Hasta La Gadget!

Here we go again, unfortunately. Both 9 to 5 Mac and Ars Technica are reporting a new spat of potentially-fraudulent apps climbed the iTunes charts today, now in the Travel section. This time, the culprit’s purported to be Chinese-based WiiSHii and a series of “GYOYO” Chinese- and English-language maps. The two publications have a screenshot each showing the apps climbing the charts, as well as an apparent receipt from one customer who unwittingly found charges for the software on his or her bill — and yeah, we see them, too, albeit not topping any charts as of this writing. So yet again, we advise caution and double-checking your payment history. Le sigh.

iTunes fraud takes trip to travel section? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over the weekend we saw reports of what appeared to be fraud occurring in the iTunes system — namely, a rogue developer had somehow managed to snag 42 of the top 50 sales positions in the App Store’s “book” category with seemingly bogus content. It looked as if there was some correlation between those suspicious sales and word of an increase in iTunes account fraud, but Apple had been mum on the subject over the holiday weekend. We’ve finally gotten a response from the company, and the folks in Cupertino say that the developer in question — a gentleman named Thuat Nguyen — has been chucked out of the Store altogether. Additionally, while they don’t explicitly say fraud occurred, they suggest you check with your bank and kill your card if any of your info was stolen… which seems to suggest that something funky happened to some users. Here it is from the horse’s mouth:

The developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns.

Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded.

If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately. For more information on best practices for password security visit http://www.apple.com/support/itunes.

So it looks like even the walled garden isn’t impervious to attacks — here’s hoping the problems were limited to a small group of people. Have any of you guys noticed strange charges on your account? Double check it right now!

Update: Apple pinged our old buddy Clayton Morris with the damage report and claims it’s fairly low — roughly 400 iTunes users were hit, all told. While that’s a pretty small percentage of the reported 150 million Apple serves daily, the company said new security measures are in place anyhow: according to Morris, iTunes will ask for the verification code on the back of your credit card “a little more often” from now on.

Apple responds on iTunes fraud, vaguely confirms said fraud (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While JPMorgan Chase & Co. certainly isn’t the first bank to do this — USAA has allowed its members to deposit checks by snapspot for just under a year now — it’s definitely the first major public bank to bring this stuff to the mainstream. A recent update to the Chase Mobile iPhone app enables customers to photograph the front and back of checks made out to them and then have it deposited directly into whatever Chase account (with their name on it, obviously) they choose. Better still, the service is completely free of charge, though it’s limited to Apple’s platform at the moment. Too bad you can’t just cut checks to yourself and live the life those goofy TV ads push so hard, but hey, at least you’re one step closer to pretending.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Chase Mobile iPhone app update: picture your paycheck deposited, and it’s there originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A rambling Computerworld report from Cisco’s Live! event is bringing us news of even more goodies, beyond the business and home tablets already revealed. In an interview with Marthin De Beer, Senior VP of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group, De Beer strongly hints at a WiFi enabled Flip Video camera by the end of 2010. While he didn’t say it in so many words, he did say, “We didn’t buy Flip to have it be only a video recorder,” adding, “I look forward to Christmas,” when asked about a possible timeline. That seems clear enough.

The conversation then gets muddied when De Beer begins discussing video as a “pervasive play” for Cisco, something that will “ultimately span across everything we do.” And in a bid to interoperate with all devices, including Apple’s new handset and certainly future iOS devices, De Beer said, “We would absolutely love to integrate with FaceTime.” When, is the question left unanswered. Until then Cisco plans to introduce a mobile Movi iPhone app to the App Store that ties back into Cisco’s Tandberg SIP-based video conferencing solution. Now, maybe it’s a stretch, but with Cisco slowly creeping into the consumer space, it’s hard not to take away a sense that it will be introducing software and devices interoperable with its Silicon Valley neighbor’s FaceTime solution in the not too distant future. Hit the source to read the interview in full.

Cisco suggests WiFi Flip Video camera by Christmas, wants to integrate products with Apple’s FaceTime originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Emboldened by the (great) success enjoyed by Opera’s Mini in making it onto Apple’s hallowed iPhone platform, Mozilla has today submitted its own browser implement to the App Store censors. We already knew Firefox Home — a weird sort of incomplete browser that syncs your desktop bookmarks, history, and tabs with the iPhone — was in the works, but now we’re finding the team behind it is so confident of its approval that it’s already promising a guide on how to set it up once it’s approved. We suspect the fact it’ll allow you to shift browsing sessions over to Safari will be looked upon favorably, but there’s no escaping the fact that Firefox Home will still browse the web for you should you wish it. This is going to be a highly entertaining approval process indeed. Your move, Cupertino.

Continue reading Mozilla submits Firefox Home to Apple App Store, considers approval a formality (video)

Mozilla submits Firefox Home to Apple App Store, considers approval a formality (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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