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August 12, 2010

Apple has released a security update that the company says will fix its iOS operating system to address a dangerous security flaw that was exposed by a new jailbreak process about 10 days ago.

So far, the newest iOS version 4.0.2 is the second update to be released by Apple in as many months, and some wireless industry observers say it won't be the last. The first update directly addressed an issue that Apple claimed to have discovered while investigating issues with the antenna design on the iPhone 4.

Before that update, Apple's mobile devices were indicating a signal strength much greater than they were actually receiving. Remember the big antenna problem on the iPhone 4?

Overall, the new jailbreak approach exploited a critical security flaw in Apple's PDF-viewing engine and, by extension, alerted Apple to a significant issue with its proprietary PDF rendering engine.

While Apple routinely rolls out security updates to its iOS to address all kinds of various issues and introduce new features to the phone, it appears to address jailbreaking much more urgently, and usually takes this is a serious matter than needs to be addressed and fixed rapidly.

And so far, it seems to have done just that.

The latest security update is equally limited in scope. It only address the PDF security issue, or as Apple put it, the update "fixes security vulnerabilities associated with viewing malicious PDF files on the iPhone."

But in other iPhone-related news, some observers have reported that the long-delayed white iPhone 4 won't be making an appearance in the U.K. until the end of 2010.

When Steve Jobs addressed the white iPhone delays during a botched up press conference in July, he said the lighter-colored variant of the iPhone 4 would be shipping by the end of July.

But barley a week later, Apple had announced that the white models were being delayed once again, this time with an ambiguous target date of "later this year."

The iPhone 4 seems to have had more than its own share of issues since it came out about 6 to 7 weeks ago, and the press and media continue to cover the device very closely.

Steve Jobs' policy of defending the iPhone 4 will stay in place through the end of September, at which he said there might be a better solution or, more likely, the fervor over “Antenna Gate” as he referred to it, will have died down.

A lot could be hanging on that statement in light of reports that Apple knew about the problem well before launch. But again, just to be sure, Jobs called those reports a “crock.”

There is at least one key piece of evidence countering that claim though. Why, after three previous iPhone launches, did Apple decide to manufacture bumper cases (thin bands that only cover the exterior antenna, thereby avoiding contact with the user) for this iPhone?

Until the iPhone 4, Apple left cases and essentially every other add-on product for its iPhones to third-party manufacturers. Is it possible that Apple had the 'bumpers' manufactured even prior to the iPhone 4 launch, just in case.

Jobs typically kicks off most of his presentations with a smattering of positive news, but certainly not this one.

In a last-minute press conference that was scheduled to address the mounting criticism over Apple's antenna issues, Jobs said Apple wasn't even aware of the problems until after the device was launched.

There are numerous reports on the Web that Apple knew about the problem as early as May of 2009. One of its engineers even warned Jobs about it in a closed meeting.

After reports started coming in about the iPhone's “death grip” issues immediately after launch, Apple took it upon itself to gather as much data as possible and come up with a 'fix' that will last longer than a “band aid,” Jobs said.

The company decided not to address the issue head on until today, because “we didn't know enough,” he added.

On July 12, Consumer Reports confirmed that the iPhone 4’s antenna is flawed less than two weeks after Apple said the device’s wireless performance was the best it had ever shipped, prompting the leading consumer goods rating firm to decide against recommending the device for its readers.

Consumer Reports confirms that its own internal testing reveals that if contact with a user’s finger or hand on the iPhone 4’s lower left side will cause the signal to degrade enough to lose the connection altogether in an area with a weak AT&T signal.

On July 3rd, Apple had earlier dismissed the problem, saying “gripping almost any cell phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by one or more bars.” Apple claims that its antenna issue is largely an "optical illusion" caused by faulty software that causes the device to overstate signal strength by two bars!

Some wireless industry analysts now think that this will most surely put a damper on sales of the iPhone 4, which up until today have been brisk.

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Source: Apple.