IF Cellebrite Can Crack any iPhone, THEN…

As this article posits, Cellebrite can now crack any iPhone.

OK. Suppose that’s a true statement. Every single iPhone is now susceptible to lawful (or unlawful) compromise.

If you’re an iPhone owner does this change your behavior? If you’re a law abiding citizen I’m betting you’re not changing your buying habits until this becomes a glaring problem (such as your phone being routinely and remotely jacked).

If you’re Apple does this change your behavior. I hope the answer is unequivocally and emphatically, “Yes!” Apple went to the mat with the US Dept of Justice over this very topic. Now that there may be a universal crack for the iPhone if I’m Apple my behavior very definitely would change.

First, no more face sensors, no more biometric security. I have an old janky iPhone 5. It’s slow as hell and busted up to the point of failure. But, it’s locked tight. I don’t want some ying yang authority forcing me to look at my phone or give up my fingerprint. There are files, emails, texts I don’t want anyone having access to excepting the intended recipient. Why? Privacy. That’s why. The same reason we don’t have a party line telephone system any more. The same reason I don’t keep my bills on the front porch or my office correspondence printed and out in plain sight. Privacy. Plain and simple. In the U.S. it’s still in our Bill of Rights. It’s being frayed generation after generation but it’s still there.

If I’m Apple I’m spending an inordinate amount of time and resources figuring out how very clever people are reverse engineering iOS and then I work my ass off to plug those holes. I love Apple. Love the principled stand they take on things (even if I disagree with those stands). Apple is chockablock full of very, very smart people and if anyone can out-clever very clever it is Apple. I hope they’re modding phones and honeypotting Cellebrite in ways that expose their methods.

Apple Watch Upgrade Path?

I had the bright idea to stand in line to get the first gen iPhone. That device was magical (sort of) in an initial sort of way. Pull that phone out now and hold it up to an iPhone 6. The magic is gone pretty much upon startup.

But, I’ve since bought just about every version of the iPhone up to the 4S which is where I stopped being so eager to lap up everything. The pace of annual updates had picked up. I soured on spending so much on two year contracts and being bound to a specific carrier and their particular stupidity. So, I have a 4 and 4S on pay-as-you-go plans with a carrier that has really reliable service in my home town. I was content until last night.

The Apple Watch has me wanting to re-up. (And there’s the key for Apple.) It would be a pricey step up to say the least. I’d not only have to abandon my 4S, but I’d nearly have to commit to a 6 or 6+ (unlocked, off contract) and buy a Watch.

And for what?

Do I really want to send little drawings to anyone? No. My heartbeat? Nope. Are there any “can’t live without apps yet?” Um, no. Then why on earth would I want to just chuck all that dough out the window for a gen 1 product? Again!

I don’t have a good answer.

That’s about the most ridiculous thing I could have said. But, it’s precisely the answer. I’m not even interested in the Sports version. I’m more interested in the experience. I liken it to my going to the top of the World Trade Center in 1981. I was there. It was there. We hooked up and I had a great view for an afternoon.

Is this what Apple has become? Less a device maker. More of a desire maker? An experience.

The Swatch watch I have is about the size and heft of an Apple Watch. It has a good number of complications, a swanky faux leather wristband and a kick ass dial. I love that watch. Guess what? I don’t wear it except when I’m “going out”. I don’t wear it at work. I do wear it to work, though. I don’t wear it around the house. It’s a true accessory.

However, I can tell you I’m tired of my phone being such a large (physically and metaphorically) distraction. I do like the promise of being able to trim down the distractions of the day. Can a first gen product deliver on that?

Upgrades Concern Me

Like I said, I’ve bought a lot of Apple iPhones and iPads. AAPL likes that. AAPL thrives on precisely that.

But, I don’t want to buy a Watch 2s or a Watch 6s years down the line any more than I want to replace my Swatch.

So, what is the upgrade path? Is it like Tesla’s sedans and it’s going to be on the software updates for a good long period? The upgradeable car has a nice allure to it. That doesn’t jibe with the APPL year-over-year need for predictably innovative/lucrative product cycles, though.

How does this Apple Watch thing play out as a product line over the years? Because I don’t really want to buy this one and then find out next year they’ve added iSight and FaceTime hardware or Thuderbolt or some sort of wet neural networking that gen one can’t get. But, you know what? I don’t think most people think that way. It’s priced low enough (as Apple’s Items of Desire go) that things will turn out okay for Apple.

I suppose WWDC will be particularly interesting this year. Still, I wrestle with the whole first gen commitment and how long the danged thing will be relevant. What’s it’s lifespan? When does Apple stop supporting Gen One? These are the things blocking me… a (weary) early adopter.

Streaming Christmas Music (iTunes)

Apple could stand a better search interface for searching their “radio” streams in both iTunes and especially in AppleTV.

So, Merry Christmas from me to you… I’ve found a good number of the streams from within the various iTunes radio categories just for you conveniently linked below:

Snow FM Ireland (classic Christmas oldies, 128 kbps)
Classical 24/7 (classical instrumental Christmas muzak)
Big R Radio Christmas Classics (eclectic Christmas mix, 128 kbps)
Fresh Christmas (hodge podge of Christmas “hits”, 64 kbps)
Got Radio – Christmas Celebration (all-over-the-place XMas music, 64 kbps)
1.FM TM – Always Christmas (From around the world, 64 kbps)
Christmas – Sky.fm – (roll of the dice, ?? kbps)

These might work fine on iPhone and iPad (or not). I haven’t checked them yet. I have no clue how to get these “bookmarked” on AppleTV (don’t get me started on that line of griping). And, if I manage to get back to this post I may be able to add a few more before Santa’s big globe trotting spree.

Enjoy!

iOS 7 Better Have…

There are some things iOS7 had better have before I consider shelling out the bucks for the next new iPhone. Here’s my iOS bucket list:

• I need a way to import a high quality greeting to my voicemail. Hardline dialing and recording a new greeting is NOT Apple-worthy. I don’t mind recoding to the Voice Memo app or on my Mac. I just ought to be able to import a sound file as my greeting dangit!
• I expect a way to SEND my voicemails to my iCloud account as email attachments. Or create a rule that does it automatically.
• I expect a way to FORWARD voicemails to other iOS devices as messages. I can send a picture/video via MMS… Why not a voicemail attachment?
• I expect a heckuva LOT more out of Siri. It’s more useless than the Maps app right now.
• Maps is borked. Now that Google Maps app is on the App Store… I’m going back to what works. Still love you Apple. Just need excellent Maps when I need a map.
• Something’s still not quite right about Contact sync between iPhone, Mac laptop and iCloud. I have duplicates of many contacts in the order of 19 to upwards of 30 of the same person. There needs to be a super easy way to purge duplicates. Contact management shouldn’t be this nasty a chore.
• Speaking of chores… Apple got the Notes app sync PERFECTLY across devices. It’s not broke. Don’t fix it. 😉 Replicate it’s success for the other devices.
• Facetime is such a great idea. I’ve tried and tried and tried to Facetime on our local wireless LAN. Each time it rings once (so I know the call is coming through) and then indicates I’m busy to the other devices. Needs to be easier.
• The new messaging works pretty swank too. Not sure how they’d improve it just now.
• Can we PLEASE just sync up our phones to Time Machine? Pretty please?
• Passbook is freakin awesome! A killer, kick ass kind of awesome. The world is ready (it just doesn’t know it yet).
• Airplay = way awesome.
• Safari “Reader Mode” is slick. Wish there was a way to make Siri read the content while I’m driving or otherwise occupied. That’s one thing I love about Alex on my Mac.
• Photo streams to my AppleTV is not quite as straight forward an intuitive as I would expect from Apple. Needs Improvement.
• Newsstand is a useless icon on my phone deck. Please, let me delete it or file it in another folder.
• Faxing from my phone should be a no brainer easier than anything to do.
• Finally, PRINTING. Guys. C’mon. Really? Printing is right up there with copy and paste. We’ve been doing this a long time. Why can’t we seem to get this right?

iOS is a super platform. So good in fact that in our household we’re getting device confused. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve swiped our fingers across the screen of the laptop or the iMac. It’s silly really that we’ve become so accustomed to iOS that is’s bleeding over into how we interact with the other computers around us.

 

 

iCloud VIP list broken?

iCloud’s VIP lists seems to be malfunctioning or at the very least working in some cases and not others.

Web-based iCloud mail isn’t showing the last month or so of a certain VIP. Though my iPhone (latest rev of iOS) displays my VIP lists her properly. For reference this seems to only display properly on web back to early November. Then nothing in VIP newer than that displays correctly.

I’ve turned off all my rules based settings at iCloud.com.

I’ve double checked my iCloud contacts are set properly on iPhone settings.

I’ve removed all my VIPs and added them back slowly.

Nothing seems to have improved the iCloud VIP situation on the web-view of my email.

Any thoughts out there?

Smart. Phone. Distracted. Driving.

We want it all too quickly don’t we?

A nifty device lands in our life in the form of a smartphone. One iteration after another it’s improved upon until we reach the intersections of dependence, need and technical capability. I’m of course talking about my iPhone and it’s current OS (version 5.1).

Siri intrigued me as a potential virtual private assistant. The concept is sound and the execution is promising. But, it’s also clear why Apple would label it “beta” at this point in time. It’s tantalizing to the point of leaving me wanting it to do more than it does (or perhaps is capable of at this time).

Point in case, Siri can handily manage my text messages plus respond to simply queries. Which is really quite nice. But, not particularly habit forming as texting just isn’t my cuppa. But, email IS my domain. There are so many things I’d have Siri do for me in the email department such as finding, reading, writing, responding, filing certain emails for me. Some would be routine such as notify me ONLY when an email from Alexander or Tania arrives and file it in the Important folder.

I know we’ll get there. But, as fast as technology is moving wouldn’t it be great to have Version 21.0 right out of the gate?

iPhone Dev: Button for iPhone (not Touches)

The App Store rejected my first attempt at submitting an app based on “Reachability” (which I’m still trying to resolve) and showing a call button (even to devices incapable of placing a call, such as iPod Touches). Turns out what I was looking for is somewhat easy… at least the part that checks if the device is capable of calls. See code below:

- (BOOL)deviceCanMakePhoneCalls
{
    BOOL canMakePhoneCalls;
    if ([UIApplication instancesRespondToSelector:@selector(canOpenURL:)]) {
        // OS 3.0, so use canOpenURL
        UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
        canMakePhoneCalls = ([app canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"tel:+44-1234-567890"]]);
    } else {
        // OS 2.x, so check for iPhone
        UIDevice *device = [UIDevice currentDevice];
        canMakePhoneCalls = ([device.model isEqualToString:@"iPhone"]);
    }
    return canMakePhoneCalls;
}

What this doesn’t do is show the button (or hide it). Now, if you know how to solve for any this more elegantly… please, do tell. AND… if you’d like to help me via ichat or Google Chat to walk through the Reachability issue… lemme know!

REVIEW: Pelican Micro Case i1015

I’ve bought a LOT of Pelican shipping containers in the past several years and they make a MEAN box.

So, when the email came in asking me to review the i1015 Micro Case (for iPhone) I have to admit, my expectations were pretty lofty.

The GOOD
The i1015 seals TIGHT. So, if you work in a dusty environment or maybe a little bit wet/misty… this case might just do the trick for you. The lid is transparent to boot. There’s a handy jack outside that couples with the phone on the inside. While I haven’t tried this (and don’t recommend it by any stretch) I suspect the i1015 will float if dropped in a lake.

The BAD
What seems to be missing to me is a charging/peripheral slot. For instance, I might be on a boat (or sitting on the front porch when the neighbors sprinkler turns on). My phone should be able to charge while safely stowed away. There really aren’t any security features… It took my oldest (8 years old) less than a minute to open the box. All the other Pelican cases I’ve owned were lockable… I like the idea of being able to store my iPhone in a shock absorbing case, still use it AND charge it. So, that’s where my expectations were maybe too high.

The UGLY
I suspect there’s no way around the bulk. It just seems unnecessarily big in my opinion (about as big as the 3GS box my phone came in when I bought it).

I’ll probably give this unit to my neighbor across the street. He bought the iPhone on opening day just like I did and is an avid fisherman (taking his boat out regularly). Wouldn’t it be great to know his iPhone didn’t go down to Davy Jones’ locker because of the i1015. THAT would be one swell success story… Maybe he’ll toss HIS phone into the drink just cuz. If he does I’ll let you know all about it. 🙂

BOOK REVIEW: “iPhone for Programmers”

As luck would have it I received a review copy of “iPhone for Programmers: An App-Driven Approach” just as I was getting up to speed on iPhone development.

What I like about this app… it steps us through the programming and considerations behind 14 very different apps. Lots of different frameworks covered and the walk through behind the steps involved is quite good. It helped me get my app ready for App Store submission… Can’t give anything a higher recommendation than that!

I have a fairly substantial library of iPhone dev books and this one’s ing the top three I crack open on a regular basis… What’s also nice is all the source code for the apps is conveniently parked online and reasonably commented.

Definitely recommend ++

[REVIEW] iFrogz Earpollution Earbuds

iFrogz was kind enough to send me a pair of their Earpollution Earbuds to review. The short of it: They’re decent earbuds at a good value. More after the jump…