Gizmodo reported early this week that Apple may be using software to perform additional automated checks on all new App Store submissions during the app review process.
Google Mobile lets you search the Web using your voice in a way that is technically off-limits to iPhone developers, according to a report.
(Credit: Apple (App Store))A series of tweets on Twitter from John Gruber of Daring Fireball and Craig Hockenberry of Iconfactory claimed that Apple is using an automated software tool that checks for private API calls in all new App Store submissions.
Hockenberry stated, "It wouldn't surprise me if the [App Store] review process now includes a step where they pass your binary through something that checks framework use."
Gruber responded saying, "Yup: Apple recently started running apps through a static analysis tool to look for private API calls."
Later, Gruber followed up with "I honestly don't know exactly what it flags. I have reason to believe that it is a serious tool, not simplistic."
The use of private APIs have always been prohibited by the iPhone SDK Developer Agreement because APIs may change or give third-party developers access to features that Apple does not want made publicly available. If this system exists, Apple might have found a way to quickly identify apps that use private APIs and reject them.
This also means that Apple may have the ability to check existing apps in the App Store that are known violators of Apple's policies such as Google Mobile for iPhone.
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Apple, Inc.)
Apple will be hosting free iPhone Tech Talks starting later this month and continuing through December. The talks will be hosted by Apple engineers and technology evangelists in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Apple representatives will discuss and provide guidance in user interface design, game design, code optimization, Core Data, video and audio development, App purchases, push notifications, and Web content integration. They'll also make themselves available to answer questions about software development on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
You have to be a registered iPhone Developer in order to attend these sessions, which you can sign up for online. The sessions will be held in the following cities in North America; click the link above to see other locations around the globe.
- Oct 29, San Jose
- Nov 2, Seattle
- Dec 1, New York
- Dec 3, Toronto
The North American agenda (PDF link) could be likened to WWDC, but it's smaller and free.
Apple warns that seating is limited, so it's recommended that you sign up as soon as possible.
The cat and mouse game continues between Apple and the Dev Team, a group of guys who are passionate about freeing Apple handheld devices from the company's short leash. The Dev Team has been jailbreaking new Apple firmware for years, and it just did so again--though this time around it seems Apple is still taking the decisive lead.
The team announced Friday the availability of PwnageTool 3.13, which allows for jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone 3GS running the latest firmware, version 3.1. Currently only a Mac version of the tool is available, but the Windows version will be out soon. (Keep in mind, however, that you download and use the PwnageTool at your own risk.)
A jailbroken iPhone can do a lot more than what Apple wants it to do.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)The tool creates a custom firmware from the version 3.1 firmware released by Apple. To install it, you put the phone into recovery mode (turn it off, then plug it in while holding down the Home button) and use iTunes to restore the phone with the custom firmware (hold down the Option key while clicking on the Restore button).
The custom firmware, apart from jailbreaking, will not upgrade the baseband--the chip that connects the phone to a service provider--and therefore still allows the phone to be unlocked.
But there's a catch here. The tool only works with the iPhone 3GS that has been jailbroken with the firmware version 3.0 or 3.0.1. This means if you buy a new iPhone 3GS that already has version 3.1 on it or you have updated to version 3.1 using iTunes, there's still no way to have your phone jailbroken. There's even a rumor that there might never be one, unless a new exploit is found.
If this is true, it seems Apple has finally been able to gain significant ground in stopping the practice it claims could pose a threat to national security. And for thousands, if not millions of iPhone 3GS users who rely on jailbreaking and unlocking to use their phones with the service of their choice, this is sad news.
... Read moreQuery: Who makes the Apple-branded chip in the iPhone? Answer: Samsung. This nontrivial detail translated into smartphone chip market share gains for Samsung in the second quarter, according to iSuppli.
Apple iPhone market share gains drove Samsung chip rise.
(Credit: Apple)The iPhone, largely due to the popularity of the 3GS model, accounted for 13.9 percent of global smartphone shipments in the second quarter, up from 10.1 percent in the first quarter, according to iSuppli. As a result, Samsung accounted for 15.9 percent of global revenue from sales of standalone applications processors. An applications processor is roughly analogous to the main Intel or Advanced Micro Devices processor in a PC: it is basically the brains of a smartphone.
Samsung's market share was up nearly 1 percent from the first quarter, iSuppli said, though it still trailed No. 1 supplier Texas Instruments. iSuppli defines a "standalone" applications processor as digital signal- or logic-based processors not integrated with the digital baseband function.
"Since the introduction of the first (iPhone) in January 2007, Samsung has occupied the key applications processor slot in Apple's iPhone line," Francis Sideco, principal analyst of wireless communications for iSuppli, said in a statement. "With the new 3GS model allowing the iPhone to gain share in the smartphone market, Samsung also is claiming a larger portion of standalone applications processor shipments."
As with previous iPhone models, the 3GS--introduced in June--integrates a Samsung processor based on the ARM architecture. The processor accounted for $14.46, or 8.4 percent, of the materials cost of the iPhone 3GS based on pricing in late June, iSuppli said.
"The partnership between Apple and Samsung on the applications processor in the iPhone has been a major coup for Samsung, establishing it as a player in the market and allowing it to challenge the incumbent leader, Texas Instruments," Sideco said.
The big question, however, is how long a good thing will last for Samsung. Sideco added that "there is a lot of speculation as to whether Apple's acquisition of PA Semi will change the parameters of this partnership." Apple announced its purchase of PA Semi in March 2008.
One of the most rapidly circulating rumors has Apple using a PA Semi design in the upcoming Apple tablet. The latest word is that the screen size is about 10 inches diagonally, meaning that a tablet will require more processor and graphics horsepower than a smaller device like the iPhone.
Although Texas Instruments lost some share to Samsung in the second quarter, the U.S. chip giant retained its dominant position in the market, with a share of 24.4 percent. "Texas Instruments continues to lead the market on the strength of its Open Multimedia Application Platform (OMAP) line of applications processors," Sideco said.
Apple has issued an advisory regarding security enhancements included in iPhone OS 3.1 and iPod Touch OS 3.1.1.
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Apple, Inc.)
Here is a synopsis of the 10 iPhone security vulnerabilities addressed by the latest operating-system update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As expected, many of these security patches focus on the Web-browsing framework WebKit.
CoreAudio Changes to CoreAudio prevent maliciously crafted AAC or MP3 files from causing unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
Exchange support Changes were made to prevent a person with physical access to a device from being able to use it. Previously, if the user has "Require Passcode" set to a value higher than the "Maximum inactivity time lock" setting, this would allow a window of time for a person with physical access to use the device, including Exchange services. This update addresses the issue by disabling user choices for "Require Passcode" values greater than the "Maximum inactivity time lock" setting configured by the Exchange administrator. (Read more about the complexities of Exchange security in OS 3.1.)
Mobile Mail Changes to Mobile Mail prevent a person from using Spotlight search to view deleted e-mails.
Recovery Mode Changes to Recovery Mode command parsing prevents another person with physical access to a locked device from bypassing the passcode and accessing the user's data.
Telephony Changes made to improve the handling of incoming SMS messages prevent the receipt of a maliciously crafted SMS message that may lead to an unexpected service interruption.
UIKit Changes to UIKit fixed a problem wherein passwords may be made visible when a person with physical access to the device deleted a character (i.e. backspace) to make that character briefly visable.
WebKit--disclosed user names and password in URLs Changes were made to prevent the disclosure of user name and password via referrer headers for Web site linking; the user name and password are no longer included in the URL in the referrer header.
WebKit--numeric character references Changes were made to prevent an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution after visiting a maliciously crafted Web site; a memory corruption issue was to blame for this and it was fixed through improved handling of numeric character references.
WebKit--cross-site scripting attack Changes to WebKit improved the handling of parent and top objects, thus preventing a cross-site scripting attack when visiting a maliciously crafted Web site.
WebKit--lookalike characters in a URL Lookalike characters in a URL could be used to masquerade a Web site; International Domain Name (IDN) support and Unicode fonts embedded in Safari could be used to create a URL which contains lookalike characters; users could then be directed to a malicious Web site that is a spoofed site visually appearing to be legitimate domain. WebKit will now replace those characters with its own characters rendered in Punycode in the address bar of Mobile Safari.
Previous coverage: Security updates in iPhone OS 3.0 and Security updates in iPhone OS 2.2.
iPhone and iPhone 3G users hit a roadblock last week trying to login to Exchange 2007 servers after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1.
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Apple)
Because the problems began with the latest update, it may seem reasonable to assume that the update is to blame, but it's not. In fact, everything is working exactly how it's supposed to be, according to Apple.
"iPhone OS 3.1 is working properly with Exchange Server 2007," Apple representative Natalie Harrison told CNET News. "We added device encryption information to the data that can be managed by IT administrators using Exchange Server 2007. The policy of whether to support iPhone 3G, in addition to iPhone 3GS, which always has on-device encryption, on Exchange Server 2007 is set by the administrator and can be changed at any time."
What this means is that iPhone OS 3.1 now properly identifies itself to Exchange 2007 as having hardware encryption, and that's what is causing the problems for iPhone and iPhone 3G users.
iPhone OS 3.0 did not identify itself properly to Exchange 2007 on any iPhone. This means that if you had a 3G and Exchange 2007 was configured to require hardware encryption, you could still login, even though the device does not have hardware encryption.
With iPhone OS 3.1, all iPhones identify themselves properly to the server, essentially fixing a glitch in the previous operating system. However, now iPhone and iPhone 3G users that upgraded to iPhone OS 3.1 cannot login to Exchange 2007 servers that require hardware encryption.
If you use the new iPhone 3GS, you won't notice any change. Apple's newest phone is equipped with hardware encryption, so it will meet the requirements of the Exchange server when identifying itself.
If you already upgraded to iPhone OS 3.1 on an iPhone or iPhone 3G and connect to an Exchange 2007 server, you can ask that the IT admin turn off the hardware encryption requirement for those devices.
Company IT administrators who require hardware encryption to access Exchange 2007 will need to decide whether they want older iPhones to access their servers. If so, they will need to configure Exchange to not require encryption from the iPhone and iPhone 3G.
Of course, if you haven't upgraded your iPhone, it will continue to access Exchange 2007 as it always did.
Novell on Monday introduced MonoTouch 1.0, a development framework for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch that uses Microsoft's .Net with C# and other programming languages.
The MonoTouch framework, available on paid-subscription only, requires Apple's own software development kit and runs solely on Macintosh hardware.
"The vast majority of Windows-centric developers, ISVs, and IT organizations have chosen the C# language and .Net for development," said Miguel de Icaza, Mono project founder and Developer Platform vice president at Novell, in a statement.
"As such, we have seen tremendous demand for tools to build .Net-based iPhone applications."
To date, developers have had to use JavaScript or Apple's Objective-C programming languages to build applications for the iPhone.
MonoTouch supports most .Net functions, with some differences due to the different security model of the iPhone. There is no support currently for Silverlight or Moonlight, the media delivery and scripting functions of .Net.
The iPhone developer license forbids scripting engines or just-in-time (JIT) compilers, which .Net needs to run code.
"As a result, the world of iPhone applications had been previously closed to .Net and Mono developers. Developers can now use MonoTouch while fully complying with these license terms because MonoTouch delivers only native code," Novell said in a statement.
Reaction from developers has been mixed, with many commenting that the Mac-only, paid-for approach is disappointing, given that MonoTouch is built on the cross-platform, open-source Mono.
Zef Hemel, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology, said via Twitter: "I was excited about MonoTouch coming out to develop iPhone apps on Mono, but now that I see the pricing ($399 to $999) I'm not."
MonoTouch costs $399 per year for an individual license, $999 per developer for an enterprise license, or $3,999 for five enterprise licenses. An evaluation version will be made available later this week, de Icaza said.
Rupert Goodwins of ZDNet UK reported from London.
Today is the last day we will ever see the triple single-digit date repetition--and Apple sure is making a big deal about it. As I'm sure you've already heard, the company has announced a noticeably refreshed Apple iTunes along with updates to all of the iPods in its line. We have a cadre of editors and photographers at the show who will be bringing you a feast of photos, videos, and info throughout the day. In the meantime, you can see some up-close-and-personal shots of the new hardware and software below.
Good news for freebie junkies like me: Promo Dispenser offers free, no-strings-attached promo codes for iPhone apps.
Good news for developers: Promo Dispenser offers a free and easy way to promote your apps.
Here's how it works: Developers add their apps' info and promo codes to the site. Users (who must register with an e-mail address) grab the allotted codes on a first-come, first-served basis. (There's no waiting and no random draw, as with previously mentioned AppGiveaway.)
Score free App Store promo codes at Promo Dispenser.
Users are limited to one code per day, and you can't get another code without first commenting on and rating the previously downloaded app.
That's good news for the developer, as it ensures at least some feedback. And Promo Dispenser encourages users to copy their reviews to the App Store, so this can actually improve sales.
In other words, the site helps developers promote their apps, not just give them away. (Find out more on Promo Dispenser's FAQ page.)
And for users, of course, it's a simple way to score freebies. Definitely worth a look!
Speaking of freebies, check out these previous posts on gratis apps:
