Identity Theft Vulnerability Affects All iPhones, Not Just Jailbroken Ones

A report surfaced recently about a vulnerability in Facebook that allowed people to access someone else's account. The report initially stated that this vulnerability only affected people on a jailbroken iPhone, however, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore as two new reports are stating that it isn't only jailbroken phones that are at risk.

Gareth Wright, an app developer from the U.K., along with The Next Web have each confirmed, separately, that this new vulnerability affects any and all iPhones, not just jailbroken ones. In addition to that, it has been discovered that the vulnerability originated in Facebook's iPhone app.

Wright released his report earlier in the week and claimed that the iPhone Facebook app includes a vulnerability that fails to encrypt log-on credentials whenever you get on Facebook on your iPhone via the app. Wright also said that he also discovered a Facebook access token in the Draw Something game. Wright copied the token, used the Facebook Query Language and extracted the information.

According to Wright's report, "Sure enough, I could pull back pretty much any information from my Facebook account." Wright also mentioned that the property list of the app contained any and all information needed to allow someone other than you to access your Facebook account, send private messages and do anything else imaginable.

However, Facebook is sticking by their claim that the vulnerability only affects jailbroken phones. In a statement from the social media giant, the company said, "Facebook's iOS and Android applications are only intended for use with the manufacture provided operating system, and access tokens are only vulnerable if they have modified their mobile OS (i.e. jailbroken iOS or modded Android) or have granted a malicious actor access to the physical device."

That may have been believable had The Next Web not released their very own report separate from Wright's. The Next Web confirmed themselves that the vulnerability also affects non-jailbroken phones. However, The Next Web also found that Dropbox also suffers from the same vulnerability, leaving the application open to a property list hack.

According to The Next Web, "We copied the .plist from one device, with the app installed and logged in, over to another which had a fresh installation of Dropbox on it. The profile copied and it worked seamlessly, as if we had logged on ourselves, which we had not." The Next Web also added that the Dropbox vulnerability works on phones that are passcode protected.

Facebook keeps saying that the vulnerability is only on jailbroken phones, though with the reports from Wright and The Next Web, I don't know how much longer the social media company can keep that story going.

Source: CNET - facebook ID theft impacts all iPhones, Dropbox

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Italian Government Slaps Apple with $1.2 Million Fine

Apple has been hit with quite a hefty fine from a somewhat surprising place today, Italy. That's right, on December 27, 2011 the country of Italy fined the tech giant 900,000 euros, or roughly $1.2 million, for allegedly encouraging its customers to sign up for AppleCare, the official tech support of the company, without informing them that they would receive two years of free support after purchasing the service.

Reuters reported that Italy requires every company that does business in the country to offer two full years of absolutely free technical support to any and all Italian customers. AppleCare is an important after-purchase revenue generator for the company. Apple offers this protection service on every single one of its products, from iPads and iPhones to MacBooks and Apple All-in-Ones, though prices vary depending on which device you get the service for. Naturally getting tech support on your iPhone should cost a little less than getting it on your MacBook Air.

Towards the beginning of this year, Apple updated its iPhone plan. The all new AppleCare+ gives customers extended warranties and technical support for as long as two years. In addition to this, the new AppleCare+ also includes repairs on two incidents of accidental damage as opposed to the previous single repair offered. The service itself will cost iPhone users $99.

In addition to AppleCare+ for the iPhone, another AppleCare package for the iMac will run customers $169 with the MacBook Pro option costing $349. The cheapest service is for the iPod Touch, costing only $59.

Apple has yet to release any official statement on the fine by the Italian Government and there is no way of knowing if it will ask employees in Italian Apple stores to make it clear to customers that their products are covered for two years. However, this fine will barely scrape the top of Apple's revenue pile as the company has tens of billions of dollars just lining the walls of their headquarter's bathrooms for decoration.

Source: CNET - Italy fines Apple $1.2 million over AppleCare practices

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Gizmodo iPhone 4G Fail

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So here we have an ad on Gizmodo playing off the stereotypical college graduate who has an extremely refined taste in beer and is also aimed at their fathers who are looking to buy them something shiny, new, and expensive. While the pitch is hilarious in itself, what really got me was this sentence and the picture chosen to accompany the ad.

"No one can be sure what the fourth generation iPhone will look like (oops! actually, we can)..."

Oops, actually, you can't Gizmodo. That's because you're using an outdated picture of the iPhone 3G instead of the iPhone 4G you are advertising. If I paid $10,000 for that iPhone, I would make pretty darn sure that I was using the correct picture for it.

You can see the original advertisment on Gizmodo's Grads & Dads Gift Guide by clicking on the photo of the iPhone.

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2 Million iPads in 2 Months

While most people were gathered around their barbecues and remembering fallen soldiers, Apple was proclaiming the iPad the greatest computer in the world, ever! OK, not really, but they did announce that since its launch about two months ago, they've sold over two million iPads. The iPad, which shipped on April 3 of this year, hit stores in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan just last Friday. Crowds lined the streets in those countries, while the Apple online store has been swamped with purchases - a seven to ten day wait is being placed on new orders.

Steve Jobs talked about the shortage in a statement, "We appreciate patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone." When announced in January, Wall Street analysts projected the iPad would only sell anywhere from 175,000 to 778,000 units a month. You can bet Steven Jobs is thrilled to prove them wrong.

While the iPad hit stores in April, technically, they could be pre-ordered as early as March 12 in the United States. That was eleven weeks ago. Apple's numbers break down to show that in those eleven weeks, 181,818 iPads were sold per week. If they keep that up for the rest of 2010, the company will sell over 7.6 million of the tablet computers.

But could that number grow even larger? You betcha! Now that sales have expanded to other countries, with nine more countries being added in July and even more later in the year, sales should be a lot higher. Apple is no stranger to these kinds of sales numbers. Last summer, the iPhone 3GS sold over a million units in the first three days they were on the market.

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New Trends: Computers Give Up CD Drives for Touch-Screens

A recent Associated Press report points out that personal computers are changing rapidly. It has definitely been a year of "out with the old and in with the new" as far as computers go. Laptops and Desktops are missing familiar components, slimming down and gaining lots of cool, new, unique features. Despite the popularity of gadgets such as the iPhone, PCs are still at the heart of the digital world and will likely stay that way for a while to come...even if they look and act a little differently.

One noticable change in the world of new computers is the lack of drives. Optical drives that play CDs and DVDs have been an important part of computers for over a decade. Whether you're watching a movie, listening to music, or installing software, the drives have been part of almost everyone's daily computer usage. Apple started getting rid of drives about two years ago when it first introduced the MacBook Air. Even though that wasn't a mainstream computer, due to its $1,800 pricetag, it was the start of what looks to be a popular trend. Netbooks, which are used mostly for web-browsing, start at $250 and are growing in popularity.

People are using their little laptops to download software, music and movies, while enjoying the convenience and price. The availability of Wi-Fi and cellular internet service combined with services that let you store files online are making the need for drives almost obsolete. Of course, there are the die-hard DVD watchers and CD burners who are not yet ready to give up those drives, but the lack of drives in many computers, particularly laptops does often lead to a lighter price and a much lighter load.

These days, people are also tending to purchase less powerful computers and this is another reason netbooks are becoming more popular. Everyone's been inside a retail establishment and listened to a salesperson rattle off a list of processors, graphics cards, gigabytes of memory and sizes of hard drives, but unless you're a hard-core gmer or a professional video editor, all of that stuff isn't really necessary. People are looking for computers that let them browse the web, email and use word processing applications more than anything right now.

Computer manufacturers aren't just competing with each other these days, they're also having to stand up to smartphone manufacturers, as well. People want to be connected 24/7 it seems and it's easier for that to be possible via a cell phone. "Smarbooks" are being created - think a smartphone-like device that is closer to the size of your laptop than your cell phone, and computer companies are starting to focus on laptop appearanes. Colors, patterns, themes, designs, shapes, and materials are all considered to be an important part of computer manufacturing lately, allowing users to treat their computers more like fashion accessories than tools. People also want thin and light computers that are easier to carry.

And finally, touch-screens are becoming a popular computer trend. Ever since the iPhone was developed in 2007, multi-touch has become more prominent in today's technology. The recently released Windows 7 includes support for a number of multi-touch applications and companies such as Dell and HP are designing software that allow you to browse everything from the web to your music library with your fingers instead of a mouse. And while experts say the touch-screen won't replace the mouse and keyboard, it will most likely become just as important.

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