There’s a huge security problem in the latest iPhone 2.0.2: if you have your iPhone password protected, using a very simple trick gives anyone full access to your cellphone private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts, and even Safari. The two-step trick is even simpler to the one used in the past to gain access to the phone to install unlocking cards or jailbreak. Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid this obvious security breach until Apple fixes it.
First, password protect your phone and lock it. Then slide to unlock and do this:
Tap emergency call. Double tap the home button.
Done. You are now in your favorites. This seems like a feature, because you may want to have emergency number in your favorites for quick dial. The security problem here is double. The first: anyone picking up your phone can make a call to anyone in your favorites. On top of that, this also opens access to your full Address Book, the dial keypad, and your voice mail. More.
As you know, AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple’s iPhone, which means they can pretty much jack up the prices of service to whatever they damn well please. Right now, AT&T is charging 20 cents per text message you send or receive. Let’s do a little bit of math.
One text message can’t exceed 160 bytes of data since you can only send up to 160 characters per text message. A little math will show that 1 megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes, or $1,310.72 dollars.
That math assumes you max out each text message you send. AT&T will charge you twenty cents whether you use all 160 characters, or simply write ‘K’ to your friend. Multiply $1,310.72 by 160 if you really want to freak out. That works out to $209,715 per megabyte.
Other fun: at $5 for 200 text messages you’re paying 2.5 cents per text message. At $15 for 1,500 text messages you’re paying 1 cent per text. All that makes $20 for unlimited texts’when are you ever going to send more than 1,500 text messages in a month seem like a deal, but clearly it’s not.
“How could detectives be so naive as to think I sent out hate messages against the Kikuyu, through a Kikuyu, yet I’m even married to one?’ That must have been the question in Emmanuel Siundu Waya’s mind one sunny morning soon after he received a call from somebody claiming he had a letter for him.
He agreed to meet the caller at a hotel on Moi Avenue, Nairobi. Little did he know he was beginning seven months of hell on earth. The caller turned out to be two smartly dressed men who identified themselves as policemen. One, Inspector Jeremiah Kiao, would be the lead investigator.
His accusation? He had sent out a hate SMS disparaging the Kikuyu and President Kibaki on December 30, 2007, the day after President Kibaki was declared the winner by the ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu. He allegedly urged other communities to gang up and wipe out ‘the Kikuyu mafia’. More.
SpinVox, basedin Chile announced today the launch of the first voice-to-text service in Latin America, available to all MOVISTAR Chile subscribers on contract.
SpinVox converts voice messages into text and delivers them directly to the recipient as an SMS on their mobile phone. Subscribers not only see the full message content, but also the caller ID, so they can see at a glance who left the message, and then call or text straight back.
SpinVox was created by co-founders Christina Domecq and Daniel Doulton. They launched the company in 2003 and SpinVox services are already available in Europe, North America, Australia and Africa. As well as converting voicemail messages to text for SMS or email delivery, SpinVox has also developed a range of other services — enabled by voice to text conversion, including posting blogs; speaking a text or dictating a memo which is delivered to an email inbox. More.
In Toronto, almost 1,200 people came together to play a giant game of capture the flag. Everybody was equipped with Wifi and communicated through SMS messaging throughout the event. Each team got different colored glow sticks so you could tell friends from enemies, but I’m impressed with the communication aspect of this, being able to organize and manage your troops through SMS.
Here is some video of the event.
Here is the official site in case you would like to participate during the next one.