Bizarre: Lost iPhone 5 Prototype Update: Police Waiting In Car While Apple Investigators Search Man’s Home

Lost iPhone 5 Update: Police ‘Assisted’ Apple Investigators in Search of SF Man’s Home (San Francisco News, Sep. 2 2011):

The bizarre saga involving a lost prototype of the iPhone 5 has taken another interesting turn. Contradicting past statements that no records exist of police involvement in the search for the lost prototype, San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield now tells SF Weekly that “three or four” SFPD officers accompanied two Apple security officials in an unusual search of a Bernal Heights man’s home.

Dangerfield says that, after conferring with Apple and the captain of the Ingleside police station, he has learned that plainclothes SFPD officers went with private Apple detectives to the home of Sergio Calderón, a 22-year-old resident of Bernal Heights. According to Dangerfield, the officers “did not go inside the house,” but stood outside while the Apple employees scoured Calderón’s home, car, and computer files for any trace of the lost iPhone 5. The phone was not found, and Calderón denies that he ever possessed it.

In an interview with SF Weekly last night, Calderón told us that six badge-wearing visitors came to his home in July to inquire about the phone. Calderón said none of them acknowledged being employed by Apple, and one of them offered him $300, and a promise that the owner of the phone would not press charges, if he would return the device.

The visitors also allegedly threatened him and his family, asking questions about their immigration status. “One of the officers is like, ‘Is everyone in this house an American citizen?’ They said we were all going to get into trouble,” Calderón said.

One of the officers left a phone number with him, which SF Weekly traced to Anthony Colon, an investigator employed at Apple, who declined to comment when we reached him.

Reached this afternoon, Calderón confirmed that only two of the six people who came to his home actually entered the house. He said those two did not specifically state they were police officers.

However, he said he was under the impression that they were all police, since they were part of the group outside that identified themselves as SFPD officials. The two who entered the house did not disclose that they were private security officers, according to Calderón.

“When they came to my house, they said they were SFPD,” Calderón said. “I thought they were SFPD. That’s why I let them in.” He said he would not have permitted the search if he had been aware the two people conducting it were not actually police officers.

Read moreBizarre: Lost iPhone 5 Prototype Update: Police Waiting In Car While Apple Investigators Search Man’s Home

Video Of ‘MORIS’ Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech Which Police Across The Nation Will Roll Out This Year

Don’t miss:

Police Across The Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year (POPSCI, July 14, 2011):



YouTube

Demonstrates the use of MORIS – the first of its kind mobile multi-modal biometric recognition device based on the iPhone. It is utilizing iris recognition in addition to face and fingerprint. For more information, please visit: http://www.bi2technologies.com/MORIS

Police Across The Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year

Amid Privacy Fears, Police Across the Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year (POPSCI, July 14, 2011):

A controversial piece of facial recognition technology (and a PopSci “Best of What’s New 2010” alum) is rolling out in police stations across the country this fall, and naturally not everyone is happy about it. The Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System (MORIS) uses an augmented iPhone to snap pictures of faces, scan fingerprints, and even to image irises, and then combs through police databases looking for matching identities. This, understandably, has privacy and civil liberties advocates crying foul.

The MORIS device attaches to the back of an iPhone, adding roughly 1.75 inches to the thickness of the smartphone. Police officers armed with the tool can take a photo of a person’s face from about five feet away, or scan his or her iris from about six inches, and wirelessly beam that data to law enforcement databases elsewhere to look for a match. It can also perform remote fingerprint matching.

Similar biometric technology has been deployed by the U.S. military in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to confirm the identities of civilians entering military safe zones and to search for known insurgents at checkpoints. But rolling it out in the streets of the U.S. has plenty of people concerned with privacy and Constitutional issues.

Read morePolice Across The Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year

Facebook Hires Hacker Who Cracked iPhone, Play Station 3

You’re hired! Facebook employs hacker who cracked iPhone and PlayStation 3 security codes (Daily Mail, June 27, 2011):

Facebook has employed a hacker who published a way of running any software, including pirated games, on the PlayStation 3 and cracked into the iPhone.

George Hotz, 21, has been a software engineer at the social network since May 9.

Read moreFacebook Hires Hacker Who Cracked iPhone, Play Station 3

Chinese Teenager Sells His Kidney To Buy iPad2 And iPhone

Destroying his invaluable body for e-waste!


Chinese teenager sells his kidney so he can buy an iPad2 (Daily Mail, June 2,  2011):

A teenager in China has caused an outcry after selling his kidney to buy an iPad2.

Xiao Zheng, 17, could not afford one of the new tablet-style computers that are seen as symbols of wealth in China.

But he answered an advert offering cash to healthy people willing to have one of their kidneys removed in a gruelling operation.

His action horrified his mother and has caused outrage in China.

The teenager told Shenzhen TV in the southern province of Guangdong: ‘I wanted to buy an iPad2, but I didn’t have the money.

‘When I surfed the internet I found an advert posted online by an agent saying they were able to buy a kidney.’

Xiao travelled to the city of Chenzhou in Hunan Province where the kidney was removed at a local hospital.

Private surgeons had hired out a room at the facility to perform the risky procedure on April 28.

He was discharged after three days and given 20,000 yuan, or £1,884, for the organ.

He bought an iPad2 and an iPhone but when he returned home his suspicious mother wanted to know where the goods had come from.

Read moreChinese Teenager Sells His Kidney To Buy iPad2 And iPhone

iPhones And Android ‘Tracking’ Phones Building Vast Databases For Google And Apple – How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone

iPhones and Android ‘tracking’ phones building vast databases for Google and Apple (Guardian):

Apple and Google are using smartphones running their software to build gigantic databases for location-based services, according to new research following the Guardian’s revelations that iPhones and devices running Android collect location data about owners’ movements.

Samy Kamkar, a hacker and researcher, has shown that Android phones, which run on software written by Google, collect the location data every few seconds and store it in a local file, but also transmit it to Google several times an hour.

How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone (PC Mag):

Coverage of the iPhone tracking “feature” has ranged from concern to outrage. “I don’t know about you, but the fact that this feature exists on an iPhone is a deal-killer,” wrote PCMag Columnist John Dvorak, shortly after news broke. PCMag Executive Editor Dan Costa drew a softer line, writing, “Apple may not be actively tracking you, but it did turn your phone into a tracking device without telling you.”

Apple, Google Collect User Data (Wall Street Journal):

Apple Inc.’s iPhones and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal—intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data.

Google and Apple are gathering location information as part of their race to build massive databases capable of pinpointing people’s locations via their cellphones. These databases could help them tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services—expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

In the case of Google, according to new research by security analyst Samy Kamkar, an HTC Android phone collected its location every few seconds and transmitted the data to Google at least several times an hour. It also transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier.

Google declined to comment on the findings.

Read moreiPhones And Android ‘Tracking’ Phones Building Vast Databases For Google And Apple – How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone

New York City Launches Smartphone Application For Free Condoms

See also:

And Now: iPhone Confession App – ‘Forgive Me iPhone, For I Have Sinned’

NSA Turns to Smart Phones For Recruitment

How Your Smartphone is Keeping Track of You: Apps Secretly Monitor Users

Big Brother iPhone Patriot App Turns Users Into Government Spies


NEW YORK (Reuters) – Need a condom? There’s an app for that.

The New York City Health Department on Monday unveiled a smartphone application that will help users locate the nearest place in the area giving out free condoms.

“We want New York City to be the safest city in the world to have sex,” said Dr. Monica Sweeney, the city’s assistant health commissioner. “A lot of people come here for that, so we want them to practice safer sex.”

The application, available for download on the iPhone and Android phones, taps into the city’s database of over 1,000 different locations which offer free condoms.

Read moreNew York City Launches Smartphone Application For Free Condoms

NSA Turns to Smart Phones For Recruitment

Coming soon: A new way to hack into smartphones:

By breaking into the phone’s radio firmware, hackers can take control of iPhone or Android devices.

More than three years after the iPhone was first hacked, computer security experts think they’ve found a whole new way to break into mobile phones — one that could become a big headache for Apple, or for smartphone makers using Google’s Android software.


Apps connect applicants to agency


iPhone


Having a smart phone may give you an advantage if you’re looking for a job with the National Security Agency. The agency on Jan. 13 announced the launch of two new smartphone applications that are part of NSA’s largest hiring effort in recent years.

The NSA Career Links Smartphone application—which is available for download through iTunes—delivers real-time NSA updates directly to the user’s iPhone. This includes information about available employment opportunities, career fairs, and agency news. Users can also view videos highlighting NSA employee experiences, according to an agency announcement.

Read moreNSA Turns to Smart Phones For Recruitment

How Your Smartphone is Keeping Track of You: Apps Secretly Monitor Users

Don’t miss:

Big Brother iPhone Patriot App Turns Users Into Government Spies



Drawback? Most programmes for smartphones, such as this iPhone, send data back to companies that sold them

Dozens of popular iPhone apps are secretly monitoring users and sending information back to companies – who then use it to target them with adverts.

More than half of the programmes and games for smartphones sent data back to the private companies once they had been downloaded, a study found.

The apps include the wildly popular Angry Birds game and music identifying software Shazam, which comes pre-installed on every iPhone.

Armed with this information firms including Google track the individuals’ movements and sell personalised adverts for which they can make more money than regular ones.

The study found that of 101 apps tested, 56 transmitted the phone’s individual number to a private company in some way, known as the Unique Device Identifier or UDID.

Some 47 sent the phone’s location and five sent age, gender and other personal information.

More data was sent back about a user’s location on the Apple’s iPhone than Google’s Android smartphone, the research discovered, even though both companies have promised not to let such practices take place.

The research was carried out in the U.S. but it would apply to users downloading apps from anywhere in the world.

Read moreHow Your Smartphone is Keeping Track of You: Apps Secretly Monitor Users

Big Brother iPhone Patriot App Turns Users Into Government Spies


Patriot App has been criticised for encouraging neighbours to report each other

It claims to be a handy way to make you a ‘better citizen’.

But a new app for the iPhone has been condemned by critics who claim it is turning mobile users into a network of government spies.

The PatriotApp links your phone to American security and law enforcement agencies via the Internet and allows you to report anything you want at the touch of a button.

By simply pressing the relevant icon, users can sound the alarm for terrorism, ‘suspicious activity’, a health pandemic or an environmental safety issue.

The $0.99 app, named after the controversial Patriot Act brought in by the U.S. government after 9/11, is designed to ‘encourage active citizen participation in the War on Terror and in protecting their families and surrounding communities’, its makers Citizen Concepts claim.

But critics say it is like putting Big Brother in the palm of your hand and could easily be open to abuse by those with questionable agendas.

The app works by making a direct link between your phone and law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The software also links up to your Facebook and Twitter page meaning you can post alerts on there if needed.

Read moreBig Brother iPhone Patriot App Turns Users Into Government Spies

Zombie South Koreans Find Love With ‘Virtual Girlfriend’ iPhone Application

Thousands of South Korean men too busy to date are finding solace in a new piece of technology – an iPhone application that offers lonely souls a virtual girlfriend.


The application – devised by South Korean company Nabix – attracted 80,000 downloads a day during the initial free launch period Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The Honey It’s Me! application enables users to interact with the voice of a twenty-something virtual girlfriend called Mina.

The application allows singletons to receive four video calls from Mina a day as well as a shower of love messages from a selection of 100.

A Korean model posed for the video calls and recorded an array of “girlfriend” comments, which range from “Are you still sleeping? Time for breakfast!” to “Good night, sweet dreams”.

The application – devised by South Korean company Nabix – attracted 80,000 downloads a day during the initial free launch period and currently costs a daily fee of £1.26 ($1.99).

Explaining why he created the device, Kim Yoon-Kak, head of Nabix, said: “I’ve developed this application to console people for their loneliness.” The company is planning to tap into a global market of lonely hearts with new versions to be launched in English, Chinese and Japanese, with an Android version also in the pipelines.

Meanwhile, it appears that the reception of the virtual girlfriend technology in South Korea has been increasingly positive among the numerous men too busy with work to find a real life girlfriend.

One user stated on Twitter: “It’s a blessing for all single men.” Another added: “Mina called me while I was working overtime. This is just great.”

Read moreZombie South Koreans Find Love With ‘Virtual Girlfriend’ iPhone Application

How your Apple iPhone spies on you

Criminals using the Apple iPhone may be unwittingly providing police with a wealth of information that could be used against them, according to new research.

apple-iphone
Apple’s new iPhone Photo: APPLE

As the communications device grows in popularity, technology experts and US law enforcement agencies are devoting increasing efforts to understanding their potential for forensics investigators.

While police have tracked criminals by locating their position via conventional mobile phone towers, iPhones offer far more information, say experts.

“There are a lot of security issues in the design of the iPhone that lend themselves to retaining more personal information than any other device,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, a former computer hacker who now teaches US law enforcers how to retrieve data from mobile phones.

“These devices organise people’s lives and, if you’re doing something criminal, something about it is going to go through that phone.” Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since the product was launched in 2007.

Mr Zdziarski told The Daily Telegraph he suspected that security had been neglected on the iPhone as it had been intended as a consumer product rather than a business one like rivals such as the Blackberry.

An example was the iPhone’s keyboard logging cache, which was designed to correct spelling but meant that an expert could retrieve anything typed on the keyboard over the past three to 12 months, he said.

In addition, every time an iPhone’s internal mapping system is closed down, the device snaps a screenshot of the phone’s last position and stores it.

Read moreHow your Apple iPhone spies on you

Spy Grid Part Of Consumer Technology

Tech savy proponents might think it’s great, meanwhile skeptics and naysayers still deny its existence, but microphones and internal listening devices are being installed in hi-tech hardware, and have been for several years.

Motorola released a fact sheet concerning their next generation HD cable boxes and broadband devices and admitted that:

This innovative plug-and-play technology enables broadband operators to offer consumers a way to control their digital services by voice commands with no complicated set-up or the need for training. Consumers can “talk” to their TV through a remote which incorporates a microphone. By just spoken commands, they can navigate digital programming, the IPG and on-demand services using phrases like “scan sports” or “find movies with Julia Roberts”. From a consumer’s perspective, the solution only requires a small receiver which attaches to the cable set-top to receive signals from the enhanced remote. The technology, which recognizes over 100,000 phrases and deciphers multiple languages, has been field tested in an alpha deployment on the Motorola DCT2000 digital set-top platform.”

The next generation equipment is being fused by Motorola into their ‘AgileTv‘ program, which will allow customers to use voice commands to search and choose programs, listen to music, order movies, etc etc. The program is called ‘PromptU’ and promises to allow seamless voice recognition in order to remove tedious typing and scanning by customers to find what they want. The PromptU spoken search is described as:

“Phones can support more content than ever, and subscribers want it all: ringtones, games, wallpapers, songs and videos. There are hundreds of thousands of titles, and the selection grows daily. Yet subscribers don’t buy as much as they could, because looking for content with text searches, or endless scrolling and clicking, is frustrating. Too many searches are abandoned or not even attempted. Promptu Spoken Search™ changes everything. With Promptu finding content as easy as asking for it. For example, requesting “Tiger Woods,” “Coldplay,” “Spiderman,” or any other favorite from a mobile handset returns on-target search results instantly, from across all types of content. So subscribers find everything they want, and discover all kinds of related titles to buy in the process.”

Last year Microsoft also acquired its own listening technology in the Tellme Networks which will allow consumers to choose and interact with multimedia via voice recognition software over their own systems. Of course what they won’t tell you is how these voice recognition commands will be interpreted, which of course will be done by internal audio devices called microphones – implemented into the hardware via remotes, boxes, or even ones as small as mobiles and pdas.

Bill Gates has been championing this next generation, interactive technology, and in his Strategic Account Summit speech last year, he glowed over the introduction and acceptance of this new technology by customers. Apparently, the industry is ecstatic that the privacy concerns aren’t presenting any kind of hurdle for consumers who are only intent on getting things that are bigger, faster, and in higher resolution. As long as it blinks and lets them veg out, all the better.

Web 2.0 should actually be called World 2.0 and will incorporate technology into every aspect of our lives, even more so than it is now. The next generation of cable boxes, internet, IPTV, VOIP, iphones, PDAs, and mobiles are all being absorbed into the control grid; and the cameras, microphones and other spy technology is just being pitched to the public as a product feature, rather than the all-invasive big brother hardware that it is. Private companies don’t mind it because it allows more focused marketing strategies, ie more profits for the bottom line; and of course governments love it because it allows them to circumvent privacy rights by integrating with companies in order to use this technology grid to spy on its own people.

But to simplify it all, yes, microphones exist in our cable boxes and computers, and will continue to be used, whether we accept it or not. The corporations are listening, the governments are listening; are you?

05-02-2008
Ethan Allen

Source: Rogue Government