iPhone Security Vulnerability

Numerous Mac news sites are reporting a vulnerability in the iPhone software that could give unscrupulous types access to much of the data on your iPhone. TUAW shows how it works and how to work around it. Long story short, if you set your Home button to bring up iPod (Settings>General>Home Button) you should be okay. Check out the TUAW story for more info.

Joe

Business Week Talks Apple's iPhone Rollout

Peter Burrows, writing for Business Week, reports on Apple’s rollout of the iPhone to more and more countries. Prior to today, the iPhone was offered in 22 countries which, according to this MacDailyNews article, put it in front of 320 million potential subscribers. Today, Apple expanded that number by 21 more countries and another 290 million potential subscribers.

According to Burrows’ article a person familiar with Apple’s production plans has stated that Apple is planning on manufacturing 40-45 million iPhones through August of 2009. This represents a 52% increase over the estimates of Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray. Given that Munster’s predictions are significantly more optimistic than most analysts, Apple is indeed planning an ambitious rollout.

Burrows’ goes on to say that Apple’s success with its ambitious expansion plans hinges on :

1 Apple’s and AT&T’s ability to speed up in-store activations.
2 Apple’s ability to address usability problems, the most significant of which is the problems some users are experiencing with the 3G network.
3 Apple’s ability to address component supply issues.

There are signs that all of these constraints are being addressed and Burrows concludes that even if Apple can’t meet its own lofty goals, it is likely to meet the average of most estimates.

The article is a good read and you can read it in its entirety here.

Joe Henry

Firmware Update 2.0.2 Targeted To Fix 3G Problems

Jim Dalrymple writing for MacWorld is reporting the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware update was targeting communication problems with 3G iPhones. There has been quite a surge in the number of people claiming to experience dropped calls, spotty service and constant switching back and fourth between the 3G and Edge networks.

According to the AP Apple Spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock confirmed that the update “Improved communication with 3G networks”. Bowcock gave little else in terms of details.

We’ve been watching the wire here a AYAAW and haven’t seen or heard anything that might indicate that the update did in fact fix some of these issues.

In other iPhone related news, and in response to iPhone users experiencing problems with apps freezing their phones, halting the boot process and failing to start altogether, Uncle Steve, in a briefly worded response to a customer email, stated that “This is a known bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September”. Perhaps there will be a little more 3G goodness included in this package as well.

Stay tuned kiddies.

Joe Henry

So Far So Good With 2.0.2 (My iPhone Woes Part II)

As the title says, so far so good. I haven’t had a whole lot of time yet to put it through its paces but I’ve also not run into any issues either. I take that back, I am having weird backup behavior. First a little background.:

Since buying my new iPhone in July and loading it up with lots of apps, I’ve suffered through incredibly long backups. You know, when you plug your iPhone into your Mac for a sync, iTunes will automatically start backing the contents up. My first gen iPhone’s backups were a scant 1 to 2 minutes. With my new phone and firmware 2.0 backups have been multi hour affairs. It’s gotten to the point where I just plug it in and leave it overnight. Its so annoying that I even posted to the Apple Support Forums hoping there was a fix. Not!

So I was eagerly awaiting an update to the iPhones firmware even secretly hoping that last nights 2.0.2 update would help. Well, it sort of has: now iTunes doesn’t back it up at all. Before updating to 2.0.2 I plugged my iPhone in and manually had iTunes do a backup. It only took an hour or two and I confirmed that it had in fact backed my iPhone up by checking for the backup in Preferences>Syncing. Sure enough there was a backup for yesterday at 10:54pm. I then proceeded with the update.

Since last night I’ve manually backed up my phone twice and neither are showing up in the Syncing preference window. What’s up with that? iTunes does say that its backing my phone up and it does go a lot faster. Too bad it isn’t acually doing anything. I don’t know what to think now. I’m probably in danger of losing all my app data because I’m not backed up and it seems I’m always this close (imagine me holding my thumb and index finger about a half an inch apart) away from the dreaded “My iPhone froze at the gray Apple Logo screen and now I have to restore it from a backup” crash and burn.

I don’t know. I just don’t know. ):

Joe Henry

Apple Issues iPhone Firmware 2.0.2

Apple released the next version of its iPhone firmware yesterday. Apple’s description for the update is “Bug Fixes”. Well that explains a lot. I suspect its the recently rumored 3G reception patch. As I can’t get 3G where I live its not an issue for me. Hopefully some of my issues will be addressed but I’m not holding my breath. I’m downloading the 248.7MB update as I type this and will report on anything that jumps out at me right away.

Keep your fingers, toes and any other applicable appendages crossed! ;)

Joe Henry
AYAAW

My iPhone 3G Woes Part 1

Since upgrading to iPhone Firmware 2.0 (including 2.0.1) I've been unable to use Wi Fi to connect with my iMac. The real kicker is that this issue only happens with certain iPhone apps: iTunes Store, YouTube, App Store. I can use Wi Fi to transfer files to my iPhone using File Magnet and I can also sync shopping lists between SplashShopper and SplashShopper desktop. What's the deal here? The only Wi Fi problems I have are with Apple created apps. Third party developers seem to know a little more about coding for the iPhone than Apple. Who'd a thunk it?
:)

Joe Henry
AYAAW