We have a great issue for you this week, starting in the security world, where Apple fixed a serious SMS vulnerability in the iPhone and we published the second edition of Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X.” We also look at Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board of directors and what that signals for competition between the two firms, as highlighted by Apple’s rejection of Google Voice-related apps from the App Store. Speaking of the App Store, Adam notes that Apple is now requiring meaningless 17+ ratings for all Web-enabled iPhone apps. On the lighter side, Kevin van Haaren has started a Twitter meme collecting fake rumors about the Apple tablet Mac, itself merely a rumor. Finally, in product news, Adam reviews Boxcar, which provides iPhone push notifications of Twitter messages, Glenn Fleishman looks at the new 2 TB Time Capsule and the Eye-Fi Geo wireless photo card, and Joe examines Apple’s new MobileMe iDisk app for the iPhone. Other notable product releases include Flash Player 10.0.32.18, Adobe Acrobat and Reader 9.1.3, Path Finder 5.1.4, SpamSieve 2.7.5, and Fetch 5.5.1.
Security researchers at the Black Hat Security Conference have demonstrated the capability to attack the iPhone through special SMS messages. Apple responded by releasing iPhone OS 3.0.1 with a fix.
Want to keep your passwords secure, but feel that the whole security thing is getting out of hand? Turn to Mac expert Joe Kissell, who walks you through the most effective and efficient techniques for choosing and managing your passwords in the second edition of this popular ebook.
Following the rejection by Apple of an official app for the Google Voice service, plus the removal of third-party Google Voice apps that had already been approved for the App Store, the Federal Communications Commission is investigating Apple and AT&T.
New York Times columnist David Pogue has had it with the 15-second messages that cellular carriers add to voicemail messages - they waste our time and increase our bills. It's time to Take Back the Beep!
Apple has quietly upgraded the Time Capsule backup appliance and wireless base station, providing models with 1 TB and 2 TB capacity at the same price points as the previous lineup.
The $60 Eye-Fi Geo Wi-Fi memory card transfers images from a camera over a local Wi-Fi network, stamps them with Wi-Fi-derived geographic coordinates, and imports the pictures into iPhoto.
In a public acknowledgement that Google and Apple are now competitors, Google's CEO has stepped down from Apple's board of directors. Where does that leave Microsoft in this three-way sumo match?
The TidBITS Commenting System now offers RSS feeds for tracking either the comments on a particular article or all comments posted across all articles.
With its usual impeccable timing, Apple has finally released the MobileMe iDisk app for iPhone and iPod touch, just a week after the new version of "Take Control of MobileMe" appeared. But no worries; updated information is already available for owners of the book.
Everyone's talking about Apple's tablet Mac, so why should any solid information stop us from participating in the wild speculation? Kevin van Haaren reports what he's heard from his elaborate network of spies.
The latest App Store annoyance? If an iPhone app can open an arbitrary Web page, it must be rated as 17+ in the App Store, and is listed with all sorts of dire descriptions of the possible content that could be accessed.
Tired of paying SMS message rates? Pick up a copy of Boxcar and get your friends to send you direct messages via Twitter instead - Boxcar pushes notification of Twitter messages to your iPhone.
Notable software releases this week include Flash Player 10.0.32.18, Adobe Acrobat and Reader 9.1.3, Path Finder 5.1.4, SpamSieve 2.7.5, and Fetch 5.5.1.
Read on for links to a few interesting articles and resources that the TidBITS staff discovered on the Web this week.
TidBITS Talk readers this week are looking for (and finding) answers for several issues: how to deal with a font cache bug in Leopard; replacing an LCD display; repairing corrupted Microsoft Entourage databases; and streaming surround-sound audio. We also talk about a report that says Apple commands a huge portion of the market for computers costing more than $1,000, and a reader points out a nasty bug in Preview that deletes pages you didn't intend to remove.