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Apple and Google have had voice recognition for years. Pre-authentication seems insecure. The Fire Phone is priced high with the assumption that the price wil

by Raphael 12y ago

Apple and Google have had voice recognition for years. Pre-authentication seems insecure. The Fire Phone is priced high with the assumption that the price will be lower with carrier contracts, a la iPhone and Galaxy. Although, if they get the price down, it could become the "free" phone like old iPhones are.

girvo 12y ago
The Apple TV doesn't have voice recognition. I wish it did, Siri to control it would be brilliant (and it's a lovely machine regardless). > Pre-authentication seems insecure. Do you mind explaining how? Because I can't see it.
- mschuster91 12y ago
  All it needs is the postman confusing two packages (or the wrong phone in the correct parcel) and a stranger has total access to your account.
  - maherbeg 12y ago
    Do you really think the password is on the device instead of using some sort of revokable token authentication mechanism?
    - mschuster91 12y ago
      And tokens can be abused or stolen (given they're not stored or paired with other tokens/keys residing inside a TPM), we have seen numerous cases of people hijacking others' AWS accounts and using them for mining bitcoin, of all things.
      - nailer 12y ago
        That's done with an AWS secret key, which is effectively your password to the AWS API, and not a limited use token.
        mschuster91 12y ago
        I know that, still people have managed to commit their passwords, ssh keys and more to github.
  - freehunter 12y ago
    Just because it's preconfigured with your account doesn't mean it doesn't need a password. My iPhone has my account on it but I still need to type in a code.
- function_seven 12y ago
  I suppose someone could steal your FireTV shipment from your doorstep and watch movies on your account. Personally I'll take that risk any day over having to type my password in using the remote.
spinlock 12y ago
> Pre-authentication seems insecure. Very true but what is the cost to Amazon if it's stolen? They regularly refund thousands in EC2 fees when people check their keys into github. I'm sure there's a loophole where they don't have to pay rights-holders for stolen works and the cost to stream movies is pretty low at their scale. My guess is that the hardware would be the biggest loss for Amazon in the stolen TV crime. It's also pretty easy to crack the case unless the thieves are using a stolen wifi signal too.

by Raphael 12y ago

girvo 12y ago

The Apple TV doesn't have voice recognition. I wish it did, Siri to control it would be brilliant (and it's a lovely machine regardless). > Pre-authentication seems insecure. Do you mind explaining how? Because I can't see it.

mschuster91 12y ago
All it needs is the postman confusing two packages (or the wrong phone in the correct parcel) and a stranger has total access to your account.
- maherbeg 12y ago
  Do you really think the password is on the device instead of using some sort of revokable token authentication mechanism?
  - mschuster91 12y ago
    And tokens can be abused or stolen (given they're not stored or paired with other tokens/keys residing inside a TPM), we have seen numerous cases of people hijacking others' AWS accounts and using them for mining bitcoin, of all things.
    - nailer 12y ago
      That's done with an AWS secret key, which is effectively your password to the AWS API, and not a limited use token.
      - mschuster91 12y ago
        I know that, still people have managed to commit their passwords, ssh keys and more to github.
- freehunter 12y ago
  Just because it's preconfigured with your account doesn't mean it doesn't need a password. My iPhone has my account on it but I still need to type in a code.
function_seven 12y ago
I suppose someone could steal your FireTV shipment from your doorstep and watch movies on your account. Personally I'll take that risk any day over having to type my password in using the remote.

spinlock 12y ago

> Pre-authentication seems insecure. Very true but what is the cost to Amazon if it's stolen? They regularly refund thousands in EC2 fees when people check their keys into github. I'm sure there's a loophole where they don't have to pay rights-holders for stolen works and the cost to stream movies is pretty low at their scale. My guess is that the hardware would be the biggest loss for Amazon in the stolen TV crime. It's also pretty easy to crack the case unless the thieves are using a stolen wifi signal too.