Apple Keyboard Hack Proved Possible

Slashdot reports that Apple keyboards are vulnerable to hackers’ attacks due to the complexity of their inner workings, which include RAM and flash memory. According to the report, the hack can potentially place keyloggers and malware directly into the device’s firmware.

To make matters even worse, the author of this “proof of concept” has also published the presentation and code in a PDF that’s free to download for anyone on the planet. The vuln is undoubtedly enticing to hackers, some of which are likely to create one or more exploits for the flaw in question. To better understand how this discovery has turned into a potential security issue, we offer you a few excerpts from the published document.

For ethical reasons, the firmware modification we describe is benign. The firmware is modified so that the LED under the CAP S LOC K key of the keyboard will flash momentarily when the keyboard is first plugged into a system. However, malicious payloads can be developed by individuals with mal-intent. Read more

iPhone OS 3.0 Officially Released

After a painfully long wait, Apple has finally released the much-hyped iPhone 3.0 Software Update, delivering improved functionality and tons of new features to iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. Two days from now, the iPhone 3G S will also be available to the public. The device will “unlock” the complete set of new features available with iPhone OS 3.0.

“The new iPhone OS 3.0 is a major software release packed with incredible new features and innovations for iPhone customers and developers alike. It will keep us years ahead of the competition,” said Philip Schiller (Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing) back in March, when the company previewed the first developer beta of iPhone OS 3.0. Read more

iPhone 3G S Features

Apple has officially announced the launch of its fastest and most powerful iPhone called iPhone 3G S.

It is almost same in the shape but it has some new features added including the the camera of the new iphone is upgraded to 3 megapixel with auto focus, Tap to focus, Video recording, VGA up to 30 fps with audio and lot more other features listed below

New Features Added with To iPhone 3G S

- 3MP camera with autofocus, auto exposure, automatic white balance, low light sensitivity, macro mode, photo and video geotagging

- 3.5-inch Multi-Touch display with 480 x 320 pixels resolution at 163 ppi Read more

Altair Leaps on iPhone, iPod touch

Published by Gameloft under license from Ubisoft Entertainment, Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles is now available for iPhone and iPod touch users running Software Update 2.2.1. The publishers tout the title as being recommended for fans of action, adventure, and historical games.

Connoisseurs (console players) needn’t any updates as far as the game’s plot goes, but iPhone and iPod touch owners might be interested in knowing that Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles takes place in Jerusalem, 1191 AD – the time when the Third Crusade between the Crusaders and Saracens was tearing the Holy Land apart. Read more

How to Rebuild the iPhoto Library

Apple has posted / updated a Support document online outlining the particularities of rebuilding your iPhoto library. Last modified this weekend, the knowledge base article contains (rebuilding) instructions for users of iPhoto 6 or later.

According to Apple, “iPhoto includes a feature that allows you to rebuild the currently selected iPhoto library. Sometimes rebuilding the library may resolve issues such as the library appearing to be unreadable, missing photos, or other issues related to reading the iPhoto library structure,” the company explains. Read more

Apple to Seed OS X 10.5.5

Sources are reporting that Apple is close to issuing the first pre-release build of the next maintenance update to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Mac OS X 10.5.5 is said to include support for new Mac notebooks due out later this year (autumn).

“People familiar with the matter say Apple Developer Connection members and other high-profile software makers could receive the first test builds of the software prior to the start of the weekend,” AppleInsider reveals. “The first seedings will almost certainly arrive by the middle of next week,” the site notes, citing the same sources.

Apple’s latest maintenance update for Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5.4 was released on June 30, just a month after the first beta build had been seeded to the Apple developer community. Read more

iPod and iPhone on the Big Screen

Here’s an interesting little gadget for iPod and iPhone owners, it’s a mini LED/LCoS projector called the QuingBar MP101. Just pop in your pod (or phone) into the docking slot on the top and it’ll throw up a 640 x 480pixel image, up to 50cm across, on any handy white surface or wall. Okay, so the picture is going to be a bit grainy, and with only 15 lumens on tap, not very bright, but it has to be better than going boss-eyed trying to watch a movie on the handset’s titchy screen. It has a built in speaker and it’ll also charge you iPod or iPhone while it’s in place. No price or UK availability yet – it’s only lust been launched at a European trade show, but I’m guessing £150-ish and in the shops in a month or two.

Hack a Laptop Challenge, Winners and Losers

In a three-day contest, held at a major security conference in Vancouver recently, teams of hackers were challenged to break their way into three laptops, running Mac OS X, Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux operating systems, reports CNet News.

Now I know what you are thinking but you’d be wrong… On the first day all three machines repulsed attacks on the operating systems and via a network connection. The Mac Air laptop was the first to fall, however, two minutes into the start of the second day’s session. This was after the judges relaxed the rules to allow the hackers to attack browser and email vulnerabilities. Read more

Mac Owners Told ‘Don’t Panic’

Security specialists Sophos are doing a fine impression of Dad’s Army’s Corporal Jones with its latest advice to Apple Mac users, which is ‘Don’t Panic’. This follows the discovery of a Trojan horse web popup that targets OS X users, called Troj/MacSwp-B or ‘Imunizator’. Windows PC owners will be familiar with the trick it plays, it purports to be a security program checking for problems, which needless to say it finds, it then tries to frighten Mac users into paying out for bogus software. Read more

Shirt Power for iPods

A week or so ago you may recall many newspapers carried a story about an odd looking contraption that you strapped to your legs, which generated power as you walk, enough to power up to 10 mobile phones one report said. Well, here’s something a tad more elegant. Researchers at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an idea that generates power from nano fibres, that can be incorporated into everyday items of clothing, like shirts and trousers. Pairs of fibres are coated with zinc oxide nanowires and as they rub against each other they generate tiny currents using a piezoelectric effect. Read more