Tag: App Store

Mac App Store Cracked Already


So it didn’t take long, the new Mac App Store was cracked within hours of it’s release. At current there are two weaknesses in the
 anti-piracy system that has been deployed on the Mac App Store.

The first is down to developers mistakes, if they had followed Apple’s guidelines then this one wouldn’t of worked. Some applications just require you to copy the code signature and some other files from a free app, and paste those into a paid app to enable it to run. If the developers had of followed the guidelines then a check would occur where it checks the code signature ID to see if they match the app’s bundle ID.

The second exploit is the removal of the DRM, similar to what happened on the iPhone App Store. It uses an application known as ‘Kickback’, currently the application is unavailable but as soon as the Mac App Store becomes more populated I’m sure we will see the application surface.

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Apple Ships 120 Million iOS Devices

Since the release of the iPhone, Apple has sold 120 million devices running the iOS, this includes iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads. Not only have 120 million iOS devices but every second 200 apps are being downloaded from the App Store, which results in 6.5 billion total downloads from a catalog of over 250,000 total apps, 25,000 of which are for iPad.

App Store Downloads Reach Three Billion

Apple today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. Thats around 5.5 million downloads per day!

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months—this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

iPod Classic & iPod Nano Being Phased Out By Apple?

Latest reports hint that Apple are trying to slowly phase out the iPods that feature the trademark Click Wheel. It seems strange as they just re-released the iPod Nano with video support.

Joystiq reported on some upcoming games, they happened to mention that some of the original Click Wheel games, Song Summoner and Song Summoner 2, were coming to the iPhone soon. However Song Summoner 2 never was released for the iPod because apparently Apple has abandoned the Click Wheel game format. Perhaps this means that Apple wants to move to cheaper iPod Touches to maximize profit from the App Store but also keep the Shuffle.

The App Store still offers a big amount of iPod Click Wheel Games from the iTunes Store, but no new games have been released since Cake Mania 3 in February of 2009. Apple had introduced iPod Click Wheel Games with the release of iTunes 7 in September 2006 and a total of nearly 50 games were released over the next 2 and a half years.

These reports are not confirmed yet and so are still rumours, it may not mean that Apple are ditching the iPod Classic and iPod Nano but maybe focusing their attention elsewhere, on the Apple Tablet perhaps?

iPhone Security Issues Not Exclusive To Jailbroken Devices

In the past few months there have been multiple worms released into the wild that affected inadequately protected jailbroken iPhones. However a Swiss iPhone developer has published research that indicates that there are also security vulnerabilities affected un-jailbroken devices too. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most as it was only a matter of time.

The developer, Nicholas Seriot has created a proof of concept app called SpyPhone to demonstrate how Apple’s own APIs can be used to read and edit user’s address books, gain access to the user’s web surfing history or even recent location information. Although this is not as bad as what can be done with root permissions to the device, it can still effect users, especially when they think they are safe.

For the attacks to work, the application with the malicious code would need to get through the App Store approval system, however this wouldn’t be very hard as pointed out by many developers, as Apple doesn’t check source code but does have a kill switch on every app. The code would be delayed, so that it only beings to work so many weeks after the app is released or it could be an encrypted payload.

Nicholas Seriot detailed these possible iPhone privacy risks in a talk he delivered in Geneva, during which he also outlined possible defense strategies, suggesting that Apple should design the iPhone OS to require users to authorize read or read-write access by iPhone applications to potentially sensitive on-device information such as the Address Book, add firewall functionality to the device and ensure the keyboard cache is not as readily available to third-party applications.

Developers Research

Related:
How To: Change Your iPhone’s SSH Password
Dutch Hacker Hack’s Into Jailbroken iPhone’s
iPhone Worm Rickrolls Jailbroken Devices
Second iPhone Worm Used For Malicious Purposes

Bebo Finally Releases iPhone App

Social network Bebo, has today released their native iPhone app. Now that most major social networks have a native iPhone app it means you can spend less time on the desktop or feature-lacking mobile versions of the popular social networks.

Although it is only the first release the app doesn’t shine compared to the Facebook app which in its recent release it has really improved by vast amounts. It offers a slightly better and tweaked experience compared to that of the mobile site. With the ability to directly upload images from the phone, ability to view your time line and some other nice features it’s a step up from the mobile site. Overall the app is fine for checking your profile and uploading pictures but hopefully they integrate more of the websites functionality.

The Bebo app is free and available on the App Store now.

How To: Disguise An App

So let’s say you have an App on your phone that you really need, but other people would keep going on it and you don’tDisguise App really want them using it or seeing what it is. Well there is a simple way to disguise an app on your iPhone as anything you want.

Let’s say the app we want to hide is Cycorder.

Getting Started

First of all you have to SSH into your device and go to your Applications folder and open the relevant folder, in this case being Cycorder.app.

Once this is opened you will see the following files:
Cycorder
icon.png
info.plist
loading.png

Note: these will vary on application, but the files needed will remain the same.

Now copy the files icon.png and info.plist to your computer.

Before editing either it’s a good idea to backup the files just in case you go wrong.

Editing The Icon

People using the iPhone will most likely use icons to refer to an app, so changing the icon of the app you wish to hide is the first thing to do.

First you need to get the icon from another app or you could make one yourself. Simply pressing the Home button and Sleep/Wake button will capture a screen shot of your home screen and you edit the icon to the correct size etc.

Note: Always save the icon as a png image and make sure it’s transparent.

Downloading a free app off the App Store would maybe be a better idea for this as it gives you a quick and disposable way to disguise an app. However think about if people are likely to click on it, so find something boring.

Once you’ve edited and saved your new icon, save it as a png and copy it back to the app folder on the iPhone, replacing the original.

Changing The Name

The second way people will know which app is which, is via the name underneath the icon (which by now you will have changed).

To change the name simply open the plist either using a text editor or a dedicated plist editor such as iPodRobot’s plist editor.

Look at the plist and find the tag called
<key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>

and change the value below it what you wish the app to appear as on the home screen.

Once this is done, save the plist and copy it back to your device, overwriting the old one.

Now re-spring or re-boot your device and the application will now be disguised.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Coming To iPhone

Rockstar Games have announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, from Rockstar Leeds, is coming to iPhone Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars iPhoneand iPod Touch later this year. The award winning game is making it’s way from the Nintendo DS to the PSP platform and now the iPhone & iPod Touch.

“Chinatown Wars is a perfect match for the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We are very excited to bring this incredibly ambitious version of Liberty City, with this level of detail and immersive gameplay on Apple’s new gaming platforms.”

The game follows the story of Huang Lee, a young Triad who travels to Liberty City after the mysterious death of his father. Players will navigate their way through the streets as they uncover the truth behind an epic tale of crime and corruption within the Triad crime syndicate, delivering the unprecedented amount of depth that has become a true trademark of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

App Reviews Coming Soon

Although I’m probably going to be returning my laptop soon to get it repaired I will soon be starting doing App reviews as Apple iPhone 3G WWDC 2009a separate section of the blog. I will go over some old apps as well as new apps and will begin posting them when I get my laptop back.

Also just a note that once my laptop is sent back I may not be able to update the blog properly for a week or maybe up to 4 weeks so there might be a gap in posts but I will try my hardest to update the blog.