If you owned a smartphone before the iPhone, you probably used it for tethering to get online with your computer in a place where wifi was not available or too expensive. With the iPhone, tethering hasn't been possible unless you've jailbroken your iPhone or were lucky enough to buy NullRiver's NetShare app while it was briefly available in the App Store. In the U.S., you'll notice that other smartphones offered by AT&T can make use of data plans that allow tethering, and the iPhone is one of the few smartphones, if not the only one, that they offer that cannot make use of one of these plans, nor is there currently a native app or Settings option on the iPhone that enables this.
Well, today there's a
rumor that indicates that AT&T and Apple are looking into this! The rumor revolves around an email supposedly sent by Steve Jobs in response to someone who complained about AT&T's lack of tethering options for the iPhone. The purported reply from Steve says "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT [sic]".
Every year, there is always at least one rumor supported by an alleged email from Steve Jobs, and we've already had one or two of these this year, but this could prove to be one of the more exciting ones so far for iPhone users who really want to be able to use their iPhone 3G's high-speed network connection to be able to do even more on the go without worrying about doing something unauthorized on AT&T's network and/or voiding the warranty on their iPhone to enable this capability.
So, as always, we'll wait and see if this turns out to be true. My trusty Magic 8 ball says the possibility of this rumor coming true is "Most Likely" and it's never lied to me yet.
Via
MacRumors
I keep a lot of personal information on my iPhone that I don't want just anyone to have access to, so I've set the Passcode Lock option in Settings with the hope that it will keep my information from prying eyes for the most part if it's misplaced or gets stolen. And I also have my Home Button shortcut set to go to my Favorites in the phone app. It's this very combination that reveals a security flaw where the passcode lock in firmware 2.0.2 can be bypassed, allowing access to your favorite contacts and email accounts. Not good.
You can see the demonstration of how this can be done in a
video over at Gizmodo, but here's how it works:
- After sliding to unlock, select Emergency Call on the passcode entry screen.
- Double-click on the home button, and the phone Favorites list will appear.
- Click on the blue arrow to the right of a Favorites entry to see the full information for that contact.
- Click on an email address for that contact and you'll be taken to a new message in the Mail application.
- Cancel out of the new email and you'll see the full list of email accounts, which can be accessed fully.
Crazy, isn't it? I'm setting my home button shortcut to something else, effective immediately. Granted, this doesn't allow access to everything on your iPhone, but it's far more than I'm comfortable with. Chances are that someone who finds or steals your iPhone won't know about this particular security flaw, so it's probably not something for you to worry about regularly. Unfortunately, my luck isn't so good and my iPhone would probably fall into the hands of a thief well-versed in the flaws of the iPhone. Hopefully, Apple will recognize this and address it in the next firmware version...
Via [Gizmodo ]
When reports of connectivity issues started cropping up on the Interwebs last week, there was a report that Steve Jobs had replied to an email from a customer who was concerned about the problems affecting his iPhone 3G. The email read,
"We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon."
