Google phone an iPhone killer?

Anyone expecting the Google mobile operating system to change the market as Apple’s iPhone has over the past year will probably be disappointed — for now.

Industry insiders who have worked on Google’s Android system say it will struggle in the near term to match the consumer enthusiasm generated by the iPhone, which redefined the touchscreen phone market and greatly improved mobile Web surfing.

Instead, Google sees Android as an open source platform for designing mobile devices and says it will encourage innovation by allowing outside software developers to tinker with the system and create better mobile programmes and services.

But these things take time, and the first phone using Android, code-named the Google “Dream” phone, is unlikely to wow consumers. The device is made by HTC of Taiwan. Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile unit reportedly intends to introduce it in New York on September 23. The mobile phone to use Google Inc’s Android mobile operating software will cost $199, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website.

“I’m not sure the consumer experience is significantly better than that of the iPhone,” said Rajeev Chand, a wireless analyst at the investment bank Rutberg, who has tried out an early version of Android. “When the iPhone came out, the experience was several orders of magnitude better than anything that was out there.”

Google, its partner carriers and application developers hope the Android platform will drive even more mobile Web surfing than the iPhone, which has helped mobile Internet use rocket in comparison with other smartphones.

But unlike Apple, which keeps a tight grip on the iPhone’s hardware and software, Google will have less control. Android will be open to developers to create component technologies in almost any way they can imagine.

Google’s engineering-led culture appears content to introduce the first Android phones as a kind of science project that will be rapidly improved afterward. But Google will not have the kind of leverage in mobile that it is used to in the PC world, where it dominates Web search. Phone carriers have a huge say over how devices are designed and what data services are accessible over their networks.

While Android could offer real promise in terms of technology and usability it is unlikely by itself to change the restrictive nature of the mobile industry, said John Poisson, founder of Tiny Pictures, a developer partner of Android.

“Carriers in each market will still control how it gets implemented and on which devices and in which form,” Poisson said. “Android lives and breathes at the pleasure of the operator.”

Another problem for Android is how to explain what it is to consumers. Unlike the iPhone, which came on the back of Apple’s hugely successful iPod music player, Android is an unknown brand, even though the Google name has plenty of cachet.

“People forget these things get to customers through the retail channel and marketing,” said Frank Meehan, the global general manager for mobile phones and applications for the Hong Kong telecommunications conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa. “We operators struggle with how to market this phone. There’s nothing really unique about it and we can’t say it’s a Google phone.”

Despite the concerns, mobile industry executives say they welcome Google’s entrance, as its deep pockets will help meet the increasingly high expectations of consumers for mobile services. From a developer’s perspective, Android’s advantages over the iPhone or Nokia’s Symbian operating system is that it is open source, which means Google is sharing its software code and making it easier for third parties to develop compatible applications.

Apple’s second-generation iPhone applied the same strategy and offers more than 3,000 third-party applications through its App Store, but the company still retains some control.

“Android promises to be the most open platform for building mobile phone applications that we’ve seen to date, because it’s based on very familiar tools and technologies,” said Jason Devitt, co-founder of Skydeck, a new service that will allow users to manage their cellphones over the Web.

Some hope that Google’s entrance can galvanise mobile advertising, which is still in nascent stages.

“All these devices are resulting in better usage and that’s what advertisers want and they’re growing their spend,” said Jason Spero, vice president of marketing at AdMob, a marketplace for mobile advertisers.

Google is hoping to generate revenue through its existing search advertising and related services by the addition of mobile to PC.

“Google’s power comes from the freedom of choice, in terms of the component technology and services that can be laid on top,” said Cheng Wu, founder of Azuki Systems, a mobile Web technology company.

“The only thing they want to control is the kernel of the operating system and the ability to data-mine for search and advertising down the road.”

Courtesy/Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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iPhone firmware 2.1 is out, available through iTunes

Just as promised, Apple released the iPhone 2.1 firmware this morning. Apple’s shows that the update contains big improvements. The list on Apple’s iPhone software update website reads:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

The update is a whopping 237.8 MB, so go get to updating. Just plug your iPhone into your computer and press “Check for Update” in iTunes 8.

Courtesy/Source: blargkaboom.com

Apple patches iPhone bugs

Apple Inc updated the software that runs its iPhone in hopes of decreasing dropped calls, improving battery life and cutting the time it takes to synchronise the device with a computer.

Shortly after Apple made the new software available on its iTunes online service, some users offered positive feedback on Internet forums, saying it appeared the device was getting faster at handling key tasks.

In contrast, an August update that was supposed to improve the iPhone’ connectivity to high-speed data networks drew mainly negative responses claiming it didn’t work.

Apple also said the new update “improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display” — meaning the phone would show more “bars” on the connection meter. However, the quality of the connection was not necessarily affected by the update.

Cupertino, California-based Apple said the new software will also improve email reliability and reduce crashing applications.

Besides complaining about such bugs — which have given Apple’s high-end reputation some relatively rare knocks — iPhone owners have grumbled about missing text messages. After the update is installed, the device will chirp its text message alert several times.

Courtesy/Source: infotech.indiatimes.com

Soon you will get iPhone 3G on BSNL

The much sought-after 3G iPhone is coming to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) network. The country’s largest telecom service provider BSNL plans to launch Apple iPhone by December 2008.

 

Quoting a senior BSNL executive, a leading business daily reported that BSNL will introduce Apple’s 3G iPhone for its subscribers across the country by December along with the launch of the third generation network.

 

The official said that BSNL is scheduled to hold a meeting of its circle heads at the end of this month, where it may take a decision on making iPhone available to consumers.

 

This means, unlike rivals Vodafone and Airtel, who currently hold licence for 3G iPhone in India, 3G iPhone on BSNL may actually support 3G services right from its launch.

 

BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) are the first two government operators to get 3G licence. BSNL along with MTNL was given a head-start by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to roll out 3G services in the country.

 

While the private telecom companies have to acquire 3G spectrum through a process of bidding, both the public sector units have already been allotted spectrum on a pro-rata basis.

 

MTNL is reportedly installing 1.5 million 3G lines in the first phase in Delhi and Mumbai and plans to tie up with the content providers on revenue-sharing basis to enrich its high-end services. According to company officials, MTNL’s network should be ready in the next two months in Delhi and four months in Mumbai.

 

Courtesy/Source: infotech.indiatimes.com

 

Disclaimer: The Stocks Recommended Above Are Picked Up At Random From Research Reports Of Broking Houses. Investors Are Advised To Use Their Judgment Before Acting On These Recommendations. Author Does Not Associate Itself With The Choices. Investments In Stock Markets Are Risky. Information And Advice Is Based On Technical Analysis And Long Term Fundamentals Of The Company And Is Provided Without Any Liability (Financial Or Otherwise).The Author Or His Clients May Or May Not Be Holding Recommended Scripts.

Disclaimer: The entries posted on bhaveshthaker.blogspot.com are purely with the intention of sharing personal interest in news, information, Gujarati music and poetry and Indian film and classical music, Indian stock market related information without any intention of any direct or indirect commercial gain. If any of the posts are causing infringement of copyrights, it is purely unintentional and such posts would be discarded with immediate effect, as soon as they are brought to notice of the administrator. Contact: bhaveshthaker@gmail.com

Shortcuts on your 3G iPhone

The most sought-after gadget of all times, Apple’s all-new 3G iPhone had a dream launch. The iPhone 2.0 which saw a global launch on July 11 sold one million 3G iPhones around the world over the weekend. Though iPhone’s dream run was a bit curtailed in India, courtesy its price, the phone still has many fans drooling. These iPhone aficionado’s can’t get more of their beloved gadget.

However, still there are many in the tribe, with no offence meant, who would still not know the smart shortcuts that it offers. These nifty shortcuts to several applications lets users do a world of things, like double tapping on your iPhone Home Button can wake up the sleeping iPhone. Similarly, double tapping from the ‘Slide to unlock” icon always brings up the iPod controls, so the user can control his iPod without even unlocking the phone.

Here’s looking into these and many more such shortcuts that add further zing to iPhone.

• Headphone button
  Do you know that small button on the built-in microphone in your iPhone’s headphone serves several functions. Like, when a user gets a call all he needs to do is press it once to answer the call, press it twice to send it to voice mail and press once again to disconnect the call.
  And when the phone is not in call all he needs to do is just press once to activate the iPod, and press again to pause the song and similarly press twice to move to the next track.
• Shortcut to Favourites
  Again, a user can use the Home button to create a shortcut to his Favourite listing on iPhone. What exactly the setting does is that when a user double taps on the Home button, his list of Favourite people to call will be displayed.
  To get this, the user just needs to follow some simple instructions. Start with the home screen and then proceed to the Settings. In Settings the user needs to select the General option and from there select the Home Button option. In Home Button, he again needs to tap the option that reads Phone Favourite so that it is check marked.
  This way, every time a user double taps the iPhone’s Home button in quick succession, his phone Favourites will appear.
• Home Button for iPod
  You can also use the Home button to control your iPod features in iPhone. A double tap on the Home button will take a user straight to his music collection. For this, all that a user needs to do is go to Settings from the Home screen, and choose the General option. From the General option the user requires to choose the Home Button and then tap the option that reads iPod so that there is a checkmark next to it.
  Now, each time the user double taps the iPhone’s Home button in quick succession, his music list will appear.
• Self correction
  Here’s a cool shortcut for that virtual keyboard on your iPhone. Made an error while typing that SMS, then the tiny on-screen keys beneath the word you typed, will provide a alternative word (just like typing in dictionary mode on most phones) replacement in a tiny bubble. The software analyses the letters around the one a user types and figures out what he really meant to type.
  In case a user wants to accept the suggestion, he just needs to tap the Space bar. And to ignore the suggestion he has to keep on typing or tap it with his finger. The suggestion feature also kicks in when the iPhone thinks it knows how the user intends to complete a correctly spelled word.
• Master the double-tap
  Double tap can also help a user to read web pages more easily, manage photos and do much more.
  Here’s how it works. The user has to double tap on a column of text on a website, to zoom onto it and the iPhone will automatically enlarge the view to fit the width of the screen. Double-tapping the screen again helps to zoom back out.
  Similarly double-tapping on a picture will automatically focus in to show a close up. This double tap feature can also be used to zoom in/out on photos in the iPhone’s Photo app and toggle between full screen and letterbox mode during video playback.
  The double tap shortcut is also a simple way to zoom in and out of Google Maps in iPhone.
• Easy edit
  This is another handy tip. Ever wondered how would you correct an error in a sentence in a phone that lacks cursor keys? Apple iPhone makes it easy.
  The user just needs to hold his fingertip down anywhere on the text and a magnified circle appears. Then without lifting his finger he just needs to drag it anywhere in the text and the insertion point moves along with it. Then just release where he wants the word phrase to be added. In the same way any deletion can be done.
• Browsing shortcuts
  This is a part of the hidden tricks that the phone can do. To do this, a user needs to hold down the .com button to select the ending of the domain name after typing the websites URL in the space bar. The usual endings such as, “.com,” “.net,” “.edu” and “.org” will then be displayed. All the user needs to do is tab on any of the endings to insert them to the address bar.
  Similarly, when the user needs to compose a mail, he just needs to hold down the period key to select the endings of the email address. This will again display all the endings such as, “.com,” “.net,” “.edu” and “.org.” Just tab to insert any of the endings.

Courtesy/Source: Indiatimes News Network, infotech.indiatimes.com

iPhone flaw exposes private data

A security flaw in Apple Inc’s iPhone allows unauthorized users to gain easy access to private contacts and e-mails even when the device is locked, but the company said a fix is on the way.

Popular technology blog Gizmodo and an online forum run by the Mac Rumors site showed that it took only three taps to gain access to locked iPhones, which run the latest 2.02 iPhone software.

A spokeswoman said in an e-mail that Apple was aware of the problem and was readying a software update to fix it. In the meantime, she recommended users set the iPhone’s “Home” button to open up the phone’s iPod music collection rather than the phone’s “Favorites” menu.

The spokeswoman did not say when the software update would be made available. The flaw could be seen as a momentary setback in Apple’s ambitious plans to compete against Research In Motion, whose BlackBerry smartphone has become a standard issue device in corporate businesses around the globe.

Earlier in August, technology research firm Gartner issued a report that said iPhone’s software had met Gartner’s minimum requirements for business support, although some issues persisted. The author of the report, Ken Dulaney, was not immediately reachable.

Last week, Apple released a software update for the iPhone that reportedly helped fix problems connecting to faster third-generation (3G) wireless networks, after receiving a flurry of online complaints from customers around the world.

Apple, which started selling the new 3G iPhone on July 11, has said it expected to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Derek Caney)

Courtesy: infotech.indiatimes.com

Has the 3G iPhone price been cut?

Has the first slash in iPhone prices already happened less than a week since the launch in India? Yes, if the tech site Engadget is to be believed.

According to a blog post, one of the two service providers for iPhone in India, Vodafone has already announced a Rs 2,000 price cut on iPhone and is unofficially retailing it at Rs 29,000.

However, company executives denied any such price reduction. They even insisted that the slash, if any, will have to come from Apple’s end and not from the telecom operators’ side.

A Rs 2,000 discount may actually not mean much to boost the disappointing sales of the pricey iPhone . Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone had launched iPhone in India on August 22 at Rs 31,000 for 8GB and Rs 36,100 for 16GB.

The high pricing of 3G iPhone’s — despite sales of locked handsets and no 3G being available in India — has already taken the sheen away from Apple’s party in the country.

This has come under a lot of criticism from potential buyers and media alike . Moreover, it is seen as affecting the sales and denting the brand value of Apple which many industry observers feel has taken a knocking.

Only a handful of buyers had turned up at the midnight launches by both the operators across eight cities in India, unlike the frenzy witnessed across most other countries where the launch of the iconic phone resulted in serpentine queues.

Going by available reports, sales have remained quite poor, which may be beginning to worry the two operators as also Apple.

Courtesy: infotech.indiatimes.com

3G phone eliminates 2G iphones from Grey market

Over 5,000 Apple 2G phones have been sold in India according to industry sources in the grey market

New Delhi: Grey market for the iconic Apple iPhone in India has shrunk dramatically with the official launch of the 3G model in the country.

On August 22, the country’s two leading mobile operators, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, introduced the Apple 3G iPhone exclusively for their customers at Rs 31,000 for the 8 GB and Rs 36,100 for the 16 GB phone.

Grey market operators in Delhi and Mumbai say that the 2G iPhone, which was launched last year in the US by Apple Inc and was available for around Rs 24,000 to 27,000 in the grey market, has virtually disappeared from the market because of the relatively higher price tag compared to the newly introduced 3G version.

Says a leading grey market operator based in Delhi: “The 2G phone is not coming to us as you can get a 3G phone from the official market at Rs 31,000. So why should anyone pay Rs 25,000? Also, Apple, which was selling the 2G phone at $399 bundled with a connection, is now selling the 3G at $199 also bundled with a connection. So, obviously, why would anyone buy an older model?”

Grey market operators in Delhi say that a few months earlier they were selling over nine to 10 phones a day. And while no official figures are available, over 5,000 Apple 2G phones have been sold in India according to industry sources in the grey market.

However, grey market operators also say that the difference between the official price of the 3G phone and that of the grey market is not steep enough for customers to make a beeline in the grey market.

A dealer of phones in Delhi’s Palika Bazaar said: “At the moment, we are only catering to customers who are not ready to wait for the delivery of the phone from the operators. They are paying a premium of only Rs 1,000 to get it from us.” In this case, most of the grey market dealers have made bulk bookings of phones with Airtel and Vodafone, which they are re-selling at a slight premium.

A dealer in Mumbai’s Heera Panna building points out: “Considering the fact that in the US the Apple 3G phone offer with AT&T is locked in a two-year agreement with an operator (which costs around US $2,000), in India the difference between the official and grey market price will not be more than Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000. That will not be too attractive as the official phone with a one year warranty looks more attractive”.

There are others who say that they will be able to unlock the 3G phone if customers can get it from their relatives abroad. “We can unlock the phone so that it can be used for any operator and not only for Airtel and Vodafone for Rs 1,500.”

Source: Business Standard

Courtesy: news.in.msn.com

India’s Airtel claims "deadliest hackers" still can’t crack its iPhone 3G

When it comes to iPhone hackers, techies at Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel expect to have the last laugh. They claim even the most deadly hackers on the planet won’t be able to crack the codes that support the iPhone’s Airtel applications with rival company SIMs.

So, even if a hacker manages to make voice calls from an Airtel iPhone using the SIM of a rival GSM operator, he would be denied access to both exclusive icons – ‘Airtel Live’ and ‘Airtel Apps’– which are gateways to the full spectrum of Airtel applications built into the iconic gizmo.

This means a potential hacker of an Apple iPhones procured from Airtel won’t get to access to either content or entertainment features on Airtel Live — a customised portal designed purely for Airtel subscribers.

With no access to Airtel Live, he can’t access any text, audio, video, static images, music or gaming options available on the preloaded Airtel Live portal application.

Neither does he get to use the powerful Google search engine.

Worse, the hacker also draws a blank if he tries activating any super secure applications like mobile payment (m-Check) that can otherwise be accessed by Airtel users by clicking the ‘Airtel Apps’ icon on the iPhone.

m-Check, would typically enable a user to manage his Airtel account or even do money transfers from his iPhone. Confirming this, Bharti Airtel’s IT director Jai Menon, who is also chief information officer (CIO) of Bharti Enterprises told, “Even if a hacker figures out a way to make voice calls from an iPhone procured from our stores using a non-Airtel SIM, he will not be able to access any of the ‘Airtel Live’ or ‘Airtel Apps’ features built into all the iPhones sold by Airtel.

We’ve built in suitable levels of security to ensure both applications remain out of bounds for hackers. All iPhones distributed by Airtel will run on OSX (Version 2) OS which also powers Apple notebooks worldwide.”

He adds, “Airtel’s IT group has worked with Apple for over a year to uniquely evolve a bunch of operator-specific applications on the iPhone. In fact, Airtel is perhaps the only mobile operator besides Australia’s Optus that has evolved operator-specific applications on Apple’s iconic phone.”

Incidentally, “developing operator-specific iPhone applications was pretty much a stealth exercise that transpired by leveraging Airtel’s service delivery platform, which is a $100 million tech initiative,” said Menon.

Courtesy: infotech.indiatimes.com

Review: 3G iPhone

After a few days of playing around with the new iPhone 3G, I’m convinced that Apple’s iconic piece of gadgetry is a misnomer.

The “mobile phone” is clearly the most unimpressive and probably the most unimportant part of the second generation iPhone.

It’s is a great computer; to be more specific, a great mobile Internet device — probably the best ever made — and it’s a pity that it’s debuted in the country before 3G networks are up and running.

The other pity of course is that the two Indian operators whom Apple has chosen — Airtel and Vodafone, have both decided not to subsidise the handset as AT&T for instance does in the US, where it retails at $200 (approx Rs 8,600) with a compulsory extra charge by the operator for a 2-year usage plan.

At a whopping Rs 36,100 for the 16GB (which comes in black and white rear panels) and 31,000 for the 8GB model, the iPhone is destined to border on being a luxury product, rather than a mass appeal phenomenon.

There are some cosmetic exterior changes from the earlier version, which in India, was widely available in the grey market. The rear panel has been changed from metal to plastic while the external buttons have gone from plastic to metal.

There’s a thin metal ring around the camera lens which is actually the new GPS antenna. The smoother rounding off on the sides means that the phone’s dimensions have undergone a tiny change — too small to notice, but small enough to prevent it from fitting into speaker docks that were made for the original iPhone – Aaargh!

To be fair to Apple though, they’ve taken consumer frustration over the headset jack seriously and replaced the old design that only allowed only the bundled headphones, with a “flush” port which means that you can use any standard 3.5 mm earpiece you wish.

The actual phone itself is just a programme that you can access from the home screen and is average to say the least. Simple things like transferring contacts from the phone onto the SIM card or selecting multiple contacts are unavailable, while the SMS programme still lacks the ability to forward or copy-paste text.

The camera is another feature that hasn’t undergone any upgrade and although image quality is fairly impressive, the absence of flash, auto-focus, optical zoom or video recording takes it well behind the curve.

The only saving grace is that pictures once taken, can be expanded or shrunk or moved around by literally squeezing them on the screen with two fingers or flicking them with a single finger. This is the quintessential iPhone experience and typically the first thing you would want to show off about your gizmo.

The “iPod” programme that controls music and movies is great if you’re familiar with the iPod-iTunes system. If you’re like most Indian users who get music onto their phones through Bluetooth transfers or memory cards, you’re in for a steep learning curve.

After all there’s no external memory option on the iPhone and the Bluetooth feature — which most other high-end phones exploit for data transfer and wireless music — is configured to only allow handsfree calling.

Of course the lack of an FM radio adds insult to the injury of the iTunes music store not being made available for Indian users. Basically, any music or video that you want to get onto your phone has to be done through the iTunes programme on your computer which often involves some amount of re-formatting.

Exceptions of course include free content such as podcasts, which can be downloaded and the YouTube programme which allows you to watch streaming video from the site if you’re connected via Wi-Fi or a GPRS/EDGE network.

The other key feature that wasn’t available on the older iPhone is the assisted GPS (Global Positioning System). The word “assisted” is there since the GPS is able to home onto your location faster thanks to some assistance from the nearest cellular towers that are feeding the network to your iPhone.

Google Maps comes pre-installed and is a great piece of software except for the fact that it doesn’t provide voice-assisted driving directions in India.

The star of the show is clearly the Internet browser Safari, which renders Web pages better than any browser on any mobile device that I have ever seen.

Most websites are shown true to their form instead of scaled-down mobile versions and the multi-touch features allows you to easily move the page around, zoom in on the region you want to read and tap on a link to navigate.

This single-handedly takes the Web-surfing into a new dimension compared to clumsy joysticks, keys or even a stylus. The iPhone 3G’s browser even manages to improve on the original by allowing you to click and save pictures in Web pages.

The crowning glory though, of the iPhone 3G is “App Store”, an online marketplace where users can download software applications (apps) that are created by programmers and developers all around the world.

These apps could range from games to medical encyclopedias to social networking tools to online auctions to pretty much anything that one can use a computer for.

The games are especially addictive since the iPhone has no controls except one large screen button. All the movement in a game thus has to be controlled by physically moving the iPhone so that the accelerometer can detect which way you’re orienting the device.

The brilliant, large 3.5 screen puts your gaming experience on par with handheld devices from Nintendo and Sony while the improved loudspeakers guarantee that the experience will be incredibly annoying to those in your vicinity if you decide to dump the earphones.

Some apps are free to download while others cost anything from a few dollars to a few hundred. Unlike the iTunes store, App Store accepts Indian credit cards and Apple is hoping Indian users will add a significant number to the 60 million downloads that were registered in first month.

If you’re an incurable gadget freak, then go ahead and add this to your arsenal — it’s geek heaven, but to the average consumer my advice would be to hold your horses and wait till 3G networks are in place before forking out such an incredibly large sum of money.

If you’re a BlackBerry addict, then the lack of a physical keyboard will make life pretty tough even though Pushmail and enterprise-grade data security has now been added to the iPhone.

If you want a piece of the beautiful browser and the App Store, then buy the iPod Touch (Rs. 16,000 for the 16GB model) which gives you full iPhone functionality minus the phone and GPS — for which you could always rely on a cheap, trusty Nokia navigator.

Courtesy: infotech.indiatimes.com

iPhone has a Kill Switch: Steve Jobs

It’s official! Apple does have the capability to remotely manage applications on your iPhone.

In an interview to Walls Street Journal, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs admitted to iPhones having a mechanism that allows the device to contact Apple website and delete the software that the company deems harmful.

Jobs told the newspaper, “Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull.”

Popularly branded `kill switch’, it can disable potentially malicious applications that have been downloaded to any iPhone.

The interview confirms the recent claim of independent researcher Jonathan Zdziarski, who discovered a file in the iPhone’s firmware that links to an Apple XML page containing a blank “black list” for malicious applications.

However, it is not clear that the Core Location blacklist found by Zdziarski is the “lever” that Jobs refered to. According to analysts, there could also be a separate mechanism elsewhere in the iPhone’s software.

It is also yet not clear that what is Apple’s exact definition of “malicious” software.

Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/