Umbilical Cord iPhone Charger

Ewww. It moves.



Geeks Are Sexy

iPhone Sex Offender Fail

Via Daily Kos

Nexus One Vs. iPhone - NSFW

Via The Daily Dish

Flowchart: Should I Use My iPhone Now

Via Geekologie

Can You Be Poor and Own An iPhone?

This seems like an odd product - an iPhone case made out of recycled cardboard.

What's the message we're trying to send here?

"I can shell out $200 for the hardware and $85 a month for two years for the service, but damn. A ten dollar iPhone case would drive me straight to the poor house!"

Plus, it's 99 cents, so how long do you think it will last? Until the first time you take it away from your cheek and see that it's covered with the same amount of greasiness as the bottom of a pizza box on triple pepperoni night, I'm guessing.

If I want to be rich but appear to be modest, I'll follow through on my plan to buy a slightly-used Mercedes, thank you very much. We all have to cut back wherever we can.

Link via Dvice

Ex-girlfriend? There's an app for that

Via The Daily Dish

iGun for iPhone

It's real - a free version is available via the iTunes app store.

iPhone Encryption Easily Defeated

One of the digs against the use of an iPhone in a corporate environment is the lack of enterprise-level security on the device. With sensitive business and personal information contained within email and documents stored on the phone, it's imperative that there are effective, robust controls in place to keep the data from being breached.

Apple has been touting the encryption solution that's part of the new 3GS model as their answer to those who doubted an iPhone in the enterprise was ready for prime time. It's reported that Apple uses the 448-bit Blowfish encryption algorithm, which provides a measure of cryptographic protection. But does it really keep the bad guys out of your data?

Sadly, it doesn't appear to be very successful. Wired has a report that indicates data can be siphoned off of an encrypted iPhone in minutes using readily-available software, and a complete disk image can be created in less than an hour.

There seems to be a minor issue with the iPhone in that once data starts being extracted, the phone begins decrypting the data on its own. Wow.

This is particularly troubling in light of some recent legislation in Massachusetts and Nevada that requires personal information of state residents be encrypted on any device that is not within the confines of the corporate network. This includes Blackberry devices, smart phones, removable USB drives, and so on. Since it's difficult to discern the legal residence of the customer's data as it gets mixed and mashed with everyone else's data, corporations generally choose to protect all personal information in the same manner, regardless of the domicile.

As a security professional, I would never recommend using the iPhone on a corporate level until Apple matures their security configuration and control environment. It's up to each business to evaluate the level of risk they are willing to accept, and for some, use of the iPhone will fall within acceptable risk parameters. Sooner or later, however, a breach will occur - someone's information will be stolen or use inappropriately - and there will be statutory penalties in addition to the inevitable civil suit.

Apple has an uphill trek to achieve the same security posture as RIM with their series of Blackberry devices. Don't expect Cupertino to reach the peak anytime soon.

Apple Patching Serious iPhone Vulnerability

Well, you knew that the iPhone 3.0 software introduced some interesting new features, but while developers were cranking out compass code, they overlooked a flaw that could allow an attacker to remotely run malicious code on your device, granting them root access.

The flaw is within how the software handles SMS (Short Message System) text messages. A security researcher was able to remotely crash an iPhone via specially crafted SMS messages, and that usually means that other attacks, such as installing their own software, creating denial of service conditions, or spreading additional malicious code are possible.

Look for Apple to patch this one quickly, given the fact that details of the vulnerability are rapidly becoming public. The normal result is an uptick in activity among malcode writers who look to begin exploiting the vulnerability.

Once Apple issues the fix, make sure you update your iPhone's software immediately, as the bad guys who haven't figured out the flaw will reverse-engineer the fix in order to build and scatter exploits in the wild.

HP Classic Calculators on the iPhone

In what will turn out to be either a wonderful, nostalgic emulation adored by millions, or an overpriced, needless add-on that makes a sensational explosion when it crashes, Hewlett Packard is releasing an iPhone application that puts an exact replica of a classic HP calculator at your disposal.

According to reports, if you use the app when holding your iPhone in landscape mode, you will get a visual replica of one of HP's classics - the 12C Financial, 12C Platinum or 15C Scientific. That's the good news. The bad news is that these apps will set you back $14.99, $19.99, and $29.99 US respectively.

Nostalgia usually comes with a price, whether it's revisiting fashion horrors, bad hair styles, or other embarrassments you'd rather forget. At least this time the price is quantified.

Hewlett Packard Brings Classic Calculators to iPhone App Store , via The iPhone blog

The New iPhones Are Coming!

Here come the new iPhones. I sure hope I don't get the one that was inside the box that was dropped by Stanley T Butterfingers at the 45 second mark.

iPhone Security Benchmarks

The Center for Internet Security has released some iPhone security benchmark recommendations that will accomplish two goals:

• Make corporate use of the iPhone a tad more secure
• Suck out any of the inherent joy of owning and using an iPhone

Most of the recommendations are no-brainers, like updating the iPhone firmware to the latest version when you bring it onboard and turning off Bluetooth, location services, and other risky components, while adding a password so that it becomes virtually impossible to pull the phone from your pocket, swipe the main screen to open it, and punch in your password before the call flops over to voicemail. Good times!

As always, using an iPhone on the enterprise level will require compromising features and benefits in the interest of security. It will be interesting to watch how major companies implement these recommendations.

Security Benchmarks for Apple iPhone Released , via InformationWeek

Wipe Your Feet on my iPhone Mat

I'm pretty geeky, but this doormat is too clichéd even for me.

iPhoneFreak has the inside scoop on this "slide to unlock" doormat. I wonder if anyone would stand there thinking they were on Candid Camera as they moved their feet back and forth in an attempt to break in.

Call it the 'iPod Shuffle".

Slide to Unlock doormat lets everyone know you are a total geek

I Am Here

This is a little...shall we say...creepy.

To test whether I was being paranoid, I ran a little experiment. On a sunny Saturday, I spotted a woman in Golden Gate Park taking a photo with a 3G iPhone. Because iPhones embed geodata into photos that users upload to Flickr or Picasa, iPhone shots can be automatically placed on a map. At home I searched the Flickr map, and score—a shot from today. I clicked through to the user's photostream and determined it was the woman I had seen earlier. After adjusting the settings so that only her shots appeared on the map, I saw a cluster of images in one location. Clicking on them revealed photos of an apartment interior—a bedroom, a kitchen, a filthy living room. Now I know where she lives.

You can read the full Wired column at I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With the Location Aware Lifestyle.