Wanna make a long-distance call and not pay for it? Got a PalmPilot? Go for it.
Software posted Thursday to a Canadian hacking Web site will turn the PalmPilot personal organizer into an unlimited calling card. The code arrives only days after the revelation that handheld computers can be used to unlock car doors. Handy gadgets.
This latest open-sesame trick isn't doing anything that wasn't possible before. But it should add fuel to what has become a public relations tangle for PalmPilot manufacturer 3Com.
"3Com has not introduced any new risk in this regard," the company said in a statement Thursday about the unit's ability to emulate certain types of electronic car-key codes. "This capability has been around for years in the form of universal remote controls and infrared-equipped laptop computers."
The extensive network of PalmPilot hackers agrees that 3Com cannot be blamed for the locksmith trick, which received widespread media attention this week.
Instead, the developers say the company has created a remarkably versatile electronic organizer that can be adapted to tasks well beyond those for which it was intended.
"If a criminal uses a paper clip to pick a lock, should the manufacturer of the paper clip be blamed?" asked the editor of Hacker News Network who goes by the alias Space Rogue.
The latest hack, known as RedPalm, is really just a new twist on an old trick, exploiting a weakness in older pay phones that phone hackers, known as phreakers, have used for years. The new RedPalm software plays tones through the PalmPilot's speaker that can fool some phones into believing that callers have deposited quarters.
Before the PalmPilot software, the same result could be achieved using easily obtained parts from Radio Shack, or even a recordable Hallmark greeting card. These kinds of devices are known by phreakers as red boxes.
