AT&T has sent emails to customers of its iPad 3G data service apologizing for and providing additional information on the exposure of their email addresses and SIM card identifiers last week.
The letter outlines in brief detail how the information was accessed and the company's response once it was notified of the breach. AT&T also reassures its customers that their password and other account information, as well as any data on their devices, are unaffected. It also suggests that the primary risk of the information leak is increased spam and the possible use of such information in targeted phishing tactics attempting to gain additional personal information about customers.
The security breach is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is examining the circumstances surrounding the information exposure and what may have been done with the data obtained.
Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference wrapped up at the end of last week. The conference kicked off with a flurry of announcements surrounding Apple's new iPhone 4. The response to those who had actual hands-on time with the upcoming iPhone has been overwhelmingly positive with a particular focus on the high quality of the display. Several people we spoke to echoed Steve Jobs' comments that it will be hard to go back once you start using the 326 dpi display.
This weekend Robert Scoble posted high resolution photos comparing the new display to the existing one (iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS). The images clearly show the increased readability of web pages while fully "zoomed out". Macworld's hands on also echos the sentiment::
We placed an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4 side by side. The results were readily apparent. Text on the iPhone 3GS, while quite readable, showed noticeable pixelation. We couldnt pick out any pixels on the iPhone 4s text; as Apple claims, this screen really makes text look like something youd find in a book or a magazine, with none of the artifacts that weve come to expect from a LCD display.
Apple has claimed that the new display exceeds the limits of the human retina. While there has been some debate about the accuracy of these claims, at least one expert considers the claims close enough to reality.
For another point of reference, Apple provides this actual screenshot of an iPhone 4 screenshot. Click to see it at full resolution:
Click to see full resolution screen
Of course, this same image when viewed on an iPhone 4 shows the same number of pixels but within the space of a 3.5" display.
HSUPA Support
Meanwhile, iLounge has noted that the iPhone 4 supports 3G HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) for its uplink. iLounge cites a theoretical maximum of 5.76 Mbits/second. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3GS is limited to only 384kbps. Any faster uplink speeds will obviously help out in emailing high definition video clips over 3G networks.
Apple Outsider's Matt Drance reports on another change made to Apple's iPhone developer terms earlier this week that should please certain developers, a change which allows game developers in particular to continue to use interpreted languages such as Lua in their App Store applications.
The change eases up on restrictions implemented along with Apple's more highly-publicized prohibition against Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone compiler as part of Apple's broader effort to keep third-party meta-platforms from eroding the user experience and stifling innovation as developers become reliant upon them to roll out support for new features introduced by Apple. Drance notes:
I've said before that Apple's aversion to interpreted code and external runtimes is the potential for someone else to take the platform over. That's not the whole story, though. Games in particular tend to use engines and libraries that leverage interpreted languages such as Lua. Many of these applications pose no threat, neither implicitly nor explicitly.
While explicit approval from Apple is still required, these new terms seem to acknowledge that there's a difference between an app that happens to have non-compiled code, and a meta-platform.
The change comes alongside Apple's further modifications of its iOS developer terms that again allow for limited analytics data collection to aid advertisers and developers, but appear to shut out non-independent companies such as Google's AdMob from receiving the data.
CNET reports that Wal-Mart has confirmed that it will carry iPhone 4 in its stores as of its June 24th launch, adding another major outlet to the growing list of retailers that appear poised to be U.S. launch partners for the new device.
Walmart said Friday that it will be one of several retail outlets who will have the iPhone 4 on June 24, its first day of availability anywhere. While Walmart has carried previous versions of the iPhone, this is a first that it will be for sale in its stores on the device's official launch day.
Electronics chain RadioShack announced earlier this week that it will be carrying iPhone 4 at launch, with pre-orders set to begin on June 15th, the same day Apple begins the pre-ordering process. Best Buy has also been claimed to be carrying iPhone 4 as of the 24th, although the company has yet to officially confirm availability and its pre-ordering policies are unknown.
Wal-Mart gained considerable attention in the weeks leading up to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and the iPhone 4 introduction by slashing the price of the 16 GB iPhone 3GS in half to $97 with a two-year contract. With iPhone 4, however, Wal-Mart is expected to only slightly undercut Apple's own pricing by offering the 16 GB and 32 GB versions at $197 and $297 respectively. The company did not carry the low-end 8 GB iPhone 3G during the previous product cycle, and so it is unclear if it will be offering the 8 GB iPhone 3GS during this cycle.
Wal-Mart has also been reported to be expecting to carry the iPad beginning later this year.
Hardmac reports that it has received information from one of it most reliable sources at Apple indicating that the company could offer two Worldwide Developers Conferences per year, separating Mac OS X and iOS content into individual events.
One of our most reliable sources at Apple told us that the company could decide to organize two different WWDC every year, one dedicated to the iOS, iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc... and the other one to Mac OS X and the Mac.
The report's choice of words to say that Apple "could" offer two WWDCs makes it unclear whether there are actual thoughts of Apple making this happen or if it is simply an idea that has been tossed out.
This year's WWDC has been notable for its focus on iOS, as evidenced by the keynote's focus, mix of developers sessions, and the axing of Apple Design Awards for Mac OS X applications. Apple has indicated that the shift focus is simply a timing issue, with the new iPhone and iPad fresh in people's minds and rolling out new features while the Mac platform remains in the middle of a cycle with Mac OS X Snow Leopard well established and Mac OS X 10.7 not yet ready to show.
Even with the scaling back of Mac OS X this year, the conference sold out in only eight days with over 5,000 registrants packing the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco for the event this week.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun an investigation into the AT&T security breach that resulted in the exposure of emails addresses and SIM identifiers for over 100,000 iPad users signed up for 3G access on its network.
"The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation," said Katherine Schweit, an FBI spokeswoman. Ms. Schweit said the FBI began the investigation Thursday but wouldn't comment on what the bureau is looking at. "It's very early in the investigation," she added.
Any investigation into the incident is likely to look at two factors: how the information was obtained and what was done with it. Escher Auernheimer, a member of the group that exploited the hole in AT&T's website to obtain the information, claims that nothing illegal was done in collecting the information, as access was obtained simply by entering information into a public website.
As for what the group did with the information between the time of its collection and its sharing of the details with Gawker for publication, the group claims that Gawker was the only outside party to receive the information and that the information was only disclosed once the hole had been closed. While the group has taken some criticism for not directly contacting AT&T about the situation, it claims that it "made sure that someone else tipped them off" and waited for AT&T to fix the issue before going public.
Apple has started accepting iOS 4 applications ahead of the June 21st release of iOS 4. Formerly called iPhone OS, iOS 4 is the rebranding of the operating system that runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Version 4 introduces many new features for developers and users that may require modifications to existing apps for full compatibility. Some of the features include:
- Multitasking - Folders - Improved Mail App - Enhanced Enterprise support - iAds - iBooks
Apple claims there are over 1,500 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) available for developers. iOS 4 will be available to iPhone and iPod Touch owners for free on June 21st. iOS will not run on the original iPhone or 1st generation iPod Touch and will only run with limited features (no multitasking) on the iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod Touch.
Apple today released a new App Store application called iTunes Connect Mobile [App Store link], designed to help developers access sales data for their applications distributed through the App Store.
The iTunes Connect Mobile application allows developers to access their sales and trend data from iTunes Connect. You can now view your daily and weekly sales data related to updates, paid and free apps as well as In-App purchases. Whether at the office, at home or on the go, iTunes Connect Mobile keeps you informed about your sales numbers right on your iPhone or iPod touch.
The application is compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch on iPhone OS 3.0 or higher and will also run on the iPad, although not it is not a universal application and thus lacks an iPad-specific interface.
iTunes Connect Mobile marks Apple's sixth official iPhone application, joining Texas Hold'em, Remote, Keynote Remote, MobileMe iDisk, and MobileMe Gallery. The company has also released iBooks and its iWork suite for the iPad.
Adobe today released Flash Player 10.1, the public version of its browser plug-in that has been available for testing in prerelease form since mid-November. The release, however, does not yet include hardware-accelerated decoding on Mac OS X.
Apple altered its policies in late March to allow third parties such as Adobe to tap into the hardware-accelerated decoding of H.264 video on machines with compatible video cards. Adobe did just that a month later, introducing its "Gala" prerelease version of Flash Player 10.1 for Macs running Mac OS X 10.6.3 and using NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M video cards. The Gala functionality, highly anticipated by many users for its ability to free system resources and reduce loads, will be included in a future update to Flash Player 10.1.
Will Gala be generally available with the general availability of Flash Player 10.1 in the first half of this year? It is expected that the Gala functionality - H.264 hardware decoding on Mac OS X 10.6.3 - will be available in an update following the release of Flash Player 10.1.
A second preview version of Gala remains available through Adobe Labs for those looking to test out the hardware acceleration.
Flash Player 10.1 is intended to integrate the Flash experience across a broad variety of platforms, including smartphones, with support for multi-touch and accelerometer controls. The so-called "Open Screen Project" is consortium of nearly 50 companies looking to bring a consistent Flash experience across all platforms, but Apple is notably absent from the group.
ModMyi has a pair of reports today revealing some purported AT&T documents offering information on the carrier's plans with regard to iPhone 4 sales.
According to the first report, AT&T will be offering bill credit rebates for users who purchased an iPhone 3GS between May 7th and June 7th, with customers set to receive $50 (16 GB) or $100 (32 GB) if they file a request with the company. The offer is good for 30 days from the date of purchase, with those in the early portion of the purchase window (May 7th through May 14th) having until June 14th to file their requests.
Alternatively, AT&T will offer those iPhone 3GS customers who purchases handsets between May 7th and June 7th the option to upgrade to iPhone 4, only paying applicable price differences. Customers who purchased a "closeout" iPhone 3GS after June 7th are not eligible for these offers.
In its second report, ModMyi's tipster shares a flyer showing that AT&T is planning to open its retail stores at 7:00 AM on the launch day of June 24th. According to the flyer, new customers will only be permitted to activate one new line on iPhone 4, while existing customers will be limited to one iPhone 4 per active mobile number.
Fortune reports on a new research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu speculating that Apple's first foray beyond its exclusive relationship with AT&T for the iPhone in the U.S. may be T-Mobile, not Verizon as many observers have been hoping for. Wu's primary support for his claim is the fact that T-Mobile runs a GSM network like AT&T, and while it operates on a different frequency than AT&T's network, both the iPhone 4 and 3GS physically support T-Mobile's 2100 MHz frequency.
While T-Mobile's subscriber base of 34 million users pales in comparison to Verizon's 93 million and thus appears to be a less enticing target for carrier expansion for Apple, the fact that the iPhone is already compatible with T-Mobile's network may go a long way toward swaying Apple. Apple has been rumored, however, to have contracted with Pegatron to manufacture a Verizon-compatible iPhone for release as soon as November of this year, suggesting that developing specialized hardware compatible for Verizon's network may not be as big a hurdle as some observers think.
Wu's note today is by no means the first to suggest T-Mobile as a possible first expansion of iPhone distribution in the U.S., as Wu himself and Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid both pointed to the possibility back in December. The following month, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Tim Horan similarly promoted T-Mobile as being the first carrier beyond AT&T to receive the iPhone, claiming that the expansion would happen this summer.
Wu has a relatively poor track record, and so we view this as nothing more than speculation based on an examination of the obvious. But due to the amount of publicity the report is receiving today, we are publishing this on Page 2 for interest and discussion.
Several bits of news regarding carriers for iPhone 4 in the UK have been surfacing recently, with the most notable one possibly being O2's announcement of new tariffs that no longer include unlimited data. Instead of offering unlimited data and texts across all monthly plans with call minutes being the primary differentiator, O2 is now tiering both call minutes and data across its plans.
Monthly plans begin at 100 minutes and 500 MB of data priced at 25 for a 24-month contract and 30 for an 18-month contract and ramp up to unlimited calling and 1 GB of data priced at 60/65. A footnote to O2's pricing matrix indicates, however, that the carrier will continue running a "promotion" offering unlimited data for all smartphones until October, at which time the company will offer additional data in 500 MB (5) and 1 GB (10) buckets.
O2 has also announced its early upgrade policy for iPhone 4, allowing customers currently on a contract with the carrier to buy out their remaining terms at a rate of 20 per month left on their contracts, at which point customers will be eligible for new contracts at the lowest iPhone 4 prices. The early upgrade offer comes instead of the carrier's usual policy of requiring customers to pay off their contracts in full.
In other UK iPhone 4 news, both T-Mobile UK and Three UK will be offering the new iPhone, joining existing carriers O2, Orange, Vodafone, and Tesco, which operates on O2's network.
The Financial Times reports that the U.S. government is continuing to take a look at Apple's forthcoming iAd mobile advertising system in order to decide whether to pursue a full antitrust investigation of the service. The possible investigation comes just after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded an exhaustive inquiry that ultimately resulted in the approval of Google's acquisition of AdMob, with the FTC pointing to Apple's iAd as a competitive factor contributing heavily to its decision in that case.
According to two people close to the situation, US regulators have already taken an interest in Apple's actions, though it is not yet clear whether it will be left to the Federal Trade Commission, which carried out the recent Google investigation, or the Department of Justice to take an investigation forward.
Apple's latest rules for developers who create apps for its devices limit the situations in which they can send approved information about their apps' audiences to advertising services. The information cannot be sent to advertising networks that are affiliated with companies developing or distributing mobile devices or operating systems - a definition that effectively excludes Apple rivals like Google and Microsoft.
Word of iAd interest on the part of federal regulators first surfaced early last month after the company altered its developer terms to exclude analytics companies from collecting data on users, although details of the FTC's interest at the time were not revealed.
Earlier this week, Apple again tweaked its developer terms to permit some analytics data collection, but a requirement that such companies be "independent" from mobile device or platform developers appears to shut out Google and AdMob from the platform, a move which unsurprisingly drew heavy criticism from AdMob's founder.
Apple has become embroiled in a number of potential antitrust cases in just the last month or so, with federal regulators taking a look at Apple's Flash-to-iPhone compiler at the behest of Adobe, as well as the company's tactics in the digital music market.
Reuters reports that shares of ARM Holdings jumped as much as 32% today on renewed rumors that Apple is looking to take over the company. It is unclear exactly what triggered the new round of speculation, as the rumor first surfaced in earnest in late April.
At the time, ARM dismissed the rumors, arguing that such an acquisition makes no sense given ARM's business model. And with respect to the latest rumors, an ARM spokeswoman again denied that it had been approached about a takeover.
"Hearing (an) old rumour that Apple want to bid for them," said one trader.
A spokeswoman for ARM said the chip designer had not received an approach, and said a takeover from Apple would not make sense, reiterating comments made by its CEO Warren East in April and its President Tudor Brown last month.
ARM is the chip design firm that provides the basic platform for Apple's mobile chips used in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, as well as numerous other mobile devices from a broad array of manufacturers. ARM does not produce the chips itself, however, choosing instead to license its designs to chipmakers for modification and production.
Valve Software today posted a teaser on its official blog for Team Fortress 2 hinting at a release for the game on Mac OS X tomorrow. Team Fortress 2 would mark the third major Valve series to hit Mac OS X, following Portal and Half-Life 2 (plus two Half-Life 2 sequels) released since Valve announced that it would be making its game library as well as its Steam game distribution platform offering a host of third-party games available on Mac OS X beginning last month.
Big things are happening RIGHT NOW at Valve. Things involving cultivated tree-fruit. BIG things. Things that rhyme with "grapple." Things that rhyme with "Speem Gortress zmavailable on the Babac."
Not today. But tomorrow. BIG THINGS. Stay tuned...
The news comes just after Valve announced that it will be delaying the release of its much-anticipated Portal 2 until 2011, citing the fact that "making games is hard". Portal 2 had been expected to see a release before the end of this year.
Valleywag reports that a security breach on AT&T's website has allowed public access to email addresses and SIM card identifier numbers (known as ICC-IDs) for 114,000 iPad Wi-Fi + 3G users on the company's cellular network.
The breach, which comes just weeks after an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, exposed the most exclusive email list on the planet, a collection of early-adopter iPad 3G subscribers that includes thousands of A-listers in finance, politics and media, from New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson to Diane Sawyer of ABC News to film mogul Harvey Weinstein to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It even appears that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's information was compromised.
The security hole, which has been closed by AT&T, appears to have been related to data meant for a Web application accessible on the iPad. Those who discovered the hole were able to guess large swaths of ICC-ID numbers based on a handful of known numbers and use a script paired with an iPad user agent setting on their browser to query the email addresses associated with the ICC-IDs.
Beyond the obvious privacy implications of having personal email addresses exposed, it is unclear exactly what the ramifications of the security breach are. Despite claims from those who discovered the breach that the information might be able to be used to spoof devices or intercept data, other security researchers do not believe that to be possible. AT&T and Apple have yet to comment on the situation.
Ars Technica spoke with Tweetie developer Loren Brichter this week at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and received a status update on his plans for Mac and iPad development. Brichter had promised a beta version of Tweetie 2 for Mac for late March, with purchasers of MacHeist's nanoBundle set to receive access to it, but the release is still nowhere to be seen.
The reason for the delay is that Brichter has been a bit preoccupied in recent months with Twitter's acquisition and rebranding of Tweetie for iPhone for use as the company's official iPhone client. The delays and focus shift for Tweetie have led many fans of the Mac version to wonder if development has been abandoned, but Brichter promises that he's getting back to work on the project.
Although Tweetie 2.0 for Mac has been put off for a while thanks to the acquisition and the re-release of Tweetie for iPhone (now known as Twitter for iPhone), Brichter says he'll be back to working on Tweetie for Mac within weeks.
He also promises that development on Tweetie for Mac will continue through at least version 3, suggesting that he already has ideas about future feature implementations for the platform.
Brichter is also looking to bring Tweetie to the iPad platform in native form, a space where other iPhone applications have already been establishing themselves.
As many iPad users know, Tweetie/Twitter has yet to arrive on the iPad in native resolution, but Brichter says it's coming soon and, in fact, it's so great that he wishes he could share some of the iPad code back to the Mac. "The goal is to exceed the Twitter iPhone app in the iPad," he said.
Early this week, Tweetie for Mac was named a winner in Ars Technica's Ars Design Awards for Mac OS X applications in the "Best Mac OS X User Experience" category. The awards were created by Ars Technica this year in order to fill the vacuum left behind by Apple's elimination of Mac OS X categories from its own Apple Design Awards.
Microsoft yesterday released a set of updates for users of its Office for Mac productivity suite, bringing security and performance fixes to Office 2008 and 2004, as well as a pair of ancillary updates.
- Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.5 Update (332.8 MB): The update addresses security issues and fixes issues with the custom dictionary functionality that prevent users from adding entries in different languages.
- Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.5 (45.1 MB): This update offers a security fixes and provides compatibility with the updated Office 2008 and 2004 versions for Microsoft's tool that allows documents saved in the new Office 2007/2008 formats to be opened on earlier versions of Office.
