Apple To Fix SMS Bug? We Shall See…. [UPDATED]

The BBC is reporting that a patch is coming out for that rather nasty hole in the iPhone OS that I reported on earlier this week:

An O2 spokesperson said the patch would be available Saturday through iTunes.

“We will be communicating to customers both through the website and proactively,” the spokesperson added.

“We always recommend our customers update their iPhone with the latest software and this is no different.”

If true, this is the fastest that I have ever seen Apple come out with a patch. Which is why I have some amount of skepticism about this report. Still the fact that the iPhone has sold 5.2 million units in the quarter gone by (which likely accounts for a whole pile of money) may account for the speed at which this patch has arrived? After all, it’s all about the cash right? Nah, they’re really looking out for their users. After all, “The Steve” wouldn’t let the fanbois down now would he?

UPDATE: This appears to be fact. iPhone Software 3.0.1 is now available. There’s a document on Apple’s site that gives you the details.

Rogers Extends iPhone 3GS Deals

I just got this e-mail from my “new best friends at Rogers” who have been kind enough to let me know that the iPhone 3GS deals that I previously posted about have been extended. I have printed the e-mail in full below:

Hello IT Nerd,

Thought your readers on your blog would be interested to know that Rogers and Fido have extended our popular iPhone 3GS promotions until September 15, 2009.

Here is a summary of the special upgrade options for current iPhone owners who do not qualify for standard upgrade:

1) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone 3G between July 11 and Sept. 30, 2008, and with an average monthly spend of at least $100, Rogers will provide $500 off the cost of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires September 15, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

• · 16GB 3GS $199
  · 32GB 3GS $299

2) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone between July 11 and Dec. 31, 2008, but aren’t eligible for the above offer, Rogers will provide $250 dollars off the purchase of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires September 15, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

• · 16GB 3GS $449
  · 32GB 3GS $549

3) All Rogers Wireless customers can upgrade to the iPhone 3GS at our cost at Rogers.com, or for a suggested retail price of just $19 more than our cost through our retail channels.

• ·       8GB 3G $580/$599
  ·       16GB 3GS $680/$699
  ·       32GB 3GS $780/$799

4) Fido customers can take advantage of the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion:

• ·       Use FidoDollars towards the purchase of a new iPhone 3G S
  ·       Fido will top up the FidoDollars amount by $100
  ·       This promotion does not include an extension or renewal of their service agreement.

6GB/$30 data plan promotion
Customers will be able to sign up for this data plan until September 15, 2009.

Rolling inventory of the iPhone 3GS is on its way, and back orders are being filled for customers on a priority basis.

I have to admit that Rogers is really trying to do the right thing here, and much as I bash them this is a good thing considering that the word on the street has been that there are shortages of the iPhone 3GS. Rogers scores a point in my good books for this.

Let’s see if the fanbois agree.

Pirate Bay Deal Sailing Again?

According to Wired, Global Gaming Factory has secured the cash required to buy infamous torrent site The Pirate Bay:

If believed, Hans Pandeya, Global Gaming Factory’s chief executive, said Thursday unidentified financiers have agreed to the deal, expected to close Aug. 27. Shareholders must also give the green light, a likely scenario, as Pandeya and other company executives are its principal shareholders.

The key word is IF as it looked like the buyout was doomed to fail as recently as yesterday. Too bad the Dutch have brought storm clouds to dampen this news:

Today, the verdict was made public and The Pirate Bay has lost the case. The judge ruled that The Pirate Bay has to stop all of their activities in The Netherlands within ten days. If they don’t comply all defendants will be ordered to pay 30,000 euros ($42,300) per day in penalties up to a maximum of 3 million euros ($4,231,000) total.

Sucks to be them. Remind me again why The Pirate Bay is worth buying?  I don’t see the value in it at the moment.

Mac Users Should Avoid Microsoft Offce For Mac 2008 SP2…. It Won’t Open Office 2007 For Windows Files… What Irony!

If you’re a Mac user and you’re running Office 2008 for Mac, Do not update to service pack 2. That’s not just me saying it, it’s Microsoft saying it:

This is a known issue with Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2 (12.2.0) that prevents some Open XML Format files from opening. To address this issue, we will release an update in August.

In case you’re wondering. Office 2007 for Windows files are saved in Open XML format. So that means that Mac who use Office and need to open files from a PC that are saved in Office 2007 format need to do one of the following according to Microsoft (among others mentioned in their document):

• Remove Office manually, reinstall Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac from the original installation media, and then upgrade to Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.9 Update. Do not upgrade to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2 (12.2.0) from Microsoft AutoUpdate.
• Convert your document to .doc, .xls, or .ppt.

If you want another option from me, you can try OpenOffice. It will open Office 2007 files and it’s free.

The irony here is just amazing. A Microsoft application that can’t read files from another Microsoft application due to an update from Microsoft. Incredible. I’m guessing that someone in the Microsoft QA labs is about to be shown the door as this is one hell of a screw up.

Security Expert Says “No Magic Fairy Dust Protecting Macs….” Fanbois Weep

If you’re an Apple fanboi and you feel that Steve Jobs aura is the only security that your Mac needs, here’s a kick in the testicles for you. Dino Dai Zovi is highly critical of the Mac platform’s security and how Apple handles security issues, and warns Mac users that they need to be on guard:

Dai Zovi, a security researcher and co-author of “The Mac Hacker’s Handbook,” said on Wednesday that once hackers start to put substantial resources into targeting Apple’s computers, they will be at least as vulnerable as Windows machines.

“There is no magic fairy dust protecting Macs,” he said in an interview.

He demonstrates this by showing a brand new exploit that can steal data at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas this week:

The technique — dubbed “Machiavelli” — exploits a vulnerability in the Mac OS X kernel, the heart of the machine’s operating system. It only works on machines that have already been victimized, such as ones attacked with the pirated software. It can take control of Apple’s Safari browser, logging passwords to financial accounts and data on bank statements, Dai Zovi said.

Lovely. But it gets worse for the fanbois. Another flaw that will be shown at that same conference is a flaw in the iPhone that can allow a remote attacker to hijack the phone via SMS:

Using a flaw they’ve [Collin Mulliner and Charlie Miller] found in the iPhone’s handling of text messages, the researchers say they’ll demonstrate how to send a series of mostly invisible SMS bursts that can give a hacker complete power over any of the smart phone’s functions. That includes dialing the phone, visiting Web sites, turning on the device’s camera and microphone and, most importantly, sending more text messages to further propagate a mass-gadget hijacking.

“This is serious. The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone,” Miller told Forbes. “Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this.”

How delightful. Of course when contacted by the news organizations that wrote the above stories, Apple as usual had nothing to say. I guess they were too busy ensuring that Palm Pre devices couldn’t sync to iTunes or something. At least we know where their priorities lie. It sure isn’t dealing with security issues as they’ve done a really craptastic job of that as of late.

Psystar Speaks…. Perhaps Not Such A Good Idea…

Psystar has opened up a community section on their website. Here’s what it’s all about:

In the past, Psystar has taken a reserved stance towards interactions with the public and media under the advice of our previous legal counsel. We would like to apologize to everyone, as this has never reflected the opinion of Psystar, nor its founders or employees. We invite you to come and exchange ideas with us and let us know what topics you’re interested in. We will also be transitioning all open source materials from Psystar to this site and are developing a wiki to better explain and perhaps even standardize methods for running OS X on generic Intel hardware.

Okay. Sounds interesting, so I decided to browse through it. Take this post which was placed on the Psystar website yesterday. I’ll hit the highlights for you. First they have new lawyers:

Camara & Sibley LLP of Houston, Texas, has officially become our primary legal counsel in our ongoing litigation with Apple.

Wow. That’s a change. They were previously represented by Carr & Ferrell who are best known for beating Apple back in 2006 when Apple sued Burst.com. I wonder what made them change lawyers?

But there’s more.

Apple’s copyright on OS X doesn’t give Apple the right to tell people what they can do with it after they buy a copy. Apple can’t tell an applications developer that it can’t make a piece of Mac-compatible software. They can’t forbid Mac users from writing blogs critical of Apple. And they can’t tell us not to write kernel extensions that turn the computers we buy into Mac-compatible hardware.

That sounds remarkably level headed and balanced. Perhaps someone told Psystar that their silly proclamations like how they bought OS X from Apple and Apple forgot to copyright OS X were dumb and they should just tone that down to avoid looking like complete losers.

Oh, (with apologies to Steve Jobs) there’s one more thing:

A new trial date has been set for January 11, 2010, in federal court in San Francisco. As we move toward trial, we’ll be keeping you informed about the arguments, the evidence, and what’s going on in the case. And, come January, Camara & Sibley will be ready to fight for Psystar, guns blazin’.

They were doing so well up until that point. Guns blazin? WTF? I’m sure that their legal team is less than thrilled to hear those words come out of their mouths.

There’s there’s a post about a Psystar running a contest called “I’m A Psystar:”

From now to September 1st, contestants will be given the opportunity to submit their commercial for consideration to Psystar via YouTube.com. A panel of judges will select the top 5 submissions, which will then be voted on by the public. The contestant that receives the highest number of votes will win a new Open 7 featuring a an Intel Nehalem Processor.

Clearly they didn’t have any original ideas left so they stole one from Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” ad campaign. Sad. Really Sad.

Oh, if the weren’t in enough trouble as it is, this post will likely get Apple’s attention:

Psystar is proud to announce it is expanding its distribution to South America, with our newest distributor based in Guatemala.

Lovely. Now they’re exporting. I’m sure that “The Steve” and his iLawyers will just love to see that.

Bottom line. Psystar’s attempt to reach out to customers and control their message is perhaps not the best thing to do. Methinks that all they’ve accomplished is handing the iLawyers lots of reasons to defeat them in court.

Pirate Bay Deal Scuttled?

Torrent Freak is reporting that the deal for Global Gaming Factory to buy the infamous Pirate Bay website is all but dead:

GGF painted a bright future for the site and two weeks ago Wayne Rosso, ex-CEO of Grokster joined GGF in their ambitious project, hoping to close some deals with record labels and get investors excited at their plans.

However, Rosso has already quit his position, claiming GGF’s CEO Mr. Pandeya was not straightforward with him.

Lovely. So the question is, where does that leave The Pirate Bay? If Hollywood has it’s way, they’ll be dead shortly. According to a Swedish newspaper, Hollywood types are going to court to deliver the killing blow the the torrent site. One way or another, I suspect that The Pirate Bay’s days may be numbered.

Microsoft And Yahoo Agree On A Deal…. Finally!

Okay. It took a lot longer than I figured, but Yahoo and Microsoft finally have a deal:

Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

Sounds simple enough. One wonders why it took them this long to come to an agreement… But I digress. Yahoo considers this to be a win:

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences.”

The same is apparently true from Microsoft’s perspective:

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

All I have to say is good luck with that. Even with this deal, which by the way still has to get the thumbs up from regulators, they only have 30% of the search market. Google has at least twice that. And honestly, while Bing has apparently made somewhat of an impact, I don’t see anybody ditching Google anytime soon. So they may not want to start celebrating too early as there’s still a lot of work ahead of them. That work has apparently begun as they now have a website to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with spin additional information about the benefits of the agreement. Assuming the regulators give the thumbs up, this deal should close in 2010.

Rogers Rolling Out HSPA+ In Canada…. That’s 21Mbps! That Means Nothing To Canada!

It seems that Rogers is getting really aggressive lately. After announcing netbooks with embedded 3G wireless, and giving their Internet users 50 Mbps speeds, Rogers has announced that they will become the first telco in North America to roll out HSPA+ which will give users speeds of up to 21Mbps anywhere they can get a cell signal:

Starting in August, Rogers will progressively increase wireless network download speeds up to 21 Mbps in the Greater Toronto Area, and expand quickly over the coming months to other cities across the country. Rogers Wireless customers – who today already experience the fastest wireless data speeds in Canada – will experience peak wireless download speeds that are as fast as any available in the world. Rogers is the first wireless provider in North America and only the sixth carrier in the world to launch HSPA+ at peak speeds of 21 Mbps, putting Canada on top of the world in technology and innovation and once again, bringing leading-edge technologies to Canadian consumers first.

While this is cool for Canadians and a pretty big coup for Rogers, there is one thing that stops me from jumping up and down. Canada has some of the highest cellular phone rates in the world. So it really doesn’t matter how fast my cellular data connection goes if I can’t afford it. How high are Canadian cell phone rates? Here’s an example of what the rest of the world pays. While on a business trip to Germany last year, I sat beside a guy on a high speed train from Aachen to Frankfurt Airport who had a laptop with embedded 3G (7.2Mbps which is faster than my DSL connection at home). We got to talking and I asked how much he was paying for that connection. He was paying 35 Euros a month for unlimited cellular data access to the Internet. That’s about $50 USD for an UNLIMITED connection. I can’t think of many telcos in Canada who have unlimited plans that are that reasonable (if they have them at all). Oh yeah, his connection was live even when the train went into tunnels at 250 + Km/h. As an aside, my Blackberry was working in said tunnels as well, which is not the case in Canada. So it shows how evolved the cellular infrastructure is in Europe as well as the fact that their rates are far more reasonable.

Perhaps this will be solved when Globalive jumps into the fray? One can only hope. But until then, enjoy those high speeds…. If you can.

Microsoft To Issue Emergency Patches Tomorrow… You May Want To Pay Attention To This…

Here’s a tip. If Microsoft comes out with a patch outside of their “Patch Tuesday” cycle, then the issue that it fixes is really serious and you should pay attention. Tomorrow, two such patches will appear. The patches will be for Internet Explorer browser and the Visual Studio developer suite and details on what’s coming (for what they’re worth as full details won’t be available until after the patches are relased) are available here. The patch for IE is rated “critical,” which is the highest severity designation on Microsoft’s scale. The update for Visual Studio is rated one level lower, at “important.” The word on the street is that both issues allow attackers to remotely execute code, which means that bad guys could load stuff onto your computer and make your life miserable.

If I were you, I’d be using Microsoft Update sometime tomorrow afternoon to make sure your PCs are safe.