By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

That report was quickly followed by a cascade of like articles. I counted half a dozen before going to bed, all expressing various degrees of excitement. We will finally know how much of the rumour and how many of those leaked photos were real. More below.

This week there was another piece of news about a potential insecurity that could affect users of the iPhone. John Biggs reports on TechCrunch that the data was on a hacked Dell laptop belonging to an FBI agent who had all this UDID information for some unknown reason. If the hackers join some dots, they could identify a user's location and other specific information.

The article discusses the security riks at length and links also to a site on which users may check to see if their UDID is at risk. Another report on this problem appears on iPodNN who add that the "file in fact contained data on 12,367,232 iOS devices, including not just UDIDs but "user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses," and other stuff. What on earth was an FBI agent doing with all this private data?

That question is posed also by Arik Hesseldahl on All Things Digital (and I would think quite a few more will be asking this question in the next day or so) who writes on this embarrassing breach and some of the potential dangers. According to some of the information here the hacking occurred sometimes in March this year.

There were two bits of news available for me when I woke Wednesday morning. The first was on Facebook where Don Sambandaraksa mentioned he was also preparing an item on this matter (more on Don below); and a denial from the FBI about the whole thing reported on AppleInsider by Mikey Campbell. The hacker group claim is false and this has nothing to do with the FBI anyway (although some of the UDIDs are genuine):

The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed. At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.

Although I had seen extracts on another site on Tuesday evening, Don sent me a link to the release from the group of hackers and I read through the whole thing. Lots of rant but some interesting points and they know their hacker history. Don reports that the file is real and he was able to access game history from one user's information.

One of their demands (before any interviews) was that Brian Chen of Gawker appear in a photograph wearing a pink tutu with a shoe on his head. All credit to the man, he did just that and the pics are now online (CNET).

Paging Al Franken. Paging Al Franken. . . .

With the iPhone 5 to be officially announced soon, there is more news about iOS 6 and its features which will be available around the same time, although (like before) not all will be available for all phones or iPads.

But will it be an iPhone 5? Apple may change the name as it did with the iPad last time. We did not have an iPad 3, just, iPad.

We have been reading of late about the possible introduction of NFC features for the iPhone allowing consumers to make purchases just by waving the device around at the checkout. Kelly Hodgkins on TUAW reports that Wallmart are experimenting with just such a system.

As part of the usual increase in pressure (and reports) that occurs round the time of such a product release, there is an item on Electronista that includes information about a new Apple Store in Germany and a distribution in Germany of nano-SIM cards.

Another feature that is on its way in iOS 6 is Passbook which Scott Forestall demonstrated at the June Developers' Conference. Rene Ritchie on iMore has a look at this and the way it works in a pre-release look at this part of iOS 6.

On developers, it has been confirmed that Apple has a new bulk delivery scheme now operating in more nine countries, according to AppleInsider, which allows developers to sell in bulk: a discount for schools and businesses. Those countries are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom with it already operating in the US.

A new feature on iOS 6 is Genius for apps. We have been using this for music selections for a couple of years, but AppleInsider reports that this has now been turned on for apps and that there is a new tile layout on the store.

As another part of the run down to the releases, Rene Ritchie has a preview of what we might expect in iOS 6 with a preview of the release.

With all the potential for patent problems for future technologies, I followed a tweet from Florian Mueller (Foss Patents) to a report on The Chosunilbo concerning the acquisition of 4G/LTE patents by Apple from Nortel and Freescale. The report adds, "Patent enforcement firm Rockstar Bidco, in which Apple holds a majority stake, owns another 116 LTE patents, giving Apple 434 in all." That should keep them going for a while.

I am a bit of an enthusiast as far as the iPhone camera is concerned, but it does have limits and I would never consider it for an important shoot. Perhaps as a second-strong device, or when the DSLR camera was in my bag and a shot presented itself to me -- got with what you have. There are times, of course, when it is fun to use the iPhone as a camera and mix on some of the apps as there are some that allow the iPhone to do what the big camera cannot, such as the stop motion sequences.

However, a good warning came from Matthew Panzarino this week on TNW who suggests that the couple who had their wedding shot entirely with the iPhone and processed with Instagram were not, perhaps, giving the event the best attentions that it should have had and outlines "Some of the basic reasons why shooting only with iPhones is a bad idea."

It was an interesting experiment of course and the photographer used some of the accessories I have but it may lack a certain gravity.

A local reader sent me a query regarding the latest update to Java which appears to be Java 7, Update 7. Along with the update a new preference pane appeared in the Other section, but although one part shows version 7, another part insists it is version 6. I cannot help him as I dumped Java a while back after the security problems, and the only way that has affected me so far is that the Truemove H wireless device no longer works. As I use that rarely, this is a good time for me to cancel the service. I don't want all that Huawei stuff either, frankly.

With the newness of the panel, and zero information about this online, I sent a query to Topher Kessler as it may interest him and be useful for other users.

I am back in the groove again with the System Preferences and put online two more articles this week:

• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: Sound
• System Preferences in OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion: Spotlight

There was some excitement on Monday evening here when lots of Twitter reports and web sites had the news that Bruce Willis was to sue Apple. Or not. Or maybe. Or something. Michael Rose outlines the question that he had concerning the ownership of his iTunes music collection and if he could pass it on to his daughters. Currently this is not clear. Rose also looks at some ways round the problem. And no, Bruce Willis is not going to sue Apple.

I am not quite sure what to make of a report by Sam Oliver on AppleInsider who reports that worldwide usage of OS X has passed that of Windows Vista. A sort of quiet "whoopee" passed my lips.

With Samsung also having to take action to fend off a PR problem at its factories in China, it has been reported by Neil Hughes on AppleInsider that there is speculation that Apple is subsidizing the wage increases that Foxconn was pressured into bringing in to its Chinese operations.

Half and Half

Other Matters

While Samsung is not my flavour of the month, they have reacted swiftly, particularly with regard to one supplier and "demanded that HEG immediately improve its working conditions". However another report on this from Dara Kerr has the headline, "Samsung says its manufacturer doesn't use child labor" but reading that report, there are similar allegations that Apple faced, but little of the outcry.

Where is the NYTimes and all the other news-hounds baying for blood like they did with Apple? Hypocrites.

As well as the Apple event announced for 12 September that will have the iPhone 5 announcement, Dante D'Orazio on The Verge writes that HTC are also about to announce a new product, but that is a week later on 19 September -- just when pre-orders for the iPhone will be full cry.

On Monday we related the gob-smacking story about what some bloggers from India had to suffer at the hands of Samsung PR folks in Berlin and there was a general feeling of discomfort around reports and Tweets I saw on this. We now read in an item by Brad McCarty on TNW that Samsung has issued an apology but the version they have differs with what bloggers reported. It was reported after I put the Monday Cassandra online that it was Nokia that rescued some of the bloggers and they picked up the tab for hotels and airfares back home.

Local Items

There were a number of reports this week, mostly through the Twittersphere, concerning the new tablet computers for Thai school kids. There were some mixed messages concerning battery life (yes it is, not it isn't) with some saying it takes a short time to discharge, but a longer time to put the charge back; and that there is no cut-off: it will just keep on charging until kaboom, I expect. A few of those and they will wish they had paid the extra for the iPad.

Another problem was that many of those supposed to be teaching the students were having problems understanding. The solution is simple: get out of the way. Let the students figure it out and the teachers can play catch up.

In early morning email from Don Sambandaraksa and then complemented by a look at his Facebook page, I learnt that the Bangkok Post, from which he left fairly acrimoniously (and freelancers like me were just dumped) has asked him to write an item for their upcoming 3G edition. Is that a retrospective or a look forward?

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.