iPhone

Apple, AT&T mum on iPhone 3G issues

Note: CNET News' Tom Krazit and Marguerite Reardon co-wrote this article.

After his third iPhone 3G continued to cut him off in the middle of his conversations, Ryan Shaw had seen enough.

"The phone was a disappointment from the standpoint that it couldn't maintain a consistent connection with the 3G network...All the other features were fantastic," said Shaw, a sales professional living in a Cleveland suburb. But those other features weren't enough to prevent him from returning to Verizon and the BlackBerry after deciding the hassle just wasn't worth it.

Widespread complaints about the iPhone 3G's reception … Read more

Apple boots $1,000 app from App Store

The $1,000 application on Apple's App Store, which lets people know how rich you are simply for buying it, has been removed without explanation, making some developers wonder what it takes for Apple to pull the plug.

The "I am Rich" application developed by Armin Heinrich, a German software developer, does nothing more than display a picture of a red ruby on the iPhone screen. After initially approving the $1,000 application, Apple removed it from the store this week. Eight people managed to dish out $1,000 to buy the useless application, generating about $5,… Read more

iPhone 'kill switch' limited to location-aware apps

Apple's iPhone blacklist appears to fall short of fears that it led directly back to a big red button on Apple CEO Steve Jobs' desk.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber took a deep breath Thursday while Internet users frantically searched for their copies of 1984 following Jonathan Zdziarski's discovery of a URL inside the iPhone's operating system that downloads a list of applications designated as malicious. Some feared this would allow Apple to blacklist any application that ran afoul of its sensibilities.

Gruber spoke with what he called an "informed source" at Apple who confirmed … Read more

This Christmas, your company's getting an iPhone in a box

George Ou (yes, that George Ou!) has an interesting preview of David Maynor's (yes, that David Maynor!) presentation tomorrow at DEFCON 16.

The horny one doesn't know if David's ingenious idea was inspired by the dick in a box, but to riff on a theme:

1) Get a box 2) Put a hacked iPhone attached to an external battery and running reconnaissance or penetration (ahem) tools in the box 3) Mail the box to your girl some company 4) Penetrate (the Macalope said "ahem" already!) said company

And that's how you do it!

While … Read more

Much ado about the iPhone's 'kill switch'

Apple's iPhone "kill switch" has prompted much hand-wringing, despite the fact that no one knows exactly what it does.

Jonathan Zdziarski, an independent iPhone developer and author, recently discovered a URL while poking around inside the iPhone 2.0 software that downloads a list of "malicious" applications every so often to the iPhone, as noted by Ben Wilson at our sister site iPhone Atlas. Several outlets quickly seized on this detail as proof that Apple is poised to remotely disable any application running on the iPhone that it finds unpalatable.

Before we get into the … Read more

iPhone can phone home and kill apps?

Apple has apparently included a blacklisting mechanism in iPhone OS 2.x through which the device can phone home, check for unauthorized applications, and disable them. The OS includes a URL that points to a page containing a list of unauthorized applications, specifically those listed here.

According to Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Open Application Development and an iPhone forensics manual:

This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to … Read more

Apple releases update to iPhone 2.0 software

Apple has released the first update to the iPhone 2.0 software, with promises of "bug fixes."

iPhone owners were prompted Monday afternoon that the update was available, the first update for iPhone owners since the iPhone 2.0 software went live three weeks ago. AppleInsider appeared to be the first to spot the update, or at least the first with a well-known publishing brand to spot it, and reported that the release notes call out "bug fixes," but nothing specific.

Please let me know, either here in the comments or through e-mail, if you have … Read more

Report: Apple increasing iPhone 3G production

Demand for Apple's iPhone 3G remains strong, which could be forcing Apple to ramp production beyond its original estimates.

TechCrunch is reporting that Apple has asked Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai, to increase production of the iPhone 3G to 800,000 units a week. That pace translates to about 40 million units a year, far greater than what most analysts had been expecting the company to sell in the iPhone 3G era.

A short-term bump in production capacity may not imply that Foxconn will keep up that pace; TechCrunch's report alludes to "some concerns about quality … Read more

Fraud or not fraud, part 2: But what about Apple's iPhone battery time claims?

The whole Freeiphoneswap.com process (see part 1) got me worrying and thinking about fraud. And, with frustrations about the iPhone's battery common among bloggers and friends alike, you know there is a lawsuit looming out there as some plaintiff-side law firm will want to take Apple to task for allegedly misrepresenting the iPhone's battery life (both the first generation and 3G). Whether these would-be rentseekers have a claim a jury would buy will be seen.

But thinking about it, Apple says this about the iPhone's battery life:

Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G Up … Read more

Fraud or not fraud, part 1: FreeiPhoneswap.com - not a fraud

Money talks especially when news of the economy tanking is constant. So, with this thinking in mind, I scuttled the idea of giving my 1st generation iPhone to my grandpa. It's dreadful to think of (1) the hassle and how long it would have taken to go into an AT&T store to swap his Nokia, invariably, AT&T will something screw up, it's just a question of how badly they do; and, (2) how much more adding a 2nd iPhone data plan would be. It just didn't make economic sense to get him an … Read more