Apple iPhone Safari Web Dialer not safe to use

Security experts have claimed that the Apple iPhone’s web dialer accessible from the Safari web browser is not safe to use.

Billy Hoffman, the lead researcher at SPI Labs has said in a report that these calls can be tracked. Hackers can even prevent these calls from getting made at all. In addition, these calls can also be rerouted to 900-numbers.

Hoffman added that a flaw in the system can also allow hackers to put the iPhone in an infinite loop where it continues to try making calls until the user actually turns the device off.

He further wrote in his advisory: “These types of attacks can be launched from a malicious Web site, from a legitimate Web site that has Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities, or as part of a payload of a Web application worm. For example, an attacker could determine that a specific Web site visitor ‘Bob’ has called an embarrassing number, such as an escort service. An attacker can also trick or force Bob into dialing any other telephone number without his consent, such as a 900-number owned by the attacker or an international number. Finally, an attacker can lock Bob’s phone, forcing Bob to either make the call or hard-reset his phone, resulting in possible data loss.”

He added that they have contacted Apple about this problem and they are working on a fix for the iPhone.

Hacker says he can bypass AT&T on iPhone

A well-known hacker claims to have overcome restrictions on Apple Inc.’s iPhone, allowing highly technical users to bypass AT&T Inc.’s network to use the phone’s Internet and music features.

In a post dated July 3 on his blog, Jon Johansen, 23, a prolific hacker of consumer electronics gadgets since he was a teenager in Norway, said “I’ve found a way to activate a brand new unactivated iPhone” without signing up for AT&T service.

“The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and Wi-Fi work. Stay tuned!” he wrote on his long-running blog, which is combatively named “So Sue Me.” The post was entitled ”iPhone Independence Day.”

The site contained technical details for other hackers, as well as links to software necessary to complete the process.

One potential use would be for an iPhone user living or traveling outside the United States to access the iPhone’s music player and Internet service over Wi-Fi connections without using the phone.

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Following iPhone, touch-screens go mainstream

Apple's iPhone is leading a new wave of gadgets using touch-sensitive screens that react to taps, swishes or flicks of a finger. The improvements promise to be slicker and more intuitive than the rough stomp of finger presses and stylus-pointing required by many of today's devices. Glide a finger across the screen to activate the device and main menu. Slide your digit up or down to scroll through contacts. Flick to flip through photos. Tap to zoom in on a website.

With Apple's marketing machinery, the iPhone is poised to become the poster child for the new breed of touch-screen technology, which relies on changes in electrical currents instead of pressure points.

But the iPhone will have its fair share of rivals. "This new user interface will be like a tsunami, hitting an entire spectrum of devices," predicted Francis Lee, the chief executive of Synaptics, a maker of touch sensors.

Synaptics' latest technology is in a growing number of cellphones, including LG Electronics' LG Prada touch-screen phone that launched this year in Europe and South Korea and handles gesture-recognition similarly to the iPhone. Last fall, Nokia's research and development unit unveiled online images of a prototype all-touch-screen cellphone called the Aeon, but the company hasn't disclosed any details of its features or market availability.

Even before the iPhone hype kicked into high gear over the past few months, touch screens in general were becoming more popular in cellphones. But most touch-screen phones that shipped last year, including Palm's Treo and Motorola's ROKR E6, used "resistive touch" technology — the most common technology, where it has two layers of glass or plastic and calculates the location of touch when pressure is applied with either a stylus or a finger.

A more advanced type of touch screen, featured on the iPhone and LG Prada, uses "projected capacitive" technology. A mesh of metal wires between two layers of glass registers a touch when the electrical field is broken.

That's why light finger brushes will do the trick. But capacitive sensors don't even need actual physical contact: such touch screens already detect the proximity of a finger from 2 millimeters away.

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Apple's iPhone to access YouTube content

Apple Inc.'s widely anticipated music and video playing iPhone will allow subscribers to wirelessly stream material from Google Inc.'s popular video sharing site YouTube, Apple said on Wednesday.

YouTube has begun encoding its videos in a new format to improve quality and save battery life when viewed over wireless devices.

The iPhone will be the first mobile device to use the new format, Apple said. More than 10,000 videos will be available on the iPhone when it hit stores on June 29, with more material added each week.