Apple Mac HQ

A rather large security flaw was discovered in iPhone 2.x software yesterday.  The flaw will leave your data open to prying eyes even if you have enabled password protection.  To reproduce the flaw try these steps:

1. Lock your phone so it requires a password to use
2. Slide to unlock, then hit the Emergency Call button
3. Double tap your home button
4. Click the blue arrow by a contact with an email address and click the email address
5. You’ll be taken to a blank email; hit cancel
6. Now you have access to all email accounts on your iPhone
7. You can do the same trick for text messages and Safari if you have a URL in a contact

Obviously this is a huge flaw if you have sensitive data on your iPhone.  The flaw only occurs if you have your Home Button set to Phone Favorites.  Apple has not released a fix, but you can change the Home Button function to another action and the flaw will no longer work on your phone.  Just follow these steps to change the Home Button function:

1. Open Settings
2. Click General then Home Button
3. Change the setting to anything but Phone Favorites.  I prefer Home since even setting it to iPod will allow access to your music.

Gizmodo has a video of the flaw in action.  Lets hope Apple fixes this flaw in the next software update.  I wonder if this will affect any businesses who are considering the iPhone as a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile alternative?  If I was an IT manager, this would seriously worry me about Apple’s commitment to security on the iPhone.

[Via TUAW]

The single biggest reason I haven’t spent a dime on iPhone apps or games is that I can’t demo them. I’m cheap when it comes to spending my hard earned cash on something I may use for 5 minutes and never use again. Even though you can’t demo iPhone games or apps, websites are filling the void offering screenshots, videos, and quality reviews. I recently came across a great website for iPhone game reviews.

Touch Arcade is run by Arnold Kim, the guy behind MacRumors. Touch Arcade is a blog thoroughly devoted to iPhone games and accessories (yes, there is at least one iPhone gaming accessory in the works). Game reviews contain a screenshot, a brief review of the game, the price, a link to the game in the App Store, and often an embedded YouTube video. Before you spend your cash on an iPhone game, you might want to stop by Touch Arcade and see if they have reviewed it!

A few weeks ago I was wondering aloud why I hadn’t seen any type of Delicious client for the iPhone. Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking this, because an enterprising developer seemed to be thinking the same thing. The fruits of Douglas Richardson’s labor is Bookmarks (iTunes link).

Booksmarks is a free application that allows you to browse your Delicious links. When you first open the application you’re prompted to enter in your Delicious account information. Once you enter in your account information, Bookmarks will begin to download your tag information. After a short delay, you’ll see your Delicious tags. Tapping a tag will show you your saved links with that tag. Tapping a specific link will open the link in Safari.

Booksmarks is a great download if you want to view your Delicious links without navigating the Delicious website. While Bookmarks is easy to setup and use, it’s also pretty basic right now. You can’t delete any of your links or drill down into multiple tags (e.g. PHP then Tutorials). I’d like to see the ability to drill down into multiple tags and delete capabilities. It’s also be nice if you could browse the popular links and add them to your Delicious links straight from the iPhone.

For a free app and a 1.0 release though, Bookmarks is worth your time to download if you are a Delicious user. Thanks to Douglas for releasing Bookmarks!

Disclaimer: I own a small number of Yahoo shares. Delicious is owned by Yahoo Inc.

Here’s yet another web site to find iPhone applications. AppVee has the applications broken down into categories and includes screenshots, videos, and a multi-criteria review system (ease of use, interface, etc). Based on the individual criteria, the app is given an overall rating between zero and five stars. I image the iPhone web site review space is going to explode.

[Via TechCrunch]

The App Store in iTunes has certainly shed new light into what makes the iPhone great. As good as the App Store is, there is certainly some need for improvement in certain areas. One of those areas the App Store badly needs improvement is reviews. People giving apps one star because of the price and people leaving reviews without having purchased the application are just two of the reasons the app store review process is broken. One of my favorite Mac sites is stepping up to the plate to make finding good iPhone apps easier.

i use this is a great website for finding Mac applications that I’ve written about before. Recently they have added an iPhone section to their website. It’s very easy to see what applications are popular and to get honest reviews. Those leaving reviews had to sign up and consciously browse to the iPhone section on i use this. I’ve found the reviews to be better quality and you also have people leaving notes that say problem X in version 1.x was fixed in version 1.1.x. If you’re looking for a better way to find good iPhone apps, check out the iPhone section on i use this.

Some people belittled the first iPhone because it didn’t have a 3G chipset. Now that the iPhone is shipping with 3G, people are complaining about the poor battery life. Battery life was one of the reasons Steve Jobs cited why the first iPhone wasn’t 3G capable.

Your at the office waiting for a call from your hot date and you notice your iPhone is low on power. As it happens, you also left your USB cable at home. What are you going to do?

The Richard Solo Battery Backup to the rescue. Simply attach the device to your iPhone or iPod and it will charge your battery. TUAW has a great review of the product. I’ve seen the ad for the Richard Solo in a few Macworld issues and have thought about buying one. The TUAW review is very favorable and certainly has driven me closer to purchasing one. If you’re thinking about getting a battery backup for your iPhone or iPod, you should consider the Richard Solo Battery Backup.

Starting September 7th, Best Buy will become the first non Apple or AT&T store to carry the iPhone in the US. This deal will add nearly 1,000 additional purchase points for the iPhone 3G. You can read the full announcement here, though little additional information is contained in the rest of the article.