Saturday, August 18, 2012

Apple : Google wants to block US iPhone, iPad and Mac imports with new suit

Apple : Google wants to block US iPhone, iPad and Mac imports with new suit


Google wants to block US iPhone, iPad and Mac imports with new suit

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Google wants to block US iPhone, iPad and Mac imports with new suit

While the Apple vs Samsung trial still dominates the tech headlines, we could be about to do it all over again as Motorola has filed another suit against Cupertino.

The Google-owned smartphone giant is attempting to ban Apple's imports into the United States, including the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and some Mac models.

The recently-acquired company says Apple's unwillingness to talk about the patent issues meant taking action with the US International Trade Commission was its only option.

"We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple's unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers' innovations," Moto said in a statement.

Siri is implicated

Within the suit, Motorola alleges that Apple has infringed on seven of its patents, relating to voice recognition, "location reminders, e-mail notification and phone/video players", according to a Bloomberg report.

Motorola has been battling Apple on patent infringement issues since 2010 and this legal filing is the latest episode in the long squabble.

Indeed, an ITC ruling on a previous case is expected next week.

Serious security flaw found in iOS text messages

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Serious security flaw found in iOS text messages

While there are a great deal of hackers out there who exist solely to cause trouble for hardware and software makers, as well as their customers, there are a few diamonds in the rough.

Case in point, the hacker "pod2g," who spends his time discovering security exploits not to make use of them, but to make consumers and companies alike aware of problems.

His latest discovery is quite astounding, especially when you consider Apple is about to make a big push with their latest operating system, iOS 6.

The flaw in question affects every single version of iOS, including the most recent beta version of iOS 6, and allows hackers to send spoofed text messages to other phones without any indication they are fraudulent.

Is that text really from your bank?

As "pod2g" points out, when text messages are sent out, they are converted in the phone's Protocol Description Unit (PDU).

By accessing this PDU data, hackers are potentially able to utilize the User Data Header to mask the reply number in the text.

Typically, you would be able to see both the original and altered numbers, however that's just not the case on the iPhone.

Thus the origin of the SMS remains hidden, and hackers can dupe recipients into believing they are getting a text from a trusted source such as their bank.

Fortunately, this only applies to SMS messages, and not messages sent across Apple's iMessage service.

Apple has yet to address the issue, however "pod2g" plainly states if he was able to discover the flaw, so were some other less forthcoming individuals.

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