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Apple has banned at least two prominent iPhone hackers from accessing its App Store.

Sherif Hashim, an iPhone developer who developed a hack for the latest iPhone OS 3.1.3, and iH8Sn0w, who developed the XEMN tool designed to unlock iPhone 3.1.3 radio baseband for the 3G and 3GS, found that their Apple IDs were blocked and accounts deactivated when they tried to access the app store of Monday. Their respective reactions can be found in Twitter posts here and here.

The move sparked concerns that Apple might ban all jailbroken iPhones was accessing the App Store. However, such a move would prevent Apple’s application developers from selling to the millions of users of jailbroken devices and would be especially bad politics following the launch of the Wholesale Applications Community at the Mobile World Congress conference earlier this week.

Full Story ~ The Register

This update for iPhone and iPod touch contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone (all models)
• iPod touch (all models)

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guides for iPhone and iPod touch at:
http://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone
http://support.apple.com/manuals/ipodtouch

For more information about iPhone and iPod touch, go to:
http://www.apple.com/iphone
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch

To troubleshoot your iPhone or iPod touch, or to view additional support information go to:
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone
http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

iTunes is a free application for your Mac or PC. It organizes and plays your digital music and video on your computer. It syncs all your media with your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. And it’s a store on your computer, iPod touch, iPhone, and Apple TV that has everything you need to be entertained. Anywhere. Anytime.

• iTunes no longer ignores your “Remember password for purchases” setting.
• Addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists and Podcasts with iPod.
• Resolves a problem recognizing when iPod is connected.
• Addresses issues that affect stability and performance.

Download iTunes 9.03

We’re only hours away from Google’s special event when the company is expected to launch the Android-based Nexus One mobile device. There has been a lot of speculation about the handset, and how it will differ from competitors like the iPhone. An early hands-on review by Engadget suggests the Nexus One will be a solid device, but not be immediate threat to the iPhone.

But that won’t stop the endless comparisons to the iPhone once the Nexus One is released later today. So why not just dive right in with several things Google needs to get right on the Nexus One, as well as the Android platform in general, to beat the iPhone.

Speed
It’s all about speed when it comes to smartphones, as users want a blazing fast connection and a device that doesn’t take forever to load a program. The Nexus One is widely believed to have a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor making it super fast, although not blazing fast according to Engadget’s review. The iPhone 3GS, where the ‘S’ stands for speed, has a 600 MHz processor, so clearly the Nexus One will have the advantage for the time being. But that could change if Apple brings out another version of the iPhone this year.

Pricing
Right now, the Nexus One looks like it will have a pretty standard pricing plan: $180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile or $530 unlocked. If Google really wanted to shake up the system it would figure out a way to offer the Nexus One at an even cheaper price or for nothing at all.

Be Open
If Google wants the Nexus One to rival Apple then it will have to be careful not to be seen as a closed device. The Nexus One is expected to be sold unlocked for $530, meaning you should be able to use the device with the carrier of your choice. But the Nexus One is a GSM phone so only two U.S. carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile, will be able to support the phone.

The problem is early reports are saying the Nexus One’s 3G connectivity will only work on T-Mobile, not AT&T, which automatically limits how you can use the phone. If I’m paying over $500 for a phone, I want it to be as wide open as possible, and that includes being compatible with both 3G networks.

The Nexus One, thus far, doesn’t look to be an iPhone killer. It does, however, look like a great add to the marketplace as more competition is a win for the consumer as competition will drive the major players to make improvements, incorporate some of the better ideas from the competition into their own, and drive better and better products for years to come. So welcome Nexus One. Can’t wait to see you grow and how you encourage others to grow.

Full Story – PCWorld

“This hacker tool could easily be installed, for example, on a computer on display in a retail store, which could then scan all iPhones that pass within the reach of its network,” Intego said. “Or, a hacker could sit in an Internet café and let his computer scan all iPhones that come within the range of the Wi-Fi network in search of data. ”

However, the tool can only attack jailbroken iPhones, or ones that have been modified to run unapproved software, that are running SSH (Secure Shell), a Unix utility with the default password enabled.

It’s estimated that between 6 percent to 8 percent of iPhone users have jailbroken their phones. The latest malware would only affect those who haven’t changed that default passwords for SSH, which is “alpine.”

Full Story ~ PCWorld

Reports suggest that a feature within Apple’s brand new iPhone 3.1 software update is disabling corporate Microsoft Exchange e-mail access for some first-gen iPhone and iPhone 3G users, though owners of Apple newest smartphone, iPhone 3GS, seem to be unaffected.

Apple touted a variety of new features within the software update, including iTunes Genius Recommendation for the App Store, wireless ringtone-downloads, app organizer tools within iTunes and more. But iPhone 3.1 also seems to have had an undesired effect on many first-generation iPhone and iPhone 3G users who receive corporate e-mail on their devices via Microsoft Exchange.

Apple’s support forum pages are quickly filling up with reports from frustrated enterprise iPhone users who attempted to sync information via iPhone with Exchange servers after upgrading to iPhone 3.1, but received the following error message:
Click here to find out more!

“The account requires encryption which is not supported on this iPhone.”

However, corporate iPhone 3GS users appear to be unaffected. Here’s why: iPhone 3.0 featured a bug that caused Exchange encryption policies for mobile devices to go unenforced, according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).

The original iPhone and iPhone 3G do not officially support Exchange encryption–first introduced in Exchange 2007 SP1, TUAW says–so they technically shouldn’t have worked at all. In fact, Exchange encryption policies weren’t enforced on any iPhone models, until iPhone 3.1 was introduced yesterday. That means even the iPhone 3GS, which officially supports Exchange encryption, was sneaking beneath those Exchange policies, according to TUAW.

This is could be both good news and bad news for Microsoft Exchange admins; good news because the iPhone Exchange encryption requirement which should have been enforced all along is now actually in effect; bad news because frustrated iPhone and iPhone 3G users are sure to shower their admins with questions/complaints related to the change.

Currently, there’s no ideal fix. Enterprises or individual users could simply upgrade devices to the pricey new iPhone 3GS models. Or admins could choose to disable the Exchange encryption policy. This dilemma could leave plenty of users “displeased” at the upgrade and at Apple, to say the least.

Of course, you should expect to see Apple (attempt to) offer up a fix, soon, before the early iPhone users’ complaints start reverberating throughout the Web and gaining strength.

Full Story

Slim and sleek as it is, the iPhone is really the Hummer of cellphones.

It’s a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, the average iPhone owner can use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user.

“They don’t even realize how much data they’re using,” said Gene Munster, a senior securities analyst with Piper Jaffray.

The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand. Another result is outraged customers.

Cellphone owners using other carriers may gloat now, but the problems of AT&T and the iPhone portend their future. Other networks could be stressed as well as more sophisticated phones encouraging such intense use become popular, analysts say.

Full Story

A new iPhone application, created by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, enables users to track and report outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as H1N1 (swine flu), on the ground in real time. The application, “Outbreaks Near Me,” builds upon the mission and proven capability of HealthMap, an online resource that collects, filters, maps and disseminates information about emerging infectious diseases, and provides a new, contextualized view of a user’s specific location – pinpointing outbreaks that have been reported in the vicinity of the user and offering the opportunity to search for additional outbreak information by location or disease.

Full Story

Judging by the few reviews that I have seen, this application appears to need more work before being useful:

Doesn’t work (v1.0)

Slow and not very helpful (v1.0)

That said, it is only version 1.0 so it is likely to get better if the time is spent on this application to improve performance and reliability.