Piracy fears over Apple downloads

7 January 2011 Last updated at 05:49 ET

Pirates have targeted Apple's new software download service just one day after it launched.

Several groups claim to have found security flaws in the company's new Mac App Store, which launched on Thursday.

The new service allows people to find and download approved applications to their Apple computers.

However pirates suggest that the loopholes mean many pieces of paid-for software are vulnerable to unauthorised copying.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had hailed the launch as "innovative", but the company has yet to respond to the claims.

While Mac users have been able to purchase and install programs on their computers for many years, the Californian technology giant hopes the new system can emulate the success of its music and mobile download services.

The store has more than 1,000 programs for download, including best sellers such as Angry Birds and Twitter.

Apple scrutiny

Unlike ordinary software downloads, however, every program in the store is scrutinised by Apple and must pass a series of tests before gaining approval.

Almost immediately after the launch, however, pirates and Apple experts outlined a series of loopholes that could allow software to be copied or shared illegally.

One flaw, which only affects some applications including the popular Angry Birds game, involves simply copying and pasting the purchase code to allow paid-for programs to be used for free.

At the same time, a group known as Hackulous says it has developed a program called Kickback which can break the protection on any piece of App Store software.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We don't want to devalue applications and frustrate developers."

End Quote "Dissident" Representative of Hackulous

However the organisation, which has previously broken the copy protection systems used by the iPhone and iPad, says it will not release its work until next month.

"We're not going to release Kickback until well after the store's been established," said "Dissident", a spokesman for the group. "We don't want to devalue applications and frustrate developers."

Google battle

Although Apple's approval process is intended to boost security, prominent blogger John Gruber - who writes extensively about the company - said the loopholes showed gaps in the system.

"Apple should test for this in the review process, and reject paid apps that are susceptible to this simple technique," he wrote.

In the past the company has come under fire for the opaque nature of its approval scheme, which has sometimes resulted in applications being blocked without an obvious reason.

Most notably Google complained after its Voice application for the iPhone was turned down. It was eventually given approval, but only after a protracted battle between the two companies.

The news also comes after it emerged that as many as 50,000 fraudulently-obtained iTunes accounts were for sale on Chinese auction site TaoBao.

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Google phone bug misdirects texts

7 January 2011 Last updated at 10:25 ET

Google says it will fix a mobile phone bug that mistakenly sends text messages to the wrong people.

The glitch, which has hit a small portion of the company's Android mobile phones, first emerged last year.

Those affected say some of their texts have ended up in the hands of random recipients.

After investigating the issue, Google said it had "developed a fix" and would be rolling it out soon.

It is nearly a year since the problem was first reported, although the number of incidents appeared to increase last summer.

Initial examinations confused the problem with another, similar bug - but the company admitted yesterday that some users have seen their messages delivered to the incorrect recipient.

"It took us some time to reproduce this issue, as it appears that it's only occurring very rarely," said Nik Kralevich, an engineer on the Android security team.

"Even so, we've now managed to both reproduce it and develop a fix that we will deploy."

It is not clear, however, when users will actually receive the fix - or how it would happen.

Some mobile bugs require a complete software update - which would require plugging affected handsets into a computer - while others can be fixed remotely.

Potentially embarrassing

Although the company was keen to stress that only a tiny fraction of users have reported problems, some users say it has proven embarrassing and potentially costly.

"Today I sent a text asking about a contract from a potential employer - and it went to my current boss," wrote one user on Google's bug forum.

"If this hurts my career, I will be looking into legal action."

Tracking down the bug has become increasingly important for Google since Android - its system to power smartphones - has grown massively in popularity over the past year.

It has rocketed from having a share of just 3% of the worldwide smart phone market in 2009 to more than 25% today.

Most users affected suggested it is an inconvenient, rather than crippling, problem - but those who have experienced the glitch say that it has been troubling.

"I don't know where the SMS messages are going," Christina Bunce, a university programme leader from Falmouth, told the BBC.

"But I can see they have been sent and never arrived."

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Tablets do battle in Las Vegas

7 January 2011 Last updated at 07:21 ET By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Las Vegas

The tablet wars are on and industry watchers say it will come down to a battle between Apple and Google for domination.

Apple's success with iPad, which has sold 7.5m, has spurred a number of competitors to enter the market.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it has been estimated there are over 100 tablet computers on display.

At the show there were a number of devices powered by Google's Android operating system.

Google said it has more than 100 Android compatible devices from phones to tablets.

One of them is Motorola's XOOM which has been hailed by a number of bloggers and reviewers as a possible iPad killer.

The tributes come even though the Android 3.0 software which it will run on, is not quite finalised.

The Washington Post called it "the most promising iPad competitor" while Reuters news service noted that "Google stole the show" by unveiling its latest Android software which appears on the XOOM.

Motorola was only able to show a prototype of XOOM, with a final version ready to ship in the US in the next couple of months. There is no official note of when it will be available for sale in Europe at this stage or the price of the device.

The XOOM is Motorola's first tablet device. It has a 10.1 capacitive screen with the ability to show full HD video playback. It will also feature the expected features like accelerometer, gyroscope and Adobe Flash and there will be a rear and a front facing camera for making video calls.

Tablets showing off Google's Android operating system will turn heads, thinks IainThomson, US editor of technology blog V3.

"We are seeing Windows 7 on some slates but its Windows - it's not very sexy, it's not very exciting. So if we are talking about a battle between the two then it is definitely Apple going head to head with Android."

"Killer device"

Industry watcher Jonathan Roubini, editor of Lab Reviews, said Android 3.0 was key to the success of any iPad killer.

"All the Android operating systems have been for phones but with Android 3.0 you will have a dedicated OS that will let you do things on the tablet that gives you the feel of a real computer on a tablet device."

While Motorola shied away from calling their product an iPad killer, they were bullish about the challenge it poses to Apple for the next iteration of its successful tablet computer.

"The gauntlet has been thrown down to everybody," said Paul Nicholson, product marketing director for XOOM.

"This sets the bar. This is a tablet that shows what a tablet is supposed to be. It's the one everyone was waiting for this Christmas," he said.

"Competition"

So what of the iPad? To date it accounts for nearly half of the 16m tablets sold last year, reigniting a fading market for such devices.

It has been widely speculated that Apple will announce an upgraded version later this month.

Apple have refused to confirm or deny speculation about the iPad.

"I think at the moment Apple has a challenge on their hands but there have been plenty or rumours about an update and blueprints surfacing on the net about what it will look like," said Mr Thomson of V3.

"Long term Android will be the winner but for the next three or four years, Steve Jobs has nothing to worry about."

Mr Roubini agreed. "iPad is the big giant but as soon as people realise that Android can do better then it's going to be tough for iPad to remain the leader."

Tablet fest

Another player expected to announce a tablet in the very near future is HP.

Any device it unveils is expected to be based around the Palm operating system after it bought the company earlier in the year.

HP's chief technology officer Phil McKinney refused to confirm or deny details, but said the dominance of tablets at CES was hard to ignore.

"Someone said this (CES) is turning into a slate/tablet fest and we have said we will ship a WebOS slate in 2011.

"Generally any slate or tablet has to look at its application catalogue that is available to it. It's got to look at its connectivity option - how good is that online experience.

"Also that slate/tablet needs to work across your ecosystem of your devices. It can't be a stand alone data island. It's got to synchronise with your PC, or your phone or the cloud for example," added Mr McKinney.

HP has invited members of the press to an event it is hosting in San Francisco next month when it is expected to unveil a possible tablet.

"The onus is now on HP to shock and surprise," said Caroline McCarthy of technology news blog CNET.com

"It remains to be seen what they can deliver with the WebOS because Palm was losing market share when it was bought and consequently the WebOS system is not that highly anticipated."

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