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Danish security firm Secunia has issued a report graphically assailing Apple as having the "most security vulnerabilities" despite noting in its research that the "statistics provided should NOT be used to compare the overall security of products against one another."Secunia's security vulnerability counts are frequently cited as proof of Apple's lax efforts in maintaining the security of its products, but as the company notes in its detailed statistics pages, "it is IMPORTANT to understand what the below comments mean when using the statistics, especially when using the statistics to compare the vulnerability aspects of different products." This comparison is not...

Here's another blow to those insist that Apple products are rock solid and unhackable: The security company Secunia reports that Apple products have more vulnerabilities than those of any other company. Oracle came in second place, with Microsoft in third. Secunia just issued a report that covers vulnerabilities for the first half of 2010, and it's not good news for Apple. The report (which you can download here) shows that Apple last had the most vulnerabilities of all vendors in 2005, before Oracle took over the top spot. And now Apple is on top again. You can see the chart,...

Apple's Biggest Fear By: David Sterman Staff Writer StreetAuthority Published: July 13, 2010 In the land of consumer technology, it's hard to stay as the king of the hill. Two decades ago, Sony (NYSE: SNE) ruled the roost, with its hot-selling Walkmans and Trinitron TVs. About a decade ago, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) looked poised to dominate the global cell phone market, and more recently, Motorola's (NYSE: MOT) RAZR set that company up for a long-term run as a consumer favorite. All those companies can now be seen in Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) rear-view mirror. With each passing year, Apple's brand only...

Apple announced several measures Friday to keep iPhone 4 users "happy" and to turn the controversy over the smartphone's occasional reception issues into a "non-issue." Again.Here's what you need to know. Apple's video of the press conference is online. So what did Apple CEO Steve Jobs actually say he was going to do? It's pretty simple, and clear. One, Apple has just released a software update to the iOS software. This, Jobs says, will make the "5-bars" icon display show the phone's signal strength more accurately. This will actually have no, as in "no," effect on the phone's reception for...

Apple today reported earnings of $3.51 EPS and revenue of $15.7 billion. Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones, up 61% 9.41 million iPods, down 8% 3.27 million iPads Analysts' consensus called for Q3 earning per share (EPS) of $3.11 on revenues of $14.75 billion and: Mac shipments: 3.1 million iPhone shipments: 8.7 million iPod shipments: 9.1 million iPad shipments: 3.2 million In after-hours trading, AAPL shares jumped $8.11, or +3.22%, to $260.00. Apple's press release, verbatim: Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter ended June 26, 2010. The Company posted record revenue of $15.7 billion and net...

I really thought the iPhone Antennagate was over Friday. Now thanks to Apple's dumb move to antagonize all rivals, already 5 handset manufacturers have had reason to jump in and point out they don't build antennas outside the phone cases, they don't need cases to fix antenna problems and they don't have death grip problems. So Apple also said on Friday that the problems with the iPhone have been totally blown out of proportion. It certainly sounded reasonable; when Apple said only 0.55% of iPhone 4 users had called Apple to complain about the Death Grip. Let's take those numbers...

Curiously, Consumer Reports’s list of “Recommended” smartphones includes all of the smartphones suffering from “holding it wrong” attenuation I’ve linked to tonight (Palm Pre, HTC Incredible, Nexus One, BlackBerry 9650) as well as three of the phones Apple posted videos about (iPhone 3GS, Droid Eris, BlackBerry 9700). I’d link directly to Consumer Reports’s web page for this list, but can’t, because it’s behind a paywall that their coverage of the iPhone 4 antenna is not. I’m sure they’ve been performing the exact same attenuation testing with all of these phones that they have with the iPhone 4, and that they...

Comment A.E. Housman: But it's all true. Oscar Wilde: On the contrary, it's only fact. Truth is quite another thing and is the work of the imagination –Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love When you hold the iPhone 4, does the signal fade more than it would on other popular smartphones, such as Apple's own iPhone 3GS or Google's Nexus One? It certainly does, according to independent tests. But those are merely the facts. The truth is that there is no Antennagate. Steve Jobs said so. During the Friday morning press conference where Steve Jobs told the world the truth...

Is there really such a thing as "freedom from porn?" Maybe not completely. But Apple CEO Steve Jobs wants to make his iPhones and iPads as porn-free as possible—banning the use of apps containing pornography and "adult" images from the wildly popular devices. (Apps are free or inexpensive mini-programs that are downloaded into smartphones and, now, the iPad.) Jobs' numerous critics jumped on the anti-porn policy, which was quietly started in February and picked up this spring with the iPad's release. They filled the blogosphere with cries of censorship and freedom of speech "violations." One e-mail critic even accused the...

Well, this is ironic. Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 4, the smartphone that Consumer Reports says it can’t recommend, is also the one ranked highest in its latest ratings. The device scored 76 out of 100 points–two points ahead of its closest rivals, the iPhone 3Gs and the HTC Evo 4G (click on image above to enlarge). The product evaluation agency rated the iPhone 4 “Excellent” in its display, navigation, Web browsing, multimedia and battery life categories, “Very Good” in phoning and messaging and “Good” in voice quality. In short, the iPhone 4 is hands-down the best smartphone available today, but...

It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4. snip Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software...

If you were hoping that the software update promised by Apple last Friday would include some special secret sauce that would prevent the new iPhone's reception from dipping when it's held the wrong way, prepare for disappointment. Gizmodo, the iPhone-scooping tech blog that's become quite the thorn in Apple's side, says it has checked not once, not twice, but three times with the AppleCare support line, and each time the service reps said the same thing: holding the iPhone 4 in such a way that you're touching the outer steel band on the lower-left corner will indeed cause antenna interference,...

iPhone 4 bursts into flames, burns hand by Boy Genius on July 8th, 2010 at 3:47pm One of our very close AT&T sources just sent us in these images. Yes, it’s a fried iPhone 4. Apparently a customer brought the phone into the store to try and get help with it, although it’s pretty evident that the phone is unrepairable. It’s the first time our guy has seen this happen (us too), but the brand new iPhone 4 caught on fire while being hooked up to a computer using the Apple USB cable that accompanied the device.

The iPhone 4 is suffering from a minor technical problem that's been completely blown out of proportion by the media.I’m beginning to think that Antennagate -- the so-called scandal over the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 4’s reception issues -- has become the most ridiculous tech story of the year. Let’s recap the problem. A small number of people reported iPhone 4 reception problems related to how they held the phone. I say a "small number" because there's still absolutely zero evidence of a high return rate or widespread customer dissatisfaction. Then, a whole bunch of media types started trying to recreate...

Schumer pens open letter to Steve Jobs Posted: July 15th, 2010 12:58 PM ET From CNN's Jeff Simon (CNN) - New York Sen. Charles Schumer on Thursday called Apple's suggestions for remedying a widespread issue with the iPhone 4 "insufficient" and urged the company to come clean about a problem that has many iPhone 4 customers up in arms. Schumer made the comment in an open letter written to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "I ask that Apple provide iPhone 4 customers with a clearly written explanation of the cause of the reception problem and make a public commitment to remedy...

As Apple prepared to address the mounting controversy surrounding the antenna of the iPhone 4, one thing appeared clear: the company does not plan to recall the popular device.

Josh Lowensohn: Jobs is going over what's being done to fix the problem. Highlighting iOS 4.01, secondly "the bumper solves the signal-strength problem"--give everybody a case. Jobs: OK great, let's give everybody a free case. Josh Lowensohn: Apple is giving everyone bumpers. Josh Lowensohn: Those who already bought will get a full refund. This will go on through late September, Jobs says. Jobs says Apple cannot make enough bumpers, though. Apple is working with third parties to source free cases for users. This entire program will work over the Web.

• Steve Jobs takes the stage.
 • First, a 15-minute presentation
 • "We're not perfect. Phones aren't perfect."
 • "We want to make all our users happy."
 • 3 million iPhone 4 units shipped to date
 • iPhone 4 is #1 smartphone according to Wired, Engadget, PC World, Consumer Reports
 • iPhone 4 has highest customer satisfaction of any iPhone or smartphone
 • Antennagate. "Apple's been working our butts off for 22 days…"
 • Attenuation "not unique to iPhone 4."
 • Happens with many phones: BlackkBerry Bold 9700, hold it in a normal way, 5 bars go down to 1 bar.
 • HTC Droid Eris: 4 bars to 0 bars.
...

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Friday announced that his company will give iPhone 4 owners free cases to address reception problems caused by the phone's external antenna, which is a metal band around the edge of the phone," John D. Sutter reports for CNN. "Mike Gikas, senior editor for electronics and technology at Consumer Reports, said in an interview that such a patch is a good "first step." But it's still not enough for his group to recommend the phone to consumers. 'What we were hoping for was a concrete, this-is-it fix for the phone,' Gikas said." MacDailyNews Take: Consumer...

Apple was on Tuesday facing a growing backlash over poor iPhone 4 reception after the technology group blocked links on its user-support pages to a negative review by an influential US consumer watchdog. Consumer Reports, the non-profit magazine, on Monday published a review online that stated it had tested three iPhone 4s in controlled settings and found that touching the lower left corner “can significantly degrade” the signal, causing dropped calls. Apple deleted references in several online discussions to the consumer group’s online posting, leading VentureBeat and investment blogs to pounce on what they described as censorship in the Apple-hosted...