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Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

UK service providers must notify customers when they connect to a different network

New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.
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Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
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Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
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UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
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Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
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Opinion Articles

Friday, November 27, 2009

How long can Apple remain torn between two lovers?

Mark Bridge writes:

“Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool, loving both of you is breaking all the rules”.

Mary McGregor sang those words in 1976 – and Apple would do well to bear them in mind today. Why?  Well, Rick Astley is to blame for it all.

Oh, alright, Rick’s not personally involved. It’s worm-writer ikee, along with the people who’ve followed him in creating security threats for the Apple iPhone. But why am I invoking the lyrics of Mary McGregor?

It’s because Apple has two loves... and it may be struggling to choose between them. It loves its customers. My, how it loves its customers. When Apple opened a shop in Brighton, the staff applauded me when I walked in. (No, I don’t think they recognised me from my podcasting fame; they were applauding everyone). But Apple also loves its application store. In fact, it spends most of its TV ads promoting other people’s software.

And that’s where the problem starts. Apple likes to keep things in the app store locked down. Some iPhone customers like things a little more open, which is why they jailbreak their phones. And those jailbroken phones are susceptible to viruses and worms (especially if users don’t change their default passwords).

Where’s the anti-virus software for the Apple iPhone?  Nowhere. That’s because Apple’s software development kit doesn’t let programs interfere with other programs. Unfortunately anti-virus software needs to look at everything – which is why you won’t find any anti-virus software for iPhones at the moment.

Now, you could argue – and Apple probably would argue – that unmolested iPhones (or ‘jailed’ iPhones, I suppose) don’t have any security issues. That certainly seems to be the case at the moment. It’s a reasonable point.

But we’re moving into a time where an increasing number of iPhones are being sold. And that means an increasing number of second-hand iPhones on the market. Which means there’ll be even more jailbreaking going on - and more people with potentially vulnerable Apple devices.

One solution would be for a security company to create software that protects jailbroken iPhones. But another – and surely a better answer – would be for Apple to concentrate on its customer love and find a way of authorising an iPhone security solution that would work with all its mobile phones. Because I can’t believe it’ll be too long before someone creates a virus that’ll work on an unmodified iPhone. And when that happens, Apple risks losing both of its lovers.

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Recent Podcasts

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Apple, Google and Microsoft all have something new to talk about

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Problems for O2, ZTE and Huawei... but some good news, too

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