Now the iPad Planned Obsolescence Train has left the station and, “some IT executives who will have to support the second-generation Apple tablet are already cringing”, says Computerworld, going on:

“The iPad 2, set to be available on March 11, is faster, thinner and lighter than its predecessor tablet, and includes two cameras for video. These and other new features and apps will likely lure many business users to try out the new device, several IT managers said. Therefore, it’s inevitable that large IT shops will have to spend significant time and expense supporting them, the IT managers said.”

Oh dear.

“I have coined this ‘the tyranny of consumerization’,” the story has Dave Codack, vice-president of employee technology and network services at TD Bank Financial Group in Toronto, stating.

Codack’s group supports 81,000 workers and his organisation is “currently testing the original iPad device along with Apple’s iPhone smartphone for various company-related uses, and plans to test the iPad 2 and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet from Research in Motion that’s slated to ship soon”, it says.

“With employees using these devices in their day-to-day lives, it’s inevitable they will expect enterprise support to eventually bridge these two worlds, which will put pressure on the internal technology organization to step up”, says Codack in Computerworld, adding the process is a form of tyranny because “the enterprise is not dictating technology with these devices, the revolt is coming from the end user community”.

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Computerworld – Apple’s iPad 2 provokes IT anxiety

March, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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RIM is short for Research In Motion, but in a detailed open letter on his blog, Canadian app developer Jamie Murai (right) says for him, things have ground to a halt.

“You win”, he says sadly, going on >>>

I concede defeat. I no longer want to attempt developing an app for the Playbook. Are you happy now? Surely you must be. Considering how terribly designed the entire process is, from the registration right through to loading an app into the simulator, I can only assume that you are trying to drive developers away by inconveniencing them as much as humanly possible. Just in case you’ve forgotten, let me give you a little recap of the process you’ve put together.

Living in Waterloo, it’s hard not to be reminded of you. I walk by your campus every day, most of my friends have worked for you at some point, and you are the largest supporter of the university I attend. So it seemed like a rather good idea to at least attempt to write an app for the Playbook, your shiny new tablet that you hope will be able to compete with the extremely popular iPad and the up and coming Honeycomb tablets. Having already developed apps for the iPhone and iPad, I had a little experience with the process of signing up for developer programs, and naturally I assumed that yours would be different, but fairly straight forward none the less. Well, you know what they say about making assumptions!

First, I had to fill out a form with my personal information. No big deal, pretty standard. I do, however, notice that although it is currently free to register with App World, in the future there will be a $200 USD charge. Now just in case you’ve never looked in to competing developer programs, Apple charges $99, and Google charges $25. Considering you are by far the underdog in this game, how do you justify charging double the price of the market leader? Also, with the $99 or $25 charge, Apple and Google let you publish and unlimited number of apps on their stores. You, on the other hand, have decided that for $200, a developer should only get to publish 10 apps, and it will cost $200 for every additional 10 apps. On Twitter, I believe that would colloquially be referred to as a fail.

After getting all my personal information in, and being thoroughly disgusted with your ignorant pricing scheme, I’m now ready to start the actual process of developing. With the iPad, all I need to do is download a single installer that contains the IDE, the SDK, and the simulator. You’ve decided that it’s better to make me download the Adobe AIR SDK, the Playbook SDK, and the Playbook simulator in three separate downloads. It’s not optimal, but I’m sure you have your reasons, right? RIM? Bueller? So I go ahead and download the Adobe AIR SDK. Of course, I’m a little confused when it doesn’t come with an installer, but is simply a collection of libraries and binaries. It reminds me of the good old days of command line Linux installs, but it’s about as far from user friendly as you can get. Just in case you forgot, RIM, developers are users too. Next up, is the Playbook SDK. For some reason, you want me to fill in an entire form of personal information. That’s odd, considering I did already when I first signed up. I guess I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your database crashed in the interim. So I fill out the form, and start the SDK download. Now I need to download the Playbook simulator. Again, you ask me to fill out a form of personal information identical to the one I just filled out to download the SDK. At this point, RIM, I seriously think you should get checked for some type of anterograde amnesia. Onward I go!

As I stated before, the Adobe AIR SDK didn’t come with an installer, but being a developer I obviously have a lib folder hanging around, so I just drop it in there. Next, I go to install the Playbook SDK. For some reason, it thinks that the optimal place to install software on a Mac is my home directory. Not /Developer, not even /Applications, where 99.99% of software is supposed to be installed. But whatever, I guess you have your reasons, right? RIM? Bueller? So I just manually change the default install folder, as any user friendly installer should require. Then I move on to the Playbook simulator. Oh, I forgot to mention that you also told me I had to download VMWare Fusion to run the simulator. Nothing says user friendly like making me buy an additional piece of $80 third party software to run YOUR simulator. Luckily, VMWare offers a free trial, which by the way, comes in a single installer (see what I did there?). I’m kinda of confused at this point though. The docs say that I need to install the .iso image into VMWare, but the file I downloaded from you was an installer? I decide that maybe the docs are outdated, and you’ve come up with a nice installer for the simulator that wouldn’t make me use VMWare. So I go ahead an optimistically run the installer. Turns out, you’ve decided to put the .iso image in an installer, and just have the installer copy the .iso into a folder on my sytem. Cause you know, that’s so much simpler than just letting me download the .iso directly. The next part turns out to be pretty simple, having to just create a new VM in the usual way. VMWare gets the credit for that though.

Ok, so to recap, I now have the Adobe AIR SDK sitting in a lib folder, the Playbook SDK is installed, and the Playbook simulator VM is installed into VMWare. Obviously the first thing I want to do is to boot up the simulator and play with it. So I click the nice little Play button inside VMWare, and am greeted by what I perceived to be a 1000000000 page license agreement in a DOS-like console window. So after having scrolled through the whole thing page by page with the spacebar, I am now greeted by the actual Playbook UI! My reaction is similar to that of Kristen Wiig when she plays the Target cashier on SNL. Since there’s only a web browser available, I launch it so I can see if the browser lives up to your claims, RIM. However, it seems that I can only get to about two pages before it stops responding all together. Oh well. I figured, at this point, I should try to get an actual app loaded on to the simulator. So I head back to the docs to learn how. First up, I have to put the simulator into development mode, which makes total sense because of those times when you don’t want to use the simulator for development. For instance, sometimes you’re obviously gonna want to load up the simulator on your laptop and use it like a Playbook, right? RIM? Bueller? But before I can do that, you tell me that I need to set a password, which is obviously very important, because if someone steals my laptop, that last thing I would want them to do is be able to put my Playbook simulator into development mode without my permission. Good thinking RIM! Next, I need to get the IP address of the simulator, because it’s running in a VM, and as far as my OS is concerned it’s an entirely separate device. Good design RIM! Making things easy and integrated (like Apple and Google have) only encourages those “artsy” types to try to develop software, which clearly should be left only to unix loving neck beards (I use that term endearingly).

Now I get down to the real work. Compiling and sending an application to the simulator. As your documentation suggests, I go ahead and download the sample app from your website. Your docs now tell me that before I can create the application package, I need to first create an application archive. Ok, that sounds alright with me, because obviously you’re going to tell me how to do that. Wait, you’re not going to tell me how to do that? Ok, well let’s just assume I figured out how to do that on my own. Now I need to go back to the command line, and type in a big command with lots of non-descriptive command line options that will transform my archive into the application package which can then be loaded on to the device. With package in hand (hehehe, I’m here all week folks!), I now need to type in another long command which will send the application to the simulator running in the VM at the IP address I had to get earlier.

At this point, I feel the need to compare and contrast to the Apple and Google way of doing things. If you are developing for iOS or Android, you can replace the entire preceding two paragraphs with one sentence: Press the button that says Build and Run (or the equivalent button within Eclipse for Android). Sarcasm aside, as it stands, the Playbook SDK is complete crap.

So it was at this point that I decided to surrender. Knowing what a pleasure it is to use Apple and Google’s tools, there was no way I could justify continuing with Playbook development. I thought this story would end there. Unfortunately, there was one more little jab you were still able to get in, RIM. This afternoon, Google Notifier informs me that I’ve received an email from you. Naturally, I assumed that it was just a confirmation that my App World account had been approved, considering I had filled out your forms truthfully and completely, just as you had asked. However, I was surprised to find that it was, in fact, a request for more personal information. You wanted me to print off a notarized statement of identification form, fill it out, take it to notary with government issue ID to have it notarized, and then return it to you so that you could be absolutely sure with 100% accuracy that I was who I said I was. I think it goes without saying at this point, but neither Apple nor Google require you to do anything even close to that.

So, my dear RIM, primary supporter of my local economy, I bid you adieu. You have succeeded in your quest of driving away a perfectly willing developer from your platform. On a more serious note, being the underdog, you need to make your process AT LEAST as simple as Apple’s or Google’s, if not more so. You need to make your tools AT LEAST as good as Apple’s or Google’s, if not more so. You have failed at both.

“Update”, says Jamie Murai. “It should be noted that I was using the WebWorks SDK and not the AIR SDK. A commenter on HN mentioned that if you’re using Adobe Builder, it will eventually get you to a Build and Run button, but that they experienced similar problems as well.”

UPDATE:- Also see Rim’s Tyler Lessard responds to Jamie Murai

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Jamie Murai – You Win, RIM! (An Open Letter To RIM’s Developer Relations), February 25, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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Some 72% of travellers still limit their roaming calls because of high charges even if a majority is aware prices have fallen since 2006, says the report, released yesterday.

“Only 19% of people who use internet-related services on their mobile phones when abroad think the costs of data-roaming for (Internet surfing or checking e-mails) are fair”, it says.

“Telecom companies must listen to their customers” says Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda.

“Consumers feel there is still much room for improvement, particularly for data roaming.”

More people are using their mobiles whilst travelling in the EU than four years ago when the EU first introduced roaming rules, says the study, stating:

“Despite an estimated 13% fall in travel between 2006 and 2010, the overall volume of calls received and SMS sent while abroad in the EU has grown during that period. Travellers report making 32% more calls, receiving 31% more calls and texting 43% more since 2006.”

Key findings >>>

• Men are more likely to make voice calls (57%) while more women prefer to send text messages (56%).
• 88% of Cypriots mostly use voice services but only 44% of British travellers.
• 81% of Irish mobile users roaming in the EU favour text messages and only 24% of Portuguese.
• 32% of Bulgarians do not use their mobile phones abroad at all.
• Young people are now significantly more likely to use roaming services compared to 2006 figures (making voice calls: +43%; receiving calls: +42% and sending text messages: +51%).
• 30% of retired people and 15% of 25-39 year olds do not use their mobile phones abroad at all.
• Worries over high roaming call and data costs
• Among frequent travellers, 61% are aware that roaming prices decreased following the EU’s intervention. However, the changes in consumer behaviour have not all been positive:
• Around 1 in 5 mobile users have cut down their use of roaming services in the past 4 years. This is due to their perception of the cost.
• 72% of mobile users continue to limit their mobile voice calls while abroad because they are worried about the costs.
• 81% of Swedes, 72% of Italians and 57% of Greeks are using roaming voice services less because of cost concerns.
• The survey also shows that data roaming services (such as surfing on websites or downloading data) have started to take-off with 10% of respondents making use of these services.
• 17% of Lithuanians and 15% of Spanish say that data roaming is the service they use most while abroad whilst only 2% of Hungarians and 4% of Germans use this the most.
• Young people are more likely to use data roaming: 15% of 15-24 years old prefer to surf on their mobile abroad compared to 6% of people over 55.
• However, the price of data roaming is generally not regarded as reasonable with only 19% of respondents saying that the cost of data roaming services is fair.

The EU’s Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, acting on a proposal from the European Commission, first introduced caps on roaming prices in 2007, “ensuring that mobile phone users pay similar roaming tariffs across the EU”, says the study, adding:

“In July 2009, they adopted revised rules that cut roaming prices further so that by July 2011 the maximum roaming charges would, as default, be 35 cents per minute for calls made and 11 cents for calls received while abroad. From 1st July 2010 travellers’ data-roaming limit was automatically set at €50 excluding VAT (unless they had chosen another limit – higher or lower) and operators had to send users a warning when they reached 80% of their data-roaming bill limit. The 2009 roaming rules will apply until the end of June 2012.

“To achieve a competitive Single Market for roaming, the Commission will produce a full review of the functioning of the EU roaming rules by 30 June 2011 and will assess the extent to which the objectives of the rules have been reached and whether competition is working for roaming services.”

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European Commission – Europeans use mobile phones more when travelling abroad, but still worry about costs, EU survey reveals, February 14, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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Unbelievably,  the failure of an Apple iPhone alarm application is making international headlines.

It was supposed to waken users out of their slumbers  on January 1.

But it didn’t and Lo! – many of them overslept, missing church and such.

An Apple spokeswoman promised all alarms would again work properly as of yesterday.

But they didn’t, and now people are all a-twitter.

“you are supposed to be fixed by January 3rd. and yet this morning, the 4th…guess what you didn’t do? GO OFF.” So tweeted annabradin.

“every day people go to sleep wishing their alarm won’t go off in the morning”, said JulieChanNuoEn. “the iphone has made this dream a reality.”

The solution? Buy an alarm clock. heh

But No! Seriously, “The calendar bug that was causing this glitch has been fixed, but your iPhone will not register the fix until it is rebooted”, says iphonedownloadblog.com, adding:

“A simple ’soft’ reboot (holding the home button and the sleep/wake button simultaneously until the Apple boot logo appears) will cause your iPhone to dump its temporarily stored files and fix the alarm bug.

“If you haven’t rebooted or shut down your iPhone in the past 24 hours, that should be the reason that your alarm didn’t sound this morning.”

Now you know.

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many of them overslept – iPhone failure caused sleep problems, January 3, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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A problem with the Apple iPhone made it hard for some owners to properly herald in the new year.

How so?

“The alarm application on the smartphone failed to work for alarms that were set for one-time use only— as opposed to recurring — on the first two days of 2011, triggering reports that some people wound up oversleeping”, says the Wall Street Journal.

No kidding!. This truly was a WSJ ‘news’ item.!

Not to worry, though. All will be well as of today, a spokeswoman for Apple said., promising, “customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning Jan. 3.”

Phewww. That’s a relief!

UPDATE :

“My iPod Touch iOS4.2 now works as of 10am, Jan 3 in Europe (CET/GMT+1)”, says a post from Takleung on Apple Discussions, adding:

“Didn’t work this morning -> when Apple said that it would work again Jan 3, I guess they had to be more specific.

“This is second time in two months we have suffered in Europe from bad calendar/alarm programming from Apple. I guess this is a good area for a New Years resolution for Apple programmers. Stating that ” We had absolutely no way to prepare for 2011″ really surprises me. I had guess already that 2010 would be followed by 2011 but I may be making assumptions.

“I was also wondering about the twitter message ‘Until Apple issues an official fix for the iPhone alarm glitch, please do not open your iPhone’s clock app. Doing so may void the warranty.’ … is that a general statement? I guess most of their customers had to open the app to find out if the error was on their part for setting the alarm wrong?”

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Wall Street Journal – Some iPhone Users Alarmed After Oversleeping, January 1, 2011
Apple Discussions – iPhone 4 alarm not working since 01.01.2011, January 3, 2011

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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“By flooding these mobiles with hundreds of thousands of malicious texts, they were able to discover bugs within the phones text-message reading software, that in some cases would force the phone to get stuck in a reboot loop”, says Deutsche Welle.

“And that was just day one of the 27th annual Chaos Communication Congress, the annual gathering of the Chaos Computer Club, currently going on this week in the German capital”, says the story.

Collin Mulliner and Nico Golde, from the Technical University of Berlin, “claimed that their attack potentially could affect older-generation mobile phones made by Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Micromax and LG”, says the story, going on:

“Mulliner theorized that a large scale such attack might be overwhelming to a mobile network by inducing ‘ten thousand mobiles to try to reconnect simultaneously’.”

The conference ends today.

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Deutsche Welle – International hackers convene in Berlin, December 29, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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Apple has been coyly fluttering its white iPhone at people for quite a while.

Who cares what colour it is? Or who cares at all, with all the excellent smart phones that are available, and for less money than Apple demands?

But Applelytes must have their goodies. So Lam figured out a way to satisfy them — some of them, anyway — by offering a white iPhone way ahead of Apple.

The official item isn’t slated for sale until Spring 2011. But Lam has friends in low places — at Apple parts maker Foxconn, aka Suicide Central. This means he was able to get his hands on white iPhone 4 parts, says the New York Observer.

This, in turn, enabled him to launch http://www.whiteiphone4now.com/ which which goes >>>

Release date for the White iPhone 4 has been delayed until Spring of 2011 and some even speculated that it may never see an official launch!

Own the black iPhone 4 but want the White model? We offer competitively priced parts needed to convert your current black iPhone 4 to a White iPhone 4 yourself (or certified technician) with this easy to follow guide.

Statistics:

White iPhone 4 Owners: 5OO
Black iPhone 4 Owners: 14,OOO,OOO

Disclaimer: Pulling out your White iPhone 4 in public may attract crowds of people gathering around you.

What’s Included in the Full Kit?

White iPhone 4 Back Panel (Pre-Assembled)
- Back Glass with Camera Lens & LED Diffuser
- Supporting Plate

White iPhone 4 Front Panel (Pre-Assembled)

- Retina Display
- Supporting Frame
- Front Glass
- Digitizer/Touch Panel

White iPhone 4 Home Button

iPhone 4 Opening Tools, Protective Case and Screen Protector

Why Buy From Us?

Compared to the others, you’re saving $180-300 when you buy from us. And of course speedy customer service. Not to mention we always have the latest model of parts and all parts in stock ready to ship. That’s why FaceBook employees, undisclosed celebrities, accessory makers, and more buy from us.

“I’m very thankful, cause for months I was struggling for an idea that would bootstrap my first startup and help pay for college,” the New York Observer has Lam, “who hopes to attend NYU and study computer science or business”, saying.

But, the story says, he’s now had an email “from a private investigator accusing me of selling stolen goods, which I’m 100 percent sure is not the case. They are some kind of anti-counterfeit/trademark firm, which sounds ridiculous, similar to what Apple is bringing up to remove White iPhone 4 Listings on eBay. I don’t know how this legal stuff works.”

Lam intends to contact a lawyer “and has no plans to take his site down or change his business”, says the post. “There are a couple of other sellers online and somehow I’m the ‘focus’ of it all”, he says in it.

“I think this guy is just trying to scare me into stop selling on behalf of Apple.”

But “He can take heart in the fact that Steve Jobs, along with his partner Steve Wozniak, helped to fund their first business selling ‘Blue Boxes’ that let users make illegal long distance telephone calls.”

Definitely stay tuned.

(Cheers, Filip)

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New York Observer – Will White iPhone 4 Send New York Teen to College … or to Jail?, November 16, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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Unconfirmed reports say Canada’s Research in Motion has made data sharing agreements with India, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates with other countries also requesting the Blackberry maker to “locate data centres within their jurisdictions”.

“A major concern of these regimes is that BlackBerry data can be encrypted and routed through servers located outside of their jurisdictions”, says Rimcheck, launched by Information Warfare Monitor and the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.

Rimcheck is “one among many data ongoing collection activities we have in the cyberdomain” Deibert told p2pnet.

“Our aim is to better understand routing of Blackberry traffic in order to provide context to issues around compliance with local laws and regulations”, he says.  “It’s the first step in the research project.”

Project Rimcheck automatically collects the IP protocol address and user agent when someone visits the site.

“In addition to the automatic collection of data, we would appreciate your help in manually inserting more data”, it says, adding:

“Using the drop down menus provided, please select the country in which you are presently located, the type of Blackberry service you are using (enterprise or consumer), and the nature of the your connection (data or wifi). You also have the option of submitting any additional comments you think might be relevant in the comments field.”

Stay tuned.

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November, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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Say it ain’t so!!!!!!!!

• “Apple on Tuesday indicated that it won’t be able to make the white version of the iPhone 4 available by the end of the year as originally hoped. When the iPhone 4 went on sale in June (only in black), Apple said that the … InformationWeek
  
• “Gadget fans who have been holding off getting an iPhone 4 because they want the white model are in for a very long wait – the device won’t be available until spring, Apple has confirmed … Telegraph
• Reports saying Apple has delayed the white iPhone 4 until next Spring have emerged, complete with a statement from Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller who declined to provide an explanation as to why customers must endure this excruciatingly long wait … Softedia
• For those keeping track, yes, that is the third time you’ve read that headline since June. Apple is saying that the white version of the iPhone 4 now won’t be for sale until spring 2011. And that’s after telling us in June that it … CNN
• If you have been holding back until upgrading to an iPhone 4 until Apple released a white version of its new smartphone, then you will be disappointed to learn that the company has delayed the new white iPhone 4 until spring next year … TechRadar

Oh my GOD !!!

Say it ain’t so!!!!!!!!

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October, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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Now she’s 19 and a Long Island yoga instructor, and she’s suing Apple and Samba for $1 million for copyright violation because her DIY pix wound in an iPhone app without her permission.

The app has gone, “but Battino is fuming that she hasn’t gotten any credit — or cash — for the shots”, says the New York Post, quoting her as stating, “I was just upset that I’m not being paid for my pictures. I’m not embarrassed.”

A shot of her in a “plunging-down-to-there black swimsuit was the only icon advertising the eXtreme Cam Girls app on iTunes, Battino alleges”, says the story, adding:

“She refused to say how or who might have stolen the pics but insists Miami-based Samba Studios never tried to contact her to see if they could use the pictures.

“Battino also flipped when she spotted another self-portrait — this time she was sporting a tight, cut-off T-shirt and black lace panties — on a Web site along with a nude shot of former Playboy Playmate Summer Altice.”

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New York Post – ‘Net babe sues over ‘hot’ pics, October 24, 2010

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And that’s bad.

The TaintDroid is an “efficient, system-wide dynamic taint tracking and analysis system capable of simultaneously tracking multiple sources of sensitive data”.

So say its creators, William Enck and Patrick McDaniel, Pennsylvania State University; Landon P. Cox and Peter Gilbert, Duke University; Byung-Gon Chun, Jaeyeon Jung and Anmol N. Sheth, Intel Labs.

The team ran TaintDroid against 30 popular third-party Android apps and found “68 instances of potential misuse of users’ private information across 20 applications”, they say in their paper, TaintDroid: An Information-Flow Tracking System for Realtime Privacy Monitoring on Smartphones.

They chose “30 out of the 358 most popular Android apps that, when installed, ask for permission to get at location, camera and audio data”, says the BBC.

They logged what the applications did, it says, going on >>>

This revealed that 15 of the apps sent location information to advertisers but did not inform users that data was being shared. Some apps gathered and despatched location information even when an application was not running and some sent updates every 30 seconds.

One application gathered data and sent it as soon as it was installed but before it was run for the first time.

TaintDroid also found that seven of the apps shared unique identifiers, known as IMEI numbers, when sending data. Others despatched phone numbers or SIM card serial numbers.

This revealed that 15 of the apps sent location information to advertisers but did not inform users that data was being shared. Some apps gathered and despatched location information even when an application was not running and some sent updates every 30 seconds.

One application gathered data and sent it as soon as it was installed but before it was run for the first time.

TaintDroid also found that seven of the apps shared unique identifiers, known as IMEI numbers, when sending data. Others despatched phone numbers or SIM card serial numbers.

In a statement, the BBC has Google stating, “Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer.

“We also provide developers with best practices about how to handle user data.”

Oh rilly?

Stay tuned.

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BBC – Google Android apps found to be sharing data, September 30, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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That was MIC Gadget in July.

Now, “The Apple Store provides free phone calls on their demo iPhones for customers to experience the great product”, says it’s newest Apfel story.

Wow, eh?

But apparently “this does not work well in Shanghai’s Apple Store”, says the story.

No? How come?

Chinese Apple religionists “are always visiting the Apple Store to make international calls with the demo iPhones”, says the story, adding:

“So, this shameful behavior had turned the Shanghai Apple Store into a public telephone booth.”

heh

Nice one.

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MIC Gadget – Shanghai’s Newest Apple Store Opens Today !!!, July 10, 2010
Apfel story – Shanghai Apple Store Turns Into a Public Telephone Booth,  September 10, 2010

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We take it for granted.

But things are very different in Cuba, blogs Yoani Sánchez in Generation Y.

“My cellphone rings but I don’t answer”, says, going on >>>

I wait for the ringing to stop and go to a nearby phone to call the number shown on the screen. I’ve warned my friends that I’ll let a call go and call them back later, but some insist, forgetting about the high cost of a minute of conversation on the cell network. I have a code with them: two rings if it’s urgent and three if it’s about something that can wait.

When I’m in the street and the device I carry in my purse vibrates, I look for a public phone that takes coins and doesn’t have the handset ripped off.

Although the telecommunications company ETESCA reported that the number of cell phone users will soon surpass one million, we remain handicapped with regards to this technology. To receive a domestic call is madness, configuring the texting can take hours of fighting with the operators, and finding a place that sells recharge cards is like the movie Mission Impossible.

Like a teenager whose growing feet no longer fit in his shoes, our cellphone system has increased the number of subscribers but without the corresponding improvement in infrastructure. Well, the growth doesn’t follow an integrated development of the system, but is led by the desire to collect — at all costs — those colored convertible notes that simulate the dollar.

Despite recent reductions in the high rates, even a doctor can’t afford cellphone service, but the political police enjoy subsidized rates which they can pay in national currency. Nor is it possible to open an account and pay at the end of the month, we have to pay in advance to be able to communicate.

Many of us feel defrauded by ETESCA, but the State monopoly doesn’t allow other competitors to offer us better and cheaper service.

“Meanwhile a solution appears”, says  Yoani.

Thousands of users “work out a strange Morse code with cellphones: One ring, two, three… Don’t answer on the other end! Just run to the nearest phone.”

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Generation Y – Don’t Answer, August 24, 2010

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“The development comes at a time when the government has given Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, time until August 31 to resolve the issue and allow interception of all types communications on the device and has said it would ban the services if the Canadian company failed to meet the deadline”, says the Economic Times.

Google and Skype “have considerable presence in the country”, it says, stating:

“According to sources, DoT may now ask Google and Skype to give access to their networks as the data travelling through them is not accessible by the security agencies in the country.”

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under the gun – India, RIM, talks ‘inconclusive’, August 12, 2010
Economic Times – Govt may ask Google, Skype to provide security access, August 16, 2010

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Delayed Canadian launches of the latest phones, new caps on Internet bandwidth, increased monthly subscription fees, and the entry of additional marketplace competitors all regularly attract significant media attention as consumers focus on their monthly Internet and wireless bills far more intensely than most other products and services.

Notwithstanding the public interest, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services toils in relative anonymity.  Established in 2007, the CCTS came as part of a deregulation bargain initiated by then-Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, who deregulated many local telephone markets and established an industry-funded telecom complaints commissioner.

The result was the CCTS, which receives several thousand complaints every year.  The range of services within its mandate is very broad as home telephone, long distance services, wireless, and Internet access, are all deregulated and thus qualify.  The CCTS is able to address complaints involving issues such as compliance with contractual terms, billing disputes, service delivery, credit management, and unauthorized transfer of services (a practice known as “slamming”).

According to its 2008-09 annual report, the CCTS opened over 3,200 complaints, though it issued only six decisions. Wireless services were the leading source of concern (38 percent of all complaints), followed by local phone service and Internet access.  By comparison, a similar Australian agency that has been in place since 1993 receives over 150,000 complaints annually.

While it is still relatively new, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission recently launched a public consultation on the future of the CCTS.  Some providers such as MTS Allstream responded that no change is needed, but others are not so sure.

Bell argued the CCTS is simply not needed, maintaining that unregulated markets are by definition competitive and it is therefore in the interests of all competitors to provide “high quality customer service and complaints resolution.” Should the CCTS continue, however, Bell concluded that it is premature to make any determinations about its effectiveness, though it believes that membership should be mandatory.

Shaw was similarly skeptical of the need for the CCTS, but focused most of its comments on the power of the CRTC to mandate that service providers become members and pay the requisite fees.  Characterizing the mandatory membership requirement as “re-regulation” of deregulated services, Shaw implausibly argued that the CCTS is so well known that the market will determine its value.  If consumers value the existence of a complaints commissioner, they will choose providers that are members and thereby encourage membership.

Three major cable companies – Rogers, Cogeco, and Videotron – submitted joint comments that focused on the CCTS mandate.  The companies were also of the view that mandatory membership is no longer needed, but even more concerned with the prospect of mission-creep, noting that the CCTS “should not be tasked with creating or developing regulations or industry codes; it is far more useful in its role providing input and assistance to the industry” (Telus expressed much the same concern).

Standing on the opposite side of the issue were Canadian consumer groups, who not only want to see the CCTS renewed but expanded.  Noting that thousands of complaints are dismissed for being “out of scope,” the groups argued that the solution is to expand the commissioner’s scope, generate more publicity, and restructure the board to ensure greater independence from industry.

The CRTC is expected to rule on the future of the CCTS before the end of the year.

Michael Geist – Michael Geist’s Blog
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist @ uottawa dot ca]

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August, 2010

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So says F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen on Twitter.

“Apple has fixed a security hole used to get around restrictions on what applications can run on iPhones, iPads, and the iPod Touch”, says the BBC.

Comex, maker of JailbreakMe 2.0, “released code that others could put to use hijacking iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads”,  says Computerworld.

The exploits he used to jailbreak the iOS “could be used for other purposes, including delivering malicious payloads to grab control of iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches”, it says, going all that’d be necessary would be for hackers to dupe users into visiting a malicious Web site, or persuade them to click on a link in an e-mail or text message.

But “Apple did not patch 2007’s first-generation iPhone or iPod Touch yesterday, delivering the update only to the iPhone 3G or later running the iOS 2.0 or later, and to the second-generation iPod Touch or later running iOS 2.1 or later”, says the story, pointing out >>>

Lacking patches, those early models may be vulnerable to attack.

Also possibly at risk: Mac OS X. Like iOS, Apple’s desktop operating system includes the FreeType font engine, which may be vulnerable to the same or a similar exploit.

And users who have used comex’s code to jailbreak their iPhones have a decision to make. If they accept Wednesday’s update, they lose the ability to install and run software not approved by Apple. But by ignoring the update, they may be victimized by future attacks based on the public code.

Security experts “urged everyone, jailbreakers included, to apply the update”, Computerworld says.

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BBC – Apple issues fixes for ‘drive-by’ attacks, August 12, 2010
Computerworld – Dangerous’ iPhone exploit code goes public, August 12, 2010

August, 2010

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But Blackberry phones from Canada’s RIM are too secure.

Enforcement authorities in some parts of the world can’t hack into them, and that’s a problem.

A little more than two years ago the Indian government said it wanted to be able to read Blackberry emails without the knowledge or permission of recipients or senders, and RIM was reported to have turned down the demand, said p2pnet.

Talks, “remained inconclusive,” said the Times of India.

Now “The Indian government put off a decision on Thursday on whether to ban BlackBerry services over national security fears”, says the Montreal Gazette, going on >>>

An RIM official met India’s interior minister separately on Thursday, a government source said. There were no more details.

In a matter of a few weeks, the BlackBerry device — long the darling of the world’s CEOs and politicians, including U.S. President Barack Obama — has become a target for its encrypted email and messaging services with governments around the world.

The Indian demands follow a deal with Saudi Arabia, where a source said Research In Motion agreed to give authorities codes for BlackBerry Messenger users. The United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Algeria also seek access.

The government could ask mobile operators to block BlackBerry “until RIM provides access to data transmitted over the handset”, the  story has a senior government official saying.

In 2008, “The communication and information technology ministry had earlier written to RIM, asking it to put up servers in India, which would help securities agencies to monitor its services,” said Times of India.

“This is to enable the security agencies to track emails and other messages as and when the need arises,” said a DoT official in the story.

Indian security agencies, “have pointed out that BlackBerry’s email device poses a risk as emails sent using it cannot be traced or intercepted,” it stated, adding, “But RIM told the government it was not possible to share the security codes with it as its servers were located in Canada.”

The German government “has urged staffers not to use the BlackBerry and several ministries have banned them, says the  Montreal Gazette , also noting:

“The European Union Commission this month rejected the BlackBerry in favour of Apple’s iPhone and HTC smartphones”, going on >>>

India seeks access to both email and Messenger, while Saudi Arabia has only targeted the instant messaging service.

RIM has said BlackBerry’s Enterprise system lets customers create their own key, and the company has neither a master key nor a “back door” to allow it or any third party to access crucial corporate data.

Middle Eastern countries are concerned that BlackBerry users may spread pornography or violate restrictions on contact between unrelated men and women.

Stay tuned.

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read Blackberry emails – India wants to snoop Blackberry emails, May 22, 2008

p2pnet – RIM, India, in Blackberry ’spy’ talks,May 30, 2008
Times of India – RIM, Indian officials to meet again over BlackBerry issue, May 29, 2008
Montreal Gazette – India says BlackBerry meeting ‘inconclusive’, August 12, 2010

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But they’re big enough for the company and Mark Papermaster (right), Apple’s senior vice president for mobile devices, to have parted company.

Poor antenna design resulted in a loss of signal strength, prompting Consumer Reports to obliquely criticise the device.

Papermaster will be replaced by Bob Mansfield, the head of hardware engineering for Macintosh, says the New York Times, going on >>>

When Steven P. Jobs, the chief of Apple, introduced the iPhone 4, he hailed the design of its antenna, which is built into a steel band that encases the phone. But almost immediately after the phone went on sale, consumers began to complain that when they touched a spot on the lower left section of the device, reception would decrease sharply, in some cases resulting in dropped calls.

The problems, and Apple’s clumsy response, turned into a public relations mess for the company. Apple first recommended that users hold the phone in a way that avoided contact with the lower left section of the device. The company later said it found a software problem with the signal meter that indicates cellphone reception.

Embarrassingly, the company said the problem affected not only the iPhone 4, but also earlier models. While Apple fixed the problem, complaints about the antenna continued to rise.

After Consumer Reports shone a spotlight on the problems and said it could not recommend the iPhone 4, Apple called a news conference on July 16, at which Mr. Jobs mounted an impassioned defense of the device. Mr. Jobs said other smartphones suffered from similar problems, an assertion that was challenged by several of Apple’s competitors.

Apple later developed what amounts to an iPhone condom to correct the flaw.

Papermaster worked at IBM before moving to Apfel.

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Consumer Reports – Why Apple—and not its customers—should fix the iPhone 4, July 13, 2010
obliquely criticise – Apple deletes negative iPhone 4 postsm, July 14, 2010
New York Times – Executive Leaves After iPhone Trouble, August 7, 2010
iPhone condom – Apple ‘fixes’ iPhone 4 Death Grip flaw,July 17, 2010

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“RIM has given ‘initial approval’ to block 3,000 porn sites at the request of Kuwait’s communications ministry”, says the story, “quoting a source it did not identify by name”, going on >>>

The BlackBerry’s coveted secrecy has come under scrutiny since Sunday, when the United Arab Emirates announced plans to ban BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from October 11.

The Gulf state cited national security and other concerns and said the move followed three years of unsuccessful negotiations with RIM.

Industry sources said Saudi Arabia had ordered local telecom companies to freeze BlackBerry Messenger from this month.

Combined, the Gulf states and India represent more than 2 million BlackBerry users, or about 5 percent of the 41 million devices in service worldwide.

RIM asked the ministry to give it until the end of the year to implement the block, says Reuters.

“Observers said that in many ways RIM is the victim of its own success”, says the Telegraph, continuing >>>

The company has such secure encryption systems that it has got countries rattled. But they also said that it was concerning for technology companies that the countries with the largest growth potential — fast-developing nations in Asia and the Middle East — also tend to have the most security-conscious governments.

In a statement RIM said it respects the “regulatory requirements of government” and the “security and privacy needs” of corporations and consumers, says the story, adding it “assures its customers that it is committed to continue delivering highly secure and innovative products that satisfy the needs of both customers and governments”.

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Reuters – Kuwait asks BlackBerry maker to block porn: report, August 3, 2010
Telegraph – Future is no longer so sweet for BlackBerry, August 3, 2010

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