You’d think by now we’d all be wary of open WiFi networks, and luckily that’s the only way this could affect you, but if you use the PayPal app on an open network the Wall Street Journal is reporting a hacker could potentially nab your user account.

According to the story, the app doesn’t verify your security certificate (which is kind of the point of the certificate, no?) and goes along its merry way, transmitting your data to PayPal in a way that a fortuitous ne’er do well could intercept. Still, as the WSJ points out, a hacker would have to be poised and ready to take advantage of this exploit. I doubt you’re sitting around in that app for hours while sipping your latte at Starbucks, right?

The app in the store shows the last update was October 26, but the WSJ reports a fixed version has been sent to Apple. We’ve reached out to PayPal to see if the updated app is available yet, but haven’t heard back. For now, if you must use this app in public, turn off WiFi to avoid the exploit. This issue does not affect users of the PayPal Android app or visitors to the website.

Update: Looks like version 3.0.1 arrived shortly after we posted this. PayPal away in relative security, everyone!

PayPal app has huge security flaw, update rushed to Apple originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While many of us (including me) are clamoring for an official iPad Facebook app, Mark Zuckerberg pretty much dashed any hopes for one at today’s Facebook Mobile Event. When asked why there wasn’t an official iPad app yet, Zuckerberg replied, “The iPad isn’t mobile.” Uh, what?

He apparently later back tracked and said that while he loves working with Apple, the iPad isn’t as mobile as a phone. Erick Tensing, Facebook’s head of Mobile Products, then explained that the explosion of tablets isn’t going to be about the iPad alone and there would be many offerings from vendors running Android OS. That leads Facebook to believe that committing limited resources to one tablet just doesn’t make sense.

What you’re gonna see, according to TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid, is a web-based mobile app version of Facebook that targets tablets across the board. All I’m asking now is that they hurry it up, besides some feature loss while viewing Facebook on an iPad, the entire site locked iPad owners out of zooming and scaling a few weeks back.

Facebook released an updated version of its app for iPhone and iPod touch earlier today.

[via TechCrunch]

Don’t hold your breath for a Facebook iPad app originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, there’ll be an iOS 4.2 jailbreak but it won’t be an untethered one unless you’ve SHSH blobs saved for iOS 4.1, according to Comex, the hacker behind JailbreakMe, and Spirit jailbreaks.

With the release of iOS 4.2 just around the corner, jailbreak community is wondering when and what type of jailbreak they will be getting. Both Limera1n and Greenpois0n uses the bootrom exploit developed by GeoHot + Comex’s userland exploit to provide an untethered jailbreak solution. The bootrom exploit alone becomes a tethered jailbreak. While it’s impossible for Apple patch the bootrom exploit without hardware revision, the Comex’s userland jailbreak thought can easily be patched with a firmware update e.g. iOS 4.2. So, the risk of getting a tethered jailbreak still remains.

The good news is, you can still get an untethered iOS 4.2 jailbreak even if Apple patches Userland exploit. All you need to do is Save SHSH Blobs for iOS 4.1 before iOS 4.2 hits masses, according to Comex.

The bad news is that the iOS 4.2 jailbreak might be delayed because Cydia is not compatible with iOS 4.2.

So, in order to get an untethered iOS 4.2 jailbreak, make sure you save SHSH blobs for iOS 4.1 while Apple is signing it. Apple will stop signing iOS 4.1 as soon as iOS 4.2 is released to general public.

How to: Save SHSH blobs for iOS 4.1

iOS 4.2/4.1 unlock is almost ready and will be released soon after iOS 4.2 jailbreak tool is out. We will update you as soon as a new jailbreak tool surfaces the scene. Stay Tuned!

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The original Palm Pre launched with no small amount of excitement. Largely due to its beautiful WebOS platform, the Pre was instantly hailed as an “iPhone Killer” by countless tech journalists and bloggers (aren’t they all?). Even I thought this phone looked amazing. It just had so much that the iPhone didn’t (at the time). An innovative multi-tasking system, a slideout physical keyboard, cool gestures to bring up hidden menus, global search, Facebook contact syncing, and more. All of this of course came in addition to various iPhone-like features that had Apple calling their patent lawyers.

However, here we are well over a year later and the iPhone is still the king (though Android is a serious threat). Even the newer Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi failed to gain the interest of consumers. Meanwhile, the horribly performing Palm, Inc. has been acquired by HP in hopes that the PC titan can revive the Palm brand. Now after a considerable period of silence, HP has launched the Palm Pre 2 along with WebOS2.

With HP’s backing, will this new Pre finally gain a considerable following and challenge the iPhone?

The Palm Pre 2

The updates to the hardware are fairly modest. Same basic shape (apparently more streamlined), same slideout keyboard design, the 3MP camera has been bumped to 5MP (still only one) and the 500Mhz processor has been bumped to 1GHz. Both the memory and storage also remain where they were: 512MB and 16GB respectively.

As Jason Mick at Daily Tech pointed out, one of the biggest surprises is that HP is staying with a 3.1-inch 320×480 HVGA display. If the iPhone’s amazing Retina display is spurring a smartphone resolution war, Palm has decided to sit it out.

Likewise, most of the “new features” in WebOS 2 seem more like UI improvements of things that already existed. The card-based multi-tasking system has been overhauled, the launcher has been reworked, etc.

Two new features that I think do seem pretty cool are Exhibition and “Just Type.” Exhibition, shown above, displays certain special apps while your Pre is on the charger. This is a really simple and awesome idea that I suddenly wish the iPhone had. “Just Type” is a lot like the global iPhone search, only it allows you to do a ton more like start an email or update your Facebook status, all without launching an app.

Palm Pre: Now A Contender?

I have mixed feelings about the Pre 2. The hardware doesn’t strike me as anything special and isn’t really that much more impressive than the original. WebOS 2 on the other hand looks pretty awesome. But then again, so did the original WebOS and it didn’t exactly revolutionize the market.

For whatever reason, the Palm Pre just hasn’t made a serious impact and I don’t see this fairly minor upgrade as a game changer. My guess is that the market is just supporting too many systems at the moment. Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile are quite the lot without throwing in WebOS, a product with a very uncertain long-term future.

The Android market is swelling at a rapid rate and if AT&T finally loses iPhone exclusivity in 2011 we could see a huge jump in iOS users. Both of these events will continue to push fringe products like WebOS out even further into the abyss.

What Do You Think?

Now that you’ve seen the new Palm Pre, what do you think of it? Is it a promising refresh of the Pre or merely a minor update? Also weigh in on your thoughts about WebOS and its ability to gain share in a fierce and crowded market.

Leave a comment below or hit us up on Twitter to discuss.

We’d like to say a big thank you to this month’s iPhone.AppStorm sponsors, and the great software they create! If you’re interested in advertising, you can order a slot through BuySellAds.

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Invoice Robot – Invoice Robot was developed for small businesses, non-profits and innovative people that want to create simple invoices and other documents from their iPads and iPhones without the assistance of administrative or accounting staff.

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WordPress is without a doubt one of the most ubiquitous website and blogging platforms around, and for good reason. The sheer volume of plugins and themes available to make your site stand out from the crowd is immense and has made WordPress the premier piece of web software for creating a beautiful website or blog.

Contemplate for a moment that there are now estimated to be upwards of 96.6 million Internet users who read a blog at least once a month – and that’s just in the US! It would be crazy not to utilize the incredible functionality of the iPhone to aid you in updating, managing, and tracking your website or blog. Furthermore, with the ever increasing rise of the smartphone, a large portion of the people viewing websites and blogs will be doing so on the move. You wouldn’t want your WordPress site to disappoint them would you?

Below we’ll look at a range of WordPress related resources with your iPhone in mind – from Apps to help you manage your blog through to themes and plugins designed to make your site have an impact on the iPhone.

Apps

For those of you who want to be able to manage, track, and most importantly update your website or blog on the move then these Apps are right up your street!

WordPress

First on the list is the WordPress App, which makes it easy to manage your WordPress blog or site from your iOS device. It allows you to take charge of all your WordPress sites and moderate comments, create or edit posts and pages, and add images or videos with ease.

Price: Free

Statistics for WordPress

So now you can manage your WordPress site from anywhere, but what’s next? Next is what you really want to know – exactly how your site is faring in the big wide world! Statistics for WordPress helps you do exactly that by allowing you to download and view statistics relating to all your WordPress powered sites. You can just drag your fingers over the multi-touch graphs to compare visitor numbers between days, weeks or months – while also being able to preview your top pages, referrers, searches or clicked links!

Price: $2.99

BlogPress

For those of you who delight in having multiple blogs across multiple platforms, I have also included a multi-platform blogging App on this list. BlogPress is the king of the multi-platform blogging Apps and supports a wide range of blog platforms, video upload, and the uploading of multiple photos. If your blogs aren’t confined solely to the WordPress platform then this is definitely one to consider!

Price: $2.99

Themes

A keen eye for themes is essential for any WordPress aficionado – at best they grab the attention of any casual visitor, while at worst a shoddy theme can send even your site’s most devoted fans packing!

SOFA iBloggr

Sofa iBloggr is the very first WordPress theme made exclusively for iPhone and iPod touch devices. It’s designed to fit perfectly on a 320px wide screen while also looking great on all desktop browsers!

Price: $17

Simple Mobile

Simple Mobile is another theme designed specifically for the iPhone and comes with eight possible colour schemes. It can be used in parallel with another theme and only presented to mobile users, or in the traditional way (where it is presented to both desktop and mobile users).

Price: $22

iWorld

While perhaps not as slick as either of the above themes, iWorld comes with ten possible colour schemes and widgets for Twitter and Flickr. It’s a fair bit more expensive than some of the others – only you can decide whether it’s worth it!

Price: $27

DotMobi

Although compact in design, this theme offers all the features to the user that a normal WordPress blog theme has to offer. DotMobi has unlimited theme colours available by using a color picker and runs straight out of the box!

Price: $17

iBusiness

iBusiness is one of the more slick-looking website templates and comes with three different widget areas and nine different styles. It also comes with documentation to help you integrate the template with the desktop version of your site.

Price: $17

Video Elements Mobile

Next up are a couple of themes from WPtap that differ from the above in that they are designed to work with specific WordPress themes from Press75. They had to get a mention because, despite the expense, all the themes from WPtap are undeniably gorgeous! Video Elements mobile is a stunning theme that focuses on clearly displaying video content from Press75′s Video Elements theme.

Price: $49.99

On Demand

On Demand mobile is another optimized site from WPtap to be used in conjunction with Press75′s On Demand theme – it’s feature packed and is even optimized for Vimeo native playback.

Price: $49.99

Plugins

If you are slightly less concerned about having an iPhone specific theme for your website or blog, but would still like your content to be comfortably viewable by anyone on a mobile device then look no further than the two most popular iPhone related WordPress plugins!

iWPhone

The iWPhone WordPress plugin and theme automatically reformats your blog’s content for optimized viewing on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. It detects the iPhone/iPod touch’s user agent and serves up the content with a customized theme only displayed to iPhone and iPod touch visitors.

Price: Free

WPtouch Pro

On the other end of the plugin spectrum is WPtouch Pro. It helps you setup a detailed and feature-rich version of your website for touch screen mobile devices with just a few clicks. It even allows you to go one step further and build your own custom theme with WPtouch’s Skeleton theme template.

Price: $29

What did we miss?

We’ve looked at lots of ways to get your WordPress site going mobile but have we missed your favorite mobile theme or plugin? What do you think of the current crop of available iPhone specific themes? Should we be simplifying our sites so much for the iPhone when it’s actually rather good at rendering web pages?

Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts!

Today we’ll be discussing two very separate companies that have been recently thrown in together in headlines all over the web: Facebook and Apple. The two major topics of discussion might surprise you.

Is Facebook secretly working on a major iOS competitor? Is Apple positioning itself to buy Facebook? Below we’ll take a look at what’s fueling these two rumors and discuss whether or not they’re likely to come to fruition.

A Facebook Mobile Phone Platform?

Our first story isn’t so much about the Apple as it is yet another potential threat to their mobile operating system iOS. It seems Facebook of all companies might be the next big player to throw its hat into the fiercely competitive ring of mobile phone platforms.

Gawker reports that Facebook is launching “an iPhone War from a Secret Bunker” where they are either building their own platform from the ground up or, more likely, creating a custom Android build.

To me, this seems like a very odd move for Facebook. Sure, Facebook is the first app most people want to download on their phone but creating operating systems is a far cry from their core competency. Further, would a Facebook-centric Android build really make that big of a splash? It would have to bring some serious competitive advantages to the table in order to not end up just a fad that burns out quickly and loses far more money than it brings in. I don’t so much doubt that Facebook is indeed embarking on this venture as I doubt the likelihood of its ultimate success.

The Gawker article also speaks of significant animosity between Apple and Facebook where the iPhone is concerned. I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t reflected in the rapid disappearance of Facebook integration in Ping and the strange lack of an official iPad Facebook application. Facebook is easily one of the most popular iPhone apps in existence and it has puzzled me that they haven’t followed up that success with an iPad version. I’m both a huge fan of Apple and a regular Facebook user so I hope the two can learn to play nice!

Apple Buying Facebook?

Alongside stories about Apple and Facebook not getting along is the incredibly random curve ball that Apple should, or even might be, consider purchasing Facebook! Peter Kafka couldn’t help but notice that Apple’s $51 billion in cash is more than enough to buy Facebook outright, but is that really an indicator of anything?

As with the last story, this one just doesn’t sit well with me. Simply because something is possible doesn’t make it likely. Apple buying Facebook is a puzzling strategic move for the company. Unlike Google, Apple’s strategy remains fairly focused though it definitely makes a few giant leaps from time to time.

But to what end would this giant leap be for? Sure, Apple made a modest attempt to launch a social network with Ping, which seems to be falling flat on its face, but that was more of a small feature haphazardly thrown into iTunes than a reason to jump off and make a huge acquisition so they have a new avenue to sell music through.

It seems likely that an acquisition is exactly what Jobs and his clan have in mind for their pile of cash (what else could you spend so much money on but an overvalued company?), but I can’t help but wonder if Kafka is way off in his guess. The trend that Apple has been on is much more aimed at groundbreaking, future-changing technology like mutli-touch and increasingly mobile computing. Purchasing Facebook to make up for the failure of Ping just seems like a major derailment from that goal.

What Do You Think?

This is the part where we throw it back to you for your opinions. Do you think Facebook is quietly planning an attack against Apple by releasing their own mobile operating system as a direct competitor to iOS? If so, do you think it will be a major player or a fast failure?

Further, is it possible that as Facebook plans to launch an offensive against Apple that Apple is considering purchasing the company outright with its massive store of cash? If Apple isn’t going after Facebook, how do you think they’ll put the money to good use? We want to hear your thoughts!

In this article you will find collection of cool Joomla! extensions.

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I just wanted to let the readers know that things have/are really busy at the moment. I’m busy with my day job and I’ve also had hospital appointments etc that have all eaten into the time I normally spend on the blog and coding. This doesn’t mean nothing has been done, just not as quickly […]

Artist Johannes P. Osterhoff (whom you may remember from his paintings using OS X elements) has been reusing Apple’s interface elements again. His latest project is a real-life construction of the Home icon from OS X, which he’s made into a wearable display. The doors and shutters are actually real (if a little small), there are real curtains in the windows, and there are two straps on the back to haul the piece of art around.

It looks great — it’s really wild to see something that’s only ever existed in pixels translated into real-life materials from actual plans and blueprints. The piece itself is called Home Sweet Home, which seems fitting. We’ll have to keep an eye out for Osterhoff and see what else can do with Apple’s little bits of interface.

[via Cult of Mac]

Artist creates real-life home icon originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechCrunch reports that Mark Zuckerberg showed off the new version of his company’s Facebook for iPhone app at today’s Mobile Event. Facebook v3.3 adds a new Groups feature and also updates the existing Places feature. Among the improvements to Places, it will now be easier to tag your friends into a venue and it will be easier to add photos alongside a check-in. The update also features a Deals function that lets you “discover great deals around you” (translation: here comes the location-based advertising).

Zuckerberg also said that the Facebook app was on the “vast majority of iPhones.” The updated Facebook app is now available in the App Store.

Updated Facebook app released for iPhone and iPod touch originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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