Posts by PC1512

Exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phablets recalled immediately

Re: Owning up

This isn't ballsy or even a change from the norm, it's the bare minimum any corporation would be expected to do if they came to know about a health and safety risk like this. They investigated and obviously quite quickly identified that the problem was real and likely to result in many more fires if not put right, at which point the recall becomes very cheap next to the cost of the many inevitable lawsuits that would otherwise come there way,

They had no choice in other words, legally or financially.

iOS malware YiSpecter: iPhones menaced by software nasty

Re: Heavy on doom and sensation, light on detail

Oh give over. I've been listening to people like you making dire warnings about Apple "becoming" a target for many years now. You know what? Apple has always been a target. Certainly since the first iPhone launched, they've had a significant user base which is extremely attractive to the malware vendors. The question is not whether they are being targeted but how many of these attacks are actually effective or on target, and the truth you need to accept is precious few.

Like it or not, this "attack" is just another case of Apple's defences working perfectly, for the vast majority of users. As soon as you read between the shouty headlines and smug panic mongering, the truth of the matter is quite apparent - unless you deliberately and knowingly chose to install software from outside the App Store, your phone is perfectly safe. Nothing has been bypassed here, there is no exploit, no weakness in iOS, the only problem is users being tricked into doing something stupid. The only possible "fix" for that, making it harder for them to do that stupid thing, has already been enacted in iOS 9 - an update which, in stark contrast to other mobile platforms, has already been pushed directly to those same users.

But it's ok, you keep on bleating about every tabloid headline you read, ignore the crucial facts in these stories, and then call the other guys sheep...

As US$12bn is wiped off Apple's value in one day, iOS 9, OS X 10.11 and Watch OS 2 dates set

Re: Bubble bursting

It's funny when people talk regularly about the apple "reality distortion field" and then you get comments like this. I mean, what? Which "idoodad" areas do you think they've been chased out of? iPod is still the best selling music player line. iPhone is the best selling smartphone, with iOS actually making gains on the stack-em-high android competion in the last year or so. iPad is the best selling tablet. In which markets are they running scared?

30 years ago you might have had a point with the Mac vs PC.. only now even the Mac has been steadily building share for years amid failing PC sales.

Re: Bubble bursting

Music players were done first by others. Smartphones were done first by others. Tablets were done first by others. Personal computers were done first by others for that matter. Apple have never been interested in being the first into any product category, they just generally end up being the best, or (at very least, if you're unable to stomach that) the most profitable.

Monster banking Trojan botnet claims 500,000 victims

Re: A slight difference

But they still can't get viruses. The change people are assuming has happened, now that macs are more popular, simply hasn't - as the previous poster says, something like the drive by exploit that happened here simply couldn't happen on a Mac.

What can happen, and could always happen on a Mac or literally any other mildly open computing platform, is the user choosing against all the advice to deliberately install some untrusted software that turns out to be malware. That's what happened with the Mac botnet, and its nothing to do with viruses or the security of the OS, with or without marketshare.

@ Joe Drunk

Yes, well, you can hear it again and try to understand it this time - Macs don't get viruses. They "get" Trojans, that is malware that the user deliberately installs often against all the warnings the system tries to provide, because they think its something else (usually pirated software) but they do not get viruses. There is no self replicating, self spreading malware out there that can infect a Mac without the user doing something incredibly stupid first, and the fact is all that I need to do to keep my Mac safe is apply a very small amount of basic common sense over the software I choose to install, and where it get it. Ok?

Hmm

17,000 macs get involved in a botnet and the commenters here practically orgasm. 500,000 PCs get caught and all you can hear is the tumbleweed..

MAC BOTNET uses REDDIT comments for directions

Re:

Yes, as suspected, just another Trojan. Which begs the question why "Dr Web" saw fit to dub this an "iworm" and send all the tech blogs into paroxysms of glee at the thought of an OS X security flaw. Unless of course - and this surely couldn't be so - they just wanted a bit of attention..

Re: PC1512

No, that's not the actual problem because there is no actual problem - this is all complete FUD. This is a Trojan, just like many other Trojans. ANY machine can fall foul to a Trojan if the user is determined to install it. That is not a weakness in the system or an argument for AV, it is simply what computers do, they run the software that their users ask them to run, end of story.

I use a Mac. It does not have this or any other malware. I don't have a problem and I don't need antivirus or any other crapware hogging my resources to tell me that. Sorry if this disappoints you.

Re: Sorry, has to be said.....

You can never fully protect against user error and any machine can become infected by malware that the user is determined to install.

Recent macs (and those updated to the latest free versions of OS X which is most of them) do come equipped with Gatekeeper by default which prevents the user from installing anything from an untrusted developer - again it can be circumvented by choice but it's another layer of protection for the unwise.

Re: Sorry, has to be said.....

It may seem a fine detail but on Mac OS X there's no convenient "ok" button to press in these circumstances - you have to actually enter an admin username and password. If the user has any sense at all, this might just give them pause enough to find it.

Yeah okay - they've no idea (or don't want to say) how this spreads or how any of these machines have become infected, but let's call it a "worm" and crank up the macs-need-antivirus-too mantra once again. Oh noes loser fanboys etc ad infinitum.

Tell me how this can happen and I might believe I need AV to stop it. If you don't know, shush, because the simplest answer (user error) is probably correct.

Would Apple godhead Steve Jobs have HATED the Watch?

The Register should really have learnt by now not to bet against a new Apple product. I remember their coverage of the iPad announcement and the repeated jibes and hilarity that ensued for WAY too long, even when even the most hardened Apple sceptic had to admit it was actually a massive hit - painfully embarrassing to read let alone write. I hope we don't have to subjected to a repeat of that but I suspect we will.

Bloodied Samsung's profits down 25% as it clings to mobe crown

Re: Being squeezed from both ends

The iPhone can be called revolutionary because it sparked a revolution, simple as that - I too had a number of Symbian and also windows mobile smartphones before the iPhone came along and thought I was terribly clever for owning them as they were "the future" - but of course they weren't. In reality they were buggy, difficult, niche products designed for a very small section of the phone market, on the assumption that everyone else would use dumb phones forever.

The iPhone changed that. You may not have been impressed but the mass market was - here was a device which anyone could use, and which could gain the traction in terms of userbase to actually create a whole new platform for games, lifestyle apps, social media, you name it. A revolution. And to imagine that the next Symbian or windows phone (or even android in its blackberry-aping style at that time) to come along would have achieved the same thing is pure fantasy.

Re: Being squeezed from both ends

Samsung haven't revolutionised anything, at any point - that's not being harsh, it's simply how it is. That's not how they operate. They look at other people's products and ideas and take a scattergun approach to trying to match or exceed those at a lower price - and that's it. There's never been a vision there, no great mission, no burning innovation, just product.

The iPhone revolutionised mobile. Samsung have only competed - strongly - in a game which the iPhone began, and in which the iPhone set all the rules.

Android is a BURNING 'hellstew' of malware, cackles Apple's Cook

Re: SSL?

Let's hope it's not one of the many hit by the Heartbleed bug instead, eh.

Re: cooking the facts to suit his stew

Yeah, your own lack of bias and slavish adherence to "facts" is really shining through like a beacon there.

Re: Desperation.

Oh, you're talking about the Konfabulator that was based on Apple's Desk Accessories from 1984? How interesting that you bring that up.

Re: I have to reboot my iPhone quite often

Well, I've been using iPhones for the past 5-6 years and have frequented all the forums etc and that is literally the very first time I have ever heard of anything like that happening with an iPhone. So, ok, you may not be "alone" but you are certainly not indicative of any trend either.

Re: On the other hand...

That's all well and good, but issues with the "core OS" are often the most serious and are certainly not unheard of - take the Heartlbleed bug for example. That flawed SSL code was baked into many Android handsets and can't be fixed by an update to any Google app.

Re: Not so smart; desperate housewife is desperate.

Wasted space is wasted space, whatever size the screen - and what advantage is that slightly bigger screen meant to have if its given over to clutter?

Not sure why you think the ability to skip an update is some kind of Android advantage. Unless you're talking about the ability to not actually be offered any update in the first place, which of course is a feature of many Android phones. Don't want the latest iOS update? Don't accept it. Skip all you like.

How on earth would a button in the portrait position be "impossible to press"? I think a good few million ipad users would raise an eyebrow at that bizarre claim. And as for it being odd to use a tablet in portrait mode - I guess all your books are printed landscape, right? Do you rotate your magazine 90 degrees before opening?

Re: Not so smart; desperate housewife is desperate.

It means literally not a single one of those things. Not one. That whole list is so wide of the mark it's hilarious!

Re: Twaddle....

So your father in law bought an expensive smartphone he didn't need, couldn't work it, and now it's us that have to learn common sense?

Non-smartphones are still available, and cheap. Buy one if that's what you want. If you think I'm going to give up my iPhone because you're too daft to appreciate it, think again.

Re: Tired

Kool aid? In 2014? Now *that's* what I call tired.

You have not understood a word of what you were watching yesterday. It's a developer conference. It's all about the OS, not new product categories.

Re: Poor performance

What are you even talking about? Every new feature they mentioned on stage yesterday for IOS 8 is coming to the iPhone 5, and even the older iPhone 4S. Sure, the iPhone 6 will be announced in the Autumn with whole extra swathes of whatever, but that doesn't change anything that was announced yesterday.

Continuity? Being able to pick up an app on your mac that you opened on your iPhone, or make a phone call or text from your mac for example - that's all coming to the iPhone 4S and up. If that's somehow equivalent to changing the text on an about page then... I don't know what you're smoking.

Re: Idiot misses the point... on purpose?

No need for iTunes with the last two or three releases of IOS - for a couple of years now you've been able to update any iphone or ipad over the air. They also backup OTA to iCloud (if you so choose) so basically the only use for itunes is as a media bridge between your mac/PC and phone. Of course you can dispense with that entirely if you get your music and stuff some other way.

Re: Idiot misses the point... on purpose?

Not moot at all, he's just pointing out the fallacy in the original comment that the high adoption rates of the latest IOS is anything to do with Apple's purchasers rushing out and continually buying the latest thing. The latest thing doesn't make the previous thing not exist - those old ipads etc that can't be updated (and we are only talking about the original ipad here, iPad 2 and upwards are getting IOS 8 this year) still exist and are still counted in the stat he's trying to discredit, they're just vastly outnumbered by the fully supported devices.

Re: And Yet...

Because it's cheap. Next question.

Re: Desperation.

It was about 30 seconds worth in a 2 hour keynote. I think they're probably going to be ok.

Apple copies widgets? The widgets that Android copied from OS X, those widgets? Yeah, ok then. I don't think Android ever had a monopoly on sharing either did it? Swappable keyboards - again that was never new to Android, I could do this on my Windows Mobile phone years ago, it's just a logical step taken by many touchscreen oriented OS's over the years and I don't think Apple presented it as anything more than that.

Look at Continuity. Look at Swift and the effect that's going to have for developers. Out of ideas? They look pretty on top of their game to me, sorry.

Re: Not so smart; desperate housewife is desperate.

Well plenty of Android phones have soft buttons for these so yes, there is wasted screen space, and I wouldn't assume the icons will never change either (or that they'll necessarily stay in the same place either).

Personally I think those buttons are awful. On the Galaxy Tab 3 I was given, which did have hard buttons on the bezel bizarrely centred in the landscape position, I found I was forever hitting menu or back while just trying to hold the thing, especially in portrait. On a full touchscreen device they just seem anachronistic and pointless, and indeed the iphone/ipad prove them as such as far as I'm concerned. Maybe if you picked one up now and forced yourself to lose the muscle memory you'd realise that too.

Oh and of course not every Android has a removable battery or SD card, and there is a perfect option to restart in iOS - simply holding down power and home will always get you out of anything and reboot the device. Of course, these days especially, it's never actually necessary.

Re: Really?

It's structure from the ground up, and entire design of the ecosystem from day one?

Seriously, you can keep trying this line on Mac users, but there's no "security through obscurity" on IOS, it's a massive and lucrative market for anyone able to get some malware working on the platform. The reason they haven't (but have been able to run riot on Android) is that iOS and the Appstore in particular makes this very, very difficult.

Re: Nice try Cookie..

Yeah - no. That wasn't a security breach, that was some guy with a list of passwords.

Does Apple's iOS 7 make you physically SICK? Try swallowing version 7.1

Re: Doesn't fix inheritence

Nope - if they could wipe it (which I don't think they can if they can't get into it) that wouldn't actually help anyway, since when they tried to activate it again Apple's servers would recognise the device ID and insist on the mother's username and password anyway. That's the extra security that apple put in with IOS 7 designed to really clamp down on theft - and in fairness it's a good feature as long as you don't unwillingly end up on the wrong side of it, as this family have.

Apple iOS 7 security bug allows fiendish wags to easily empty your wallet

Re: I recall the 90's

Andy, I'd say the "truth" is that now Apple have very significant market share in both phones and tablets, their security is proving extremely robust. Next to their nearest competition (Android) there is next to no malware, have been virtually no successful attacks, just a handful of bugs that have routinely been squashed long before anyone was able to exploit in the wild.

Compare that to Microsoft in the 90's - or even now - and it's chalk and cheese.

Macs too have expanded their market, although to a much lesser degree. They're a far bigger and juicier target for hackers and yet.. What has happened? There was the rapidly shut down flashback Trojan a year or two ago (exploiting a java weakness that lead to a complete rebuild of how and even if Java is included in Mac OS) and then... What? What happened to the security apocalypse that people like you have been predicting all these years? As a mac user I certainly haven't seen it.

Foxconn-rebrander Apple to rebrand hardware from other Taiwanese firms, too

Re: Couldn't agree more.

The reg would love to be seen as the Daily Sport. It isn't.

Couldn't agree more.

This place really has become the Daily Mail of tech news - the agenda is different, but the methods pretty similar. It's sad to see. I feel insulted whenever I come here now, and not because I happen to be an Apple user, but because the lame digs and bitterly slanted reporting (against all manner of people) would insult anyone's intelligence.

I know it's all linkbait, I know this place exists solely for the clicks and the more outraged comments like this the better, but still. Really, Reg? Is this what you want to be doing?

First look: Apple iPhone 5S and 5C

"One of the 5's flaws was its sharp edges that just weren't much fun to hold and sometimes wore down to bare metal. The 5S' “chamfered” edge fixes that problem and makes the phone more pleasant to hold."

Eh? The body of the 5S is identical to the 5, they both have chamfered edges (and arguably they're both slightly less comfortable in the hand than the rounded plastic 5C). Still an improvement over the square edges of the 4 and 4S though.

Rotten Apple iOS 7 fury: Glitchy audio or is today's music really that bad?

Audiobus

So, Audiobus's product is potentially rendered obsolete by IOS7.

But wait, in other news, Audiobus have announced that IOS7 is no good and stressed the importance of everyone staying on IOS6 for as long as possible! Well done Reg for alerting us to this very impartial discovery!

Peak Apple: Has ANYONE at all ordered a new iPhone 5c?

Good grief.

This whole article and most of the attached comments are so moronic it beggars belief. Reading this drivel has actually made me stupider.

Just put the apple loathing to one side and try to apply some rational thought to this, if all the butthurt allows you to. The 5C is a new iPhone yes, but it's not THE new iPhone. It's launch was never going to be on anything like the scale of an actual new generation iPhone, which is what the article is trying to draw a comparison with.

The 5C is a new product but Apple have been transparent about the fact that it's an iPhone 5 - last years phone - they constantly referenced that in the launch. And then of course they went on to launch the 5S as the new flagship. THAT is the phone they'll shortly be boasting opening weekend sales for.

The 5C will sell fine too, just like the 4S did last year after the 5 was announced, and all previous "now just $99" iPhones before that - but since it's based on older parts the supply will be plentiful and it's unlikely to ever sell out. It's not expected to.

Re: I've ordered a 5C

"I would rank <snip> that's objective too"

No, very clearly it isn't.

Galaxy S4 way faster than iPhone 5: Which?

Re: "fast enough"

Re the comment about the "myth" of iPhone updates - no, sorry, not a myth. It's true that not every iPhone gets every new feature, but it's also true that many new features do come to older iPhones via updates, along with a continual stream of improvements and security patches etc. Look at ios7 - literally the biggest overhaul to the platform since the first iPhone, with major changes not only to the look and feel of the UI but also the background stuff like multitasking, power management, networking etc - it'll come out on the inevitable iPhone 5S, but not only will it also be downloadable the same day for the iPhone 5, but the 4S from 2011, and even the 4 from 2010. What new OS will be released to the Galaxy S3 this year, let alone the S2 - and how about the Galaxy S, what update is that getting? Jack Schitt, that's what that's getting.

Personally I find it a bit laughable that a supposedly reputable review mag like Which would try and build a review based on some meaningless abstract benchmark that anyone could run - surely there's nothing here that isn't all over the web anyway. To the average Which reader (and in fact the average anybody) the raw CPU performance of these phones, which is all that's being testers here, is utterly meaningless. What happens is how quickly, and how well, the device actually performs its tasks as a smartphone - and a LOT of that has nothing to do with the CPU and everything to do with the software and the rest of the hardware package.

Apple cored: Samsung sells 10 million Galaxy S4 in a month

Right - so in a full month, Samsung have only managed to double what Apple sold in the first two days of their own launch.

And ok, Apple's quarterly figure includes sales of the two older iPhone models still on the market - but still show they're selling more than 10m per month long after the iPhone 5 could be considered new.

Yes, what a knockout success for Samsung. The boys at Cupertino may as well pack up now.

NEW ITV Player app IS HERE ... for Samsung fandroids only. Ha ha

Odd

This apps always worked nicely for me, through successive versions. Never had a problem with it.

I'm pretty sure I'm running the latest version now, but I haven't got a Samsung.

Anyone want to guess what phone I'm using? ;)

PC floggers scavenge for crumbs as Apple hoovers up profits

Ah yes, the idiot tax

That's clearly the best way to describe the perceived premium on a product that more people want to buy. There can be no other explanation for people paying that "tax" other than that they're idiots. And of course no other explanation for the tax itself, since Apple's products are *exactly* the same as all the Windows-toting machines they compete with - right? Amazing that so many people keep missing that. Idiots! Happy, satisfied, productive, idiots.

Samsung shoots Galaxy S III with shrink ray, unveils 4in Mini

Re: Disappointing

To be fair this doesn't even compete with the 4S, which has a higher res screen, better camera, and far stronger processor. Plus iOS and much better build quality of course.

Zuckerberg blew $1bn on Instagram 'without telling Facebook board'

Re: Fanboy chagrin?

Ah, I see - a total of three people on twitter didn't like it. Yes, that sounds more likely.

Fanboy chagrin?

"Instagram... saw a successful launch on Android, much to the chagrin of many an Apple fan."

I keep seeing statements like this, but where are all these heartbroken "Apple fans"?

I have an iphone, I've never actually downloaded Instagram, but it never occurred to me that it was Apple exclusive, or likely to stay that way if it was popular.. it's no secret that there are more Android handsets out there than iphones, so it seems a bit unlikely to me that anyone would be that upset or surprised by a social network expanding on to both platforms..

This supposed upset wouldn't be a little bit projected on the part of others, would it?

Yet another OSX/Java Trojan spotted in the wild

Re: There is some progress though

I'm still fan enough to point out that the cleaner for 10.6 came out last week.

Also, let's not pretend "the poor anti virus companies" aren't whooping for joy over this, after failing to peddle their wares to the mac community for a decade now. Regardless what's happened over the last month or so, it follows ten full years of corporate scaremongering over menaces that really didn't ever transpire, until now. Sophos, Kapersky, Norton et al will now, finally, do very nicely out this - whether or not any of their products would actually have prevented it..

Re: Oh boy, here we go again.

I like my Mac, and OS X, and I think any sensible person (without an agenda to push) would concede that Mac's are still considerably more secure than Windows - but regardless of that, you sir are an embarrasment.

If you truly knew "how things worked" you'd know that these last couple of trojans are exploiting a weakness in the Java engine *built into OS X* - and it's OS X that's getting infected as a result. This is nothing whatsoever to do with Windows or "Lunix", whatever that is.

Up until last week, any perfectly stock Mac running Leopard, Snow Leopard or earlier, or a Mac running Lion but with the optional Apple-supplied Java runtime installed, was wide open to the Flashback trojan. No other software from Microsoft or anyone else needed to be installed. The result was a botnet of around 500,000 Macs, all running OS X just as Apple intended, and all infected.

This was only possible because Apple sat on the knowledge of this Java weakness for 6 weeks, before finally passing the update on last week. There's no question that they've completely ballsed this up for themselves, and all Mac users, and they need to learn from their mistakes quickly. I personally don't want to end up resorting to the Windows route of antivirus, but with this cock-up Apple are pretty much handing users like us to the likes of Sophos and Kapersky on a plate.

Apple: We never said Siri would actually work in the UK

I understood, like most "early adopters" at launch, that siri was in beta and not all features were in play yet. The only problem is, that was October, and since then we've seen zero progress - no further "beta" releases, no opportunity to feed back on the current beta, no road plan or indication of when we'll see a final product. So on balance, yep, Apple have disappointed me on this one.