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Almost every Apple-fanboy would agree that during the last few releases (i.e. iPod nano, new MacBooks) something was missing. The (positive) shock of something that no-one had imagined - not like for the new Nanos, the iPhone 3G or the new MacBooks, where images and almost all specs leaked before the official event took place.
So what is Apple planning in the near future? Why are there so little great announcements?

One more thing, please!

So I'm gonna tell you what Apple is working on and what the strategy of their MacBooks is - and it is relatively simple and obvious to everyone who follows the news. It is:

Multi-Touch.

Yeah, right! Or why do you think Microsoft is focusing on MultiTouch in Windows 7? They already announced it, but I'm sure Apple already has it already ready for production. Or why do you think there are only "performance increasements" in Snow Leopard? They will have it ready long time before Microsoft will be able to react and it will work perfectly because of the iPhone experience. Or why do you think all of the new MacBooks have a full glass front? Glossy screens suck but on the other hand it is the only option to implement a large touch screen that also can be cleaned easily.

Enough reasons, let's see what happens in January, if Apple will have "one more thing" and there will be another big bang when they release Snow Leopard and new MacBooks with a full multi touch enabled screen. I would hope so, otherwise their releases this year have not been that impressive...

PS: Please note that I'm not working for Apple nor am I affiliated with them in any way!

Labels: apple, english, mac, rumor

Yesterday Apple announced a new MacBook and a new MacBook Pro. While the overall design and the attention to detail is again amazing and sets Apple apart from its competition, the event itself and the amount of buzz was... missing? different? wrong?

I remember a while ago when Apple announced the iPhone - speculations around the Blogsphere, lots of self-drawn images, buzz everywhere. Will they? Or won't they? What will be included? And finally Apple delivered an amazing phone, that still beats all of its competitors in terms of usability and design. But since then - a mess with MobileMe, unresolved security bugs and missing features. Apple seems to loose its buzz?

Murphy Mac writes:

If you were looking for the blockbuster announcement you were at the wrong event. If there is one, we’ll know about it some time in December, when the Macworld rumors start leaking. Personally, Murphy hopes Apple has something big, and that they manage to keep it under wraps until the keynote. It’s more fun that way.

I could not agree more - let's hope Apple finds back to its roots, keeps it promises and "shocks" us positively with new, amazing gadgets!

(Image from apple.com)

Labels: apple, english, mac, rant

Finally it gets the attention in the press it deserves:

The first concerns the iPhone's email application, which automatically downloads images within an e-mail, said Aviv Raff, a security researcher, on Thursday.
That's problematic because the image will refer back to a server-side script when it is downloaded, indicating to the sender that the e-mail has been opened and the e-mail address is valid. The address can then be spammed.

Apple already knew about this design flaw when they released the iPhone. Also I wrote the support several times about how to disable the loading of images but all I heard back (from both Apple and t-mobile) was that this feature is not available. The support person did not not confirm that this is a security issue or write back anything in particular about this problem.

It's the same problem (with Apple, not with the products!) that they don't listen to the community or bug reports - I also reported the SSL issue in MobileMe as a detailed bug report and through the support. The bug report was closed with "thanks, we don't confirm anything" and the tech support.... uhm... to be polite: was not very tech savy and said "SSL is not needed as MobileMe uses JavaScript and CSS"....

Grml. Why the heck don't they fix those issues and take more care about the security of their users data? Is Steve Jobs himself using MobileMe and exposing all his calendar data, business contacts and mails to the public? Would be interested to hear back from him... or is he not using his own service?

Read more about the iPhone security issues.

Labels: apple, mac, security

Apple pays around 70 cents in every dollar to the record labels, who then hand across nine cents to the music publishers who control the copyrights to the music.

No wonder that music is so expensive and that most people still try to download it for free... 60% of the money is paid to the big four! Music could be so much cheaper and lots more people would actually by it if it would be only around 40 cent per song....

Read the full story.

Labels: apple, english, music

Pretty interesting and a slightly different approach that Google is taking with their G1 phone... the next year is going to be interesting!

(Original post and copyright: joyoftech.com)

Labels: apple, fun, google, iphone

Everyone is writing about the new 2.1 firmware that Apple released for the iPhone - about improved battery life, increased 3G reception and so on. It is definitely a fine release with a lot of good improvements. But more important - what's still missing in the 2.1 firmware? Here is my (incomplete) list of items that Apple should add to the next iPhone firmware:

• Copy & paste across applications (see comic)
  
• Synchronize Notes and TODO items with iCal and me.com
  
• Push notification service for applications (promised for September!)
• Usage of the phone as modem ("tethering")
  
• Allow developers to talk about iPhone development in the public
• 3rd party syncing through iTunes
• Access to the iDisk through the iPhone
• Support for stereo Bluetooth headsets
• Real navigation (and a Bluetooth GPS extension for the first generation iPhone)
  

Don't get me wrong - the 2.1 release is the best iPhone software they have delivered so far, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Not only for the iPhone but also for me.com, which is insecure and lacks features like the iDisk sharing.

(Image from Geek And Poke)

Labels: apple, english, iphone, mobileme, rant

Ja, laut Apple zumindest, ist SSL völlig unnötig. Warum und wie ich darauf komme, dies zu behaupten? Nun, ich maile schon seit einiger Zeit mit dem Apple-Support betreffend des Sicherheitsproblems von MobileMe. Und irgendwie kommt mir vor sie verstehen das Problem nicht - dass die Daten wie z.B. E-Mails, das Addressbuch oder Kalendereinträge unverschlüsselt zwischen meinem Rechner und den MobileMe-Servern übertragen werden. Was man nicht nur an der URL erkennen kann sondern sich auch sehr leicht mit z.B. Firebug, Fiddler oder Wireshark nachvollziehen lässt.
Nun schreibt mir aber der Apple-Support folgendes:

...die SSL-Verschluesselung stellt sicher, dass Sie mit dem richtigen Server verbunden werden und dass Ihr Benutzername und Passwort verschluesselt uebertragen werden.
Ein Aufzeichnen von Netzwerkverkehr ist nur moeglich, wenn das Netzwerk unsicher ist, d.h. das Passwort oder die Verschluesselungsart zu schwach ist bei WLAN-Netzen o.a..

Und genau darum geht es. Unsichere Netzwerke wie z.B. Hotspots. Oder einfach nur die Sicherheit, dass meine Kontakt-(Kunden?)-Daten nicht abgefangen werden können! Auf meine Bitte zur Klärung mit Technikern habe ich die folgende Antwort erhalten:

...es tut mir leid, dass ich nicht genauer auf die Sicherheit von MobileMe eingegangen bin. Tatsächlich basiert MobileMe auf Javascript und CSS, beides ist mit der neuesten Verschlüsselungstechnologie gesichert. Da alle Vorgänge auf unseren Servern ablaufen, ist kein SSL notwendig. SSL ist lediglich für den Loginvorgang notwendig, da dieser Clientseitig, also auf Ihrem Rechner passiert.

Aha. CSS ist also verschlüsselt. Genau. Und das Login passiert im Browser. Genau. SSL ist also wirklich völlig unnötig!

Labels: apple, deutsch, iphone, mobileme, rant, security

Upgrading the iPhone (i.e. to the latest 2.0.1 firmware) while being in Flight mode is a bad idea (tm). The upgrade works fine, but as soon as the iPhone reboots and needs to be activated through iTunes it complains:

The iPhone cannot be used with iTunes because the information required for activation could not be obtained from the iPhone. Check that the SIM card is inserted in your iPhone and that it is not PIN-locked.

Ok. There is a SIM in the phone but it can't be activated. Because it is in Flight mode and therefore never requests a PIN for the SIM. Bricked my iPhone? Need to recover :( ? No, just get out of Flight mode by going to the "emergency call" screen, entering any number and trying to call it. The phone will complain about being in Flight mode and request the PIN for the SIM card. Voila, activation works like a charm!

So, please Apple, make your error messages a bit more descriptive!
And users, get out of Flight mode before upgrading the iPhone!

(Original instructions can be found here; but be aware, there is no need to reset the phone!)

Labels: apple, english, iphone

There are 11 tips from Apple for increasing the battery life on the iPhone:

• Turn off 3G
• Minimize use of location services
• Fetch new data less frequently
• Turn off push mail
• Auto-check fewer email accounts
• Minimize use of third-party applications
• Turn off Wi-Fi
• Turn off Bluetooth
• Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
• Adjust brightness
• Turn off EQ

In a nutshell? Use it as an iPod. But not too often.

Agreed... :(

Via 43 Folders.

Labels: apple, english, iphone

Einer Studie von Nielsen Mobile zufolge sind 73 Prozent der Besitzer von Apples Hype-Handy iPhone Männer; zwei Drittel sind demnach jünger als 35 Jahre. Fast die Hälfte ist ledig und war nie verheiratet.

Irgendwie treffe ich die Zielgruppe doch recht gut... und "Technologien und Funktionen" haben den Ausschlag gegeben, ganz klar.
Der ganze Bericht.

Labels: apple, deutsch, iphone

Wow, finally Apple has launched MobileMe together with the iPhone 2.0 software. So time for a first test.

But wait - the so called "launch" itself was a fiasco. Apple had so much time to prepare everything and then users of the old .mac service have not been able to access their Mail and data for over a day! Wow.
After so much preparation and with so much media attention this must not happen. Not to Apple, no way.

Anyways, it happened. And there are other issues as well.... despite the fact that Apple integrated MobileMe with the iPhone 2.0 software (which is buggy and needs to be fixed as well) and it is super simple to use there are some issues:

• Missing encryption - only the authentication pieces are encrypted using SSL, everything else runs unencrypted. I don't want to transfer my mails, my contacts (!!!) or my calendar information unencrypted, so unless they use https for all of their tools this is a no-go.
• Announced features like file sharing are missing; Apple definitely has to deliver these promised features and has to continue improving the service.
  
• Buggy like hell - after working with the (smart and beautiful) Web interface for a while I already discovered a lot of display bugs where data is not rendered or settings are not persistent.
• I'm forced to buy iLife 08 as the gallery is not supported using iLife 06. Another 80 bucks to pay.
  

So... right now MobileMe is does a great job when syncing data between the iPhone and various Macs, as I don't need to sync manually, but the Web interface is insecure to use. A no-go. For now. Let's see how it evolves.

Labels: apple, english, iphone, rant, tech