iOS

Russian hacker admits defeat in IAP breach

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

Alexey V. Borodin, the Russian hacker who made headlines with a tool which lets anyone steal extra content in apps, no jailbreak required, is admitting defeat following Apple's announcement that the in-app purchasing (IAP) exploit will be fixed in the shipping version of iOS 6 this fall.

In an unprecedented move, Apple gave developers access to a pair of private APIs in iOS, a temporary solution that effectively bypasses the hack. Borodin just publicly acknowledged that currently there is no way to circumvent Apple's band-aid fix in apps updated to take advantage of the private APIs...

Opera says iOS is still top platform for mobile advertising

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Opera (yes, the browser people) published its first ever State of Mobile Advertising report this week, a study regarding the effectiveness of advertising on different mobile platforms.

As you might have expected, Apple's iOS came out on top. Despite Android's lead in overall marketshare, users seem to browse the web and click on ads more on Apple's mobile OS...

Google re-invents patent system, says iPhone inventions belong to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 20, 2012

Google is feeling lots of heat lately as Apple, Microsoft and Oracle show some notable progress with Android lawsuits. Apple in particular holds a number of patents that cover trademark features the iPhone popularized, like slide to unlock and other multitouch gestures.

The Internet giant should also beware of the latest Apple patent grant which covers virtually all of the iPhone's user interface innovations. Perhaps in realization of its defensiveness, Google has changed tactics.

The company is now arguing that because the iPhone has become so popular, Apple's proprietary and patented inventions should really become industry essential patents. Seriously?

Google buys Mac/iOS email client Sparrow, say good-bye to new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Dang, Google just acquired the popular Mac and iOS email client Sparrow. The value of the transaction or terms of the deal have not been made public, though The Verge thinks Google paid under $25 million for Sparrow. According to a blog post announcing the acquisition, this deal will help the Sparrow team "accomplish a bigger vision", one the team says "can better achieve with Google". Hopefully that means buying some notification servers, though Sparrow's email to customers is anything but encouraging. Full details below...

Is Apple stepping up fight against IAP exploit with UDIDs?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 15, 2024

A flaw in the in-app purchasing mechanism in iOS that a Russian hacker exposed last week by leveraging a proxy server which enabled $30,000+ in sales of extra content may soon become a thing of the past as Apple is reportedly looking to contain the exploit by issuing a unique identifier in validation receipts.

This identifier apparently includes the Unique Device Identifier (UDID) for the device making the in-app purchase. The development is indicative remembering that the company recently began rejecting third-party apps over use of UDIDs. Apple was also thought to be readying tools for developers to let apps figure out users without resorting to UDIDs...

Apple starts blocking Russian servers that authenticate in-app content for free

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 16, 2012

Making good on its promise, Apple has started to block Russian servers which authenticate paid in-app content for free, The Next Web reports. The company is blocking IP addresses that host the rogue in-appstore.com domain by issuing takedown notices to hosting companies. PayPal has also intervened to block a private account through which donations had been collected, citing violation of its terms of service.

Despite this, hacker Alexey V. Borodin, the brains behind this controversial method, has already moved the servers to another country in an attempt to evade Apple’s legal requests...

Russian hacker cracks iOS in-app purchasing, no jailbreak required

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 18, 2012

iOS in-app purchasing mechanism which lets you buy digital items in games, upgrade to full versions of apps and purchase additional content, has been cracked by a savvy Russian hacker who posted a proof of concept video, embedded below.

First noticed by Russian blog i-ekb.ru (via 9to5Mac), the hack is credited to Russian developer ZonD80 who runs the conveniently named In-AppStore.com website where he collects donations to support development of the project.

What's special about this method - and potentially devastating to the development community - is that it doesn't require a jailbreak and can be completed in a few simple steps by even the most inexperienced users. UPDATE: contrary to reports that Apple took the proxy site down, developer confirms it's simply under high load and says the info site is being moved to Blogger.

Google to pay $22.5M fine in Safari privacy debacle settlement

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 4, 2018

Remember when Google was caught with its hands in the jar, overriding privacy settings of both desktop and iOS Safari users' privacy settings in order to better track their web browsing activity? The issue snowballed into a privacy scandal as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in April it would investigate the practice. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the FTC and the search Goliath are now close to finalizing a settlement that will see Google pony up a whopping $22.5 million to settle the privacy issue, FTC's largest ever fine...

The exodus begins: corporate America abandoning BlackBerry for iOS and Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

As Research In Motion's woes deepen amid lay offs, outrageous losses five times bigger than projected and news that its long-expected BlackBerry 10 software won't arrive until next year, a significant number of high-profile and profitable corporate customers are readying contingency plans, a tell tale sign that, unfortunately, the window of opportunity for the BlackBerry as we know it is closing fast...

AT&T opens up its Watson speech engine via SDK for iOS and Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Realizing Apple and Google are moving swiftly to mainstream speech recognition on mobile devices, U.S. carrier AT&T today announced that it is opening up its own Watson speech engine to iOS and Android platforms via a software development kit (SDK), now available on the AT&T Developer website.

Much like Apple's Siri or Google Voice Actions in Android (and Google Now), Watson takes input, analyzes it, performs one or more services and returns a result. Input can be audio files, speech, gestures, face recognition and text. Here's a video of Watson in action...

Apple begins taking down sites that sell UDID activations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 15, 2024

Apple has begun cracking down on unofficial sites that sell UDID activations to folks who aren't registered Apple developers, letting them download and install iOS and OS X betas on their devices, a strict violation of Apple's agreement with developers.

In fact, a developer's $99 a year membership in the iOS Developer Program can be terminated if pre-release software is provided to non-authorized folks. Apple isn't just revoking access to developers that sell UDIDs, it's now going after sites that advertise UDID activations, filing DMCA requests to hosting firms.

As you can imagine, financial incentives outweigh risks and punishment involved. Savvy "entrepreneurs" have found the business of selling unauthorized access to iOS betas worth tens of thousands of dollars. You don't need an office, staff, a telephone line or even a business name - just a small upfront investment, a web page advertising your "service" and spare time on your hands to get the word out...