Hi everyone,
Our publisher, Tony Campbell, is running a survey as part of his MSc research project, looking into correlations between iPhone usage and configuration, and personality. If anyone can contribute to this research project by taking the survey, Tony would be very grateful. The obvious pre-requisite is that you are an iPhone user.
The survey can be found at http://dfprofile.com/surveys/index.php?sid=46853&lang=en
Ed
(587)
A massive breach of data security by AT&T’s has exposed some very high profile users’ email addresses and contact information from the celebrity hotlist of Apple’s select early-adopter iPad 3G users. An in-depth report by Ryan Tate (Valleywag) says, “The specific information exposed in the breach included subscribers’ email addresses, coupled with an associated ID used to authenticate the subscriber on AT&T’s network, known as the ICC-ID. ICC-ID stands for integrated circuit card identifier and is used to identify the SIM cards that associate a mobile device with a particular subscriber.”
This is a big blow for Apple, and more so for their already rocky relationship with AT&T. With data breaches like these happening more and more frequently, maybe we’ll see the end of these ridiculous ‘exclusive’ deals we’ve been subject to in both the US and the UK, where we end up locked into AT&T or O2 (in the UK) just because we want a particular type of phone. From now on, maybe the lack of trust that this sort of data loss will undoubtedly breed, will benefit the rest of us as exclusive lock in deals with just one provider might not seem so clever. Then we all all have the privilege to choose which cellular provider we will pay to lose our personal data and leave us pen to fraud. And, as we know… it’s all about freedom of choice!
Reference
http://m.gawker.com/5559346/apples-worst-security-breach-114000-ipad-owners-exposed
(657)
I must admit, I was getting a little tired of my iPhone 3GS as it drops the network connection from time to time, and has cause a few of my audio book downloads to fail; and after getting my iPad and seeing what’s possible with the OS, I was seriously considering a different phone. However, now that Apple has announced the iPhone 4 will be available across the world (US, UK France, Germany and Japan) on the 24th June, and pre-orders can be taken with service providers from the 15th, I must admit I’m now torn. I was drawn to the Nexus 1 after a colleague showed it to me in work, notably the turn-by-turn navigation and the HD screen; it really seemed a cut above the Apple offering. However, now that I’ve seen the reviews on EnGadget of the iPhone 4, seen some screen shots of it in operation and discovered that its architecture is based on the Apple A4 processor just like my precious iPad, the HD screen and 5 Megapixel camera seem like icing on the best birthday cake ever. The operating system, previously called iPhone OS 4 has been re-branded as iOS4 (must admit I did wonder about the conflict with CISCO’s IOS operation system for switches, routers etc., so there may be a lawsuit to get through with that one) and an update for the iPad will be available as soon as the new OS is launched with the iPhone later this month.
I think the design of the new iPhone chassis looks fantastic and aligns it well with the design aesthetics of the lastest MacBooks, but the real differences come in the form of the front and rear cameras (for video calling), the Retina display (960×640 resolution), and HD video. Apple also proclaims over 100 new software improvements over OS3 in iOS4, some of which are as follows:
This truly looks like the update all iPhone users have been waiting for, and I’m now convinced that moving to Android or (hack, spit) a Microsoft platform would be a mistake. Roll on the 24th.
Tony Campbell
(685)
