From CyberCrime & Doing Time:
The Energizer DUO, a USB-powered battery recharger, was confirmed on Friday by Energizer Holdings to contain malicious code. According to this Energizer Press Release, they were notified by the CERT Coordination Center that the Windows software that ships with their DUO Charger “contains a vulnerability”.
found at longtail.com:
The price of a typical gadget reflects two factors: the cost of making it and the price its inventor is charging for the intellectual property in it. Often the second can be many times the first (as in the case of an Intel processor chip, for example, which costs just a few dollars to make but can sell for hundreds of dollars).
But if you don’t charge for intellectual property, gadgets can get a lot cheaper, and potentially reach a much larger market. That’s the philosophy behind “open source hardware”. You give away all the intellectual property (schematics, PCB files, firmware, software, assembly instructions, etc.) but sell the completed units, charging only a set markup on the cost of the hardware itself, which you disclose.
But what’s the right markup that leads to the lowest cost for consumers and still makes money for you? With the help of some open source hardware experts (Lenore Edman, Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone), Chris Anderson found the business model he settled on.
