Tech Bitch

Apple has previewed its iPhone 2.0 software. Not available in full until June, the beta release of the software is actually available to selected developers and enterprise customers now.

The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push e-mail, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks. Anyone can download the Beta iPhone SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator on their Mac.

Apple said it’s pretty stoked about creating a vibrant third-party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch. The iPhone SDK provides developers with a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools so they can use to hopefully create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch.

Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push e-mail, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery.

The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.

During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple’s new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing. The Standard Program costs $99 (£50) per year and gives members an iPhone SDK and development tools; access to pre-release iPhone software; technical support; the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing; and distribution of applications via the new App Store. The Enterprise Program costs $299 (£150) per year.

This online music thingy is really taking off. Apple said its iTunes software/service is now the number two music retailer in the U.S., behind only cheepo retailer Wal-Mart.

There is now an army of over 50 million iTunes Store customers, and iTunes has sold over four billion songs - with an incredible 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007 alone. The ubiquitous service offers the world’s largest music catalogue of over six million songs from all of the major labels.

Last month Apple push ahead with its world domination plans by launching iTunes Movie Rentals, featuring movies from all of the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema.

You can rent movies and watch them on your PC or Macs, most new iPods, iPhone and on an Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals will offer over 1000 titles by the end of this month, including over 100 titles in high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which you can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV.

PayPal said you should drop Apple’s Safari browser if you want to avoid online fraud.Safari doesn’t make PayPal’s list of recommended browsers because it doesn’t have two important anti-phishing security features, according to PayPal.

Apparently, Apple is lagging behind what they need to do to protect their customers. PayPal recommends at this point to use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera. Basically, anything but Safari.

Safari is the default browser on Apple’s Macintosh computers and the iPhone, but it is also available for the PC. Both Firefox and Opera run on the Mac.

Unlike its competitors, Safari has no built-in phishing filter to warn users when they are visiting suspicious Web sites. Another problem is Safari’s lack of support for another anti-phishing technology, called Extended Validation (EV) certificates. This is a secure Web browsing technology that turns the address bar green when the browser is visiting a legitimate Web site.

When it comes to fighting phishing Safari has got nothing in terms of security support, only SSL (Secure Sockets Layer encryption) - that’s it! An emerging technology, EV certificates are already supported in Internet Explorer 7, and they’ve been used on PayPal’s Web site for more than a year now. When IE 7 visits PayPal, the browser’s address bar turns green - a sign that the site is legitimate. Upcoming versions of Firefox and Opera are expected to support the technology.

Earlier this month Apple dropped the price of its smallest flash memory player to just £32. Wow! It also bumped its capacity to 2GB (around 500 songs in 128Kbps AAC format) and charges just £45 for the pleasure (1GB model still available). So I thought now was as good a time as any to get one in for review and see what I’ve been missing.

The immensely popular iPod Shuffle is a sight to believe - it’s just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs an unnoticeable 14g, features a minimalistic aluminium design with a built-in clip and comes in five metallic colours - silver, blue, green, purple and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition. There simply isn’t anything else on the market that’s as portable or as hard wearing.

The iPod Shuffle is also the world’s most wearable iPod - just take a look around the next time you’re in the gym! Now let’s not get carried away - the iPod Shuffle’s features list is almost non-existent and you have to use iTunes to get your music onto in. On the plus side there’s a vast ecosystem of accessories with over 4000 products made specifically for the iPod including cases, fitness accessories, and speaker systems. It should work with a lot of modern automobile stereo systems, too.

There’s no display on the iPod Shuffle, so it’s not great for discovering new artists, but using it is a snap. Tactile controls on the front let you alter volume levels and skip tracks, and there’s a dedicated on/off switch and shuffle switch - the latter either randomly mixes up the song order or resets back to the order in which the tracks were synced from iTunes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the player actually outperformed Apple’s 12-hour battery life rating, and not by just a few minutes, but a few hours - I managed to get 15 hours!

The iPod Shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later and iTunes 7.4; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 7.4 or later (not supplied). The headphone jack doubles as a dock connector - simply flip the player upside-down and drop it into the included dock.

The iPod Shuffle isn’t about features or sound quality - it epitomises ease of use, portability and convenience. It’s time to join the revolution! [8]