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Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.
So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!
Join Rene, Chad, Dieter, and the Cell Phone Junkie, Mickey Papillion, for iPhone vs. Droid, AT&T vs. Verizon, Jailbreak SSH attacks, the week in apps, and your questions live! Listen in!
So if you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, installed SSH, and still haven’t changed your password from the default despite our previous warnings about Dutch Ransomers and Australian Rickrollers? Maybe you thought those were just funny (as seen in this video from iPhoneMVP) and not worth worrying about? Well now things have gotten more serious — there’s a new attack making the rounds that just plain steals your data.
Same method of attack, the bad guy scans the local network for insecure SSH on Jailbroken iPhones, and when it finds it, begins to copy your contacts, messages, email, events, photos, media, etc. This could, of course, include passwords, financial data, and those pics you never got around to deleting…
If you haven’t already, go change your SSH password now. If you need help, go to the TiPb iPhone Forums and get it. Just secure your iPhone.
[Intego, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Why is it easier to make a great Twitter client for Apple’s iPhone than for Google Android phones like the new Verizon DROID? After Robert Scoble wrote a typically impassioned post entitled The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone, and used Twitter clients as an example, Thomas Marban of Android’s premiere Twitter client, Twidroid, responded:
one of the main reasons why UIs are unequally inferior are not only the way you build apps (open vs. closed hw/sw system) and the SDK itself but also marginal to non-existing UI standards, no ready-made drag & drop UI items, variations in carrier- & device firmware, hard- & software input, screen sizes, international customizations, modded phones, rooted phones and last but not least completely different expectations among users and the linux’ish target group itself. in a nutshell: beautiful mess. obviously, all these reasons eat up a huge pile of time that one could better spend with improving UX and polishing the interface. those who started early with android development have learned and are still learning it the hard way, just like they did with win 3.1 back in the days.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball, in Lots of Excuses comments:
That doesn’t sound like someone who plans to ever ship something of the caliber of Tweetie, Birdfeed, or Twitterrific. From what I’ve seen of Twidroid, it’s not even as good as Craig Hockenberry’s original version of Twitterrific for iPhone, which was written as a jailbreak app before the iPhone officially supported third-party software. If Android hardware diversity is already a problem for third-party developers, it’s only going to get worse.
This also highlights the advantages Apple has given iPhone developers. Not only is the iPhone based on OS X, but the development tools are based on Xcode and Interface Builder, and while not as many developers are likely already familiar with Cocoa touch as, say, developers might be with Android’s language(s) (or web developers may be for the Palm Pre), existing Mac developers can make those tools sing. And, given the SDK Apple provided, even new developers get a huge head start in terms of functions and user interface elements.
Sure, that means there’s a lower barrier of entry to creating poor iPhone apps, but it also means great developers aren’t wasting their time re-inventing UI wheels, or fighting the OS to do right by their apps. They investing that time in making great apps.
With the UK moving from the iPhone exclusively on O2, to one launching on Orange UK tomorrow, with Vadafone UK/Ireland and perhaps 3 also in line, what does this mean for existing iPhone users and their carrier-locked iPhones? Thankfully, it looks like O2 is doing to do right by you:
Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks, we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator — though naturally we hope they won’t want to!
Excellent news for the UK, and we can only hope other countries and carriers, like Rogers, Bell, and Telus in Canada, will swiftly follow suit (we won’t hold our breath though…)
We’re not sure how this process would be handled, for example, would an iPhone user need to physically go to an O2 service rep to have their iPhone unlocked via in-store iTunes tools? If anyone has an answer, let us know.
[Times Online via Stuartino in the TiPb forums]
The Register is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed against an iPhone game developer for privacy violations:
The complaint claims best-selling games made by Storm8 contained secret code that bypassed safeguards built into the iPhone to prevent the unauthorized snooping of user information. [...] to access, collect, and transmit the wireless phone numbers of the iPhones on which its games are installed,” states the complaint, which was filed in US District Court in Northern California. “Storm8 does so or has done so in all of its games.” [...] [including] World War, iMobsters, Racing Live, Vampires Live, Kingdoms Live, Zombies Live, and Rockstars Live.
The complaint claims they’re violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and is seeking Class Action status. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about apps violating user privacy, hopefully Apple’s new iPhone security manager will first and foremost focus on these types of exploits. And, yeah, let the courts smite any abusive developers in the meantime…
[via Wabbit in the TiPb forums]
For iPhone Jailbreakers using SSH to access their devices — without changing the default password — getting Rickrolled by a worm may be annoying (no worse than getting held for ransom by a hacker) but it’s a sign that far more insidious and malicious attacks are possible — so change those passwords now!
Back to the Rickroll. TUAW reports:
A hacker, going by the name “ikee,” created a worm that changes the home screen background on jailbroken iPhones whose owners failed to change the default password after installing SSH.
And the new background is, of course, Rick Astley. While removal details are included in an interview with the hacker, it’s better to be safe than sorry. So, check our iMuggle’s tutorial on how to change your SSH password, and change it right away.
With thousands upon thousands of iPhone and iPod touch apps, and hundreds and hundreds of accessories, it can be tough to sort the good from the bad (or just ugly). Enter TiPb’s Top 5. From games to business, entertainment to productivity, and cases to bluetooth, our writers scour the iTunes App Store and TiPb Accessory Store to find their favorites — and give you a chance to tell us your own. So, if you’re looking for that perfect app or accessory, check these out:
Apple is currently hiring and is in search of an iPhone OS platform security manager. What does the particular job consist of? Here is the low down:
The team is responsible for secure booting and installation of the OS, partitioning and hardening of security domains within the OS, cryptographic services, and risk analysis of security threats. The team is made up of a variety of security experts with backgrounds in system security and reverse engineering.
The more secure Apple makes the OS the harder it will become to find and use a particular exploit — for good, like our beloved jailbreak, or for evil, like we’ve seen with computer viruses, malware, etc.
Now don’t get us wrong, we are pretty sure that one person will not do away with our beloved jailbreak but this does raise some questions. Is Apple really concerned popular mobile devices will get attacked the way PCs do today? Or are they just done putting the practice of preventing jailbreaking (and the unlocking and app piracy that sometimes goes with it) on the back burner?
What do you think this may mean for the future of the jailbreak if anything? Sound off in the comments below!
[Job listing via Ars]
Ever wanted to know how to change the icons of a particularly ugly app? Well, if you’re Jailbroken and have SSH access you’re in luck! Resident theming genius, Ally (iMuggle on TiPb Forums and in the Twitter) has begun collecting her excellent tutorials into one easy to browse place. Here’s a sample:
you need to know how to do a few things in order to do this. After jailbreaking, you need to know how to SSH into your phone. If you’re not familiar with SSH, you need to get familiar with that first. *Note: Unless you feel completely comfortable doing this, I don’t recommend it. Point being, SSH’ing will give you access to ALL of your iPhone’s core files, so deleting/editing certain files could be disastrous if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you’re still reading, and you’re okay with all of this, continue on.
So, fair warning, that’s why we call these iPhone Ninja tips. They’re not for the casual user — hard core only.
If you’re interested and eager, however, give Ally’s tutorials a look and let her (and us!) know your results.
