Apple Facing Regulatory Scrutiny In South Korea Over Location Log File

The commotion over that iOS log file, which can to some extent, track the movements of your iPhone or 3G iPad is definitally not fading away. Bloomberg, is today reporting that South Korea’s communication regulator is investigating the issue to see whether or not Apple is breaking South Korean law.

The Korea Communications Commission has issued Apple a series of questions over what information is collected and saved and whether users have a choice over whether it is saved or deleted. Furthermore it has asked Apple to clarify why such data exists and whether it is at all stored on the company’s servers. The Commission has also been formed to investigate how to increase privacy protection for smartphone users.

Earlier today we reported on an email from Steve Jobs in which he said of the issue “We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.” It comes after US Senator Al Franken last week called for an explanation for the file, saying, “it raises serious privacy concerns”. The researchers who discovered the file demonstrated that the log file in question records an approximate location of an iPhone or 3G iPad based on cellular tower vicinity and is presumed to exist either for battery performance or as a reference for the device. Many believe that it is either a bug or oversight that the device does not periodically delete the log file.

[Via Bloomberg]

Barack Obama Seen Toting iPad 2, Smart Cover

Barack Obama is pretty enthusiastic about his iPad, but does he have the first iPad or does he have Apple’s latest iPad 2? A TUAW reader submitted a few photos found on Flickr on the subject, revealing Obama has picked up the new iPad 2 with one of Apple’s delicious grey Smart Covers. Not a bad choice Mr. President! We’re pretty sure he’s loaded his iPad with the usual suspects such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and maybe he’s utilizing Flipboard to keep track of anything related to the White House or events overseas via Twitter. The man is pretty tech savvy (you have to admit his YouTube channel is very impressive), and maybe he’s going so far as to FaceTime with his daughters while away from home. Now that? That’s magic with the Presidential seal of approval of course.

[via TUAW]

Steve Jobs on iPhone Location Tracking: “We Don’t Track Anyone”

When security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden revealed a file in the iPhone’s backup history that contained time and location data, the media broke into a frenzy as Apple, Android, and smartphones became a target of scrutiny for privacy. It’s believed that Apple’s location data exists to reduce the time it has to look for cellular towers and GPS data by caching your known location. The data is accurate but not pinpoint accurate, and Apple has taken significant strides to increase battery life by regulating wireless services on the device. Quite simply, this file is simply for reference and is stored locally, used by the phone to preserve battery life and connect to known wireless “hubs” faster depending on your location. The issue, however, is that the file is likely “leftovers,” meaning cache was accidentally saved as a persistent file. This morning, MacRumors reports that one of their readers reached out to Steve Jobs on the issue, and got a response.

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

Steve Jobs slams Android (claiming Google tracks users while Apple doesn’t), and it’s possible a future update from Apple could fix the issue in question (permanent storage of temporary cache). While Jobs has likely started a firestorm  this week over Android’s integrity (think antennagate all over again), there’s nothing to be worried about here and this issue has been overblown. You can always turn off your iPhone’s GPS services if you feel compelled, but the evidence suggests that Apple has nothing to hide.

[via MacRumors]

Rinse: An App for Cleaning Your iTunes Library

As a part of RealNetworks evolution, from a content provider to developer of management and distribution software for digital media, it has released Rinse – a $39 application that offers a promise that it will “seamlessly organize and repair your iTunes music library”.

Like other apps such as TuneUp and Equinux’s Song Genie and CoverScout, Rinse promises to correct any mislabelled (or not labelled) items in your iTunes library, add album artwork and remove those pesky duplicate items. It promises to be smarter than those other apps and that “Rinse’s intelligent database technology will find the matching artwork, remove duplicates and clean things up.”

Peter Kafka from AllThingsD had mixed results trying it out on his library, whilst Ben Brooks found it made quick work of cleaning up those duplicate tracks he had in his library. Rinse is available for OS X as well as Windows XP, Vista and 7 for the rather hefty price of $39.

[Via AllThingsD]

 

A market for iPads, not for tablets→

A market for iPads, not for tablets

Apple seems to have captured something with the iPad that is far more than just a tablet-shaped computer. They hit upon some “X factor” in the combination of the pleasing physical design of the iPad, and the simple, intuitive and pleasing look-and-feel of a user interface.

This X-factor, whatever it is, will be very hard to duplicate by companies that aren’t Apple. Other companies will build products to compete with it, but they’ll never manage to build anything that comes close to what consumers see as the real thing. In fact, I’m not sure that tablets will ever be a space where numerous brands with strong product offerings will constantly fight it out for market share. The “front-runner and also-rans” dynamic will always exist.

I wouldn’t be surprised if many critics would argue (with a fair bit of snark) that the x-factor is the Apple logo alone. However, people who’ve gotten their hands on the iPad and have explored the App Store ecosystem know the iPad is much more than just good looks wrapped around a mediocre OS. Apple gets both hardware and software right: whatever you think of their multitasking solution or lack of openness, the “limited” features critics bash it for work a hundred times better than the “real deal” competitors are supposed to be offering. Everything on the iPad is fluid, simply just works, and for the “lack of features,” no one seems to be complaining about missing anything once they’ve set up their iPad. Apple is smart to know that they’re going to implement features and make that experience perfect before shipping lots of features that are half baked. This is what puts Apple above the competition.

Not to pick on the Xoom as there are other competitors, but I’ll be blunt when I say it’s a joke. Honeycomb is jittery as you scroll and navigate apps, Adobe still can’t get Flash to run buttery smooth on something that’s dual-core (Flash being an advertised feature that’s supposed to just work), and Motorola shipped the Xoom without 4G and an unusable SD card slot. Apple would never ship a product like this, which is why the delay has been so great on the white iPhone (presumably an issue revolving around light sensitivity with the proximity and camera sensors). If Apple does have a software bug in their product, they promptly fix it with an update via iTunes. Aren’t those 3G Honeycomb tablets at the mercy of the carriers? Android feels messy - this is why the masses don’t want to buy these tablets.

Permalink

Fox News Charlotte Gives Us a Glimpse of Apple’s Server Farm

If the Apple data center speculation wasn’t enough, Charlotte local news channel WCCB-TV took a news anchor out to cover the Apple datacenter, which they erroneously report was intended strictly for iTunes and will take on Netflix in the video streaming business in part because of the massive scale. “That’s just too big to house only music files,” exclaims Israel Baldares. I don’t disagree that Apple will move into streaming video, however, to state it as fact is whole a different case of the Fox News crazies. Out of the speculation, however, comes a couple glimpses at the scale of Apple’s datacenter (and the outside of the building is probably all we’ll see for the time being). Couple this with Philip Elmer-DeWitt’s accompanying video, and we get a sense of the sheer size the server farm. As far as the inside goes, we do know that Apple has ordered an insane amount of storage, and has specific orders for custom equipment related to cooling and power. Tack this on to the fact they just pulled data center scalability expert Kevin Timmons from Microsoft, and you have yourselves some wild speculation concerning what Apple might do with lots of unused land.

Apple is only using a third of the 180 acres they own, not including the 70 acres they’ve purchased across the street. It’s speculated Apple could build an East Coast Apple campus, and build a data center in parallel to the building that’s constructed now, giving them a million square feet of space to work with. Apple’s data center is readying to launch, and in the meantime you can get a glimpse at the current state of their data center via the video after the break.

[Fortune via TUAW]

Read more

Fast Switching Between Multiple iTunes Accounts→

Fast Switching Between Multiple iTunes Accounts

Redditor TinyLebowski shares an AppleScript that, once configured and run, will allow you to switch to another iTunes account in 2 seconds, without typing anything. This is particularly useful for people like me who own several iTunes accounts (especially for App Store and iTunes movie releases) and think iTunes should have an option to “fast switch” between accounts – even on different international Stores. This AppleScript works as advertised and, if you are switching to an international store, you’ll just have to hit the Ok button. If the Store is the same, you won’t have to hit anything and the login process will be automatic.

Beware, though: your Apple ID and password are stored in plain text inside the script. Of course this is meant to be saved on your local machine, assuming only you have access to that. However, saving the script as an “application” bundle might provide an additional security measure (that is, someone will have to “show package contents” and navigate through folders to see the main script).

I love it. Check out the full AppleScript here.

Permalink

Apple Testing iPhone On T-Mobile USA With A5 Processor?

A series of photos posted earlier today by Boy Genius Report show an unreleased white iPhone 4 unit running on T-Mobile USA network. The device looks like an iPhone 4, although, as BGR notes, the proximity sensor looks different than the one shown in the (allegedly) final white iPhone 4 that’s been already sold in the UK. BGR claims the device, just like the Vietnamese videos from last week, is running an old and internal test version of iOS 4, confirmed by the several Apple internal and field-testing applications like Radar and Apple Connect or the preference panels to measure the performances of the device.

That’s right, you’re looking at photos of an iPhone prototype with T-Mobile USA 3G bands. The actual internal model is N94, and if you remember, the Verizon model is N92 while the standard GSM variant is N90. We have verified that the phone itself is running a test version of Apple’s iOS, much like the one we saw in those videos from Vietnam, and it includes internal Apple test apps like Radar and Apple’s employee directory app. Additionally, the front of the white iPhone pictured looks a little different from the photos of the retail white iPhone 4 that surfaced recently — specifically, the proximity sensor has changed on the retail version.

The model number of this white iPhone 4 is N94, the same one that months ago was mentioned in some iOS 4.3 code strings related to the A5 chip – also implemented on the iPad 2. Whilst rumors point to the white iPhone 4 finally being released on April 27th, the N94 model number and A5 processor indicate this might be an updated version of the iPhone 4 coming out later this year – perhaps the “iPhone 4S” select game developers are already testing ahead of the WWDC and the iOS 5 announcement. It’s also worth remembering that AT&T has filed documents in the US to acquire T-Mobile – if the two networks merge, the iPhone will eventually work on the old T-Mobile network (which currently has different radios and frequencies than AT&T). However, the acquisition is rumored to take several months before completion, and Apple could release an iPhone 5 / iPhone 4S this Fall that also runs on the existing T-Mobile network.

Check out the full gallery of leaked shots here.