Boot up: Apple's iPhone jailbreak hire, ignoring Google+, Twitter Bootstrap and more

Google+ growth chart by Paul Allen: heading towards 20m in July. Now you can ignore and block them too!

A burst of 6 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

"Nicholas Allegra, better known as 'comex', the creator of the JailBreakMe website which made it child's play for iPhone owners to jailbreak their devices, has been given an internship at Apple. "The 19-year-old from Chappaqua, New York posted the news of his new position on Twitter."
As Eric Schmidt says, we need to up our game. Where are the British 19-year-olds getting hired (rather than, say, arrested and charged) for their hacking skills?

"We want to make sure you can represent your real-life relationships on Google+ -- whether you want to connect with someone or not :-) So starting today, we're rolling out a new option to Ignore people, in addition to the existing (and stronger) option to Block them."
Now, where have we heard of that before?

"Researchers at anti-malware company F-Secure say they have found the actual infected Excel file that was used in the attack on RSA earlier this year, eventually forcing the company to replace millions of its SecurID tokens. The Outlook email message containing the malicious file apparently was uploaded to Virustotal in March and the researchers dug it out this week."
An Excel file with Flash content which Excel executes. As the researchers say, why does Excel need to execute Flash content? Ever?

Good points. It's been clear for years that Steve Ballmer is not a visionary. But does Microsoft need one?

"Bootstrap is a toolkit from Twitter designed to kickstart development of webapps and sites. It includes base CSS and HTML for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation, and more."
Er.. thanks.

Some surprises among there, including one which lasted a glorious minus one days.

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Boot up: Facebook prepares music offering, and Apple 'loses (another) iPhone prototype in (another) bar'

... And it reportedly happened on Steve Jobs's watch Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A quick burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

"Facebook Inc. is preparing changes designed to make the site a hub for listening to music, watching movies and playing videogames, according to people familiar with the matter, in much the same way people already use the social network to share personal media like photos and videos."

Note: This isn't a music platform. It's not (really) an iTunes-rival.

"In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned."

Photographer Thomas Hawk: "Flickr asked me if I wanted to apply it only to photos going forward, or also to images that I'd already geotagged. I told flickr to go ahead and apply this setting to all of my past and future photos -- which included a thumbnail of the photo I linked. So now when you go to this photo on flickr, indeed, the geotag seems to be removed from the photo page for the image.
"Except that there is one pretty major security hole.
"Although the geotag information is indeed pulled from the flickr photo page, ANYONE can potentially still get your geolocational data simply by downloading the original sized file and looking into the EXIF data.
"This only seems to apply to images that were geotaged at the file level (i.e. by you or your device/phone, etc.) and not photos geotagged using flickr -- but still, with cell phones and software that auto geotag things, you could easily be lulled into a false sense of security on Flickr when you should not be."

Truly, a website design that sticks two fingers up at you from its lair in the mid-90s.

Pointed out to us by John Dowdell of Adobe, the people who make Flash: details how baseball is being changed by the greater access to information about games. Guess how they access it.

Paul Thurrott, whom nobody would describe as an Apple fan, isn't very keen on the new Windows 8 Explorer ribbon idea: "The Microsoft post describing the new ribbon UI goes into great detail about telemetry data, which provides the company with information about what users are really using in Explorer and elsewhere in Windows. And according to that data, the top 10 commands represent over 81% of all commands used in Explorer. The bottom 18% of commands (by usage) include such things as Open, Edit (Menu), View Toggle, Organize, New Folder, Send To, and Edit.

"And yet, looking at a Microsoft screenshot of the new ribbon, what do I see in the default first tab? A bunch of commands - including Open and Edit, by the way - that are not in the 81% most-frequently used commands." Huh?"

He also described Apple's Finder as "much cleaner and less busy". That's really quite scary.

If you were wondering how Hot Spot and Snickometer worked in cricket...

Good graphic, though it obviously assumes that the software costs nothing to produce, and that the marketing and so on happen magically to give the "Apple's slice" element.

From early in August, but still relevant: "'With a large enterprise, you have to assume that people are going to get tricked into installing malware,' iSec CTO Alex Stamos told The Reg. 'You can't assume that you'll never have malware somewhere in a network. You have to focus on parts where a bad guy goes from owning Bob the HR employee to become Sally the domain admin.'
"At the heart of the Mac server's insecurity is a proprietary authentication scheme known as DHX that's trivial to override. While Mac servers can use the much more secure Kerberos algorithm for authenticating Macs on local networks, Stamos and fellow iSec researchers Paul Youn, Tom Daniels, Aaron Grattafiori, and William "BJ" Orvis found it was trivial to force OS X server to resort back to Apple's insecure protocol."

They also did a proof of concept. OSX Server is the weakest link. Then again, a similar flaw in Windows is what led to Google getting hacked in China in 2009.

"The average selling price for Double Data Rate 3 (DDR) in the 2-gigabit (Gb) density--the bellwether DRAM product--is projected to drop to $1.60 in the third quarter, down 24% from $2.10 in the second quarter. The dive would be the biggest decline for the year, following a surprisingly solid second quarter during which pricing fell only 5% from the first quarter. Moving into the fourth quarter, the price could plummet another 22% to $1.25--dangerously close to cash costs for many manufacturers. Only a year ago in the third quarter, pricing stood at $4.70."

There's been a fall in demand, while yields are about to rise. The money now is shifting towards NAND Flash.

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Boot up: Police 'assisted' Apple in lost iPhone hunt, and no US launch for Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 or Galaxy note

Ho Kak-yin in Hong Kong ... not the man whose house was searched by police in San Francisco Photograph: AP/Kin Cheung

A quick burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

"...Anyway, I totally understand why Google did this list. It just isn't a well curated list and so I don't want my name associated with it."

For those who doubted the original report was correct: "The bizarre saga involving a lost prototype of the iPhone 5 has taken another interesting turn. Contradicting past statements that no records exist of police involvement in the search for the lost prototype, San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield now tells SF Weekly that "three or four" SFPD officers accompanied two Apple security officials in an unusual search of a Bernal Heights man's home."

Police don't get involved in publicity stunts.

An intriguing stack chart of the ever-growing number; the lifespans are interesting to compare.

"For example, you're doing TDD, you write a test, do some coding and hit run test but have to wait 30 seconds+ for it to run. This takes long enough to break your flow, you have a quick think about something else and then you realise the test has run and you need to switch you attention back. You might have a quick chat about something else with your pair.
"We know it's hurting our velocity but without numbers it's difficult to convince management of the true costs.
"So what did we do?
"We took a stop watch, kept it with us all day and recorded all the time that where we were waiting for the computer to do something - from opening apps, running builds and tests, searches and refactorings in visual studio - any time at all where the developer had to wait for the machine to work, be it 5 seconds or 5 minutes the stop watch was running. It took quite a lot of discipline. The results were startling."

Worth buying the fastest possible if the project lasts more than a month.

"The Galaxy Tab 7.7 and Galaxy Note are two devices that are generating quite a bit of buzz here at IFA 2011 in Berlin. There's a lot to like about these devices, but unfortunately you might not be able to buy one stateside. According to Samsung, there are currently no plans to ship either of the devices in the U.S."

Simplifies the questions of whether to stock or not for retailers.

MG Siegler, visiting Seattle, doesn't have pictures but has been trying it out - a 7in tablet with multi-touch.

The 16GB version is $450 (save $50!), the 64GB is $550 (save $150!) and the 32GB version is... $550 (save $50!).

Explanations for this pricing regime where 32GB of Flash memory costs nothing welcomed.

Martin Belam, writing in a purely personal capacity (you understand): "[if you're moderated] ask yourself, "Was I being a bit of a dick?".
"I'd define dick-ish behaviour on a news site as including, but not restricted to: personal attacks, using 'amusing' clichés like EUSSR and Tony Bliar, making the same off-topic point day after day, being rude and grumpy and unwelcoming to newcomers, mocking other people's spelling, bullying and hectoring staff and journalists appearing in the comment threads, asking 'is this news?' on a story you are not interested in and which nobody forced you to read, hate speech, 'ironic' hate speech, anything that might now or in the future potentially land the publisher in legal hot water, and any comment which includes the phrase 'I don't suppose the moderators will publish this but...'"

Three strikes filesharing rule comes into play in New Zealand: "The three-strikes regime is not expected to be widely used by rights holders, however, because of the high $25 fee they must pay to internet providers to forward those warnings to internet users and a $200 fee for bringing cases in front of the tribunal."

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Boot up: Hands on Google+ games, Apple 'hikes iPhone orders', and more

A quick burst of 6 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

"Google passes the test so far. It can essentially duplicate Facebook's platform for games and bring over a lot of games that already exist elsewhere. The next test is to see how many games it can get and how the performance works when the games scale to millions of players. Facebook may not be that worried about Google for now, but it definitely has to watch its back because its platform is not so hard to clone."

"Apple has upward adjusted the total order volume for iPhones, consisting of iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 CDMA and iPhone 5, for the second half of 2011 by 12-13%, from 50 million units originally estimated at the end of the second quarter of 2011 to more than 56 million units. iPhone 5 will account for 25.5-26 million units, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers."

So-called digilantes ditch their mission ... because the tech wasn't good enough. I'd wager that's got as much to do with the balaclavas as the tech.

"...Those movies include titles like The Hills Have Thighs and Bikini Jones and the Temple of Eros."

Buddy Media, the Facebook advertising affiliate, now worth about $500m, according to its latest funding round.

"The idea came up during a "what if" conversation with my wife Brigitte, while walking along University Avenue in Palo Alto. What should Apple do with its almost beyond comprehension $76B in cash? The COO of the Gassée family is creative and practical, an abstract painter turned "lumber VAR"-she builds or rebuilds houses in Palo Alto. She's not enthralled by technology and takes a utilitarian view of computers, phones, navigation systems, tablets...an attitude that provides a useful counterpoint to my sometimes overly-enthusiastic embrace of anything that computes."

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Next iPhone in October? I'll stick to September - and here is the reason

Keep in mind when the iPod Nano was launched in 2005 in life? As in case? This is an important note that whether the next iPhone will come in October. Photo: Lou de matt ice/Reuters

Believe nothing what you about the iPhone's 5 start reading, if you really, really trust. And even then wrong look at it.

In the last 24 hours, which were intertubes buzzing even more than possible on the idea that "the" the "iPhone 5" (Note: may be called multiple; may not be iPhone 5) will be delayed until October. This has come the spin-off-stand-alone blog from the Wall Street from no less authoritative source as John Paczkowski on AllThingsD, journal, and so meant an authoritative source be.

Well, maybe. It is absolutely possible that Paczkowski has nailed this and that the iPhone(s) ends up until October. However, I would like to point that, from my understanding, ATD needs are not the same tough tests, the article in the wall journal do Street, where even "anonymous" sources with the name of the senior editors and in force for independence must be checked. Update: my mistake not contact with ATD before writing. For complete clarification of ATD wall works with the high standards as the WSJ, and - to Walt Mossberg Street Journal and ATD - quote "John's senior editors (Kara [Swisher] and I) know the origin of this story". He adds that "All our recent article on Apple events was accurate." (The WSJ is very, very the motto in the Interior of the building hot on not getting things wrong, is that it is better to be late and correct as early and wrong.) I am happy to repeat my confidence in John Paczkowski and the ATD very high professional standards.)

I know that the next iPhone version will be in September? No, not sure. There are however two more revealing information I know, a public, a less:
• Apple iOS5, which can apparently provide the next iPhone version with current rolls towards a September release. See, there are even Web-beta for iCloud.
• My carrier sources tell me that the fields in the new iPhone hardware is shrouded were promoted for the examination to the carriers. This is an important step in the release cycle for each mobile phone. I pointed out the other week, the release of Windows phone "Mango" code to the developers means that mobile phone manufacturers are developing their versions can begin, which then means that they move the phones to get the process towards version. But WP "Mango" phones are expected until October at the earliest.

The next iPhones go for their tests in locked and sealed boxes, so that the institution to conduct checks on their network compatibility in their laboratories. It is very high security, as you could imagine; my understanding is that hardly anyone gets the carriers to open, and even if they do the hardware these boxes is shrouded in a dummy job, which means that it have no idea what will do the actual phone. This is by the way, which led to "Antennagate": it simply enough people outside Apple, which in detail, to discover the problems with the reception had tried the iPhone 4 in his real form had been not.

You can bet that Apple has presented some misleading regulation, which would identify photo from each of these test labs all leak from a telephone and not the carrier would like to become their Mitarbeiter had done. (The employee would likely not employees are very long either.)

The new iPhones are either way, in the system, which means, they must get approval now only - which certainly only to the most - some weeks take and can then be signed for the production.

Now, would Apple share why the phones in October instead of September? Remember, that it wants to maximize their revenues, and the expectation is that these phones come - it may be even a pause in sales as people expect something new. (And also how they make vacation.) Come September, people are getting ready to go.

It is a lesson from the history here. In 2005 already held in September Apple a "special event" the (dire) Motorola ROKR - launch the first phone, the ran also iTunes! (It was horrendous). To make for the ROKR or generally, to ignore it altogether, to build, because Steve Jobs had already decided that it was rubbish and had the project go iPhone, Apple has iPod Nano.

The Nano was a k.o.-seller. But the keynote at Apple's Paris Expo was a week or two later jobs. He was then asked why, waited, not he, until he had a great opportunity, show to its new product? Why do it in a small town on a small invited audience (if intrigued with one press on satellite links)?

As jobs said, even a week could make a big difference if you are looking for in the run-up to Christmas. He then said "Every week before the holidays, and we two weeks wanted to wait the counts when weekly is one of very high volumes".

It is most likely the same with the iPhone: Apple is to be expected, this is a big seller around Christmas (if there is one or two versions; if it is a smaller "nano"-iPhone price, then means that will have even more pressure on sale for more).

Now, would Apple see why release in October? By the logic of "get it out there earlier so that more people buy it", there is no sense in so long wait. The only reason why Apple would delay the start in this way, would be if it has taken to manufacture a problem. But supply lines are quiet; There are plenty of capacity (Apple secured it after the Japanese earthquake in March). It can be either so a supply constraint.

I think we can surprise even to the largest bonkers "on the one hand, but then again no" discount booking boy genius report that says "we a reliable source of Canadian carrier TELUS received confirmed information according to Apple's iPhone 5 looks to the touchdown on October 1 in Canada." In the past, Apple has flip flopped between release of his iconic Smartphone in the United States first and then Canada or start his phone at the same time in the United States and Canada as it did with the iPhone 3GS. "

First of all, it is not flip-flopping; It varies. Secondly, it answers the question why it important because it not the general question whether the introduction is nothing in September or October responds.

My gut feeling, allies to information from carriers and Apple's history is that we are still looking for a September release. Who knows, perhaps even the good people of ATD was someone misdirecting the proposal of October, only to forestall decline of August. I'm not saying that John Packzowski is wrong or misreporting; only, that its can be. Not long now, but wait to find out the right.

(Updated this detail about boxes comes to clarify carrier sources.)
(Updated to clarify all things digital request for the procurement.)

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