Eric Schmidt Should’ve Left Sooner

Everyone’s trying to pinpoint exactly what pushed Eric Schmidt to leave Apple’s board—or Apple to oust him—but whether it was Google Voice or the FCC doesn’t really matter. Eric Schmidt shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Schmidt’s presence the Apple board of directors has been conceptually weird from the start, but in the last year or so, he’s been treading in dangerous territory. Many saw these concerns crystallize when the FTC invoked a century-old antitrust law that prohibits “interlocking directorates”—essentially, the sharing of leadership between two competing companies to investigate the companies after Google announced Chrome OS (an investigation which is still moving forward, despite Schmidt’s exit). The NYT, discussing the issue in May:

Antitrust experts say that investigations of interlocking directorates rarely lead to major confrontations between companies and the government. Executives typically choose to resign from the board of a competitor if it poses a problem rather than face a lengthy investigation or a bruising legal fight.

The thing is, until just now, Eric Schmidt didn’t step down, nor did he seriously talk about it. He didn’t feel he had to, because of a disingenuous loophole:

Under the Clayton Act, interlocking directorates are not considered a problem if the revenue from products in which the companies compete is less than 2 percent of either company’s sales.

Google’s competing services are generally free, including Android and the upcoming Chrome OS, and therefore don’t directly account for much—or depending on how stubbornly literal you want to be about it—any of the company’s revenue. This should have be a clear cue to step the hell aside, but it wasn’t taken that way. Schmidt was comfortable staying, and wasn’t afraid to say so as early as last week.

In an interview printed in the Mercury News on Friday, Schmidt said “the board question can be solved by recusing yourself, which I do with the iPhone,” hardly talking like a guy who was about to walk away. He was comfortable with this relationship; the regulatory bodies, the public and, most importantly, Apple, were not. It’s hard to imagine Steve Jobs, or Apple’s various board members, taking kindly to the consistent surprises they were getting from Google. As they saw it, the iPhone begot Android, Safari begot Chrome, and in a small way, OS X begot Chrome OS. Steve Jobs didn’t waste any words in their press release on Schmidt’s departure, and made these concerns pretty clear:

Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished.

Chrome OS was announced in May, and Android in November of 2007. To Jobs and Apple, Schmidt’s overlapping interests were old news; to Schmidt, it’s safe to assume they were ancient history.

The Google/Apple relationship has been steadily getting more awkward since people first started talking about it, and at a fast clip since Schmidt’s been onboard. The relationship was unnecessarily strained as it was, but now Schmidt’s company is giving Apple some serious headaches, all the while looking like the innocent party in a confusing PR nightmare that’s drawn the wrath of the FCC. Granted, they deserve it, but having a Google CEO to step over only muddles the issues. It bears repeating: nothing good could’ve come from Schmidt staying. He’d either be accused of collusion, sabotage or both—his presence was a lose-lose proposition. He didn’t seem to mind, but it looks like Apple finally did.

Drawing a thicker line between these corporate structures is good for everyone, no matter how this plays out. If Apple and Google turn into direct rivals, they need distinct management. If they want to continue working together, like they do on browsers, iPhone software, or some as-of-yet-unannounced project—Apple could sure as hell use Google’s help with their cloud efforts, for example—they need the exact same thing.

Google’s Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple board over “conflict of interest”

Should have seen this one coming, right? Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board today citing a conflict of interest. Apple (Steve Jobs, in fact) says that “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest.” Android and Chrome OS — something had to give, but the timing sure does make it seem like that Google Voice app rejection might have really hurt someone’s feelings.

The truth is, it’s been a tangled web for some time as far as the relationship between Apple and Google goes. Sure, Schmidt sat on the board, the companies claim to be working on new projects, and Google Maps comes preloaded onto the iPhone, but over the past year, Google’s increasing move into Apple’s space, and Apple’s increasing desire to control every inch of that space have not been good bedfellows. It’s hard to imagine that Apple could maintain a completely healthy relationship with a direct competitor in both the phone and OS space for very long, and that’s to say nothing of Cupertino’s latest push into online document editing and management, which couldn’t have seemed very awesome to Schmidt and company. Oh, and there’s that matter of the antitrust case which is currently ongoing. Still, it’s a bit sad to see this power couple going their separate ways, though it does give us some hope that Google will begin a full assault with Android in earnest, because only sweet stuff could come from those efforts. If you’re interested, the full PR is after the break.

Update: The FTC says it’s going to continue investigating the two companies for “remaining interlocking directorates,” so Apple and Google aren’t totally out of the woods, but we don’t think anything else major is in store here.

Continue reading Google’s Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple board over “conflict of interest”

Google’s Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple board over “conflict of interest” originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple at CES 2010: Just Wishful Thinking

While CEA chief Gary Shapiro was in San Francisco, talking up CES 2010 at a private dinner with journalists, I was at a downtown Manhattan bistro having dinner with Jason Oxman, the CEA’s Senior Vice-President of Industry Affairs. Like the West Coast dinner, this one quickly turned to the subject of who would and wouldn’t attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2010.

Oxman readily gave up two major–though not surprising–keynote speakers; Intel CEO Paul Otellini and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Apparently there was a third big name, but Oxman wouldn’t divulge it, instead giving us cryptic clues about Detroit, Grosse Point and, possibly, music and cars (discuss).

Oh, yes: We talked Apple, too. As part of a game in which the assembled journalists made up names that rhymed with possible keynote speakers, someone threw in “Meve Slobs”–a pretty clear reference to Steve Jobs. Oxman didn’t say no, but laughed in a way that made me think it would be next to impossible. We also asked if Apple would have an official presence. Oxman never directly answered the question, but did say that the iLounge, an area devoted to third-party Apple accessories and peripherals, would be bigger than ever (25,000 square feet).

One thing we do know is Apple will not be at Macworld next year. (Will there even be a show? The site says yes). Does that mean Apple might finally grace CES with its presence? Unlikely. Apple never enjoys being one of many. It likes to control the venue and the message. CES is bigger than Macworld, making it even less attractive to Apple.

Speaking of size, Oxman did tell us that 113,000 attendees is the new normal for CES (previously, attendee numbers topped 150K). CEA execs believe it’s more manageable and valuable for attendees and exhibitors. One journalist at the dinner astutely noted that the show numbers had started to decline before the economic downturn; Oxman said it was by design–two years ago they started charging for attendance.

One other major move the CEA did announce is that it will no longer split the show between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Convention Center. In 2010, the show will be at the LVCC only.

WSJ: Apple going to CES 2010. Reality: Nope.

This week Gary Shapiro, chief exec of of the CEA (the trade group which puts on CES, and, full disclosure, for which I sometimes consult) held a private dinner with journalists in San Francisco. According to Dow Jones / WSJ reporter Ben Charny (whose first Google result is this page on shoddy journalism), a juicy morsel was revealed: “Apple plans to attend the show’s 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there.” Very interesting, indeed.

Unfortunately, it’s also specious and flatly wrong. I was seated directly across from Gary, and present for the entire conversation, wherein a dozen or so other journos chatted with him and one another. When asked about the CEA’s ongoing contact with Jobs, Gary joked that every once in a while Steve might even return his email — to which we all laughed knowingly. Yep, that’s our Steve. Shapiro went on to mention that Apple was a great and long-standing supporter of the efforts of the CEA, but that their only direct involvement was sending a check each year to pay their membership dues.

At no point did Gary even remotely imply that Apple would be present at a future CES — let alone state unequivocally that Apple “will be there” in 2010. In fact, at one point, someone asked if, hypothetically, Apple did want to attend CES, whether the CEA could accommodate them. Gary said that if pressed, they might be able to come up with a small 2,000 square foot booth, but they couldn’t do anything, say, Microsoft-sized on such short notice. Bottom line, though, is that if Gary had even gotten remotely close to implying Apple would be at CES, this shoddily sourced piece by Charny wouldn’t have been the earliest story with the scoop nearly 24 hours after the fact — laptops would been immediately out for reports filed from the dinner table.

Now, I’m not saying Apple won’t be there. But Gary and the CEA certainly never said or implied that they would, and Charny certainly didn’t cite any other sources. Maybe by “Apple plans to attend” Charny meant one of Apple’s 32,000 employees would happen to be in Vegas next January. Of course, the greatest irony of this little dinner was the lively debate at the end of the evening sparked by one particular old school BusinessWeek journalist who laid claim that tech blogs like Engadget publish first and ask questions later. Right.

Update: The WSJ has unceremoniously retracted, now stating at the top of the page that “It is not clear whether Apple will attend the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.” No, I think things are very clear as of right now: unless the CEA or Jobs say otherwise, Apple is not attending CES 2010. Oh and PS, Chris Nuttall from FT, who I was also seated across from, has the transcript of the conversation.

Update 2:
The WSJ has issued a second update, clarifying things (as they should have the first time). Their post now reads: “Apple has not made any plans to attend CES 2010.” So there you go.

Ryan Block is editor emeritus of Engadget, and co-founder of the recently-launched gdgt.

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WSJ: Apple going to CES 2010. Reality: Nope. originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Tech Gods Were Mortal Men

Anyone who knows tech knows certain names—Gates, Jobs, Woz, Kamen, Stringer—but before they became legends, they were busy doing, well, some curious stuff. Here’s a glance at their lives circa 1979:


Steve Jobs

Now: Just returning to daily work at Apple after a prolonged health scare, he’s still one of the most powerful—and recognizable—names in the industry.

Then: This was the year Steve started work on the Lisa, but also the year he became kind of a square. This happened in stages: he bought his first house; began his lifelong Mercedes habit; trimmed his hippie mop; bought some suits; and became a father—at least as far as the courts were concerned—to his daughter, Lisa Nicole. Sellout. [Source]

Bill Gates

Now: Having stepped back from a day-to-day role at Microsoft, Bill now dedicates most of his time to his giant philanthropic foundation. For many, he’s still the voice of Microsoft—a perception he seems to appreciate.

Then: Still in his mid 20s, Bill Gates the businessman was busy rebranding his company from Micro-Soft to Microsoft, and moving operations from Albuquerque to the state of Washington, where they would stay from there on out. Bill Gates the nerd, on the other hand, was solving the so-called “Pancake Problem,” publishing a paper on it—his only academic work. Apparently, n being the number of pancakes in a stack, (5n + 5)/3 flips will always be enough to sort them into a desired order. Why? I have no idea, but it’s probably got something to do with me not being a genius billionaire. [Science News]

Steve Wozniak

Now: Sometimes he’s Segging, sometime’s he’s dancing, sometimes he’s even Giz-ing. In any case since distancing himself from Apple, he’s been doing whatever the hell he wants.

Then: He had begun work on the Lisa, which would later be passed to other engineers. But outside of work, he was diversifying his portfolio. Before he was a voluntary spokesperson for Dean Kamen‘s Segway, he was a paid spokesperson for Datsun, featuring in a TV commercial for the 1979 280zx in which he drops such memorable elocutions as “I prefer the Z!” and “IT. IS. AWESOME.” It is, Steve. It is.

Steve Ballmer

Now: At Microsoft, he’s the dude. He basically runs the show, filling Billy G’s old shoes, as it were. In any case, he’s at his peak.

Then: Fresh out of college, Steve hadn’t even joined Microsoft yet. It wasn’t until 1980 that he even pitched the company, who later gave him a job, then a few more jobs, then THE job. A distinguished student at Harvard, he had lofty dreams, which led him to LA, where he tried to make it in Hollywood. (Behind the scenes, of course.) His bid for fame, or at least, profit made from others’ fame, didn’t pan out, so he went back to school at Stanford. In an alternate universe, Ari Gold’s character in Entourage is based on Steve. [Seattle Times]

Michael Dell

Now: Michael Dell helms the second largest PC manufacturer in the world, and is currently trying to navigate a difficult economy and a precipitous drop in some of his core businesses.

Then: Baby Dell has was just getting a taste of his two lifelong passions: computing and cash. He got his first machine, an Apple II of all things, in 1979 at the age of 14, and promptly tore it apart. Soon after, he tried his hand at entrepreneurship, hawking newspaper subscriptions to newlyweds, whose information he scrounged from public records. This quickly made him a thousandaire. [Source]

Sir Howard Stringer

Now: Currently serving as the Emperor of all things Sony, Stringer is hoping to overhaul the company’s lumbering, inefficient structure into something a little more streamlined, a little more manageable, and a lot more profitable.

Then: Our Howard, not yet a Sir, was killing network news. In 1979 he was working for CBS, and in 1980 presided over wide staff cuts at the network, mainly in the news department. Apparently, this gutted the network, dragging it down in the ratings races to this day. Not an auspicious start as far as restructurings go, but Sony’s a totally different animal, I guess. Right? [NYT]

Bill Hewlett and David Packard

Now: Passed away, so R.I.P.. But, when they were less dead, they founded what would become the largest PC manufacturer in the world, and drove innovation in personal computing, printing and computer science for years.

Then: As loads of exciting innovations were swirling around them, courtesy of people who were more or less children, Bill and David were in the twilight of their respective careers. David had returned to HP after a stint in Richard Nixon’s Defense Department, where he became an expert in weapons procurement. Half-employed by HP and still advising the government from time to time, he could be seen wandering the halls of the company, doing odd jobs and making new employees kind of sad. By this time, Bill Hewlett had stepped down as CEO, though he and David still featured in some seriously rad company literature from time to time. [HP, Ralph Sanders, Image from BusinessWeek]

The Google Guys

Now: Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page run the internet, to put it bluntly. Google’s got the most popular search engine, a wide range of successful web services, and a lion’s share of the online advertising market. They might have even made the OS on your phone.

Then: This is where Silicon Valley exec age disparities start to get funny. In 1979, Eric Schmidt was on his way to becoming a respectable adult, heading into a PhD program at Berkeley. Meanwhile, Sergey was emigrating from the Soviet Union. With his parents, of course, since he was only six. While Schmidt was churning out a dissertation over in Oakland, Sergey and Larry were building block castles at Montessori schools. Tech-savvy PhD candidates take note: Those kids at the Waldorf Academy down the street? They might be your bosses someday. I mean, don’t worry, you’ll be filthy rich. But still. [NNDB, The JC]

Dean Kamen

Now: Though he hasn’t birthed truly high profile invention since the Segway, Kamen is still doing some really cool stuff, be it designing water purification systems, bionic arms for vets, or rock-climbing wheelchairs. Or hanging out on his own private island.

Then: In 1979, Dean was running from the tax man! Sort of. Having failed to graduate from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dean had jumped headfirst into a new project called the “Auto-Syringe,” which would later be known as the first insulin pump. After his project gained traction, he moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire for tax reasons, and promptly got rich. [Wired]

Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Apple II: The World Catches On

Often it’s an artist’s second book or album that draws the public’s attention—so too with Apple’s number 2, whose story is excerpted here from Core Memory, photographed by Mark Richards and written by John Alderman.

Name: Apple II
Year created: 1977
Creator: Apple Computer, Inc.
Cost: $1,298 with 4KB of RAM; $2,638 with 48KB of RAM
Memory: 4K semiconductor
Processor: MOS technology 6502

Spurred on by the small but encouraging success of the original Apple, the two Steves, Wozniak and Jobs, retreated to the garage (Jobs’) to craft the personal computer that was the most convincing case yet that such an item could have a mass market. The Apple II started where the Apple I left of, namely, with a case. It didn’t look like an object dropped from a starship or developed in a military lab. It had a familiar, prosaic form of an elongated beige typewriter, though additions like the television monitor and the cassette player used to store programs made it look a little like a college-dorm entertainment center.

If its appearance was familiar, the Apple II was also attractive to consumers in a way that pervious computers just weren’t—even if their manufacturers tried. It shipped with high-resolution color graphics and sound, and it had a rainbow-colored apple logo that seemed both fresh and optimistic. Said Wozniak, “The Apple II, more than any other early machine, made computer a word that could be said in homes. It presented a computer concept that included fun and games—human-type things.” The ability to have a business and a social side was an important sign of computing’s growing relevance.

The price made the Apple II affordable for businesspeople, well-off families, and schools. It was in the education sector that its influence lasted longest—although it certainly made its mark on business as the first platform to run VisiCalc, the first consumer spreadsheet program. It was the programs that really hooked people, and the Apple II had a great roster of educational and entertainment software. By attracting developers, a snowball effect occurred, and a new generation of developers became attracted and then obsessed.

Core Memory is a photographic exploration of the Computer History Museum’s collection, highlighting some of the most interesting pieces in the history of computers. These excerpts were used with permission of the publisher. Special thanks to Fiona!

The top photograph was taken by Mark Richards, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Fortune, Smithsonian, Life and BusinessWeek. The eye-candy is accompanied by descriptions of each artifact to cover the characteristics and background of each object, written by John Alderman who has covered the culture of high-tech lifestyle since 1993, notably for Mondo 2000, HotWired and Wired News. A foreword is provided by the Computer History Museum’s Senior Curator Dag Spicer.

Or go see the real things at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Apple I: The Start of Something Huge

In our kick-off excerpt from the gorgeous coffee table book Core Memory, photographed by Mark Richards and written by John Alderman, we learn of the Cinderella-like beginning of the Apple saga.

Name: Apple I
Year created: 1976
Creator: Apple Computer Company
Price: $666.66
Memory: 4KB semiconductor
Processor: MOS technology 6502

Of course people would want their own computer. But when Steve Wozniak offered a design for one to his employer, Hewlett-Packard, it was rejected. With fate on his side, Wozniak introduced the Apple I to Silicon Valley’s Homebrew Computer Club, even if it was a little more than a kit. Kits were popular with hobbyists, and the offerings were often crafted by users onto wooden boards, as pictured here.

Sensing that the market for a personal computer went beyond people who had the time to put together their own, Wozniak (or “Woz” as he is known, and evidently signs his name) and his friend Steve Jobs sold fifty pre-built Apple I computers to The Byte Shop in Mountain View. If the biblical allusions of the price and the image of temptation represented by an apple weren’t enough, many believed that “Apple” was a reference to the Beatles’ Apple Corps record label. All of these cultural markers conveyed that this computer, and the company that made it, was for cool people who were in on the joke and ready to take the reins of technological power—or at least have a bit more fun with it. The computer industry was beginning to make serious inroads into popular culture—or was it the reverse? It was Steve Jobs whose crafty marketing sense pushed all these themes into play. Not coincidentally, the idea of the computer “evangelist” proselytizing about new hard- or software took hold at Apple.

About two hundred models of the Apple I were sold—not as many as the Altair, but to Jobs and Wozniak, they established the concept and provided the fuel to form a company to launch the Apple II, a runaway success. And some important lessons were learned: Maybe it was the lack of a case that impressed on Jobs the importance of a good-looking box. Either way, no one has done more than Apple to turn the home-brewed computer into the beautiful, consumer-friendly machines, from the Macintosh to the iPod.
















Core Memory is a photographic exploration of the Computer History Museum’s collection, highlighting some of the most interesting pieces in the history of computers. These excerpts were used with permission of the publisher.

The photograph (top) was taken by Mark Richards, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Fortune, Smithsonian, Life and BusinessWeek. The eye-candy is accompanied by descriptions of each artifact to cover the characteristics and background of each object, written by John Alderman who has covered the culture of high-tech lifestyle since 1993, notably for Mondo 2000, HotWired and Wired News. A foreword is provided by the Computer History Museum’s Senior Curator Dag Spicer.

Or go see the real things at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Special thanks to Fiona!

Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Apple Confirm Steve Jobss Return

It took a five-month break from work and a new liver, but Steve Jobs has finally returned to Apple. The company today confirmed rumors that its co-founder and default figurehead was back at work in Cupertino, right on schedule.

“Steve is back to work,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told The New York Times. “He is currently at Apple a few days a week and working from home the remaining days.” In typical Apple fashion, the company is saying little more about the matter. Dowling added simply, “We’re very glad to have him back.”

News about Jobs’s recent liver transplant was actually confirmed by the Tennessee hospital that preformed the procedure, rather than by Apple itself.

Steve Jobs back to work at Apple

And he’s back, folks. Six months after Steve Jobs took a medical leave from Apple due to health reasons, the company has announced that he’s back on the job, working a “few days a week” on the Apple campus and from home the remainder. Of course, we’d been hearing of Steve’s continual involvement in “key aspects” of Apple’s business for a while now, so this seems like more of a rubber stamp on the status quo than a major change, but now that it’s official we’re sure the questions from shareholders and other interested parties regarding Steve’s health will only grow louder and more insistent — especially given the news of his liver transplant earlier this year. We’ll see how Apple decides to handle the situation when the time comes — until then, we’re just thankful that he’s returned and is doing well.

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Steve Jobs back to work at Apple originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple: No Porn Allowed in iPhone’s App Store

hottest-girls1

Apple has confirmed rejecting an iPhone application that displayed photos of topless women, despite the software developer’s claims that the app was temporarily “sold out.”

The app, called Hottest Girls, was the first app in the App Store to show nudity, according to developer Allen Leung. However, the app disappeared from the App Store on Thursday morning. Leung posted on his web site that he pulled the app to mitigate server overload, as Wired.com reported yesterday. But a subsequent statement from Apple refutes his claim.

“Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography,” an Apple spokesman told CNN Thursday afternoon. “The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.”

Leung then updated his web site to remove his false explanation.

It’s not surprising that Apple chose to deny the app, and it’s unlikely we’ll see a porn app again in the App Store — lest developers wish to be banned. When Steve Jobs introduced the App Store on June 9, 2008, porn was at the top of the list of content that would not be allowed in apps.

“There are going to be some apps that we’re not going to distribute,” Jobs said. “Porn, malicious apps, apps that invade your privacy.”

More interestingly, Hottest Girls reveals a vulnerability in the App Store: Developers can update their apps with prohibited content and cross their fingers that Apple won’t notice. In May, Wired.com reported on a developer who was able to sneak profanity into his karaoke app Lyrics by hiding it in an Easter egg, easily unlocked with a secret code (swiping downward three times in the app).

In that same article, we highlighted the issue that Apple doesn’t have the manpower to police the entire App Store. There are currently more than 50,000 apps in the App Store, according to Apple, and the role of gatekeeper will get more difficult as the App Store continues to expand. Hottest Girls is another example of a developer who tricked the gatekeeper — but only temporarily.

Prohibited content such as porn and dirty words are only a minor concern compared to the idea of a developer updating his approved app to later include malicious code. Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the book iPhone Forensics: Recovering Evidence, Personal Data, and Corporate Assets, explained to Wired.com that the iPhone’s API is mostly secure. But a few areas where users’ privacy can be violated include audio, the camera and the address book.

For example, a malicious audio app could potentially allow a developer to record a user’s conversations without him or her knowing. And a harmful photo app could snap photos with a user’s camera even when the user is not pressing the shutter button. Third, a malicious app can steal your address book contacts.

The greatest concern is malicious code isn’t something a developer would try to publicize (like Leung did with Hottest Girls), because that would result in getting caught and thus failing to steal users’ information. We’ll continue looking into this issue to keep you informed.

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