I happened to hear from Lee Caplin of Starium today. They've apparently (I'm looking at Lee's email message while typing this, but I don't wish to speak for them) abandoned plans to sell the bump-in-a-wire device. Now they're thinking of marketing a small RJ11'd cryptophone an executive would carry around. Also, Lee says Starium has filed for patents on a desk phone, answering machine and conference phone.
-Declan On Tue, Oct 23, 2001 at 03:06:29AM -0000, Dr. Evil wrote: > (is that the correct plural of Starium?) > > http://www.tactronix.com/s100.htm > > NOW TAKING PRE-ORDERS FOR DELIVERY IN DECEMBER 2001/JANUARY 2002 > > Very Limited Quantity Available > > A 50% Deposit Will Reserve Your Units Today!! > > 1-10 Units $995 USD Each > > 11-20 Units $936 USD Each > > 21-50 Units $884 USD Each > > 51 Units+ Call For Price > > What do people here think of this? My initial thoughts are: > > Pros: > > 1. Voice encryption is great. It's the Last Great Encryption Taboo > (the other is file encryption, but that's not nearly as taboo as > voice). I'm glad to see something on the market which addresses > this. Obviously, all traffic, including saying hi to grandma, > should be encrypted. > > 2. The unit looks very easy to use. I could travel anywhere in the > world with it (well, anywhere that it's legal) and plug it in and > press one button and it works. That's great. > > Cons: > > 1. I would like to see an open source reference software > implementation, or some way to verify that there are no "naughty > bits" in this thing. I know, open source isn't much of a business > model, but with encryption products, it seems almost essential. > > 2. It's expensive. It costs more than a PC. However, $2k for two > units is small compared to the value of data it could be securing, > so for many users, the price will be fine. > > 3. A minor nitpick: It uses 3DES. What's wrong with AES? > > I think I would like to buy some of them, but I can't decide if I want > to be an early adopter, or wait for cheaper and better versions to > come out.
