Prepare to freak out! iPhone developers are using apps to pass your phone number to telemarketers
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Rumors, Security, iPhone
Our good friends over at the French Mac site Mac4Ever have alerted us to a somewhat alarming development. Apparently a few days after purchasing the Swiss app MogoRoad, a free radar tracking application, users are reporting receiving telephone calls asking them if they’d like to purchase the FULL version of the application. When asked how the caller had obtained their number, the responses vary, but generally the person tells you that Apple sent them their number at the time of purchase.
Obviously this is not the case, as Apple does not forward any information on its customers to third parties, so Mac4Ever did a little testing using the latest iPhone SDK and discovered that it is extremely easy for a developer to send a user’s phone number to their servers without their knowledge. In fact, the hole has been around since the 2.1 firmware.
“But after deep investigation, it appears that programmers are able to retrieve the personal iPhone’s user number, with one unique line of code! This data can then be sent to remote databases, which collect personal information, without notifying the user.
We tried this method quickly with the official SDK: it works !
Readers mostly pointed out mogoRoad , a swiss application that gives traffic information for free. When reading comments on iTunes, it’s clear that a lot of people did receive the famous call as well.
Currently, the buyer explicitly gives its coordinates as Apple. Developer side, Apple is the only interlocutor, and it is impossible to have access to personal data of customers. But the access number is available since firmware 2.1, according to our survey. Moreover, it seems surprising that those responsible for the validation does not check that certain sensitive data, such as phone number, do not pass freely through the internet. This could be the beginning of a real scandal for the firm Iceberg, because nobody knows how many applications currently collecting phone numbers. “
We’ve yet to hear of any reports of this type of data collecting here in the US, but this is exactly the type of thing that tends to freak out privacy advocates (and rightly so, if true), so prepare for this one to spread across the interweb even faster than the usual anti-iPhone news.
Apple’s new iPod touch web ads almost makes you think the touch is a real gaming machine
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Apple Fanboyism, Hardware, Opinion, iPhone, iPod Touch
It’s no secret Apple is pushing the iPod touch as a gaming machine – Steve Jobs said as much when lamely trying to explain why the new iPod touches didn’t have a camera (as if game makers couldn’t find a creative way to make use of one).
But if there was any lingering doubt that Apple was trying to push the iPhone/touch platform further into the mindset of hard core gamers, this new web ad on super gaming site IGN ought to clear up any misconceptions.
Unfortunately, even a fanboy such as myself must admit that the iPod touch and the iPhone are somewhat lacking when it comes to games. For the past year I have tried to convince myself the touch screen could be made to take the place of analog controls, but I just can’t kid myself anymore. As the games being released become increasingly complex and ever more graphically stunning, it’s obvious that the interior of the iPod touch is more than up to the task of handheld gaming – but it’s the outside that needs work.
Oh sure, many developers have come up with clever tricks and inventive control schemes, but aside from a few standout casual games that were inherently designed for the touch screen interface (Flight Control, Puzzlings, Fieldrunners…) the majority of games would benefit GREATLY from some sort of analog control buttons. Sure, driving games LOOK like they work great in the 2 second clips in the Apple ads, and tilting to steer works well enough, but find me ONE die hard racer who likes having to precisely hit certain areas of a flat screen while turning said screen in order to break, shift, shoot, etc. Even some of the first games ever made (PacMan, BurgerTime, Frogger) are too difficult to play on the touch. And forget about First Person Shooters and Football. No matter how impressive the graphics, and no matter how well companies like Gameloft are able to design their psuedo-analog controllers, covering 35% of an already cramped screen with your thumbs is no way to play a game.
Above: Where the hell is the iControl Pad?
Quite frankly I am surprised Apple has not yet come out with it’s own dockable gamepad/external battery device. Remember the GameBone, the iJoyPad, and the ethereal iControlPad? They all looked great (well, they all appeared to WORK great, that is) but despite over a year of publicity and hype, to date not one has physically shown up here at the lab for testing (note to those developers, please send us one for testing, we’re DYING over here!).
Above: …and the GameBone?
Quite frankly by now Apple should not only have come out with its own controller, but it should have also have released a set of APIs to let developers incorporate the controls into their games. So far the avalanche of iPhone/iPod touch peripherals I expected after Apple announced support for 3rd party hardware earlier this year has yet to materialize. At this point it is pretty clear that if Apple wants to create a viable gaming accessory market, it is going to have to get the ball rolling itself – perhaps even literally with a dockable trackball, for Centipede.
Above: … and the iJoyPad?
In the family friendly hand-held gaming arena, there is no doubt that Nintendo is still king, but if Apple truly wants to compete with the big boys, they’re going to need to take a page from the New England Patriot’s playbook, and take a page from their competitor’s playbook. Nintendo always markets its own (usually superior) peripherals for its consoles and handhelds, but also allows other companies to market their own. Apple should do the same. Without a way to control games while avoiding covering them with our fat fingers (and stereotypes be damned, most die hard gamers DO have pretty fat fingers) all the advertising on gaming sites in the world won’t bring the iPod touch true gaming street cred.
You just KNOW Ballmer still owns that jacket
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Humor, Microsoft Bashing, video
I saw this post in the MacRumors forum by zamolx3, and not only did I think that it was brilliant, I also thought I had nothing better to write about.
Why Microsoft is not Apple
1986, Steve Ballmer trying to sell Windows 1.0
1984, Steve Jobs demos Apple Macintosh
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How to get 3 free iPods with only a screw driver, a pair of scissors, and a bag of marshmallows
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Free Stuff, Humor, iPod, iPod Touch, iPod nano, video
Damnit, I just threw out two VCRs on junk day!
Celebrity Mac Chick sighting revisited: Miley Cyrus
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Celebrity Mac Chick
Having already established she owned an iPhone, if you had asked me whether Miley Cyrus owned a Mac, I would have said “Probably”. But if you had asked me if she had it covered in stickers, I would have said “definitely“.
God, do I know my teenage billionaire girls, or what?
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