The smugness of Apple's iCult

I've run into it on Facebook, with a friend or friends, when told that iPhones spy on you just like Androids, shrug it off. (Can't tell you more, as I don't post to public.)

And, they do. Maybe not as much as Androids, but they do.

And yet there’s no question that, by putting computers in our pockets, Apple ushered in the surveillance age. Researchers have found that iPhones send a steady stream of personal data to third parties, much as Android phones do. The company is also a pioneer in Bluetooth beacons, tiny devices used by retailers which glean data from phones as people move about in public spaces. Apple’s use of Chinese subcontractors has led to speculation that the company’s products are at risk of being compromised by the Chinese government—a prospect that flies in the face of Apple’s reputation for being virtually unhackable. In August, Google researchers exposed a large-scale iPhone breach that, according to anonymous sources who spoke with the Web site Tech Crunch, was initiated by the Chinese government in order to surveil Uighurs. Google’s blog post about the incident, which failed to mention that Android phones had also been affected, described “mass exploitation” of iPhones. In a tersely worded response, Apple criticized Google for “stoking fear among all iPhone users that their devices had been compromised. This was never the case.”

If that's not enough, more here from the WaPost.

And (update, Jan. 21) Apple CAVED to the FBI in deciding not to encrypt cloud-backup information. But a commenter at Schneier on Security claims the Reuters piece is all wet. Given that the link is from an iCult site, why should I believe it? Many of the commenters at Bruce's piece are worth reading more, though. Most harsh up the Eff Bee Eye. A few have a bit of skepticism for Apple. Parabarbarian and Alejandro follow Eric of the "all wet" link in saying it was dum fuk iUsers that forced Apple to abandon this. Sounds like Steve Jobs for blaming users for fucking up the antenna on the one model of iPhone.

Now, Firefox has a version for mobile. And, it fits Apple's iOS as well as Android. Might save you from those more than 5,000 trackers a week that the WaPost columnist had.

That raises other issues.

The biggie is that, yes, iPhones are hackable. Apple computers, before the upgrade to OS X, were just about totally nonhackable. They're more hackable today, but because they have a small market share, and thus it's tough for them to spread Apple-based viruses, aren't worth hacking.

iDevices? Different story. The iPhone has a substantial market share. So does the iPad. So, it's worth hacking Mac's mobile OS.

Now? A reminder that behind the progressive turd polishing, Apple, with its planned obsolescence and breathlessly pushed upgrades, is bad for the environment, too. Lithium is the biggie, and the one that comes first to mind, but other metals are also a problem. As the coup in Bolivia and ongoing civil war in Congo show, this planned obsolescence also takes a human social and cultural toll.

This brings up yet other issues.

One is how much people are tethered to smartphones. All the articles above reflect that.

Another is how much they want to do with that smartphone. And Big Biz, and most Net browsers and the companies behind them, know that people will "pay" for lazy convenience.

Update: Cory Doctorow has a good piece about the issues I list and more. As with me, his angle is that Apple isn't WORSE than Facebook, Google or other tech companies, or than other product companies that have moved manufacturing to China, but it IS even more hypocritical than them.

And so are its cultist fanbois.

==

Update, Aug. 21, 2020: The myth of Apple protecting all your privacy rights takes another blow with revelation it once worked on a government-snoops friendly iPod.

All hail the cult of Apple, again, and its #hypocrisy, again

Photograph by Ashley Gilbertson for Bloomberg Businessweek

I've worked professionally on Macs for 20 years. And yes, back in the Stone Age, they made computing so much easier.

That said, Steve Jobs was not a genius. Nor is Tim Cook after him. And neither of them were or are civil libertarians.

Nor is Tim Cook that concerned about privacy. Let's remember that, at one time, the iPhone and iPad were designed to spy on their users. As CEO of the Eye-company, he's concerned about corporate branding and profits from a company that has become a caricature of its own 1984 ad:



So, in the current hullaballoo about how brave Cook is for resisting the FBI's request that Apple write a jailbreak program to open the iPhone of alleged terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, remember this:

Apple is selling a phone, not civil liberties, as Lawfare Blog notes.

Actually, I'd go beyond that. Apple is selling you an Eye-cult.

I agree that the Eff Bee Eye is overstepping. However, Tim Cook is turd-polishing at the same time.

At the same time, Lawfare Blog is from Brookings. Brookings by its own admission is NOT a "liberal" think tank, whatever that word even means today. And, it's staking out the "left-neoliberal" version of support for the Deep State.

Between snark and skepticism, I've blogged plenty about the Cult of Apple.

That includes

• Snarking on faux apps for the iWatch;
• Thinking Cook came out as gay in part for marketing reasons;
• Noting that Mac computers (ironic timing is everything) may be less secure than Windoze, as further discussed here and also here, all of which the Cult of Jobs tried to ignore;
• Noting that Apple was SO customer-friendly when it engaged in price-fixing of e-books;
• Showing it's a cult by how much its followers are gullible suckers for anything Eye — that would include Steve Jobs lying about iPhone 4 antenna problems, preceded by Jobs lying about iPhone 3G data speed;
• How it got hypocritical with data control on e-book authors;
• Noting that, per the iPhone/iPad spying above, the only way to stop that was (more irony and hypocrisy) jailbreak the iPhone, and then to face Steve Jobs being Orwellian about the spying;
• And, the iCloud, which Apple pushes people to use, is totally open to the feds (and maybe hackers?)

Of course, the cult of Apple is ultimately the cult of Steve Jobs. Jobs got lucky that he listened to an underling about the iPod, which kicked off Apple's whole Eye-line. Jobs himself originally planned to make it Mac-only, like iTunes software before, like everything else before that.

But, many are so unskeptical about him.

Which is why I love that my Steve Jobs jokes blog post, fortuitously spun off a blog post written on the day he died, is still my most viewed one.

More skepticism about Jobs includes:

• Taking a real look at his personality;
• Behing honest about his exploitive overseas labor (yes, he was later than PC makers, but he went there).

The Silicon Valley world is all backing Apple now. This is again, where Persian philosopher Idries Shah is right — there's never just two sides to an issue, and clearly here. The FBI is wrong, AND Apple is hypocritical.

==

Update on the actual situation, which makes both Apple and San Bernardino County look worse.

The county has access to, but failed to install, software that would have unlocked the phone. Or, if Farook had thumbprint technology recognition installed, the Eff Bee Eye could have done it. The former makes the county look bad. The former, and somewhat the latter, belies Apple's "protect your data" claims.

Is the #Apple goose cooked? #iPhone5s AND #iPhone5c? What?

To all the Apple folks: Is Steve Jobs turning over in his grave at the marketing idea of introducing a new iPhone and a cut-rate model of said phone at the same time?

I just don't get this idea, which seems totally true.

I'm not Jobs (or I'd be dead and unable to write this, even from my iCoffin) and I'm not current Apple CEO Tim Cook, Jobs' anointed heir. And, while I don't totally hate Apple smugness, or the smugness of at least some latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, iPhone-using, Meyer-lemon-squeezing neoliberals, I do dislike stereotyped versions of all that enough to bust Apple in the chops when the chance comes along.

And, I know Apple doesn't normally do something like this. Most tech companies don't. Imagine Jeff Bezos introducing a new version of the Kindle Fire, then at the same techie meeting, also saying, "Hey, we also have this cut-rate Kindle Smoulder." Nope, nope, nope.

I'm not a financial analyst, but, given that many have been bearish on Apple in general and Cook in particular recently,  I'd call this a black mark —bet-hedging worries usually don't play well with Wall Street, I think.

That said, given that Apple fanboys and fangirls easily can be punked, I suppose they'll find a way to spin this news. That includes even alleged skeptics who have done similarly before. Right, Chris Mooney?

Meanwhile, per blog posts I've written involving Apple's background in online infowars and the dark side of the Internet, things like a fingerprint log-in code? First, Apple's not read the science that fingerprints aren't quite so unique. Second, I wouldn't trust that Apple wouldn't save that biometric information elsewhere, no matter what it claims. Third, I wouldn't trust at all that the NSA wouldn't then try to get it.

Sadly, other "mobile device" companies will probably pick up on this horrible idea.

Dear Mac: No, you're not a PC; you're not close

Computer security guru Eugene Kaspersky says that in terms of computer protections, Apple is where Microsoft was 10-12 years ago. He cites more Mac-specific malware, plus the rise of Apple mobile devices, as the main issues and says Apple needs to step up its game.

Now, it's true that on mobile devices, Apple makes claims about the security of non-jailbroken products. But, at the same time, it promotes cross-platform synching. What if your Mac Air or G3 desktop has malware?

Left unsaid by Kaspersky is that Mac users need to stop being so smug about the issue, and take note that they need antivirus programs installed and up to date.

Wipe that smug look off your face #SteveJobs

And, the rest of you Appleholics, too.

Your OS X Macs may be MORE LIKELY to get viruses than Windoze machines.

Now, I've used Macs myself for years. But, starting really with Windows 98, the Microsoft folks, with every other iteration of operating systems, closed the user-friendly gap with Apple more and more. XP was a notable step forward. Then came Windows 7, which loads faster than most Mac OS versions, even the almost-latest. And, of course, is cheaper.

And, safer, for the non-smug.

Now, I'm engaging in a stereotype. Not all  Mac users are so smug about their computers. But, enough are to perpetuate these stereotypes.

Update: 600K Macs already affected by a Trojan.

#SteveJobs is still dead, but #Apple ...

Brainwashing Apple marketing is alive and well! Giving people an old iPad 2, telling them it's the new one, and they believe you was a great prank. I could probably put a rattlesnake's rattle inside an iPhone, claim it was some new Siri feature, and at least a few would believe me.

 I can't wait for the resurrection of Apple TV. Apple will "lock" how you can change your remote control settings and tell you it's for your own good.

And, on threads on blog stories like this, some Appleholics start reminding me of Paulistsas, Ron Paul-istas, that is. Some Apple users simply refuse to admit the company is punking them, not the Gizmodo or other tech blogger folks.

Some top #SteveJobs jokes

Update, Oct. 5, 2011: Steve Jobs is dead. Of course, this post, written on the day and day after he resigned as Apple CEO, is hashtagged and getting plenty of hits. Jobs was a marketing genius, if nothing else, even if his creativity level took a back seat during his second Apple stint. That said, is his death like that of John Lennon's? Well, maybe in that both were overmourned.

One obit, reaching for historic gravitas, compared Jobs to Thomas Edison. On the side of myth, I'd say that's about right. Edison's myth was different: Many of "his" inventions were created by assistants in Edison's labs.

Is it the degree of authoritarianism, even by modern CEO standards? Is it the personal marketing intermingled with the product marketing? I personally don't "get" what has driven the Steve Jobs hagiography. That said, going beyond Adbusters types, I can be non-commercial without trying to commercialize myself by the back door, including thinking that Apple is somehow anti-capitalist.

So, in doing an irreverent take on the cultic reverence for Jobs and his self-marketed image, I offer a mix of one-liners and zingers, at least some of them with serious thought behind the zing.

OH, and  do NOT forget your WWJobsD bracelets! Since we're already being told that Jobs would support "Occupy Wall Street" (I kind of doubt it), we will surely be bombarded with his alleged wisdom in the future.

The iCoffin! Stylish Apple coloring.

Speaking of marketing, branding and cultic angles, I have no doubt people are already Photoshopping the silver Apple logo onto the lids of black walnut Mac AirBook caskets, Photoshopping Apple aficionados crying silver Apple logo tears and more. And, to beat them to the punch ... on the left, I introduce the iCoffin! No word if you can jailbreak this baby, or if it's one size fits all. And, that's the Classic version. The iCoffin Touch? You touch the Apple logo to scroll through all the different iTunes-recorded eulogies. Press the center of the logo, and a holographic Jobs "shuffles"! The Nano iCoffin? It cryogenically preserves Steve Jobs for re-integration as an Apple iBorg!

And, speaking of iBorgs and hagiography, get a load of a worshiper's art, at left. That MacBook is probably worth more disassembled than it was put together.

Speaking of the funeral, will we have a funeral as hagiographic as that of Ayatollah Khomenei? It wouldn't surprise me, the way I see people talking in semi-salvific terms about Jobs. Speaking of that, will we have Sevener and Twelver Appleholics battling over the location of The Hidden Imam Jobs? People fighting to touch the casket? The hem of Jobs' black burial turtleneck? Hoping for magical healing powers?

I guess we won't,  if it's going to be private .. but ... I bet somebody arranges at least one "surrogate funeral," or wake, or something.

Will we get a Steve Jobs funeral iPhone/iPad app? Maybe there's one called iMourn. When you launch the app, a Chinese worker at Foxconn gets Tasered into crying. That would be followed by iMourn2, where Chinese workers at fake Apple stores go into fake mourning, which may be happening. Or worse, they actually are mourning as much as Appleholics here in America.

And, it's nice to see the cultists doing most my Photoshopping work for me. I still haven't gotten around to Photoshopping Apples being crapped in the punchbowl.

Anyway, if not the iMourn, we could have the iDie, an app that connects you to the Hemlock Society.

And, will Apple release a "Steve Jobs' favorites" music list available for iTunes download? Will we get his Illinois commencement speech and other words of Jobs' wisdom also available for download? Since others compare him to John Lennon, that music list would include "While My iPod Gently Weeps," right? Snark aside, ti would not surprise me one whit if they actually happened.

Will Jobs dial all Apple product users with a final message, "Sent from my iCoffin - Steve Jobs"?

Was the iPhone 4S ... 4 Steve? (More serious "hagiography" - was it rushed out because his demise was known to be imminent, even though it wasn't an iPhone 5? So ... how do you kill the iPhone 5? You kill Steve Jobs!)

Will we see the lakes turn Apple rainbow colors? The skies rain silver Apples? Is the iApocalypse here?

No, but "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" is! Seriously, I've put this unauthorized bio in my Amazon cart. Deutschman accurately compares Jobs, one reviewer says, to a televangelist.

If he's not a televangelist, did you know Jobs is an iCon? Well, he's an icon to worshipers, but an iCon, pun obviously intended, to an even harder hitting biographer. (That said, this book sounds a bit more iffy.)

Did you know Jobs had no big brother? That's because he WAS Big Brother!

Meanwhile, on with the jokes!

What the iGenius who has everything, including monetarily, should get his iDaughter? Nothing! You deny paternity instead!

What do you call Jobs' business model for Apple? It's iProfit!

Or, there’s the iFlop app. When you launch this, you immediately get a list of the:

1. Apple III (unreliable)

2. Lisa (underpriced by the Mac)

3. NeXT Computer (overpriced)

4. Puck Mouse (stupid, and showing Jobs’ design instinct wasn’t unerring)

5. The Cube (overpriced based only on design)

6. iTunes phone (don’t want to forget this)

7. Apple TV (Jobs would like to forget this)

8. Add to this AP list the decision to kill the Mac clones market.

That said ... continue on to additional jokes below the fold, written on the day Jobs announced his resignation as Apple CEO. (The one about rising three days later might be apropos.) There's also more seriousness about Foxconn and other Apple reality behind the Apple myth. (And welcome, whoever was visitor 10,000  at about 2 a.m. Eastern time Oct. 7.)

Untrue #RIPSteveJobs eulogies

We need one of Satan welcoming him to Foxconn-employee hell.

Moving beyond my Steve Jobs jokes post, I've decided to start this blog post, collecting eulogies to him that simply aren't true. The editorial cartoon shows the fawning and lack of truth aren't limited to words; my caption suggests the alternative we need.

This story in the NYT inspired me, or drove me. Author Steve Lohr, in describing Jobs as a risk-taker, says this on page 2:

Mr. Jobs made a lot of money over the years, for himself and for Apple shareholders. But money never seemed to be his principal motivation.

Really? If it wasn't, then why did he overcharge for so much of his stuff? Why did he outsource to places like Foxconn? Why did he outsource and STILL overcharge? True, he doesn't have Bill Gates' money, but taking things relative to product market share, he's still in the same neighborhood.

Linking within the NYT, I came to this one, comparing public eulogies of Jobs and Thomas Edison. It concludes:

The public tributes to Edison in 1931 and those to Mr. Jobs 80 years later were similar, but only superficially. With Edison, the public thought of the Wizard, an outsize persona, through which it was impossible to see an actual person. But with Mr. Jobs, the tributes were to a fellow mortal, exactly our own height, just as vulnerable as we all are to the random strike of a life-ending catastrophe.

Really? In actuality, everything Randall Stross says about Edison's eulogies applies to the way Jobs is being eulogized.

At least Wired was honest enough to start upfront with the BS. In the opening paragraph:

No one will take issue with the official Apple statement that “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

Really? Beyond the technical sense in which brilliance in something like marketing/branding maynot be "measurable," I think a lot of people take issue with such a claim.

And, what is called Jobs' genius was luck. Specifically, one huge case of luck. AS Wred's own story notes, Jobs originally wanted the iPod to be useable only with Mac computers, and an employee had to talk him out of that. What if Jobs had had his usual level of stubbornness?

Here's another, that complains it's unfair to claim Apple was "anything but a business," despite the fact it was Jobs himself who, as part of Apple's "branding," developed that illusion.

There's a good roundup of reality-based Steve Jobs eulogizing here. It includes this from Wired:

Apple has built a little slab of Disneyland with its iPad, which is meant to be an experience unsullied by provocative or crude material. It’s beautiful and enticing — the company has already sold more than a half million of them in the first two weeks it’s been available — but it’s not the real world.

Anyway, that's a starter. If you have more examples to contribute, hit me up in comments.

Steve Jobs is dead - long live the myth of Steve Jobs!

It's official Steve Jobs is dead; see Apple's homepage. And, Wikipedia wasted no time either.

And, while this isn't a joke, any eulogy, if you will, must give an houest ranking of Jobs as a businessman.

As a newspaper editor, until my current gig, I've always used Macs. So, the graphic user interface and other things during Jobs' first run? He deserves definite credit as an innovator/creator. He continued to show that at NeXT and in the Pixar work. No doubt about that.

After his return?

I'll be honest that the man is a marketing genius. He was already some degree of that during his first stint. The products? Good but not earth-shattering. I will give Jobs credit for the whole idea of "apps," which is software creativity as well as marketing.

Ahh, there's that word.

For me, the bottom line with Jobs is "marketing genius." Already with XP, Windows narrowed many of the PC differences/shortcomings. And, Windows 7, I think, narrowed them further.

Phones? Android, overall, stacks up decently against iPhone. IPods? There's other MP3 players.

And, his decision to cut off cloning of Macs? Maybe it was right, maybe it wasn't. I think the verdict is against it, and that, if Jobs hadn't come up with the iPod, and the branding thereof, we wouldn't be putting him on an altar today.

But, it IS about marketing. The Mac vs. PC commercials. The iPod silhouette commercials. Marketing genius running circles around Windows in particular. And, that marketing genius carried over to the iPhone, even though, in terms of price, functionality, and .... openness, Android phones are better.

What's the word around the wires? Wired calls Jobs "mercurial and mysterious." Sounds about right; surely that was the source of his intimidation power. The BBC notes he was a lifelong Buddhist as an adult. Too bad that didn't help Foxcomm workers. Indeed, the Beeb's obit goes into that in other ways;

Unlike his contemporary, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Steve Jobs showed little inclination to use his personal wealth for philanthropic purposes.

And, strangely for a self-professed Buddhist, he did not embrace environmental concerns, with Apple coming under fire from Greenpeace for its reluctance to produce easily recyclable products.

 Well put.

Beyond that, the labor cost on an iPhone is only $8; there's simply no excuse for outsourcing these jobs. Period. Mike Daisey notes:

"My job is to shine a light on and through something," he says. "My job isn't actually to stop people from buying devices. My job is to ensure that these circumstances are part of the conversation."

Then adds:

"I have to say, all the mourning for my hobby aside, there's a real joy to being freed from the infantilism of the tech world. There's a real infantilism in being obsessed with just how fast you can render a web page," he says. "I never really appreciated how imbedded I was until I stepped out of it."

Wowsa.

A Yahoo column has another good take on Jobs. Throw out the marketing guru, and he's above average, but not great, as a businessman.

Macworld gushes, as you'd expect.

That, then, leads to the "cult of Steve Jobs" critique. Look at Facebook and Google+. It's like a virus. And, why? If Steve Jobs' death is the worst day of your life, that probably says more about your life and about Steve Jobs' cult-like marketing skills than it does anything else.

Will "OccupyWallStreet" take a day of mourning? That would be ironic, as between outsourcing to China and overcharging for crap, Jobs is an epitome of modern hypercapitalism, complete to "branding." And, beyond and behind the myth of Steve Jobs' genius is that myth of Steve Jobs as liberal icon. Of course, behind THAT is the myth of Silicon Valley as "liberal." As long as you confuse "liberal" and "social libertarian," it might be true. But, if liberal for you includes not just fighting against job outsourcing, but protecting workplace safety, employee rights, and the position of unions here in the U.S., Silicon Valley in general is far from being liberal.

And, I said "no Steve Jobs jokes," but, for those of you who do worship at the shrine, I have no doubt people are already Photoshopping the silver Apple logo onto the lids of black walnut Mac AirBook caskets, Photoshopping Apple aficionados crying silver Apple logo tears and more.

And, that said, probably because it was hashtagged and this post wasn't, my "top Steve Jobs jokes" post has gone viral.

GOD IS DEAD. No, worse. STEVE JOBS RESIGNS!

Doorknob, am I snarky today. Oh, I love the letter addressed to "the Apple community." If Walmart tried something like that, stereotypical white, Volvo-driving, latte-sipping, Meyer-lemon-squeezing librulz would shit bricks.

First, Apple's not liberal.

(C)ool does not equal liberal. If there's a single quality that Apple exhibits above all others, it's the way the company has managed to mint gold out of Steve Jobs' totalitarian control-freakery. Creative, yes. Liberal, not quite.

Got that? Cool does not equal liberal. That's true whether your cool is buying an iPhone that says, whenever it sends an email, "sent from my iPhone," or you drive a Volvo just because it's made in Sweden (don't forget, when Ikea started making "Swedish" furniture here in the U.S., it suddenly discovered the value of union-busting), or you make homemade lemonade from Meyer lemons (picked by illegal immigrants for a pittance, possibly).

Beyond not being liberal on outsourcing jobs to China, it's got more than half its $80 revenue overseas as it lobbies Congress for a "tax holiday."

And, I don't know if Apple is especially bad this way, but Silicon Valley in general is strongly antiunion.

Second, the claim that Apples are virus-free.

Not true. The iPhone, albeit only in jailbroken version, can get viruses. Mac computers, at least from OSX on, can be hacked as easily as PCs.

On computers, Macs simply don't have the vector of numbers to make it worthwhile to target them with viruses. On cellphones? Macs will become more and more a target. Ditto for iPads. So, stop being so smug.

You've bought a myth. The same type of "branding myth" that Barack Obama sold 32 months ago.

No, Apple isn't the Koch Bros. But, it "brands" itself, ever since Ridley Scott's "1984" commercial, as rebelling against convention. Even if that's true, that, no more than being "cool," is liberal. And, it's not that true.

And, it's actual products? Mac computers have their good points, and are less about "branding" and price than the modern gizmos. But, an iPhone? Overpriced dreck, IMO. As for "liberalness," the more open-source nature of the Android, in smartphones, is more "liberal" than Apple's top-down tight control.

Beyond that, has any CEO who doesn't have the first name Ben or Jerry inspired this much mindless adulation among political liberals? That's not just a sarcastic rhetorical question, it's a real one. Off the top of my head, I can't picture one.

Besides that, as the AP notes in its story on Jobs' resignation, let's not forget he was forced out of Apple at the end of his first stint there because ... sales were slumping. So, he hasn't always been a marketing genius. Or, the American public wasn't quite so much a sucker for "branding" 20 years ago. Or, a bit of both.

Even more seriously, Appleholics' messianic views of Jobs are no laughing matter. Apple, as I show here, is part of the dark side of the Internet, and is one of the "big three," with Google and Apple, in coming online infowars.

More on the Apple iPhone spying

First, Apple has already spoken, indirectly, about this issue in the past, but it's still not talking now.

Among its claims is that it "decouples" the GPS tracking data it gets from individual phones. Well, if that's the case, then why can't it also create a way for that data to be erased from the original phone after 12 hours, if a jailbreak app can do that and more.

Then, there's Steve Jobs' hypocrisy about how it's OK for Apple to spy on its users but NOT for third-party app makers to do this:

"Before any app can get location data, they can't just put up a panel asking if it can use location, they call our panel and it asks you if it's OK," Jobs said.

"That's one of the reasons we have the curated App Store. A lot of the people in the Valley think we're old-fashioned about this. But we take it seriously."

Some of us think it's not "old-fashioned," but Orwellian.

Second, not so smug from Jobs haters. Some Android phones do the same thing.

Apple spy probs heat up - devices used for govt spying!

As I blogged yesterday, if you have an iPhone or iPad, Apple is potentially spying on you. Ditto if you save iPhone or iPad info to a Mac computer.

I saw this and said, "just wow." In the consumer part of the tech world, Apple, even more than Google, has a reputation (though not totally deserved even before this) of being "good guys."

No longer, eh?

Not only is Apple sniffing out and tracking your location, the data it gets from that is unencrypted.

I said yesterday that people are surely waiting on Steve Jobs to explain this.

So far, crickets.

But, another information security analyst makes three interesting claims, the last the worst.

1. This isn't new or secret. Supposedly, according to Alex Levinson, it's been on older versions of Apple devices and so reported.

2. Apple isn't keeping this data. That's even asother researchers claim the tracking is likely a mistake, which gives us two other issues.
A. If it's a mistake, then why's it been on Apple devices in previous generations?
B. If it's NOT a mistake, why should we believe Apple isn't collecting this data? Remember, it's competing more and more, if indirectly, with Google for online advertising.

3. This isn't listed as a separate point; Levinson's actual point 3 recapitulates Point 1. But, here's Levinson giving us the Orwellian secret, per Financial Times:

Through my work with various law enforcement agencies, we’ve used h-cells.plist on devices older than iOS 4 to harvest geolocational evidence from iOS devices.

WTF??

An information security analyst has been helping police departments spy on people's locations!

Levinson adds:
When the iPhone 4 came out, I was one of the first people in San Francisco to grab one.
Well, of course. You needed the latest generation of your spy tool.

Per his bio, Levinson advises both governments and private businesses.

Another blogger has already followed up on these ideas in an interview with Levinson.

Levinson declined to divulge the names of those agencies (whom he had advised), but told me that he had worked with “multiple state and federal agencies both in the U.S. and internationally.”

So, what other governments are snooping on iPhone users? In response to my initial blog post, a friend in Japan said she'd be far from labeling Apple as "evil." Want to at least partially rethink?

And, speaking of corporations ...

Let's see, a corporation could give all its employees iPads or iPhones as a perk, or a work tool, then spy on them. How much more Orwellian can this get? (Wait, I'm not sure I want to know.)

Given all this, and assuming this isn't a "mistake," it's no wonder we hear just crickets, not Steve Jobs, at Cupertino, Calif.

That all said, there is an app to stop this. You have to jailbreak your iPhone first. (I assume this all applies to iPads, too.)

More here on what may also be a Fourth Amendment violation against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Update, April 23: First, Apple has already spoken, indirectly, about this issue in the past, but it's still not talking now.

Among its claims is that it "decouples" the GPS tracking data it gets from individual phones. Well, if that's the case, then why can't it also create a way for that data to be erased from the original phone after 12 hours, if a jailbreak app can do that and more.

Second, not so smug from Jobs haters. Some Android phones do the same thing.

Steve Jobs and Apple are spying on you

Well, if you have an iPhone or iPad, they are. Ditto if you save iPhone or iPad info to a Mac computer.

I saw this and said, "just wow." In the consumer part of the tech world, Apple, even more than Google, has a reputation (though not totally deserved even before this) of being "good guys."

No longer, eh?

Not only is Apple sniffing out and tracking your location, the data it gets from that is unencrypted.

Here's the final insult to injury:

It turns out that there is no way to remove the data from your iPhone or 3G-enabled iPad — and there is no way to stop the devices from recording anything further. All you can do is secure the information that is on your computer — you can do so by selecting the "encrypted backups" options in the syncing settings — and be aware that all this data exists.

Waiting for Steve Jobs to explain, or try to explain away, this one.

Apple-Google: Ego feud? BS feud?

An in-depth NY Times story on the Apple-Google battle over mobile phones (and other items) portrays it in part as an Eric Schmidt-Steve Jobs showdown over who has the biggest ego, penis, etc.

But, I say it's more than that. It's also over who has the biggest corporate bullshit, whether Google's "Do No Evil," vs. Apple's more generic "we're the anti-corporation" shtick.

Bah... Apple's BS is deeper than Google's, but just because it's older.

Hey Mac lovers, wipe that smirk off & hang up your hackable iPhone

Yes, all you worshipers of Steve Jobs, your iPhone can be hacked. Maybe, given it’s history, AT&T can wiretap you through it, too.

And, here’s the real biggie. Apple was warned about this two weeks ago, but has yet to do anything.

Apple sued over iPhone false advertising

Since an Apple maniac might even top an Obamiac Kool-Aid drinker in annoyance, this is some of the best snark news in quite a while.

The false advertising claim under suit? That the iPhone 3G is faster than its predecessor.

As the story points out, this is just one of many recent monkey wrenches in Apple’s corporate spokes.

But, as the story also notes, Steve Jobs still has plenty of Kool-Aid thinkers, who believe (in part just because of his reputation as the anti-Bill Gates), that he’s the greatest thing since a sliced iMac.

Wrong.

And why Apple gets such a good rep for customer service, when, as the jump page notes, its actual customer service has BushCo level secrecy, among other things, is a mystery of Apple Kool-Aid.

iPhone 3G sux — hah!

Once again, all you “Apple can do no wrong” types get punked. Not that even that deterred some:

Edward Watkins, a 34-year-old engineer and avowed “techno nut,” said he didn’t mind paying an extra $10 a month to the carrier to upgrade his phone.

“I’d pay an extra $30 or $40 a month for that. It’s a smoother running phone. It’s driving a Beamer as opposed to a Chevy Metro.”

Hey, Ed?

If the Beamer won’t start when you’re in the dealership, it doesn’t look so good, does it?

Take THAT again Mr Mac Cool Guy

Yesterday, a MacBook was hacked before a Sony Vaio with Windows Vista and a Fujitsu U810 running Linux.

Today? Black Hat says Apple is slower than Microslob at patching exposed security issues:

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology looked at how many times over the past six years the two vendors were able to have a patch available on the day a vulnerability became publicly known, which they call the 0-day patch rate.

They analyzed 658 vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft products and 738 affecting Apple. They looked at only high- and medium-risk bugs, according to the classification used by the National Vulnerability Database, said Stefan Frei, one of the researchers involved in the study.

What they found is that, contrary to popular belief that Apple makes more secure products, Apple lags behind in patching.

Researchers say Apple doesn’t have as good a relationship with the computer security industry, and that’s a large part of why it’s behind.

The study proved to be such a glowing affirmation of Microsoft’s increased focus on security in the past few years that it prompted … Andrew Cushman, director of Microsoft’s Security and Research … to ask Frei, “Did Microsoft fund this research?”

Nope, it’s independent research, he said, that just happens to show Microslob is far ahead of Apple on this issue.

And, why is that?

Well, if you read between the lines of the story, it’s clearly due to Apple arrogance.

At the same time, Microsoft desperately needs to build some marketing and PR, based on these findings and many other things. In the past four years, its branding reputation has slipped dramatically.

In fact, and ironically, the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials are cited by analysts as part of the reason for that decline. The irony value is because the Cool Mac Guy claims he doesn’t get viruses. Yes, hacking is not the same as viruses, nonetheless, they’re in the same general realm of computer security issues.

I wonder if Microslob can hire the two actors for their own commercials, if Mac doesn’t have them locked up. The PC Guy, John Hodgman, would be alone on screen, then start checking his watch. Then, he would go looking for the Mac Guy, Justin Long, only to find him wailing over a punked, hacked computer.

Long won’t be in new Mac ads because he struck people as a “smug little twit,” per Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate, who said Long is:

“Just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we’ve always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast.... It’s like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it.”

And, it looks like the hacking results will further cement Apple’s image.

Take THAT Mr Cool Mac Guy beat by a PC

Looks like Steve Jobs is going to have to reshoot a whole freaking bunch of Mac commercials after a Mac was hacked before a PC at a hackers’ contest:

It may be the quickest $10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned.

He took the first of three laptop computers — and a $10,000 cash prize — Thursday after breaking into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest.

Show organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and the MacBook as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system, using a previously undisclosed "0day" attack.

Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.

The contest rules allowed Miller and others only to attack computers based on pre-installed software, so the flaw is in vertically integrated Mac software.

This is soooooo fricking funny. I’m waiting to get flamed by Mac worshipers.