Filed under: Apple

If you're using Safari 5 and have been waiting patiently for an official source for browser extensions, your prayers have been answered! Yes, the Google Chrome Safari Extensions Gallery is now online!

Right now, there are about one hundred extensions listed and they're grouped by category. Most of the big-name extensions you'd be looking for are there -- like AdBlock, LastPass, Instapaper, and WOT. The Exposer extension is definitely worth a look -- it provides slick, Expose-style thumbnail previews of your Safari tabs.

But come on, Apple... Really? You had to name your web-based "shop" for Safari Extensions the Gallery? Maybe they're hoping for some SEO win.

If you're getting ready to jailbreak your iPhone, now that jailbreaks have been okayed by U.S. courts, you should know that you're still not getting any help from Apple.

The company maintains that whether jailbreaks are legal or not, they can still void the warranty on your iPhone. (As Victor Agreda points out at TUAW, "can void the warranty" doesn't mean it always does. We don't know whether there will be exceptions in practice.)

This doesn't change anything, really.

Apple has always maintained that they wouldn't provide support for jailbroken devices, but they've never gone after the folks who publish jailbreaking code or run alternative app stores like Cydia. With 10 million jailbroken iPhones out there, developers who are rejected from the official App Store might increasingly turn to these now-legal alternatives.

Apple's Safari browser has a major security hole that malicious sites can use to steal your personal data, including your address and phone number. If you have any of the "AutoFill web forms" boxes checked, a site can snag information from your Address Book entry without your knowledge. To turn that feature off, open up preferences and click AutoFill.

Most people don't put things like credit cards numbers or Social Security numbers in their Address Book entries -- why would you? -- but your name, address and phone number are probably still there from the first time you registered your computer with Apple. Windows Safari users aren't entirely exempt from this exploit, either. Even though there's no Address Book on Windows, any personal info you put directly into Safari's AutoFill is still at risk.

Yikes, Apple! I expect to see a security update for Safari in the coming days. Until then, I'll use a more secure browser, like ... well, anything except Firefox, according to one firm.

[via TUAW]

If you've made the switch from Firefox to Chrome and count AdBlock among your must-have extensions, there's one gripe you probably had. Unlike its Firefox or Safari cousins, AdBlock for Chrome wasn't actually able to prevent ads from downloading. As developer Mike Gundlach told The Reg, " We've been having to hide the ads after downloading them or add CSS rules that say 'don't show these ads' even though they're downloading."

That's changed, however, thanks to some recent code updates. AdBlock can now act premptively, saving you precious kilobytes (and possibly some additional frustration). As it turns out, it's Apple who is responsible for the change: the beforeload event was actually slipped in during a recent update to the Webkit engine, which eventually made its way into Chrome.

Apart from AdBlock, this should be good news for Chrome users in general as it provides an important content manipulation function.

Remember when I said that iChatr, the iPhone 4 Chatroulette clone, didn't have as many "gross, naked dudes" as the original Chatroulette?

Well, I guess I was wrong, because iChatr has been removed from the App Store due to the behavior of several (gross, naked) users.

It was probably inevitable that Apple -- with its mission to offer app store users "freedom from porn" -- would find something objectionable about an app known as a way for voyeurs to expose their, um, dangly bits. The Daily Beast even ran a piece explaining the appeal of getting naked on Chatroulette, so this is hardly an undocumented phenomenon.

SKJM, the developer of iChatr, is currently discussing a solution to the problem with Apple. I don't know what they can do to lock nudity, though... unless Apple wants to start handing out free pants along with those free iPhone 4 bumpers.

This probably isn't really very 'Download Squad', but as Lee's not around to stop me posting this, I thought I'd share.

In just two minutes the geniuses at Taiwan's NMA news agency describe the entire iPhone 4 reception/antenna/free-bumpers-for-all debacle. They tell the story using Sims-like CGI, it features Steve Jobs, Bill Gates _and_ evil Sith Lord Palpatine-esque hand-lightning.

Also, if you're already at work, you can watch this one without sound because unfortunately the commentary is in Chinese.

Now to write some proper news...

[via Gizmondo]

Apple's FaceTime video chat, which has been knocked by detractors for only working over Wi-Fi and only on the iPhone, might be coming to many more devices soon. According to Boy Genius Report, an upcoming version of IOS has some code that suggests FaceTime will become available for non-iPhone devices like the iPod Touch and the iPad, using Apple IDs instead of phone numbers.

Calling using your email address is cool, but there's still the problem that the current-gen iPod Touch and iPad don't have front-facing cameras. Using FaceTime as a voice-only VoIP call would still be useful, but that's not likely what will happen: this new information strongly implies that the next iPad and iPod Touch will have dual cameras. The FaceTime protocol isn't actually closed, either, so it's possible that FaceTime will also one day come to the desktop. We can dream, right?

Two years ago, we were not impressed with Poly9's 3D globe software, similar to Google Earth. This week, Apple begs to differ with us, deciding that Poly9 was far enough along that it's worth acquiring. To be fair, two years is an eternity in software time, and the current Poly9 Globe is a lot cooler than Poly9 FreeEarth, the app we called, "like Google Earth, but Flash-based and slower."

Of course, back then, we thought Flash-based was a good thing. Apple famously disagrees with that, so it's a good thing that today's Poly9 Globe is all JavaScript. The Poly9 Globe site has stopped working following the Apple acquisition, but there are a lot of other sites built on it, including ConduitLive and Skype Nomad.

Apple's earlier grab of Google Maps competitor Placebase, together with the Poly9 deal, suggests that Apple is going to launch one of heck of a map service at some point. Whether it will be a full-on war with Google's existing products or something new and innovative remains to be seen.

[via AppleInsider]

A couple of days ago, we found out that a number of iTunes user accounts had been compromised and used to buy and promote bogus apps. We just didn't know what that number was. Now, Apple has confirmed that 400 accounts were affected. The iTunes servers themselves weren't compromised, says Apple.

The question of how much money was lost in this scam is still open, as is the question of how many rogue developers were involved. This is probably mostly down to Thuat Nguyen, the guy who used hacked accounts to get 40 of the top 50 apps in the Books category on iTunes. Nguyen's apps were disabled quite quickly, but TheNextWeb asserted that he wasn't the only dastardly dev engaged in this kind of behavior.

Apple is downplaying the damage here, pointing out that 400 accounts is a drop in the bucket when you have 150 MILLION users. New security measures will be in place, and the App Store will make more frequent use of the little 3-or-4-digit CCV code on your credit card.

[via Clayton Morris]

In a report published last week it became painfully apparent just how different the iOS and Android ecosystems are. Not only does Android have significantly more free apps than either the iPhone or iPad, but paid apps also cost less on Android.

57% of all Android Market apps are free, compared to 28% of the iPhone App Store and just 23% for the iPad. Only the Windows Marketplace has less free apps than the iPad -- but had anyone even heard of the Windows Marketplace before now? The Palm App Catalog is in second place with 34% free apps. No other smartphone platform gets above 30% (check out the damning graph above!)

As for an average paid app price, the results are equally interesting. BlackBerry App World, no doubt thanks to its large corporate clientele, lands at the top with a rather costly $6.97! Next is Windows Marketplace ($5.96), followed by iPad ($4.65) and iPhone ($4.01). Android apps averaged out at just $3.29 -- and if you want your apps under $3, the Nokia and Palm stores are your best bet!

But why is there such a disparity? TechCrunch, as usual, simply parrots the figures and pastes some pretty graphs. It's for two reasons, I think:

1) iPhone and iPad owners are paying the usual 'exclusivity' tax. It costs more to fix a Porsche than a Ford.

2) Android has a wildly different developer ecosystem and pathos. Android, by virtue of being an open source platform, will see a lot more open source apps. Openness breeds yet more openness!

iPhone users have fallen victim to rogue developers who are hacking accounts and using them to buy fake apps, stealing Apple customers' money and driving up the popularity of their useless apps at the same time. TheNextWeb has a thorough report on the scams, along with plenty of testimony from users who say they've been duped out of hundreds of dollars. At first, it seemed like this ripoff was being run by one developer, based in Asia and using fake website and support links. That account was shut down, but there are multiple "app farms" out there engaging in similar behavior.

Some apps take the scam a step further: they sell for free, and then steal your money with in-app purchases (beware of an app called World War). To make sure you haven't been hacked, check your purchase history in iTunes for suspicious activity. As a precaution, it also doesn't hurt to change your account password and remove any saved credit card info. If you've already been scammed, call Apple and your bank and try to stop the purchases from clearing.

If you need more info, TheNextWeb has details on a few of the specific app farms, as well as a good overview of the scam.


UPDATE: Here's a statement from Storm8, one of the companies on TheNextWeb's app farm list.

Most of our games have been on the App Store for over a year. Our games are free to download and play. Like many apps from iTunes, we offer certain virtual goods (like Honor Points) for sale through In-App Purchase. They are an optional part of the game, and serve to enhance various aspects of user experience and game play. In no case do users have to buy points to use our free applications.

Looks like there may have been some exaggeration on TheNextWeb's part in this company's case, but it's still a good idea to be careful of in-app purchases. Also, it still seems sketchy to have so many identical apps, just with different point totals (and different prices) attached.

There's no question that the iPad (and most newer iPhones and iPod touches) can run Flash. Just in case you wanted some "pics or it didn't happen"-style proof, the same dev who brought us the Spirit jailbreak decided to port the mobile Flash plug-in for Android to Apple's iOS.

The demo video looks pretty dang good, and @comex's latest is yet another reason why you might want to jailbreak your device. Unless, of course, you're a fan of the blue LEGO bricks.

[iSpazio via AppAdvice]

Apple and Google are jockeying for position when it comes to cloud-based music apps. Google has fired the opening salvo by announcing its cloud-based Google Music service, due to launch this fall, but Apple is poised to fight back with the acquisition of streaming music service Lala. New rumors from Boy Genius Report outline a pretty plausible cloud strategy for Apple that is centered around cross-device syncing and streaming from either your computer or the cloud to your device.

That fits with a recent Steve Jobs email that said Wi-Fi syncing between Macs and iPhones would arrive "someday." Cloud music storage would help Apple get around the storage limitations of its iPhones and iPads. In terms of battling Google, Apple has an upper hand with its established music business and iTunes customer base, but Google has a more established cloud operation. As MG Siegler at TechCrunch points out, the notoriously unreliable MobileMe probably won't be able to handle the massive traffic that a cloud-based iTunes would generate.

A few days ago, the Microsoft vice president of Corporate Communications shared some figures with the rest of the world. Total sales, downloads, visitors, subscriptions -- numbers. It's a blog post of numbers.

TechCrunch calls it passive-aggressive. I call it smug, reassured braggatry -- the kind that only 800lb gorillas can pull off. If you want a full analysis of the numbers, read TechCrunch's post. Here are some choice snippets:

• 24% -- Linux server market share in 2005
• 33% -- predicted Linux server market share for 2007 (made in 2005)
• 21.2% -- actual Linux server market share, Q4 2009

That one actually shocked me. I know I've heard less Linux server news in the last few years, but I had no idea its share was actually shrinking.

• 7.1 million -- projected iPad sales for 2010
• 58 million -- projected netbook sales in 2010
• 355 million -- projected PC sales in 2010
• 96% -- percentage of US netbooks running Windows in 2009

He doesn't give us the percentage of PCs running Windows, but at last count it was around 90%. What he's trying to say is that other operating systems simply don't factor into the larger picture. Your iPhones and iPads might sell like hot cakes, but Windows is still the uncontested emperor when it comes to netbooks and PCs.
That's just a taster! Go read The Official Microsoft Blog if you want MORE.