The iPhone 4S’s Siri is sassy and she’s everybody’s new favorite toy, but it turns out she’s leaving the door open for strangers to access information on your phone even when it’s passcode locked. Siri! How could you?
By default, users can activate Siri (iOS 5′s new digital assistant) even when the iPhone 4S is passcode locked, which is incredibly convenient if it’s you that’s using your phone. But, as CNET is reporting, if someone else gets their hands on your phone, it could be very dangerous. Anyone who picks up your phone could get it to reveal your upcoming calendar appointments and know exactly where you are going to be and when. It can also be used to send emails or text messages.
There are some limitations. While it’s passcode locked you can’t launch any apps, and you can’t send texts or emails to anyone who isn’t in your contacts, so that kind of thing could only be abused by someone who knows you, but I don’t find that particularly comforting.
The good news is that this can be disabled. In the Passcode Lock settings, all you have to do is switch Siri to “Off”. You’ll still be able to use Siri, just not when the phone is locked. Basically, you have to choose between convenience and security, but that’s your call. Still, this should be opt-in, rather than opt out, and that default setting is something we would definitely like to see them change in the next update.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away the morning after newly-appointed Chief Executive Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S on October 4 at a special event on the Apple campus. However, despite the fact that the iPhone 4S is the latest Apple iPhone, it seems it wasn’t the last iPhone Steve Jobs worked on.
According to one analyst, Steve Jobs also had a hand in designing the next and as yet unannounced iPhone (believed to be the iPhone 5, boy we always put our hopes high). This expert also believes the device will become a cult classic because it was the last product Jobs had a part in developing. CNet cites Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw as saying the next iteration of the iPhone “was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design.” He adds, “For that reason…this product will establish the high water mark for iPhone volumes.”
Other than this little morsel, Kumar’s research note contains some of the same iPhone 5 rumors we’ve heard before, such as support for LTE, and a larger screen (while maintaining the same dimensions as the current iPhone). Kumar is also predicting a slimmer design for the iPhone 5, and other CNet sources also say the next iPhone will be a complete redesign.
And so… the iPhone 5 rumor mill continues… For another year or so…
Instapaper creator Marco Ament is highlighting a change in iOS5 that could be problematic for developers. If storage space on an iOS device is tight, the software will clear out the tmp and Caches directories to create more room.
Ament explained that app developers have used those directories to store certain files – Instapaper, for example, stored downloaded articles in those locations - since these two directories do not get backed up when a devices is synced with iTunes. It was a way for developers to speed up the backup process by selecting less important files to be stored in those two locations.
According to Ament, “full restores” don’t happen enough to have justified all files to be located in the app folder and the usage of tmp and Caches was a good compromise. Apparently many app developers are using this approach. In fact, Apple is asking app developers to store non-user generated, “re-downloadable” files in the Caches folder for iOS. However, it is this exact folder that gets cleaned out when iOS sees the device running low on space.
For developers, that means that Apple has eliminated a space that can safely store app data that do not need be included in a backup. From Apple’s perspective, that may be not so much a problem as re-downloadable data can be easily deleted and replaced per user demand. However, it could be a problem for a user who may, as Ament calls, it stocks up on pages to read before a flight – perhaps to a different country.
Getting those pages back is possible, as long as there is a wireless connection, but even if that connection is available, you may incur roaming charges to re-download the content.
So, just how personal can you get with Apple’s Siri? We already know that Siri is very polite and may even make compliments, if you are treating your virtual companion nicely. What if you were to get very personal and, say, ask Siri to marry you?
There is a screenshot circulating on Facebook (originating from TIMN’s review) that answers that question. Siri’s answer is, as you may expect, polite, but a definite no. “My end user licensing agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies.” Don’t take it too hard, at least you get an apology and since you technically own your personal Siri, you can be sure that you two can stay friends.
As a side note, you may also find some peace in the fact that Steve Jobs reportedly left plans for at least four product generations at Apple and there could be a version of Siri that could get more personal, sometime in the future.
How did you spend your weekend? If you’re Apple, the answer is simple, really: selling a whole lot of iPhones. Cupertino this morning announced that iPhone 4S sales have reached four million — quite an impressive number compared to what its predecessor was capable of, a fact no doubt helped by the addition of some carriers, like Verizon and Sprint here in the States. The handset is currently available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, with plenty more countries coming by the end of the year. Whatever happens, Apple has supposedly upped its order from manufacturer Pegatron, increasing its original shipment request by 50 percent, up from 10 million units to 15 million.
Right, the video above is a report from Hong Kong, and is Cantonese, so let us rephrase what’s being reported. Well apparently AT&T, Rogers, and Vodafone are selling iPhone 4S unlocked straight out of the box, which is different from the case of the original iPhone 4 that came locked last time.
The first batch of iPhone 4S that arrived on Hong Kong is fresh from Australia, and they’re already selling like hot cakes in the open market. A woman has just bought two unit of iPhone 4S at a staggering price of HKD 23,600, which is about MYR 9,525 or USD 3,034 if you’re from the states. That’s about USD 1,500 for each unit!
Also, a person from mainland China has just paid HKD 860,000 for 82 units of iPhone 4S. Suddenly, I’m thinking that these retailers are actually making more profit out of the iPhone 4S compared to Apple.
Now here’s a funny fact. She knows of the staggering price, but she thinks it’s worth it because the 4S is much faster than the previous model and comes with more feature. I’ll bet that she’ll cry in disappointment when she realizes that Siri can’t understand her terribly broken English. What’s more, she’s calling the phone the iPhone 4GS instead of the iPhone 4S, which just proves that the common crowd is so clueless of what they’re buying.
When the video was recorded, the price of the iPhone 4S goes like this. A 16GB unit is priced at HKD 10,800 (MYR 4,359), while a 32GB unit will cost you HKD 12,300 (MYR 4,964), and the 64GB will cost you HKD 13,800 (MYR 5,570).
According to the retailers, in average there’s a profit margin of HKD 4,000 (MYR 1,600) for each unit of iPhone 4S that they sold. Another dealer said that he sold 250 units in less than an hour, which is about HKD 1,000,000 (MYR 128,577) profit in an hour! I guess I’m in the wrong field. The retailers mentioned that more units are coming in from Canada this Monday.
Based in Seattle, Washington, Kickstarter entrepreneurs Peter Seid & Phu Nguyen (Romotive) have created a cute, playful robot that uses your smartphone as its brains. Dubbed Romo, the robot features a motorized acrylic base with tank-like wheels that offer maximum mobility. Inside the base is basic analog circuitry that controls the robot using programmed frequencies.
As you can see from the video above, Romo comes along with several different apps and is open for further development. Since the robot is controlled via a 3.5mm audio input, any smartphone that is capable of emitting the right frequencies can be used with Romo. As far as battery power goes, Romo utilizes a lithium-ion battery that comes with a USB charger.
Romo began as an ambitious Kickstarter project hoping to raise $32,000 in funding in order to create the first production batch, but with over 30 days still left in their campaign, Romotive has already raised over $45,000. If you’re looking to get your hands on one of these cute creatures, all you have to do is contribute $78 or more here.
We’ve been expecting this to happen, but we didn’t expect it to be so fast. Sure, plenty of folks are still waiting for their shipments to arrive, but Apple’s latest magical handset is already baring its innards, courtesy of the screwdriver-wielding mad scientists at iFixit.
The good folks over at iFixit have finished mucking about the iPhone 4S’s innards and have confirmed the handset’s packing 512MB of DDR2 RAM, an updated Qualcomm MDM6610 chip and 16GB of NAND flash memory courtesy of Toshiba. There’s no indication that the A5 processor is clocked at 800MHz as claimed by Anandtech though.
Idle hands will be happy to know the phone’s been awarded a six out of ten repairability rating — it’s not quite amateur territory, but you don’t have to be a pro to get your hands dirty.
It’s been a long, weird and winding road, but it appears that the saga surrounding the leaked iPhone 4 prototype that got Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home raided is finally over. The two men accused of selling the device to Chen, Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of theft of lost property. The two were sentenced to a year probation, 40 hours of public service and told to pay $250 in damages to Apple. The rest of the $5,000 they received for the prototype is theirs to keep. Through it all Chen and Gizmodo have escaped prosecution and, with the two who found and sold the device receiving barely a slap on the wrist, it looks like it’s time to close the book on this tale. Perhaps crime doesn’t pay, but it doesn’t appear to cost a whole heck of a lot either.
The Bluetooth 4.0 specification may have been finalized in July of last year, but smartphones supporting the standard are just starting to hit the market. In fact, the first such handset is the iPhone 4S. That the 4S is the first to deliver its 4.0 wares to the American public is something that got lost in the entire hubbub surrounding its launch. One of the biggest selling points of the latest version of the PAN standard is its low-power mode, though that won’t have much of an impact on Apple’s device. What it will enable the latest iGadget to do however, is act as a hub — collecting data from multiple sensors and accessories simultaneously, such as heart rate monitors and cats. Don’t expect this to be alone on the market for long though, as other manufacturers will most certainly be squeezing support for the specification into their next flagship device.
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