The government may be fine with people jailbreaking their iPhones. It is not an illegal activity as we found out just a short while ago. That does not mean the risks are low for jailbreakers. The iPhone Dev team always puts out decent quality jailbreak solutions for iPhone. The latest one, which is available on jailbreakme.com, can be installed on iPhone through the web. There is just something wrong with this picture. The jailbreak software may be completely safe, but the fact that you get to install it by using Safari means there is potential for hackers to take control of iPhones using malicious web pages.

Apparently, Apple is investigating the issue and will surely introduce patches to plug these security hole. According to VUPEN Security, this is not an issue Apple can hide under a rug:

Two vulnerabilities have been identified in Apple iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod, …. The first issue is caused by a memory corruption error when processing Compact Font Format (CFF) data within a PDF document, which could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code by tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted web page using Mobile Safari. The second vulnerability is caused by an error in the kernel, which could allow attackers to gain elevated privileges and bypass sandbox restrictions.

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We have known for quite some time that there is a distinct possibility that Android will pass iPhone in the upcoming years. Unlike Apple, Google has a bunch of handset makers taking advantage of its platform. Even though no individual Android phone has come close to iPhone in market-share, the Android army as a whole has been gaining marketshare and momentum in the past few months. According to a report by the Nielsen Company, Android may have already surpassed Apple iPhone (27% to 23% in market share).

There are multiple ways to interpret this report, depending on which camp you are pulling for. Android’s rise has been very impressive, and there is absolutely no question that as a platform it is destined to surpass iPhone OS. It’d be a huge failure if it doesn’t considering all the shiny phones that HTC and Motorola have been developing for that platform. At the same time, Apple iPhone still remains the most desired phone around. About 90% of iPhone owners are satisfied with their phone and would do business with Apple in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

We have been hearing for months how Android will eventually catch iPhone and surpass it in the upcoming years. Android OS is run on various devices, so it is only a matter of time before this contest becomes one-sided. According to NPD, Android phones are responsible for 28% of sales last quarter, more than iPhone’s share, which stands at 21%. Android has still some ways to go to catch RIM, though that’s a matter of time too.

It’s so easy to write off iPhone’s chances when it has taken such a short period of time to catch up with iPhone. But comparing iPhone and Android is somewhat similar to comparing Apples and Oranges. The iPhone OS is a closed platform that is run only on Apple devices (and currently has only AT&T to count on). Android is run across multiple devices and networks. Trying to read too much out of these numbers is grasping at straws. Are Android numbers impressive for such a young platform? No one can question that. Nevertheless, the platform has ways to go to reach its full potential.

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No. We are not trying to pull a prank here. Hackers seem capable of doing anything these days. That goes beyond just jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad. Why limit oneself to do that when a hacker can run Android on iPhone. A member of iPhone Dev Team, which specializes in jailbreaking iPhone, has released a video his blog demonstrating how he has managed to install Android OS on iPhone. Whey techies say Android would run on almost anything, they may be right after all.

Of course, being able to run Android on an iPhone and actually getting all the cool feature without any performance issues are two different things. Besides, the strength of the iPhone does not lie in its hardware. The iPhone may be a decent phone with more than decent features. But would people invest in it if Apple’s iPhone ecosystem was not in place?

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The top smart-phones today are more than just phones. They are whatever you want them to be as long as there is an app for them that addresses what you need to get done on your smartphone. Apple has a huge head start over its competitors in this area. The company has worked so hard to create an ecosystem that allows more developers to bring their innovative apps to the market and monetize their work in the process. iPhone owners have a lot of option to choose from as well. Add to that the competition among developers to come up with higher quality apps, and you have got a killer app market.

One shouldn’t forget about the influence that the iTunes has had in Apple’s success with apps. The service has made it so easy for iPhone owners to search through apps, find out about new ones, and pick up and rate apps on the fly. Apps have become so important these days that even AT&T takes credit for having access to them in its anti-Verizon ads.

I have never been impressed with the Android market. It’s true that Google has been also working to build up the number of apps available in Android market, but the service doesn’t provide you with an experience that is anywhere near what you get with iTunes. That hasn’t kept Google to bring up its app total to 20,000 (which was announced just a few days ago).While impressive, Google has ways to go before it can call the Android platform a complete success.

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