell the BIOS to laptop manufacturers. One can only imagine what other innocuous bells and whistles will be used to leverage DRM onto Joe Laptop's machine."

Comments

Solution looking for a problem

[Space cowboy]

Ignoring the various 'Good God what else could they do' responses, do yuo *really* care about the 10 seconds or so it takes to come out of hibernation mode ? Enough to want DRM h/w on your machine ?

Really ? Good for you. I don't.

Simon.

S.m.r.t.

[Underholdning]

Ok, so here's what they do. They enable access to MS outlook information (address book, email etc) without having to go through the entire boot sequence.
That means, your anti-virus product hasn't been launched yet, but you can still read that funny mail telling you to "see this amazing attachment".
It also means, that they're basically providing an API to the outlook address book. That means, if you can fake that you're really just the BIOS requesting the information, you can make a virus that can access all the information it needs - undetected.
Some might call this a feature. Other might call this Yet Another Reason To Avoid Phoenix And Outlook.

That is why I have a PDA.....

[Sentosus]

Since it is instant on and negotiates with my 802.11b to grab emails in only a few seconds.

Re:Talk about a misleading headline!

[SillyNickName4me]

I solved that with a handheld (palm m505 in my case) years ago.. has the additional advantage that you dont have to carry your laptop around all the time just coz of needing your PIM.

Re:BIOS Alternatives?

[maxwell demon]

Especially you can't set up a "multiboot" configuration for your BIOS (just keeping the original around, and if the replacement doesn't do what I need, I just boot the original), and if a BIOS installation fails, you might not even get to the point where you can flash your BIOS to repair it.

I remember for the ZX Spectrum, there was an add-on module where you could put alternative ROMs in, and then could select which ROM it should use. Maybe something similar should be in mainboards.

Actually provides access to COPY of Outlook Data

[peterjt]

I've read elesewhere that all this is doing is making use of an Outlook "extension" that, on a regular basis COPIES data from Outlook to a seperate area that the "quick check" application in the BIOS can access.

So really, saying that it's providing "access" to Outlook data is slightly misleading. It's actually providing BIOS data to a "shadow" copy of the Outlook data

My Tablet PC (TC 1000) Already does this.

[Gareth Sargeant]

Come to think of it, it has a Phoenix BIOS. http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/Compaqtabl etpc/us/download/19800.html " The QuickLook Utility is a collection of components which allow the user of a Tablet PC model listed below to quickly and conveniently view their personal information manager (PIM) data without booting the tablet all the way up into the operating system."

Re:Talk about a misleading headline!

[Anonymous Coward]

They did this already and it is called a Mac.

rofl. I was going to say the same thing. Before I got an iBook I just assumed standby was pretty unreliable. With the iBook I found I could shut the lid and it went to sleep. When I opened the lid it resumed from where I left off in a couple seconds. An amazing change of pace to a former Dell Inspiron owner. The only downside is it doesn't have any true hibernate feature to completely power off so the battery will go dead within a couple days without being plugged in. Not a big deal since I leave my laptop plugged in all the time when not using it. I've gone months without needing to reboot my iBook... the last time was 2 weeks ago to apply updates.

OS on a RAM drive?

[siglercm]

I usually don't have anything much to add, but at the risk of being shown how insignificant my thought is....

Isn't running an "app." from the BIOS kinda like running an OS on a RAM drive? With this technique, isn't the BIOS is just a read-only image of a low-end OS to run a single app?

I mean, when RAM drives are cheap, won't everything be similar to this, except a full-blown OS will run? If so, I'm not sure this has much to do with DRM at all, FWIW. Orthogonal, anyone?

Clemmitt

and what happens when....

[schodackwm]

an unauthorized someone gets hold of your passworded laptop? Is it possible that you have mail or addresses that you don't want to share with thieves?

I don't see any p/w or other protection mentioned in the PIM-in-NSBIOS (Not So Basic I/O sys)... so now I'm gonna need a dongle to secure the data?

Amen to all who said vendors should leave the BIOS "basic."

Re:Actually provides access to COPY of Outlook Dat

[paramecio]

Seriously, I think you don't need DRM in order to accomplish this plain task. Also word 'Outlook' would be a pitiful addition to the original post, as this "separate area" could be written by any mail client, remote server monitor, autopr0n rss news feed, or whatever ;)

I want my machine to do whatever I want it to do. When computers start to behave differently, I'll stop using them. Or I'll start looking for old C64 schematics! I can imagine my laptop shutting me outside my home. Or filling my police record! Do you remember HAL? :)

Let M$/Phoenix kill themselves with DRM

[kb8rln]

Let Microsoft/Phoenix kill themselves.

Did not M$ learn any thing from the Intel serial number in the processor, killing there sells. The only reason that M$ does not want to do the DRM in the OS is that it does not want to have to share the APIs ( because of antitrust ) and can lock in people to M$ to look at there own documents if you go to switch to Linux that your will loose your documents.

Re:Talk about a misleading headline!

[RevAaron]

Windows suspend is that flaky.

Worse than that is the power usage. I have known folks who ran Linux or Windows on an x86 lappy who got the suspend to work pretty reliably. But in suspend, they got such dismal battery "life." I mean, 1.5 hours of battery life for regular use, 8 hours of suspend? I have had my Mac suspended for weeks with no problem. What is so hard about bringing the power use down when the machine is all but off?

Mini-OSes

[kavau]

It seems rather ridiculous to put features such as email into the BIOS. Of course this is just a marketing ploy to spark interest in their DRM BIOS, but actually they do have a point: Who needs all the features of a full-powered, multitasking multimedia operating system to do such mundane things as quickly checking for email?

A better, and actually quite sensible, solution, would be to have a number of highly specialized mini-operating systems on your computer: One that runs in text mode and boots in a few seconds, for checking email, or remotely logging into another machine; one that boots even qicker, for taking notes at a meeting; another one for watching DVDs (I believe Linux is making inroads here already...); a third one with the capability of browsing simple web sites (no Java, Flash, etc.) Of course what I called different operating systems will probably just be one and the same operating system, with different services enabled. All that's needed is actually the possibility to start the OS in different configurations, and the ability to shut down all but the most essential services (which shouldn't be many).