SMS Burst can be used to HiJack the iPhone
Apple went on record saying that Jailbreaking could cause cell tower crashes, was the favorite of Drug Dealers and caused bad breath (Ok I made that last one up). All of this in a effort to prove that Jailbreaking should be illegal. They claim they have protection in place to prevent the type of mass chaos that jailbroken phone could bring.
So, I guess they are looking pretty foolish right about now. According to Forbes, there is a way to HiJack an iPnone with a simple SMS message.
What make matters worse is that once infected it can infect other phones simply by texting them from your iPhone's Address book. Yep that is right. The secure phone OS from Apple is just as insecure as all the others. But there is a greater potential for infection, after all they advertise that it is secure, encrypted and a host of other things.
Continue reading: SMS Burst can be used to HiJack the iPhone (full post)
Apple Claims Jailbreaking is a National Threat
Ok this is a good one, it also shows that Apple is really desperate to control the iPhone. According to a report over at Wired; Apple is trying to get the DCMA to believe that Jailbreaking can lead to terrorist attacks on the national cell tower network.
The logic goes something like this;
An Evil Doer jailbreaks the iPhone, uses Ultrasn0w to alter the phones baseband, then using the alterations forces a DDoS attack on a cell tower crashing the service.
Continue reading: Apple Claims Jailbreaking is a National Threat (full post)
Windows 7 Hacked and Activated before release
If you had any doubt that Windows 7 is being eagerly anticipated then the following information should set your mind at ease.
The great big world piracy community has found a hole in the activation routine that has allowed them to activate Windows 7 before it is even released. While there are sites reporting this today it actually started a about four days ago when the first pair of Windows 7 Activators, the Windows 7 Activation Tool Kit Beta 1.8 and Windows 7 Loader, hit the internet. Of course they spread rapidly so that people with the RTM image would be able to use it fully activated.
While all of this is noteworthy, it is not unexpected or surprising. After all; there has to be openings in the activation routine for MS to work with and around it for large OEMs and VARs. This was the same vector that the older Windows Vista Loader used. It fooled Vista into thinking the system was from one of a list of manufacturers that can activate by BIOS image.
Continue reading: Windows 7 Hacked and Activated before release (full post)
Foxconn suicide payment to family increased
Foxconn is trying very hard to dig itself out of a hole. The hole is not a financial hole; it is not a manufacturing hole. No this hole is a potential disaster for the large OEM manufacturer.
The problem started when a 25 year old technician committed suicide over the report of a missing fourth generation iPhone prototype.
According to the time line that is generally accepted on July 9th 16 fourth generation iPhone prototypes were delivered to Young Sun Dan. Young was responsible for packaging, sealing and shipping these to Apple.
Continue reading: Foxconn suicide payment to family increased (full post)
Critical Patch for Internet Explorer released
If you have not heard there is a pretty serious patch out for Internet Explorer. This patch is coming out of the normal cycle so it must be important.
The patch relates to an issue found in the way that IE handles object in memory and tables. The issue affects people running with Admin rights more than it does a standard user.
The flaw exists in the Active Template Libraries in Visual Studio. So someone could craft a malicious website with these and setup a drive by site. Once a user visits the site they could become infected based on a few known vectors in the way IE handles these objects.
Continue reading: Critical Patch for Internet Explorer released (full post)
Google Voice ported to Cydia
We told you this morning how Apple rejected Google's Google Voice app.
Apple's reason was that the Google App mimicked features already present on the iPhone. Well, this has not prevented it from existing.
It has been ported and out up on Cydia for download. That is right; once again the jailbreak crowd has found a way around Apple's iron fist.
Rumors say Asus and Acer delaying Netbooks
I have been reading an interesting rumor about the Netbook market. It says that Asus and Acer are delaying netbook launches until 2010. The netbooks in question are Acer's upcoming Dual boot (XP and Android) offering and Asus' Android based model.
One of the reasons, the rumor goes on to say, is that Intel delayed Pinetrail until next year. The Acer delay is also being linked to supposed research showing a dual boot netbook is not something that will not work in the market just yet (I could have told you that). I would have thought that lesson would have been learned after the initial Linux based launches.
I wanted to know if there was any credit to the rumor so I contacted someone I know at Asus and asked directly. The response was interesting but not truly conclusive.
Continue reading: Rumors say Asus and Acer delaying Netbooks (full post)
AMD launches their Fastest Pro GPU yet
AMD/ATi has been having a pretty good year. In addition to beating nVidia to 40nm and actually getting a 40nm part in the market first (although supply is still an issue) they have shown DX11 parts while nVidia has been lagging behind.
So it comes as no surprise to hear that AMD has launched a new 3D Workstation part. This new part is an addition to their "Fire" line of cards. Called the FirePro V8750 it is the fastest that AMD has made to date.
AMD put the FirePro V8750 up against the nVidia Quadro FX4800 and found that it was able to keep up and in many spots outperform the Quadro.
Continue reading: AMD launches their Fastest Pro GPU yet (full post)
Apple rejects Google Voice
I often find the strangest things funny. For example I actually find it funny that Google is being stifled by Apple. I cannot really explain why; it is just funny.
Maybe it is because when using the iPhone I am stuck with Google Maps (unless I want to pay for another service). Or, that my only option for search is Google. Perhaps it is that Google and Apple have a shared director.
Still it is somewhat comical to see applications like Google Latitude and Google Voice get rejected by Apple. Apple's reasons for doing this? Well for Latitude Apple felt that people would confuse it with the current Map application. For Google voice it is that it duplicates existing iPhone functions.
GT300 still on track for Q4 2009
With AMD's recent announcement that they will be launching a complete line of DX11 parts in time for the Windows 7 launch we have to wonder what nVidia has up their sleeve.
Many are saying that nVidia has nothing or at least nothing new. In fact several of the better known anti-nVidia gang are claiming that nVidia will only be launching refreshed parts or little more than a Die-Shrink.
They claim that what is to become the GT300 will not hit the market until mid to late 2010.
Continue reading: GT300 still on track for Q4 2009 (full post)