Comments on: Your iPhone has a virus? Well it’s your fault

By: Bass-playing Chemist

Bass-playing Chemist — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:39:09 +0000

I agree with Mr Honeyball to a point, users disabling security on a device should not be the fault of the manufacturer. However, as JC (comment 2) points out, the iPhone appears to be vulnerable anyway, as they ship with a default password. How about something like an installation script that runs on first use, asking the user to set up a unique password etc. Users will be users and many will not change the default settings unless forced to do so (ie there are not defaults). Couple this with the comments made by Danny Thomas (comment 1): my mum has recently purchased an ipod touch, and using it has been her and my first introduction to itunes. itunes is without doubt the worst piece of software I have ever used, it’s a pig): its file management is clunky (just where are my files?, do I need one copy free on my HD for every programme that I use and another copy bound up in some library somewhere), its use is unintuitive (I press “synchronise” and only some files get synchronised), I eventually drag and drop from the local collection to the remote collection and finally I copy the video across to the device. I addition, most of my music has been ripped in ogg vorbis format (it works fine on every other computer/portable music player I have), an open standard that is free for anyone to use, yet itunes and the ipod have no idea what ogg files are. Add all this together and is it any wonder that users will try and remove the straight jacket Apple puts them in for wanting to use their devices? No, I’m sorry, Apple should take at least some of the blame for this. They seem to make great hardware these days but spoil the whole package by locking users into their software as if they lacked confidence in the ability of their hardware to appeal to consumers.

By: PT

PT — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:35:07 +0000

I agree that some of Apple’s lockdown is to help provide a secure environment, but their gratuitous limitations on Bluetooth force encourage the poor user to jailbreak. AFAIK, Apple are the ONLY mftrs who block bluetooth access to other makes of mobile. There is only one real reason for this, and it aint security.

By: JC

JC — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:27:11 +0000

Although I agree the sentiment of your piece it isn’t quite factually correct. The default username and password is the same for all iPhones, whether jail-broken or not. The only difference is that you CAN install SSH on a jail-broken phone, which makes the exploit possible. However, this isn’t the case by default.

By: Danny Thomas

Danny Thomas — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:49:17 +0000

Totally agree. People regularly have a pop at various companies specifically Apple, Sony and Microsoft for producing products that appear to ‘lock in’. In many instances these ‘lock ins’ are actually an aspect of quality control rather than commercial fascism. As an example, Apple tightly couple the iPod/iPhone to iTunes not to remove choice, after all MP3’s are easily added to iTunes to transfer to your iPod, but by controlling the environment, Apple maximise the likelihood that th experience is integrated, reliable and as they designed it. It is free country and Jailbreaking your phone is not illegal, but you can’t complain if your phone breaks.