Informal Brain

Today Nancy Pelosi made a bold statement about the 700 billion dollars requested by the current administration to rescue the financial markets:

Democrats believe a responsible solution should include independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation.

[From The Page - by Mark Halperin - TIME]

Unfortunately, I couldn’t agree less. Now is not the time to fix what is broken. What must be done immediately is put some liquid capital into the markets. Once that is done, I believe some additional regulation is needed, but protection for homeowners doesn’t make any sense. These people knew they were getting into a mortgage they couldn’t afford immediately or at some point in the future.

In the past couple of days there has been a sudden outcry around the security issue with the iPhone pass code bypass issue. I loved this comment on iPhone Atlas today:

“The iPhone is a computer, just like a desktop computer, and so it can easily be booted in such a way that one can mount the disk and delete or modify the device’s configuration - including the passcode configuration. Cracking the iPhone’s passcode is about as complex as changing the root password on a desktop machine, given physical access.

[From iPhone Security Flaw Is the Tip of the Iceberg - iPhone Atlas]

This is something I have been pointing out for some time now. The iPhone doesn’t have any kind of storage based encryption so as the author of the above quote so readily points out that mounting the iPhone as a disk allows access to the configuration files. This allows easy editing of the PLIST files allowing a hacker to disable the pass code and steal the data.

For some time now I have been calling on Apple to give us encryption as an enterprise feature. I noted in a previous blog post that device encryption was the missing enterprise feature when the 2.0 software was announced. I was in shock when I watched company after company (including the military) laud the iPhone 2.0 software. Did they miss the point that the device can be compromised so easily putting their mobile exchange push data at risk?

We need to pressure Apple to add encryption to the device while fixing these pass code problems. Only encryption will protect the device from being mounted as a disk. Until then I would not store sensitive data on the device using push email from exchange, LDAP or POP3. I would be very careful with webmail solutions. For example, we are asking lots of tough questions to IBM around iNotes for Lotus Notes and how much data it allows in the browser cache.

Ask the tough questions…. and continue to demand encryption.

So far I have noticed two positive changes with the 2.0.2 update:

1) The keyboard performance is much, much better across the entire device. Lag has been significantly eliminated when typing.

2) Something has been tuned with the 3G network usage. For example I am seeing the device drop to the EDGE network far more often. This is good, in that previously the device would hold on to the 3G connection too aggressively. I would see the device frequently become hot with 1 bar of 3G and then go to no service. Now, the device immediately switches to EDGE. I am going to try and turn on push tomorrow and see how the device battery holds out. The battery life today and yesterday has been very good.

So far 2.0.2 appears to be a turn in the right direction.

http://mobileforensics.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/iphone_passcode_workaround.pdf

This type of information shows the iPhone is not ready for enterprise use where critical information may be stored on the iPhone device.

I continue to call for a strong encryption solution.

A little more research today. Appears like the applications are chewing up the battery. When the phone is put into sleep mode it doesn’t appear the applications are closing down their IP threads. Potential related 3g connectivity problems would then force the radio to power up while in your pocket, on your desk etc. Many people on the net saying their usage time is extremely high compared to standby when they had the phone locked most of the day.

Appears applications that poll for new messages (NetNewswire, Twitterific, Facebook, etc) are key culprits.

Try a test. Leave an application which polls for new data active, and sleep the phone. You may just notice your battery runs down very, very quickly.

Thoughts?

Well, 7 days later.

Call me unimpressed so far.

1. Battery life with the 2.0 firmware is horrible. 3g Phone can’t make it a single day even if I turn off 3g. My older iPhone would last all day with no problems. I am hearing from friends at work with original iPhone updated with 2.0 firmware and are having serious battery life issues. I have a theory that the battery life and the reception problems are linked. I suspect that the phone is powering up the radio excessively sometimes to boost signal and this is chewing up the battery. I notice sometimes that the phone gets hot in my pocket at random times. A reset fixes the problems. See these threads: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1610483&tstart=0 and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1609372&tstart=0

2. Stability with the UI. Lots of lag. The unlock slider is frequently not smooth, the contact list lags and the search box is horrible. See these threads: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7636899 and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1603058&tstart=0

3. 3G signal reception. 3G is unusable. Frequent 1 bar, dropped calls, dead calls. See this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1602608&tstart=0

4. Location services problems. Frequently when i got to the maps application and attempt to use the GPS to locate me the UI spins, I get a cellular triangulation and then nothing. Pressing the locate button then does nothing until I restart the phone. See this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1615206&tstart=0

Let’s hope Apple can get this fixed!?