Lonnie Lazar - page 15

Charlie Miller, principal security analyst at Independent Security Evaluators, used a security exploit in Safari 4 to hack into a MacBook in about 10 seconds Wednesday, winning the Pwn2own contest at the CanSecWest security conference for the second year in a row.

The security hole, which Miller said he discovered last year, allows a remote attacker to gain control of a machine by getting the computer user to click on a malicious URL, as Miller demonstrated.

“It’s not easy, but this worked with one click” from the Safari browser, he said.

The contest is sponsored by TippingPoint, which shares details on the exploit with Apple and develops a patch for it. TippingPoint offers $5,000 for each new exploit demonstrated in the major browsers and $10,000 for each successful exploit in the major smartphones.

Miller also discovered an exploit in the mobile version of Safari shortly after the iPhone was launched in 2007. In addition to the $5000 prize for his efforts Wednesday, he gets to keep the MacBook he used to win the contest.

[CNet]

Newber, the FreedomVoice Systems app that sought to bring innovative calling functionality to the iPhone, has thrown in the towel after having had its app submission ignored by Apple for five months, according to an open letter (pdf) published Wednesday by FreedomVoice CEO, Eric Thomas.

We reported in January that Apple was dragging its feet on the Newber app, which would let users route every phone call made to them though a single number (their “Newber”) and, using GPS location awareness, let them take a call on any phone that happened to be nearby.

Thomas claims Newber followed Apple’s submission guidelines, yet never received any information from the company as to why the application was not reviewed. FreedomVoice records claim to show no one at Apple ever even tried the app.

A simple rejection, although not a welcome development, would have provided an opportunity to rework the app or scrap the project before wasting money on promotions, according to Thomas, but Apple left Newber in limbo.

After spending over $500K for R&D, architectural changes, patent applications, and marketing, the company finally saw no way forward.

“I don’t think you can do that to companies and expect others to continue to invest in your platform,” Thomas said.

[MacNN]

Switcheasy has released a very cool, tiny microphone for Apple’s iPod Nano 4G and Touch 2G devices. Available in red, white and black, the little mini-mic connects to the iPod’s 3.5mm headphone jack and delivers what Switcheasy says is “outstanding” recordings from “the best quality micro-microphone in its category.”

$13 + $3 shipping and handling from the website, ThumbTacks have a gold plated, non-corrosive plug and work with third-party apps. Switcheasy recommends upgrading the iPod to latest firmware before using the ThumbTack.

AT&T is set to begin offering existing customers iPhone 3G on March 26 without requiring on-site activation or the 2 year service contract new and upgrade customers must agree to in order to buy a phone at reduced pricing, according to a report at Boy Genius.

Claiming to be based on internal AT&T training slides describing the new policies, the report indicates existing AT&T customers will be able to purchase a limit of one device per phone line at $599 (8GB) and $699 (16GB) without committing to the usual 2 year contract required of new customers wishing to purchase an iPhone.

New AT&T customers will still be required to sign a 2 year service contract in order to activate iPhones on the AT&T network and all phones activated for AT&T service will still be required to carry an iPhone data plan.

Apple has confirmed the existence of a proprietary chip in the on-cord controller of the company’s headsets that began shipping with the new iPod Shuffle announced last week, but the chip itself serves no “authentication” function and will not prevent third party headset manufacturers from producing headsets that work with Apple’s music player, according to company spokespersons.

The chip will be required for headsets wishing to bear the “Made for iPod” licensing certification for accessories that work with iPods, however. Apple has thus created a new revenue stream and extended “Made for iPod” certification to headphones/remotes, accessories that were not previously required to be certified as “Made for iPod”.

So while there is no DRM in the chips themselves, third-party headset manufacturers who want their products to be sold in Apple Stores and / or to be regarded as competitive, are likely to feel pressure to pay for the chips and obtain the “Made for iPod” certification.

The proprietary chips will cost manufacturers less than $1, bundled with a $2 microphone, according to one report.

Image © Hugo Lala. Used with permission.

Hugo Lala has a vision for Apple’s much rumored netbook. “Imagine…,” he says:

Dual touchscreen with multiple configurations for the bottom display:

– keyboard + “touchpad”
– multitrack audio mixer
– dj “turntable”
– accelerometer

2 X 10″ touchscreen
wifi: 802.11n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1,86 GHz
2 Go SDRAM DDR3
128 Go SSD
SuperDrive DVD (hope it fit in this)
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Webcam
Mini DisplayPort
Microphone
Speaker
audio output
2 X USB
1 X FireWire 800

Lala says his netbook would have at least 5 hours of useful battery life and the accelerometer in both screens to allow for reading ebooks in vertical mode with facing pages, just like a real book.

Registered iPhone developers began playing around with the beta release of iPhone 3.0 late Tuesday, and initial reaction to the enhancements announced earlier in the day are quite favorable, according to a report at AppleInsider.

The beta release includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,000 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) including In-App Purchases; Peer-to-Peer connections (tethering); an app interface for accessories; access to the iPod music library; a new Maps API and Push Notifications.

Apple also announced over 100 new features that will be hotly anticipated by iPhone and iPod touch users when the public software is released this summer, including cut, copy and paste; MMS functionality for 3G iPhones; landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes; stereo Bluetooth; syncing Notes to the Mac and PC; shake to shuffle; parental controls for TV shows, movies and apps from the App Store; and automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots.

The iPhone OS 3.0 beta also showed off a new Voice Memo app and expanded search capability for all key iPhone apps, as well as Spotlight search across the entire device. Spotlight is said to be very responsive and functions just as you would expect having used the feature previously on a Mac. Copy & paste is also being well received, according to the report.

Any Cult readers who are also iPhone developers are invited to share your impressions in comments and let us know if you have any great screen shots we need to feature.

[AppleInsider]

Spykee is an odd little $300 robot “toy” that’s everything from a webcam to digital music player to VoIP phone and can be controlled via WiFi.

Spykee ships with software that allows it to be controlled from a Windows or Mac PC, but Televolution CEO David Beckemeyer thought it would be cool to control it from his iPhone, too, so he built an iPhone web app that permits just that.

With Beckemeyer’s iSpykee controller, now robot fans can use their iPhone or iPod Touch to send Spykee down the hall to check on the sleeping baby or set it to act as a motion detector and send an alarm or photo in email.

The iSpykee controller is an open source project that, by publishing the source code used to implement the robot’s communication protocol, Beckemeyer hopes will assist other developers in creating interesting apps to control the versatile robot.

Fandango, one of the Internet’s most popular online movie information and ticket purchasing portals announced Monday a free new iPhone and iPod touch application that enables users to access movie and theater information ‘on the go’, buy tickets in seconds, watch trailers, view fan ratings and more.

With a database of more than 16,000 theaters throughout the US, the Fandango app makes buying advance movie tickets easier than ever. Utilizing the iPhone’s location-aware functionality, the app automatically displays movie theater locations and times, and when users store credit card information in a secure profile, makes purchasing tickets a matter of a few touches on the iPhone or iPod’s screen.

The app even has a cool little built-in feature that automatically plays movie trailers just by changing the device’s orientation from vertical to horizontal.

Here is a useful little app that’s well worth the cost of admission.

A tiny authentication chip in the headset with on-cord control shipped with the just-released iPod shuffle is raising concerns among some that Apple will extort licensing fees from third-party headset manufacturers who wish to make headsets compatible with Apple’s new music playing devices.

First reported Friday in a review of the new shuffle at iLounge, the authentication chip was then derided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as Apple’s attempt to invoke the Digital Millennium Copyright Act not to stop piracy, but to impede competition and innovation.

Saturday night, Boing Boing Gadgets posted pictures of the curious chip, along with a thoughtful piece pondering whether Apple’s engineering really amounts to DRM: “For all we know, it could be something the FCC made them put in so that it doesn’t interfere with whalesong.”

The EFF raises a great point, actually, wondering why more reviewers have not seized on Apple’s proliferating instances of hardware DRM: “If it were Microsoft demanding that computer peripherals all include Microsoft “authentication chips” in order to work with Windows (or Toyota or Ford doing the same for replacement parts), … reviewers would be screaming about it.”

In the final analysis, however, if Apple is in fact, as Boing Boing put it, “attempting to eat the headphone industry whole,” the company will lose. Consumers have the last vote and to the extent it may seem Apple products are stifling competition, raising prices and limiting choice, Apple’s tiny devices will go unsold.

There are already many many alternative music players on the market for consumers to choose from – some of the best even made by Apple itself – making the new shuffle a stillborn product if consumers perceive an inability to use it as they see fit.

Playfish, one of the largest and fastest growing social games developers, announced Saturday the availability of its popular title, “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” for iPhone and iPod Touch. Who Has The Biggest Brain? features Facebook Connect and enables friends to play together anytime, anywhere.

Playfish is behind 5 of the 10 most currently popular social games played on Facebook, according to the company’s marketing material, and claims more than 60 million registered players currently play its games on the Internet’s fastest growing social networking platform. The company says more than 15 million people have played Who Has The Biggest Brain? on Facebook since launching in late 2007.

“We believe iPhone and iPod touch represent the next generation of entertainment platforms,” says Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish.

With 12 mini games, 27 brain types and a variety of unlockable achievements, Who Has the Biggest Brain? enables players to compete with their real-life friends and experience the more social and connected game play that Segerstrale describes as part of the company’s mission.

By creating games for people to play together using social networks and platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Yahoo!, iPhone and iPod touch, Playfish aims to transform video game play from an isolated, solitary obsession to one in which people enjoy greater social and connected experiences.

Who Has the Biggest Brain? is available now for $4.99 in the iTunes AppStore.

Apple may launch as soon as next week a “Premium” AppStore focused on games and other “sophisticated” apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to a report at Wired.

The premium section would largely be focused on apps priced at $20 and more, giving game makers a channel to offer more in-depth (and pricier) titles without getting lost in the clutter of free and $1 apps. The Wired report also speculates that creating a “velvet rope” within the AppStore ecosystem could make Apple’s mobile platform more attractive to enterprise software companies such as SAP, that would otherwise prefer to focus on the more business-user targeted BlackBerry phones.

Should the rumors of a new AppStore section for “serious” software prove true, look for the announcement to come at Apple’s media event scheduled to launch a new SDK and iPhone 3.0 software on March 17.

The key to success for some of the best young filmmakers in America may be the unique partnership their school district has with Apple.

Students from Birdville (TX) ISD’s Media Technology program have distinguished themselves by having 5 films chosen for the student showcase at The South by Southwest Film Festival, which began Friday in Austin, TX.

Five films from students in a single school district is a record for the nation’s preeminent art, film and music festival and the program’s director credits the district’s relationship with Apple for her students’ success.

“Apple has made it possible for our students to be certified in Final Cut Studio while still in high school,” says Karen Seimears, the program’s director. “The University of Texas offers this to their students, and it costs almost $2000. Our students can earn it for free! What’s amazing is that we’re giving kids the tools they need while they’re still in high school to be absolutely employable. And not just that, but when they go into college, to be at the head of their class.”

Apple began providing individual laptops for each student in the Birdville program two years ago and the district is home to the nation’s only Apple Authorized Training Center for high school students.

[Art&Seek] Thanks to Julie for the tip!

Click for larger image view.

Perhaps you know about Steampunk, the geek sub-culture movement that marries devotion to the aesthetics of Victorian romance with a commitment to the use of modern technology.

The vast majority of Steampunk practitioners work in the PC realm, though there are impressive examples of Apple gear transformed.

None moreso, perhaps, than the eye-Pod Victrola from Doctor Grymm. A custom mod of an Apple iPod Nano 1st Gen, the design is inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The “eye-Pod” can be worn on the wrist via the leather cuff, or placed on it’s custom Victrola base.

Full functionality of the iPod remains intact and a hidden USB cord retracts from the base to either a wall charger or a computer. Hidden pressure plates send a strobing “static charge” into the quartz crystals on either side of the magnified veiwing portal, and music plays through the Victrola horn or though a portable personal hearing apparatus (in progress).

[SteamGearLab, via BoingBoing]

Here’s an iPhone app you might find coming in handy someday. Best of all, Have2P is a free iPhone app that finds restrooms in your area thanks to your device’s nifty GPS locator.

Useful features include info on whether the restroom is for customers only, if it has a changing table and even reviews on how clean it is. Users can edit restroom info, submit restroom reviews and add restrooms to the database.

The latest update to Have2P even claims to have an “urgency detector” that senses when you and the phone are shaking and automatically starts a new search for nearby relief.

[GeekSugar]

CBS and MobilTV announced a grand experiment in WiFi broadcasting this week with the release of March Madness on Demand (link opens iTunes), a $5 application for iPhone and iPod Touch that will theoretically allow users with a good WiFi connection to see live streamed TV broadcasts of the NCAA Basketball Tournament begining March 19th.

CBS will stream every game of the tournament up to and including the Finals on April 6th, in addition to providing video highlights on demand. Users without WiFi access will be able to access live audio of games in progress over AT&Ts 3G and Edge networks.

Every year at this time, it becomes a popular sport to estimate the supposed billions of dollars in lost productivity American businesses suffer as a result of workers’ preoccupation with what some call the most exciting spectacle in sports.

How about you, dear Cult readers? Are you willing to throw $5 on the table to see if CBS can follow through on its promise to live stream the excitement?

Let us know how you think this is going to play out in comments below.

Dennis Liu shot The Apple Mac Music Video last year that went pretty viral on the internet.

Liu says he got interest pretty high up the Apple corporate ladder from that video, but “Microsoft actually took my music video video very seriously, and we decided to collaborate on a viral video for Microsoft Office for Mac.

The video was supposed to debut at Macworld this year, but delays intervened and it is finally being released today.

Liu told Cult of Mac he had hundreds of windows open at times in PPT, Excel, and Word during the making of the video. “Honestly, it didn’t crash, and didn’t slow down. Not like anyone else in the world would try and animate ASCII in MSWord, but … ”

He explained his motivation for the project, saying, “I think Apple users should know that MSOffice doesn’t have to be “un-fun” like ILife ’09 makes it out to be.”

“I’m a huge Mac fanatic, and I wanted to make Microsoft seem less corporate-y with this ad campaign. Microsoft gets thrown under the boss (sic) a lot.”

For what it’s worth, Liu said he was bored and curious, and he tried doing this with iWork ’09 but it wasn’t holding up as well. “I do have to hand it to MSFT for making a pretty stable program, with good creative features (if you know how to use them).”

Steve Wozniak has a slight fracture in his foot but has vowed to press on with the Dancing With the Stars competition.

“I didn’t want to worry anyone unduly.” Wozniak mentioned on his blog this morning. He had been feeling pain in his foot and after having an X-Ray and an MRI it was revealed that he has a foot fracture.

Karina Smirnoff, his professional dance partner accompanied “The Woz” to Cedars-Sinai hospital, worried that she had lost her partner, but Wozniak was given a removable cast and the okay to dance as long as he is very careful and wears the cast faithfully when not rehearsing or performing.

In an e-mail to his Facebook Support Group, Wozniak said he told his doctors he is determined to continue with Dancing With The Stars because he “loves being part of such a good and important thing.”

[Reality TV Magazine]

Apple is indeed having a special event, as widely rumored, March 17. But it won’t be hardware, it will be a preview of the next iteration of iPhone software. The company distributed invitations to select press outlets Thursday, saying the event at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters will also feature a new version of the iPhone SDK.

Presumably, the new software will get into general release by June/July, which is becoming the time of year we can expect new iPhone hardware as well.

Stay tuned for more as news and rumors and mock-ups and spy shots develop.

[VentureBeat] [Cnet]

Take a step back in time and see how the writers at Saturday Night Live during the 2005 season weren’t too far off in imagining the iPod shuffle released Wednesday by Apple.

[hat tip Lance Ulanoff]

Apple introduced an all-new redesigned iPod Shuffle Wednesday, touting it as the first music player that talks to you.

Except that it’s not the first music player that talks to you. Does anyone remember the Nanocromatic iPods introduced just last summer?

Those iPod nanos also featured the “Voice Over” function being touted as Wednesday’s big new improvement to the shuffle, which now sports 4GB of storage (up from 2GB). Apple’s smallest music player now features playlist support, however and syncs with iTunes through an included USB cable which connects to the shuffle’s audio jack.

The new shuffle also comes with earbuds featuring on-cord remote control.

The new design is rectangular rather than square, comes in Silver or Black and costs, as did previous models, $79. Apple is making these things smaller all the time, with the new shuffle being smaller than a house key and not much thicker.

It’s probably a good thing the shuffle’s Voice Over function, which supports 14 languages, is accessed manually, to tell users the name of the artist and song playing or run through the playlists available on the device. On the iPod nano introduced last summer, the Voice Over feature was an on-or-off setting and quickly grew tiresome when it would kick in at the mere changing of the device’s orientation from vertical to horizontal.

More user control is good; thank you, Apple.

UPDATE: this piece has been edited to more accurately reflect the new shuffle’s capacity. Thanks to readers who pointed out the error in the original report.

Ego is an aptly-named iPhone app that lets you check web statistics that matter to you, on the go. Because you’re, as the tag-line says, important.

Through hooks into Feedburner, Mint and Twitter, the current version supports statistics on the number of visits to any number of your websites (including daily, hourly and monthly numbers), feed subscription totals and changes, and how many people are following you on Twitter.

Support for Google Analytics is planned in a coming update.

Just $1.99 keeps you up-to-date on your web relevance any time, any where.

More evidence that they just kinda make it up as they go along at the Apple iTunes store.

[Hat tip Harry McCracken]

Sentiment seems about 8:1 against young German artist Darakas’ vision for the Apple touchscreen netbook rumored to be headed to market in the 2nd half of this year.

We asked Cult of Mac readers to step up up with their own renderings and so far we’ve got a sleek looking tablet idea from reader Bobbertson, above, and another from reader Sean, below.

Sean imagines a device containing a 7″ Multi-touch glass screen with a black frame and chrome bezel around the screen. Something more like an enlarged iPod Touch rather than a ‘tablet’, which usually contains a larger screen.

It would have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Processor, 512MB – 1GB of RAM, 64GB flash memory, bluetooth, WiFi, and a cut down version of OS X Leopard or ‘Snow Leopard’ to fit the device.

Any takers?

Speculation that Apple is poised to release a touchscreen netbook remains persistent as winter snows, with dozens of outlets reporting again today that unnamed “sources” in Taiwan and China “confirm” the new product will be released as early as the 2nd half of this year.

So what the heck, as long as we’re talking about something that may or may not come to pass, why not talk about what it may or may not look like?

16 year-old German artist Darakas, who also goes by the name Jesse, gets the conversation started with this 3D modeling rendition of his vision for the Apple MacTouch.

Until the badly lit spy photos start showing up, we think this is a pretty good jumping off point. Have you finished your Apple netbook mock-up, or see any others out there? Let us know in comments and we’ll feature them here.