Foursquare 6.0 for iOS shifts the focus to exploration with a new home screen

Those who've had the redesigned Foursquare for Android are familiar with the app's greater priority on exploring local haunts; it's the iOS' users' turn now that Foursquare 6.0 is here. The update puts the Explore search box and map right on the main page, helping socialites quickly find out what's going on nearby.

Apple mysteriously kills jailbreak detection API while hacker boosts iOS security, irony restored

It's no secret that Apple's been keen to monitor the lot of naughty jailbreakers, but it turns out the company has recently shelved iOS 4.0's jailbreak detection API with no explanation given. While this has little effect on the average user, Network World explains that this is bad news for enterprise IT and MDM (mobile device management) vendors, who will now have one fewer channel for checking whether a user's iOS device has been jailbroken and thus become vulnerable to attacks. That said, apparently this isn't a huge loss for the MDM vendors, anyway; but the real question is why drop the API now? Could its presence alone be a threat? We'll probably never know.

Fear not, though, as some folks have put jailbreaking to good use. The Register reports that come Tuesday, Stefan Esser of Sektion Eins will demonstrate a tool called antid0te, which reportedly adds ASLR (address space layout randomization) onto jailbroken iOS devices. In a nutshell, ASLR randomizes key memory locations to make it more difficult for certain attacks to locate their target data. According to the famed white hat hacker Charlie Miller, this technique is already present on Windows Phone 7 and desktop Windows since Vista, but Apple's only dabbled with it on OS X and not on iOS. Now, this doesn't mean that jailbroken devices will be fully safeguarded, but some protection is better than no protection, right?

Apple hiring iPhone antenna engineers for some reason

Three Apple job postings for iPhone / iPad antenna engineers to "Define and implement antenna system architecture to optimize the radiation performance for wireless portable devices." All three were posted on June 23rd, the same day that we started seeing widespread reporting of the left-handed reception issues. Coincidence?


Courtesy: Engadget

How-to: check your iPhone 4 upgrade eligibility

AT&T's made it pretty clear how this upgrade sitch is going to go down for existing customers moving to an iPhone 4 on the 24th of the month, but if you want to double-check and make sure you're good to go (we can't blame you), there's an easy way that was briefly mentioned yesterday: dial *639# on your current phone. You'll be returned a text message from AT&T detailing your situation -- either you'll be told you can get a full upgrade price (meaning $199 / $299 for the 16GB and 32GB, respectively) or you'll be eligible at some particular date in the future. Not all's lost in the latter case -- you can still pay $200 more for the phone as an "early upgrade," which is less than the no-commitment price of $599 / $699.

Police Raid Gizmodo Editor's House over Missing iPhone Prototype

Gizmodo's acquisition of an Apple iPhone 4G prototype has stirred a lot of waves in the past week, but things have taken an ugly twist after Gizmodo editor, Jason Chen's house was raided by California's REACT Computer Crimes Taskforce. The raid was carried out with the authority of a search warrant and his computers and other items were seized.
Gizmodo had earlier paid $5,000 to a guy who had found the device, took it apart and published pictures.
Under California laws, paying for found property is a crime, but the finder had tried to return the device to Apple and the desk support staff (knowing nothing about R&D) turned it down saying it was an imitation from China.

iPad/Future iPhone to have Front-facing Camera

Apple recently released -then pulled back- a new version of the ipad software development kit, SDK 3.2. However, developers who downloaded the kit before it was pulled off say that there included tips that future iphones and the yet to be released ipad may have front facing cameras. The 3G version of the ipad might definitely be spotting a front camera, making video conferencing available on the device. Up till now, Apple hasn't stepped forward to say anything, but we're keeping our fingers crossed

iPhone more popular among game developers than PSP and Wii

As crazy as it may sound, more game developers are now coding for the iPhone and iPod touch more than they are for even the most common handheld gaming devices. Statistics now show that 19% of game developers are writing games for Apple devices. A number that's twice that of the PSP and Nitendo Wii and DS

GameFly launches GameCentre for Apple iPhone

As part of its own contributionn to the expanding apps in the Apple store, GameFly has launched its GameCenterApp for Apples iPhone and iTouch. This gives iPhone users access to a database of as much as 5000 video games as well as news, videos and a host of other perks