iPhone News Updated

App Genome Project eyes iPhone, Android security

Mobile security firm Lookout has studied 300,000 Android and iPhone apps and fully analyzed nearly 100,000 that are free as part of a new App Genome project that’s designed to help keep mobile users safe.

The real-time database can help Lookout detect problems before they hit a large number of Android and iPhone users and help educate developers to problems posed by platform issues or poor coding processes. The announcement comes on the cusp of the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

Lookout’s researchers have uncovered a number of issues with the software that millions of people rely on either in the operating systems used in the phones or in apps found on the Android and iPhone marketplaces.

Read the rest of this entry »

What the iPhone-jailbreaking ruling means (FAQ)

To help answer some questions about this week’s announcement by the Copyright Office, a unit of the Library of Congress, regarding the legality of so-called cell phone jailbreaking–that is, modifying the software that comes with iPhones and other handsets and that is designed not to be changed–we’ve compiled the following questions and answers.

What does the Copyright Office’s ruling mean?
The short answer is that jailbreaking your iPhone or other mobile device will no longer violate a controversial federal copyright law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. Bypassing a manufacturer’s protection mechanisms to allow “handsets to execute software applications” is now permitted.

But in practice, the actual impact of that portion of the decision may be limited.

How does it affect iPhones specifically?
Apple exercises greater control of its hardware and software than most of its competitors. Anyone remember last fall’s court-ordered permanent injunction that Apple won against Psystar, which sold PCs with OS X pre-installed?

On the iPhone, Apple restricts the software that can be loaded onto the device. Applications can be downloaded through the App Store, and to be included in the App Store, the program has to be vetted and approved by Apple.

Apple says this maintains a high-quality user experience and weeds out malware. (An executive summed it up: “You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.”)

Read the rest of this entry »