Tag: Apple

Are Apple spying on iPhone users?

Are Apple spying on iPhone customers? This site claims to have proof that Apple secretly track iPhone usage and IEMI numbers of all their iPhones worldwide.

“Hidden in the code of the “Stocks” and “Weather” widgets is a string that sends the IMEI of your phone to a specialized URL that Apple collects.”

“This let[s] Apple know which app you are using when connecting with your iPhone. Obviously, they know the IP address you were using, the stocks companies you are interested [in], and so they can track down their customers all around the world. This also proves that there are probably other apps that do the same. Weather.app is also acting the same way.”

Of course, from a corporate perspective it is good to know a lot about your customers, but this seems to be a big no-no.

Tags: , , , , , , . Ping.

iPod – therefore I have no life?

Geez, when will the hype end?

Top searches on Technorati this hour:

1. “Ipod Nano”
2. Katrina
3. Apple
4. “Impeach Bush”
5. Ipod
6. “Barbara Bush”
7. “Itunes 5”
8. Itunes
9. “Kanye West”
10. Rokr

If you can read Swedish and are able to pick up a copy of Nöjesguiden, please check out the anti-iPod column in the beginning of the paper. It’s brilliant. Then rant or rave, depending on your preferences for little expensive white gadgets.

Closet iPod user

What happens when the rebel becomes market leader? Author Seth Godin‘s reaction to the success of the iPod is that he has become a “closet iPod user”. He doesn’t use the white earbuds because he doesn’t want to be recognized as an iPod owner.

“Apple is at a critical fork in the road when it comes to the iPod,” said ad man Drew Neisser. “You can already begin to see the initial iPod pioneers, who embraced the value of individuality, shunning the storm of homogeneity that’s growing with each new purchase.”

Godin tells a story about a friend who got a pair of black earbuds.

“He gets on the subway, being very independent and a maverick, which is what New Yorkers like to do, and he sees another guy across the car wearing black headphones. And this guy pulls out an iPod to adjust the volume. My friend catches himself giving this guy the look, the I’ve-got-an-iPod-too wink. It proves people like it when they find other people like them. People who don’t like being part of the main tribe still like being part of a smaller tribe.”

Wired has the complete story.

RSS to be included in Apple’s browser Safari

If you ever doubted the importance of distributing information via RSS, take a look at what Dan Gillmor writes about Apple’s next operating system, OS X 10.4, aka “Tiger”, and the web browser Safari.

Jobs spent a fair amount of time talking about the native inclusion of RSS into an upcoming version of the Safari browers, and a “personal clipping” service. There’s a special search function just for RSS; I’m not clear on whether it’s searching via one of the main RSS search engines, whether Apple will write its own or whether it’s only searching your designated feeds.

Apple says: “Scan all the latest news, information and articles from thousands of your favorite major news organizations, community web sites and personal weblogs in one simple-to-read, searchable article list using Safari RSS.”