"a number of Android applications are offering practical solutions that unlock the power of a phone that's really a Unix machine you can slip into your pocket,' Wayner writes".
Except that the iPhone is also "really a UNIX machine you can slip into your pocket.
It sounds like they are guessing passwords rather than cracking keys. But is there any advantage in using a CELL processor for this?
AES, for example, is the encryption standard used by PGP's whole disk encryption. From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brute_force_attack:
"AES permits the use of 256-bit keys. Breaking a symmetric 256-bit key by brute force requires 2128 times more computational power than a 128-bit key. A device that could check a billion billion (1018) AES keys per second would require about 3×1051 years to exhaust the 256-bit key space."
Hence my thought that they are not cracking keys.
"It says he made us all to be just like him. So if we're dumb, then god is dumb, and maybe even a little ugly on the side." -- Frank Zappa