Posts tagged Apple’s
Apple’s Next Privacy Scandal: Apps That Steal Your Photos
Feb 28th
It’s only been a few weeks since the last major iOS privacy scandal. In case you were getting bored, a new, somewhat related controversy just started brewing thanks to reporting by Nick Bilton at The New York Times. This one comes three weeks after Path apologized for a privacy loophole that allowed developers to access users’ entire address book without their knowledge.
Not only can iOS apps access and upload one’s address book, but they can apparently do the same with the photo library on any iOS device, according to the Times.
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That’s right. For whatever reason, Apple has made it possible for developers to upload your entire collection of personal photos to their servers, without necessarily making it clear that that’s happening. To be fair, no real-world examples of this have been uncovered, but it is very possible from a technical standpoint.
To demonstrate, the Times asked a developer to build a fake application that replicates this behavior and sure enough, it worked. Granted, this demo application was never submitted to Apple and thus never put through the thorough approval process the company employs. Still, as many developers know, Apple’s historically strict process for approving apps seems to have been relaxed somewhat, as bogus apps have occasionally been able to find their way into the iTunes App Store.
Apple’s Walled Garden: A Blessing in Disguise?
Even if it has become more lax lately, the App Store is still not as easy for developers to get their apps into as, say, the Android Market. If no major privacy exploits have unfolded as a result of this loophole, it’s by virtue of the fact that Apple is so notoriously strict about what lands in its app store.
That characteristic is something that is sometimes criticized by developers and more tech-savvy consumers, who view Apple’s ecosystem as more walled-off and restrictive than it needs to be. As much merit as those arguments may have, it appears that by occupying the opposite, more radically open end of the spectrum, Apple would be inviting potentially serious privacy and security exploits onto its platform.
As it so often the case, Apple has declined to offer any comment on the issue, at least until it blossoms into a bigger controversy.
There are certainly legitimate reasons why an application would need to access certain data about one’s photos, such as location information. However, why a developer would actually need to upload photos from somebody’s library to a remote server is unclear. Photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic only need to share the images passed through the app itself. If a user wants to apply an Instagram filter to an older photo sitting in their library, they can do that on a per-photo basis.
Of course, the natural concern for users here is that not every photo they snap with their phone is something they’re willing to share publicly, or with anybody else at all. As smartphones have proliferated and their cameras have become more powerful, they’ve begun to replace point-and-shoot cameras and simple camcorders for many consumers. They’re used for photos intended for Facebook and Instagram, but they’re also used to casually photograph family events and, one must presume, much more intimate subject matter.
The most obvious solution here would be to either remove the functionality or to tighten the restrictions around its use to ensure that users are clearly notified should this feature ever need to be utilized.
Last year, Apple made headlines when it was revealed that the iPhone was keeping a record of users’ physical whereabouts in an unsecured file on the device.
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What Apple’s Chomp Acquisition Means For the Future of the App Store
Feb 23rd
Whenever somebody we know gets their first iPhone, it seems the first question out of their mouths is always the same. “What apps should I get?” It’s seldom anything about how the phone’s user interface works or how to do certain day-to-day tasks. That much tends to be obvious once even the least tech-savvy person gets their hands on an iOS device.
When it comes to finding applications, however, things are not always as straight forward. The iTunes App Store makes it easy to find the most popular apps or break them all down into general categories. If you’ve been using the device for awhile, the Genius recommendations can help, but even they can be of limited value. The selection has expanded so much over the last few years that app discovery has become a little cumbersome.
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Apple knows this. To help build out a better system for app discovery, they just acquired a company called Chomp, Techcrunch reported today.
Chomp is, quite simply, a search engine for mobile applications. It spans both the iTunes App Store and Android Market and offers more sophisticated and contextually relevant results for search queries. As the company explains on its website, “Chomp’s proprietary algorithm learns the functions and topics of apps, so you can search based on what apps do, not just what they’re called.”
The company first grabbed attention in the mobile space by landing significant funding from well-known angel investors and venture capital firms. It counts among its advisors tech scene hotshots like Kevin Rose and Ashton Kutcher.
The Chomp acquistion is reportedly intended to help Apple completely overhaul the way apps are searched for and discovered in the App Store, according to Techcrunch.
With Chomp’s technology integrated, searches for iOS Apps will return more useful results and recommendations could be aided by additional data points, such as social cues and other aggregate user behavior data.
In the end, Apple’s selection of more than 500,000 mobile and tablet apps will be easier to sift through and developers should have an easier time getting exposure for their work.
Chomp also has a Google-style text ad platform in beta, although it’s not clear if that will play a role in Apple’s integration.
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Apple’s Messages Beta: Pretty Meh in a Mixed OS World
Feb 22nd
As part of the Mountain Lion preview last week, Apple put out a beta of its revamped chat application, Messages. If you spend a lot of time connecting with other folks on iOS devices, Messages is a must-have. If not, it doesn’t really add much to the mix.
Installing Messages is simple enough, though it does require a system reboot. If you’ve been using iChat, Messages will automatically import your accounts and you’re good to go. If not, it’s simple enough to set up your accounts. Like iChat, Messages supports AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber accounts. To get the most out of Messages, though, you’ll need an Apple ID and Messages on the desktop and/or an iOS device.
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Also like iChat, Messages doesn’t support IRC, Windows Live, or a host of other less-popular protocols. If you still need one of those, you’ll want to turn to Adium or another chat client.
Using Messages
For the most part, Messages is a pretty standard instant messaging application. If you’re talking to other users on Jabber, Google Chat, AIM, or whatever then you’ll see very little difference. Like iChat, Messages supports screen sharing, sending files, video chat, text chat and integrates with the Mac address book.
Messages’ real bonus kicks in if you’re chatting with users who use Messages, and/or you’re also using an iOS device.
Messages basically unifies texting and instant messaging for users who are on Mac OS X and iOS. For instance, I have Messages installed on my iMac, and have an iPhone and iPad with iOS 5.0.1. If I’m chatting with my brother, who has an iPod touch with iOS 5.0, he can send me a text message from his touch or computer and I’ll get it on my phone and desktop. The conversation is synced between my computer and my iOS devices almost immediately. If someone tries to start a FaceTime call, I’ll get the request on any device that I’m logged in on.
FaceTime is also integrated with Messages, so you can initiate a video call from your desktop to a friend or colleague on an iOS device (or vice-versa). If you’ve been wanting FaceTime on the desktop, but didn’t want to pay the $0.99 for the standalone App, grab the Messages beta.
Quality-wise, I’ve been pleased with FaceTime messaging. I tested it out with a couple of calls to users on iOS devices, and I didn’t really notice any problems with the quality of video or audio. When full-screening the session, the video was a bit fuzzy – but given that my display is 2560×1440 and the iPod touch doesn’t send HD video, that’s not surprising.
The only bug I did run into with the beta was Messages mixing up the display of transcripts. It’d show one user, but the transcript for a chat would belong to a different user. This was easily corrected, though.
It would be nice if Apple offered the option of initiating a voice-only chat over FaceTime, but that might annoy its carrier partners a bit much. Group video chat would also be a boon, since there are times that it’d be nice to chat with two or more colleagues, friends or family members. (If Google can do it with Hangouts, surely Apple could figure it out with FaceTime as well?)
Messages is a modest improvement over iChat and brings Mac OS and iOS a bit closer together. Unfortunately, the benefits that Messages brings to the table really only apply if you happen to have a lot of friends using iOS and/or Macs. If most of your contacts have iPhones, iPads and/or a Mac on the desktop, it’s pretty useful. If most of your contacts have Android phones and/or use Linux or Windows, you’re pretty much just as well off with Adium or sticking with iChat.
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Apple’s Convergence of Desktop and Mobile Continues With Mountain Lion
Feb 16th
It’s official. The next version of Apple’s desktop operating system is due out this summer, and it’s going to move Mac OS X closer toward the look, feel and functionality of iOS. Mountain Lion, much like its predecessor, adds features to desktop that users of the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch are already quite familiar with. And it will make the integration between all of these devices much tighter.
Of all of the new features coming in Mountain Lion, most of them either port something from iOS over to Mac OS X or otherwise bridge the user experience between the two operating systems.
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A number of features that launched with iOS 5 in October and swiftly making their way to Mac OS X. Notification Center is one of them. With Mountain Lion, Macs will have iOS-style push notifications, which can be viewed via a typically-hidden panel off to the right of the screen. In the same way iPhone and iPad users can pull down from the top of the screen to reveal Notificiation Center, Mac users will be swipe down on the track pad to reveal their recent notifications.
As predicted, iMessage is also making its way to Mac OS X. A new app called Messages will replace iChat and integrate with standard chat protocols per usual, but also work with Apple’s new SMS substitute. This begins to bridge the gap between devices and allow users to send text and media message to other Apple users regardless of device.
If you were, like me, excited about the launch of Reminders, but too disappointed at its desktop integration to actually use it, it’s time to get excited again. For real this time. Apple is launching a Reminders app for the desktop, which will of course integrate with iOS via iCloud. For those of us who do the majority of their day-to-day work on a laptop or desktop, this feature is absolutely critical for Reminders to be truly useful. Until now, there was little reason for people to give up tools like Remember the Milk or Things, both of which exist seamlessly across devices.
Speaking of iCloud, that’s getting more deeply integrated into Mountain Lion as well. Moving forward, this will be paramount to maintaining the user experience across devices.
For those who use Notes on iOS or Stickies on Mac OS X (or both), there’s good news. Those apps are now one. Stickies is being replaced with Notes on the desktop, which will sync with one’s notes on their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, thanks to iCloud. Users of apps like Evernote may find this feature yawn-worthy, but for those who have opted to use Apple’s proprietary tools for note-taking, it will be a big plus.
Like iOS 5, Mountain Lion is getting deep Twitter integration. Other new features in Mac OS X include Game Center, Airplay mirroring and a new security feature called Gatekeeper. As MG Siegler points out in Techcrunch, it is sure to generate some controversy, since the OS will only accept Mac Store apps and software from verified developers by default. It is a bit walled garden-y, but the setting can be changed.
For a more detailed walk-through of Mountain Lion’s new features, you can check out the hands-on reviews done by MacWorld or Techcrunch.
The new OS won’t be available until the summer, but developers can download a preview from Apple starting today.
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iPhone Address Book Fiasco Should Be Apple’s Cue to Build Its Own Social Network
Feb 15th
Apple is good at many things, but so far, it has not excelled at “social” Web services. For example, Ping, the music-focused service it launched in 2010, is seen as one of its rare failures.
But now Apple has a real chance to do something “social” properly, by turning its huge and growing base of iOS users into a useful social platform, while maintaining appropriate privacy and security.
The need for such a service has heightened over the past week by a pretty ugly controversy: Several social iOS apps have been caught uploading the contents of phones’ address books to their servers – without asking for permission – in order to make friend-finding easier. The Feds even want to know what’s going on.
As embarrassing as this is, it’s actually a big opportunity for Apple to build something new.
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Like what? Apple is already working on an update that will require apps to obtain explicit permission before accessing your address book, the same way they have to ask for permission to access your geographic location and Twitter account.
But why stop there?
Apple can take all that address book data and make a real social platform out of it, adding features like two-way friend confirmation, blocking users, public profiles, photo sharing, activity streams, whatever. Then, one click could let you import all that stuff, especially all those existing friend relationships, into apps. Eventually, this could even become a standalone social network service, like Facebook. Maybe call it “Friend Center”.
Why bother?
It’s hard to overstate the importance of social apps for Apple’s iOS platform. Many of its most popular apps are owned by social networks, including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And many of its top games are social, too, ranging from “Words With Friends” to multi-player card games.
So Apple needs iOS to be a great social platform; it can’t just ignore it. Why not become the best?
Then, there are all kinds of other reasons for Apple to build something like this, from iAd targeting to App Store and iTunes recommendations to eventual integration with Apple’s TV platform.
Today, app makers can integrate Facebook and Twitter’s social networks to help you find your friends from those services. Of course, many developers have built in the now-controversial feature that lets you sift through your address book for friends. And Apple’s Game Center service helps game developers add some social features. But there’s still room for a broader social service from Apple.
What about formally farming this out to Facebook or Twitter? That seems increasingly unlikely.
Apple should know by now, looking at Facebook’s growth and stature, how valuable it is to own a huge social platform. (Steve Jobs also complained publicly about Facebook’s “onerous terms.”) Plus, not everyone’s going to want to use Facebook or Twitter.
And what if Facebook decides to become more competitive with Apple down the road, perhaps by launching its own mobile OS? Apple has already learned its lesson, depending so much on Google for core iOS features, that it’s not likely to repeat the move.
So, given Apple’s preference for owning and controlling the services its users rely on, and the trust Apple’s users place in it to maintain their privacy and security, it seems like it’s time to start building its own social platform. We’ll see how far it goes.
Photo courtesy Shutterstock.
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Exclusive: Interview With Inside Apple’s Adam Lashinsky [Video]
Feb 9th
On Friday, February 3, at the lovely Delancey St. Theater in San Francisco, ReadWriteWeb and our new home company, SAY Media, co-hosted a release party for Adam Lashinsky’s new book, Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – And Secretive – Company Really Works. It was our first joint event since we joined SAY in December. RWW and SAY are working together to figure out the future of media, so a gathering to discuss a book about Apple was a great place to start.
Apple lives at the center of the worldwide technological transformation that’s underway, and Lashinsky’s new book sheds light on how the enigmatic company works. It profiles Apple’s leaders and their various styles and talents, it describes how the organization is woven around them, and it tells the stories of Apple insiders and outsiders at all levels.
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I got to sit down with Lashinsky for an interview about the book before MC David Richter opened it up to the whole audience. Our conversation touched on three aspects of Apple that tie the book together: the culture, the leaders and the products.
Lashinsky reveals many telling facts and anecdotes about Apple’s culture in the book. We discussed whether Apple’s obsession and perfectionism are creepy, and to what extent this is driven by the personalities of its leaders.
We considered the extreme secrecy imposed on Apple’s lower ranks and what effects that has on morale and the quality of work. We also thought about Apple’s unique sense of timing, taste and presentation that make it such a phenomenon in the culture at large.
Apple’s organization is centrally controlled by a closed group of leaders, and I asked Lashinsky about the importance of their personalities in the way the company operates. We discussed the extent to which Steve Jobs’ legacy shaped the culture and whether those shapes will hold after his passing.
Then we talked about Tim Cook’s new and starkly different style as CEO. Lashinsky has also referred to SVP of iOS Software Scott Forstall as a “CEO-in-waiting,” and the book points to the contrast between him and Cook as one of the upcoming dramas in Apple’s next chapter.
Finally, we looked at the products, the part of the company where Apple meets the public. We discussed the powerful influence of Jobs’ last products and how we’ll have to wait for the ones that come after him to see the real face of a post-Jobs Apple.
I found our conversation illuminating, and the whole evening was a lot of fun. Here’s the full video of my interview with Adam Lashinsky:
All photos and video by the excellent team at SAY Media
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Apple’s Siri Drives 25 Percent Of Wolfram|Alpha Queries
Feb 8th
Yesterday knowledge engine Wolfram|Alpha announced an intriguing new paid service Wolfram|Alpha Pro. Gary Price wrote an overview of the new service, which will likely appeal to academics, data geeks and a range of other specialized users. Wolfram|Alpha is by no means a mainstream…
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How to Take Advantage of Apple’s Rise to Mobile Market Dominance
Feb 8th
Apple is the king of mobile. With an expanding market share, Apple is poised to break records yet again in 2012; though they must improve their iAd inventory to compete with Google. Here are the implications for mobile marketers.
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Why Petitions Won’t Change Apple’s Labor Practices Anytime Soon
Feb 1st
Not even 24 hours after Apple reported its jaw-dropping Q1 financial results, the company found itself as the target of some relentless investigative journalism by the New York Times. In particular, as part of an ongoing series about Apple, the Times published a detailed investigation of some of the tech giant’s biggest overseas suppliers, ugly labor abuses and all.
From deadly plant explosions and poisonous screen-cleaning chemicals to unsafe working conditions and long hours, the report was anything but forgiving. In response, there is a small but growing chorus of consumers asking Apple to do more about these issues. A petition demanding a more ethically-built iPhone 5 and other products is said to have amassed 40,000 signatories in its first 24 hours.
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Apple has already made some efforts to improve labor practices among its suppliers, something the Times article acknowledges. It has thoroughly audited its suppliers, in many cases pressuring them to change more egregious practices. This year, the company even published a list of its suppliers for the first time, in an effort to be more transparent. Still, as the Times report illustrates, many abuses persist.
The company, like others that make consumer electronics, remains in an awkward position as its quest to meet growing demand clashes with the ethical concerns that naturally arise when the manufacturing is done in countries that lack the U.S.’s labor laws. Apple has stated that achieving the level of efficiency they now boast simply wouldn’t be possible in the United States, where manufacturing has waned, labor is costly and regulations too strict to allow for lightning speed turnaround on last-minute changes. To stay competitive, it needs to keep its operations in places like China.
E-Signatures vs. Wallets: Which Votes Count More?
Forty thousand signatures may sound like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to 37 million. That’s how many iPhones Apple sold in its last quarter, in addition to more than 15 million iPads. The pressure from consumer and human rights groups may well ramp up in the coming weeks and months, but for the time being the number of people voicing their concern is only .07% of the number that bought iPads and iPhones in the last quarter. That’s not counting iPods and Macs.
To make a substantial impact, there would need to be an actual boycott of Apple products widespread enough to make a noticeable dent in their sales numbers. Some may decline to buy the iPhone 5, iPad 3 or iTV in protest, but probably not enough to make a difference.
Alternatively, the issue would need to turn into a much bigger PR problem for Apple, leading consumers to think twice or forcing the company to preempt an exodus by pressuring suppliers to shape up.
This isn’t to suggest that a concerted enough Web-fueled protest couldn’t generate the pressure required to encourage change. We saw it happen in more ways than one with the SOPA and PIPA debate. Still, this is Apple we’re talking about. Rather than asking citizens to phone their representatives, such a protest would be asking millions to break their addiction to some of the most popular consumer electronics products of all time. These are devices that have woven themselves deeply into our day-to-day lives.
If people were to flee Apple, where would they go? To one of Apple’s competitors? They’re not exactly innocent either.
What do you think? Are labor rights issues enough to cause you to reconsider buying devices like smartphones and tablets? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Why Apple’s Restrictive iBooks Author Rules May Not Be Legally Enforceable
Jan 25th
When Apple unveiled plans last week to ramp up its efforts in the education space, the company’s announcement was met with decidedly mixed reactions. While many welcomed Apple’s foray into digital textbook publishing, others were less enthusiastic. The idea of delivering textbooks via tablets may have promise in theory, but Apple’s initial execution doesn’t look all that disruptive yet.
The latter part of the announcement covered the impressive expansion of iTunes U and the launch of iBooks Author, a DIY tool for publishing digital textbooks. If anything could pose a threat to the status quo in the textbook industry, it would be such an application. But wait. As it turned out, the so-called “Garage Band for e-books” wouldn’t be quite as open and revolutionary as some thought.
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That’s because the end-user license agreement (EULA) governing how its end products could be distributed turned out to be especially restrictive, a fact bemoaned by our own Marshall Kirkpatrick. Even stalwart Apple supporter John Gruber chimed in to call the iBooks Author EULA “Apple at its worst.”
So what’s the big deal? The agreement contains a provision stating that “if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple,” and then proceeds to outline further limitations on the paid distribution of one’s e-books. So much for iBooks Author being a groundbreaking, industry-shaking move.
As troubling as the iBooks Author EULA looks, it’s questionable whether or not the agreement can be legally enforced under current copyright law, explains Philadelphia-based lawyer Max Kennerly on his blog.
The issue, says Kennerly, comes down to the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. Apple seeks to establish an exclusive license with users, in which, by legal definition, “the copyright holder permits the licensee to use the protected material for a specific use and further promises that the same permission will not be given to others. The licensee violates the copyright by exceeding the scope of this license.”
A provision in the Copyright Act requiring a written “transfer of copyright ownership” may serve as an unintended legal loophole for those seeking to go around Apple’s restrictions and selling their e-books.
Explains Kennerly:
In the end, the iBooks Author EULA leaves both Apple and the author in a strange stand-off: Apple doesn’t actually have the right to tell the author not to take their work somewhere else, but the author can’t do that without breaching the EULA — even though they retain full rights in their copyright.
Of course, this is just one legal expert’s interpretation of the legal niceties, based in part on somewhat obscure concepts and court-established precedents. Still, on paper it would appear that the legal enforceability of the iBooks Author EULA isn’t entirely clear, and this may leave the door open to authors brave and curious enough to find out.
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