By Delores Quinn
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| The Tao of Steves: Wozniak and Jobs in 1976 (Landov) |
$666.66
iSpy
Can Apple tap into the fingertaps you make on your iPhone?
According to one hacker, Apple inserted a mysterious code that tracks every
click and tap you make. When users check the weather, e-mail or anything else
on their devices, a personal identification number and a record of their habits
gets relayed to Apple headquarters, according to the Hackintosh hacker.
(Cookies and web histories have been snooping into browsing behavior for years,
but that information is not connected to one individual, while these IMEI
numbers are directly linked to a specific user.) Though the claim was never
verified, tech gadflys nonetheless fretted that Apple is barreling across the
privacy line.
Privacy watchdogs snarled when Apple applied for a patent on
technology that could record the unique heartbeat signature of iPhone users.
The biological data would be collected along with other very personal
information, including sneaky photos of the user and their surroundings, to
determine whether the phone was stolen and by whom. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a digital-rights group, dubbed the technology
"traitorware" and charged that the patent goes beyond spyware by enabling
immediate retaliation. However, other devices, including Apple laptops, have
remote shutdown or location tracking capabilities (such as MobileMe) and have
not undergone the same backlash.
Deal With the Devil
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold the first Macintosh
computer they famously built in a garage for $666.66. Apple lore has it that
Wozniak liked triple digits and Jobs tagged on an extra two sixes for marketing
purposes. But some commenters have other ideas. They believe the devilish
digits prove the duo made a pact with the man downstairs in exchange for
earthly success. Capping off their evidence: the Apple logo. Is that a big
juicy bite taken out of the forbidden fruit? Conspiracy theorists will always
wonder.
Gizmodo And Gizmos
Lost and Found iPhone
Apple was rocked to the core in the spring of 2010 when an
engineer left his iPhone 4 prototype at a Redwood
City, California bar
and a passing patron picked it up. The phone was incognito in a third gen case,
but the patron soon realized he had something incredible in his hands. He sold
the phone for $5,000 to the website Gizmodo, which ran a story about the
highly-anticipated phone's new look and features. Virtually overnight, Gizmodo
started feeling intense blowback, including an aggressive criminal investigation
and a police raid of editor Jason Chen's home in which computers were seized.
But some observers figure Apple came out ahead in spite of the leak, as the new
iPhone got tons of free publicity from it. With security so notoriously tight
at Apple, there were suspicions that Apple and Gizmodo were in cahoots, staging
the whole incident to drum up buzz for the iPhone's second coming. A criminal
investigation into the incident is nearing an end, and no one has been charged.
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| In case we didn't notice his svelte new figure (Jobs in 2011, Reuters/Landov) |
Mac Attack
When Psystar, a small company in Florida, began selling Mac clones in 2008,
Apple's response was fast and furious. But in the face of Apple's intimidating
legal onslaught, Psystar kept rolling out their personal computers and hired a
powerful anti-trust law firm to file a countersuit, claiming Apple violated
anti-monopoly laws with its end-user agreement. Was there more behind this
upstart company than replicating Macs? Apple seemed to think so when it named
ten John Does in an updated complaint in the case. "The true names or
capacities, whether individual, corporate, or otherwise, of these persons are
unknown to Apple," the filing stated. Speculation followed that Apple
suspected its competitors were secretly supporting Psystar. The John Does were
never identified and Apple eventually settled in 2009 when Psystar agreed to
pay damages and no longer produce the clones.
Finding Jobs
Apple stocks have risen and fallen in tandem with news of
its chief exec's long battle with pancreatic cancer. Many believe the health of
Steve Jobs is critical information for shareholders and that his prognosis was
repeatedly covered-up. Apple kept his diagnosis a secret for nine months before
Jobs revealed in 2004 that he'd been treated for pancreatic cancer, a disease
that typically leads to a swift death. (Though Jobs had a rare, slower-moving
form of the disease, the survival rate is still only five to seven years.) Jobs
explained away his dramatic 2008 weight loss as a hormone imbalance, but soon
announced a six-month leave of absence. His subsequent liver transplant was
revealed four months after it took place through a leak to the Wall Street
Journal. When Jobs took his latest leave in January, his statement gave no specifics
about his condition and included no planned return date.
Behind the Screens
iControl
Stories about how Apple keeps its secrets come by the
bushel-full and in petty and tragic varieties. Here are just a few: Jobs
reportedly went bananas when a Wall Street Journal executive sent a tweet via
the iPad Jobs was personally showing off to New York media outlets. Shortly after the
tweet went out, it disappeared. When Consumer Reports had the audacity to
say it couldn't recommend the iPhone 4 until antennae issues were resolved,
threads discussing the issue on Mac.com forums vanished. In 2009, a 25-year-old
Chinese engineer commited suicide after reporting he'd misplaced an iPhone 4
prototype. Before his suicide, Sun Danyong told friends he had been beaten and
his home illegally searched during a probe by Foxconn, the manufacturer he
worked for. Some said Apple's extreme secrecy about new products influenced the
intensity of Foxconn's investigation of Danyong.
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| The first Mac or the iPad3? You tell us (Wikipedia) |
Bad Apples
All of Apple's secrecy and paranoia seemed justified after
an employee was arrested for selling inside information in a multi-million
dollar kickback scheme. Former Apple Inc. employee Paul Devine was charged in
2010 after an internal probe found he was selling product forecasts,
specifications and pricing information to manufacturers of iPod and iPhone
parts. The manufacturers were using the information in their contract
negotiations with Apple and the scheme cost the company more than $2.4 million.
In March, Devine pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering
and agreed to forfeit $2.25 million of his ill-gotten gains. His sentencing is
scheduled for June.
Bobbing for Apps
Porn and politics? There's no app for that. Apple famously
removed sexually suggestive apps from its iTunes store after customer
complaints, while political cartoonist Mark Fiore's NewsToons app was initially
rejected for containing satiric, possibly defamatory content. (The app was
later approved after Fiore won the Pulitzer Prize.) As more Americans get their
information from their iPhones and iPads, freedom of information watchdogs are
questioning Apple's tight, even prudish, content controls.
They're Watching You
iStalker
Your iPhone or iPad knows where you've been - exactly.
Security researchers have sounded the alarm about a secret file that stores
longitude and latitude of the device, complete with a timestamp. The file winds
up on any computer the device syncs with and is alarmingly unencrypted. That
means anyone who steals or has access to your computer (say, a jealous spouse
or CIA agent) can virtually track your movements. People are crying serious
personal privacy foul and demanding answers from the notoriously tight-lipped
company. Senator Al Franken and Representative Ed Markey called on Steve Jobs
to clarify the purpose of the file, while several European nations are
investigating whether the stored data violates privacy laws. Researchers Pete
Warden and Alasdair Allan point out that, while many cell phone companies have
use tracking, the culled information is protected behind a firewall and would
require a court order to access.
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| Make sure to download the truTV app, OK? (iStockPhoto) |
Macinsloth
Developers of web apps accuse the Big Apple of deliberately
slowing down their programs. They claim their applications are sluggish when
launched from an iPhone or iPad home page, rather than from a web browser
bookmark. Developers claim their web apps run on an older JavaScript engine,
rather than the much speedier JavaScript Nitro, when opened from the home page.
Since users like one-tap apps and the problem doesn't occur with Apple-approved
apps, developers say it gives iTunes an unfair advantage. Apple benefits because
they control content and continue to receive a 30-percent cut of the profits
from all apps sold in the store. It's just another way the company's market
domination continues.
Source : http://www.trutv.com
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