BBC report on Virus hidden in some iPods

Marty_J

asininity wrote: »

Well firstly they allow the jail breaking to go on by not locking it down adequately

Apple are quite adamant that they don't want people jail-breaking their iPhones, and they make it as difficult as possible with each firmware upgrade. Some people have ended up with pretty doorstops attempting to jail-break their iPhones.

and secondly they dont allow people to do what they want to do on the platform forcing people to jail break their phones.

So Apple are to blame for not stopping people doing what they want with their iPhone, and they're also to blame for not letting people do whatever they want with their iPhone?

asininity

Marty_J wrote: »

So Apple are to blame for not stopping people doing what they want with their iPhone, and they're also to blame for not letting people do whatever they want with their iPhone?

Well yes.

If they want complete control over it they should do it properly hence negating this threads topic. Since they cant then why not let people do what they want, the phones obviously capable and support them properly.

Marty_J

asininity wrote: »

Well yes.

If they want complete control over it they should do it properly hence negating this threads topic. Since they cant then why not let people do what they want, the phones obviously capable and support them properly.

If they let people do whatever they wanted with it, there would be a story in the news like this every week.

As it is, Apple are playing cat and mouse with jail-breakers.

There's a job opening if you're interested.

asininity

Marty_J wrote: »

If they let people do whatever they wanted with it, there would be a story in the news like this every week.

As it is, Apple are playing cat and mouse with jail-breakers.

There's a job opening if you're interested.

I tend to find an open community where theres a possibility for that to happen regulates itself very well, linux being an example. Apple will always be one step behind in this like sony and nintendo.

I have a decent job and no bits of paper "proving" what I say I can do so I'll have to pass on the job, besides its in america, probably a 9-5 thing, and I dont agree with how apple do things.

Marty_J

asininity wrote: »

I tend to find an open community where theres a possibility for that to happen regulates itself very well, linux being an example. Apple will always be one step behind in this like sony and nintendo.

One step behind what?

There are far more security problems with Linux than there are with Nintendo Wiis or Playstation 3s.

asininity

One step behind the jailbreakers.

I was talking about the ds(i) and psp in comparison to the iphone. Linux was a comparison to leaving something open and self regulating.

Marty_J

asininity wrote: »

One step behind the jailbreakers.

I was talking about the ds(i) and psp in comparison to the iphone. Linux was a comparison to leaving something open and self regulating.

Wouldn't the iPhone jail-breaking community be akin to the Linux community (given that it's free, open, and unregulated)?

DatabaseError

Marty_J wrote: »

To put that into perspective, Apple sold 2.6 million Macs in the last three months alone. And as we're constantly being reminded, they're apparently not worth writing viruses for.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but surely this virus/worm could be altered to do something little more malicious? Maybe ring a premium rate number in Nigeria? I'm not suggesting the iphone is at fault, Apple have done their best to keep absolute control of the platform, but people will always want a little bit more than the manufacturers want to give them - especially if it's free!

And I agree, their is a general belief that "they're apparently not worth writing viruses for", but when the choice is the windows userbase vs the mac userbase, there is a huge size difference, in this case it's "do we write for the hacked iphone or for the...er...//insert another phone known to have exploitable viruses here//"?

asininity

Marty_J wrote: »

Wouldn't the iPhone jail-breaking community be akin to the Linux community (given that it's free, open, and unregulated)?

At face value yes, but you tend to find there are a only a couple of "hackers" working to crack these platforms with a community of followers.

Marty_J

DatabaseError wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing the point, but surely this virus/worm could be altered to do something little more malicious? Maybe ring a premium rate number in Nigeria? I'm not suggesting the iphone is at fault, Apple have done their best to keep absolute control of the platform, but people will always want a little bit more than the manufacturers want to give them - especially if it's free!

The people who were infected are certainly very lucky the virus' author only wanted to demonstrate how incredibly stupid they are.

And I agree, their is a general belief that "they're apparently not worth writing viruses for", but when the choice is the windows userbase vs the mac userbase, there is a huge size difference, in this case it's "do we write for the hacked iphone or for the...er...//insert another phone known to have exploitable viruses here//"?

Well there are viruses for Windows Mobile and Symbian, both of which have a much larger installed base than the iPhone does. And you can expect to see many Android viruses in the future, especially if it takes off.

asininity wrote: »

At face value yes, but you tend to find there are a only a couple of "hackers" working to crack these platforms with a community of followers.

But the fact remains that the Apple locked-down walled garden that is their implementation of the iPhone is safer than the free and open anything goes jail-broken version of it. It's not only safer, but it has encouraged more innovation and attracted more developers than any other mobile operating system, free, proprietary, or otherwise.