There has been a lot of attention given to some recent iPhone hacks that potentially affect users of jailbroken iPhones, especially now that a malicious attack has been discovered. If you've jailbroken your phone, and you are worried about whether you are potentially vulnerable, here's a simple answer:

If you have not installed OpenSSH (or any other SSH package), you are not vulnerable to the current attacks.

To check this, go into the Cydia installer app on your jailbroken iPhone, tap the Manage button, tap the Packages button, and scroll alphabetically through the list of installed packages looking for OpenSSH. If it's not there, you're good, you can relax. If you're using an alternative installer like Rock the steps will be much the same.

If OpenSSH is there, you can follow this guide from our friends over at TUAW to change your iPhone's root and mobile passwords.

My iPhone is jailbroken - is it insecure? originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading 5 ways to save money with an iPhone

5 ways to save money with an iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

All your OS are belong to US... with Apple's new advertising patent! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mac-clone company Psystar loses big in Apple lawsuit originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple finally lets you check out iTunes store without installing iTunes originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OS X 10.6.2 offers tons of fixes, breaks Atom support again originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

RPGs like Fallout and Oblivion coming to your iPhone? originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Atom support back in Mac OS X, Hackintosh netbooks not dead after all originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple breaks Atom Hackintoshes with upcoming OS X 10.6.2 update originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Have you ever received an iWork file created in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on a Mac, and not had any way to deal with it? Next time, try changing the file's extension to .zip, then unzip it with your favorite zip utility. Inside you should find a PDF preview document containing a nicely formatted version of the document in question.

It seems strange that Apple doesn't promote this fact more, as it's a real usability win for iWork users that want to share their documents with non-Mac users. Wouldn't it be nice if Word, Excel, and Powerpoint did this?

[photo by *keng]

iWork files are really just zip files, and contain PDF previews originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple TV, amongst other things, now mixes your music! originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Windows 7 will (officially) work in Apple's Boot Camp before 2010 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So long, iTunes: DoubleTwist now syncs with iPhone and iPod Touch originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple allows free-to-paid demo apps on iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It would be easy for Linux and Mac users to point to this blog post by Brian Krebs at the Washington Post's Security Fix and feel smug. The post flat out states that the simplest, most cost-effective way to avoid online fraud is: "Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online."

If you're a Windows user, ouch.

But hold on a second. The thing is, Krebs isn't endorsing the Mac or Linux platform in his condemnation of Windows. Rather, he's pointing out that Windows is the most-targeted platform, but that certainly doesn't mean that Macs or Linux machines are invulnerable.

Krebs points out that the safest way to avoid malware and make sure your banking session is secure is to boot your machine from a Live CD that is a pristine, uninfected environment. Live CDs are typically Linux variants, but the OS doesn't really matter -- what matters here is that you are booting an operating system that malware can't infect because its state is not persistent.

This is solid advice, and it leads me to wonder how long it will be before the major OS makers offer a locked-down virtual machine, or better yet a locked-down banking partition that is a fast booting light OS containing only a secure browser with which to do your most sensitive online tasks.

Kind of sounds like a job for Chrome OS, doesn't it?

Windows not fit for online banking, says Washington Post blog originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone not to wake from sleep
• Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular services until restart
• Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video stream

iPhone 3.1.2 update fixes some annoying bugs originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Preemptive FAIL : Five easy things Verizon isn't doing to fix Android

Preemptive FAIL : Five easy things Verizon isn't doing to fix Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rope 'n' Fly 2 [iTunes link] is an example of a casual iPhone game done right. The gameplay is incredibly simple: you tap on a building to shoot out a rope and attach it, then tap again when you want to release it. The goal is to use your swinging momentum to move forward in the game, but also to increase your altitude since you are constantly falling.

For such a simple game, there are a surprising number of game modes to choose from. Timed modes, distance modes, even silly ones like "how far can you get with only one rope?"

But what really enhances the game is the high score and achievement functionality that is powered by OpenFeint, a social platform for iPhone game makers and players. Rope 'n' Fly 2's gameplay is solid, but very simple and repetitive. OpenFeint brings achievements, high score tracking, leader-boards, and the ability to compare your scores with friends playing the same game. In Rope 'n' Fly 2, this means it will tell you when you've successfully completed an achievement like flying more than 200 meters.

I love that you can pull up Rope 'n' Fly 2 quickly, and have a fun gaming session that lasts only a minute or two. For a price of $1, this makes it the epitome of a casual game. If you're not interested in tracking your score, or any of the slight variations on gameplay, you might be satisfied with Rope 'n' Fly 2 lite [iTunes link], a limited version of the game.

Rope 'n' Fly 2 - iPhone Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pollux is a new Mac OS X application by Chetan Surpur and Shashwat Kandadai that will automatically tag your music files in iTunes. It is capable of tagging the name, artist, album, album art, genre, year, and lyrics for each song, and it does so by analyzing the song's audio fingerprint. This means that it can draw on a database of tag information, and do so very accurately, even if the song has no identifying information at all to begin with.

To use Pollux, you select songs in iTunes, then from the Pollux icon in your menu bar, choose Tag Selected iTunes Tracks. Tagging can take a little while, so don't expect instant results. In my testing I found tags to return in anywhere between 15 and 60 seconds. Tagging an entire library this way could certainly take some time, but since it's all automated, why not? There is also an option in Pollux to automatically tag any new music that is imported into iTunes.

There are other applications that do similar things, but Pollux sets itself apart by being both unobtrusive and free. Pollux is still in beta, so you might experience a problem here and there, though in my limited testing it was solid.

Pollux tags your music files in iTunes so you don't have to originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone Maps app now showing "sponsored links" originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.