Q:

A: YOU CAN’T!

It’s another mystery of life. Why in the world can’t you create a folder in the iPhone Mail app!!?? You can move an eMail message, or a group of messages from one folder to another, but you can’t create a Mail folder on the iPhone. It’s just another of the glaring oddities of the iPhone.

I can understand not being able to do this with a POP account, because iPhone Mail doesn’t sync the mail messages themselves via iTunes. So it would follow, you couldn’t sync newly created folders with moved messages from the iPhone.

One would think though, it could be done with an IMAP eMail account. But it’s just not so.

It’s an enigma wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a burrito …

My only suggestion to all offended and incredulous iPhone user, is to make your voice heard with Apple. Go to the Apple Support Forum and suggest they add folder creation ability there. You can also contact Apple directly and give them iPhone Feedback. Be polite and to the point. Ranting might make you feel good, but anything past “WTF” might be ignored by readers. You can get more folders with honey … if that’s what you’re looking for. Leave a comment here if you care to.

I’ve seen Google send so many people to my blog looking for an answer to this question, I figured I owed it to those folks to give a quick and probably unsatisfying  answer.

Even with its flaws, the iPhone is still my only phone. Don’t think I would want to use another.

With so many rumors flying, no one knew what to expect. Would Steve start with something innocuous, the new iPhone OS (which didn’t happen) or a new iPhone (which also didn’t happen) and then at the last moment …. oh … just one more thing. No. He launched straight away into setting up and introducing the new iPad.

There will be those that will rip it apart for what it doesn’t do. No phone. No Camera. No Verizon. No multitasking. But as a consultant, I need to talk about what it does do. And the possibilities it brings. Oh. And the joy!

Hello iPad: Let’s start with the obvious. It looks like a large iPhone. But it’s not. You can’t make a call from it even with the Wi-Fi and 3G package (unless you have Wi-Fi & use Skype … but that’s just theoretical … I digress). Looking at the icons on the front screen, it looks very much like an “exploded” or “expanded view of the iPhone desktop. Only four icons across, and four in the dock. If more will fit in the dock, will remain to be seen when the first Wi-Fi versions of the iPad ship in 60 days. Though 60 days from today Wednesday January 27, 2010 is Sunday, March 28, 2010. So maybe the 29th? Guess we’ll have to wait for the official date from Apple. Who knows what version of the OS it will finally ship with … iPhone/iPad OS 4.0?

Apple Inside: Apple has taken a bold step in it’s evolution with the iPad. It runs a new 1 Ghz Apple A4 processor. Apple’s chip also includes onboard video processing. No Intel inside. No Qualcomm inside. No NVIDIA inside either. Apple bought P.A. Semi back in 2008. It’s the first time they have used their own silicon in an Apple device.

eBooks: We wanted them. We got them! Plus a new iPad application called iBooks. Like iTunes you can buy eBooks directly from Apple via iBooks. The interface is simple, slick, and well designed. There have been other iPhone books apps that have looked similar, but Apple is not one to shy away from “quoting” another programmers work & calling it their own.

Apple announced partnerships with five major publishing houses, including Penguin, Macmillan, and Simon & Shuster. With more to come. All books on the iPad will be in ePub format, which is the most used open book format in the world. So in theory, any ePub book can be read on the iPad. iBooks is going to be yet another cash cow for Apple … and the publishers. Look out Kindle and Nook.

Mail: Mail on iPad has been redesigned. It’s use of popup contextual menus is well designed. The virtual touch keyboard for composing new eMail looks almost like a real keyboard. It seems that big too. Turning the iPad in landscape gives you a screen with your Inbox and folders on the left. select a piece of mail and flip iPad to portrait, and the inbox goes away and you eMail fills the screen. Sadly I can’t tell you much more than what I’ve gleaned from photos and the iPad Video on the Apple website.

iPod: Dream alert! Imagine if you will, an iPad landscape car dock. Now imagine if you will the ability to use iPad with my car stereo. I could use iPod.app for the first time in iPod history, to see album images on the screen large enough, that I could use as my music interface for my car. In landscape, I would imagine, iPad’s version of iPod.app uses cover stream. No more searching on a single line of text on my “iPod compatible” car stereo for songs buried deep within a playlist somewhere. I may have to build this thing myself if I have to!

It will also be nice to see what iPad developers do with the new screen real estate … all 9.7 diagonal inches. Plus the new iPhone SDK that will give them access to all the new menuing and other iPad specific features. It will be another summer of exciting new iPhone and iPad apps! As of now all current iPhone apps will run on the iPad AS IS. No updating needed. Plus you can run the current iPhone apps in “double” pixel” mode, which makes then fill the entire screen. Pretty thoughtful on Apple’s part!

I could go on about each redesign of each app, but Apple.com has done it best. Whether it’s Safari, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Maps … they all have been redesigned … and they look and function great.

Now I can’t wait to get my hands on one to test for myself. Apple did a great job of making the entry level 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad only $499.00. I’m like a kid waiting for early Christmas! Oh gee …. is it 60 days yet???!!!

There are some quirks involved with setting up IMAP mail on the iPhone. Especially for those ISPs or mail providers who don’t support SSL (secure sockets layer). The default for iPhone is to create any account with SSL on. Some of the biggest confusion for first time users is how long it takes SSL to be negotiated the first time the IMAP account is set up, especially if your are doing it over Edge or 3G and not a Wi-Fi connection. But even with Wi-Fi the wait can seem like an eternity! And all the confusing error dialogs that are popped up for you to act upon. Hopefully I’ve documented all those situations.

Things you will need:
> Your iPhone
> A working eMail account set up with your hosting company.
> Your eMail account settings written down.
> Patients.

So here we go ….

1. Select “Settings”.

2. Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”.

3. Select “Add Account…”.

4. Select “Other”.

5. Select “Add Mail Account”.

6. Fill in account info & save”.

TIP: With most eMail providers, your username will always be your FULL eMail address, unless otherwise noted.

Select the IMAP tab.

Here’s where the “tricky bits” start.

Be certain to enter all information correctly.

Be sure the Host Name for both Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) and Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) do not contain the “@” symbol and instead use a period “.” as in: imap.yourdomain.com or smtp.yourdomain.com.

Once all information entry is complete select the Save button.

Now wait for iPhone Mail to negotiate your IMAP and SMTP settings with the mail server, depending on the network connection speed … this may take a while.

If your mail provider does not do SLS you will get two error dialogs. One for IMAP and one for SMTP. PLEASE WAIT FOR EACH. No matter how long they take. See steps 8 and 9.

If your mail provider does do SLS, you will get no errors. Unless you’ve typing errors. Move to step 10.

7. Fill in all eMail account information.

8. Error 1: IMAP SSL Certificate error. Press Continue.

9. Error 2: SMTP SSL Certificate error. Press Continue.

Okay. So now there is a new IMAP account on your iPhone. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Depending on your situation there are a few steps that you may or may not need to do. Those will be covered in the next few section.

We will need to also check that the IMAP folders are correctly associated with the iPhone folders for Drafts Mailbox, Sent Mailbox, and Deleted Mailbox.

If your mail provider does not support SSL follow from step 11.

If you mail provider (gMail) does support SSL jump to step 15.

10. Your completed IMAP account.

11. Select your new account.

12. Scroll and select Advanced.

13. Set Use SSL to OFF. Go back one screen.

14. Scroll and select Drafts Mailbox.

15. Select your new SMTP server.

16. Set Use SLS to OFF. Go back one screen.

17. Select Drafts Mailbox.

18. Select your Drafts folder on the server. Go back one screen.

19. Select Sent Mailbox.

20. Select your Sent folder on the server. Go back one screen.

21. Select Deleted Mailbox.

22. Select your Trash or Deleted Items folder on the server. Go back one screen.

When matching up folders on the server, your folder names may not be the same as my folders … but I think you’ll know which are which.

There are only a few other items you can set. But I won’t go into great detail. You can select how long to hold onto delete items. On my Mac, I empty the Deleted Items when I quit Mail.app. On the iPhone I have mine set for 1 day. This way I don’t end up with thousands of eMails taking up space in the Trash on the server.

One other issue you may face. If when you launch iPhone Mail and you don’t see your folder hierarchy you may need to go to the Advanced settings of your account (on your iPhone) and in the field for “IMAP Path Prefix” enter the word INBOX in caps. That should allow you to see all your folders.

Other than that … you’re done! Press the physical Home button on your iPhone and launch iPhone Mail. That’s it.

Finally. You can only have one signature for your iPhone Mail, even if you have several eMail accounts. Hopefully Apple will address this in s future release. But until then, there are some great utilities out there that can get you through. Two of my faves are Pastebot from Tapbots LLC & TextExpander Touch from Smile on My Mac. I may do posts on some of these at a later date.

For now …. go send some mail from your iPhone! Have fun!

Okay. That may be a little harsh … but you would think after paying for a system upgrade, that was supposed to be rewritten from the ground up … a major bug like the IMAP/PHP bug would have been fixed. I know this problem is still effecting people. They are still logging complaints at Apple’s Discussion Groups. I was hoping … but no go!

This post is no more than what it is. Another mile marker showing that this bug has driven me and other crazy through Mac OS X 10.5 and now 10.6.

I’ve already documented the entire thing in three other posts:
A process to a kill
Mail.app & IMAP Process Update
Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update (No IMAP Fix)

There is nothing more that I can do. None of the Mac blogs out there have picked up the story. Not TUAW. Not MacWorld. Not MacNN. No one.

So unless something else breaks … oh like Apple’s resolve NOT to fix this problem. Or one of the Mac news sites reports on the problem or fix … I think I’m done here. Well at least with this issue.

Good luck!

Do I still feel that way? I’d be a blind zealot if I said yes. There have always been questionable calls on Apple’s part throughout the years. But at some point Apple stepped up to the plate, took responsibility and made things right. No matter what the cost. Financial or otherwise. It seems this concept gets harder and harder for Apple. For whatever reason.

It started June 25th with my post “Apple Developer {dis} Connection or … How My Apple ID Was Hijacked“. I explained how my Apple ID was hijacked by someone, after I logged into the Apple Developers Connection website. The hijacker took over my Apple ID by changing the username and password. Then they ever so kindly logged into my iTunes account and charged two $50.00 iTunes cards to my my attached debit card. For all the gory details I suggest reading the original post and coming back. It’s quite long and has several updates.

It’s almost a month later, and I finally heard back from Apple Developers Connection, Apple Inc and the Attorney General’s Office of Washington state. The Apple’s Developer Connection eMailed me yesterday July 22nd. After nearly a month this is what they had to say:

Subject: Re: Website Inquiries/Feedback
From: devprograms@apple.com
Date: July 22, 2009 10:30:37 AM PDT
To: ejo@go2jo.com

Follow-up: xxxxxxxxx

Re: Website Inquiries/Feedback

Hello Joe,

Thank you for contacting the Apple Developer Connection.

We are currently reviewing your inquiry and will get back to you very soon. We appreciate your patience.

Best regards,

Michele Owens
Apple Developer Connection
Worldwide Developer Relations

That’s it? A month to tell me they are looking at my inquiry? Now I don’t want to seem like a whiny whiny boy man. (I’ve already been accused of this in a comment on the original post. Which of course I deleted. My blog. My prerogative.) But … a month for an eMail telling me they are reviewing my inquiry? No results yet? Okay. I’ll give the the benefit of the doubt. Tap tap tap. Waiting waiting waiting.

On the same day I got this eMail from the AGO’s office.

Joseph Streno
13303 15th AVE NE
Seattle, WA 98125

RE:    Apple Computer
File #:    xxxxxxx

Dear Joseph Streno:

Our office has received the attached written response from Apple Computer.  Although they have offered to make a partial adjustment, they decline to make full adjustment of your complaint for the reasons outlined.

We realize you may disagree with their position. However, our office does not have the authority under the law to force the parties to resolve their dispute. We regret that we are unable to provide further assistance to you in this situation.

We do not have the legal authority to represent individuals as their attorney, nor may we act as a judge or arbiter in individual disputes.  If you wish to pursue the matter, you should consider either contacting an attorney or suing in Small Claims Court. You can obtain additional information about Small Claims court at:

<<<http://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/resources/?altMenu=smal&fa=newsinfo_jury.scc>>>

For referrals to attorneys in King County:    206-623-2551 or 211

If you cannot afford an attorney, you may qualify for assistance from the NW Justice Project’s CLEAR Coordinated Legal Advice.  They may be reached Toll Free at 1-888-201-1014 or online at the following website:

<<http://www.nwjustice.org/about_njp/clear.html>>

In addition, if you are 60 or over, you may call CLEAR SR. at 1-888-387-7111 regardless of income.

You may also wish to contact the Dispute Resolution Center nearest you to see if they can assist in mediating your dispute.  You can obtain additional information at these websites:

<<<http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_dir/?fa=court_dir.dispute>>>

<<<http://www.resolutionwa.org/>>>.

Please be aware that the Dispute Resolution Centers do not provide attorney referrals or legal advice.

We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention.  Your complaint will remain a part of our public record of this firm’s business practices.

DAVID FERRIS
Complaint Analyst
Consumer Protection Division

This was the fax sent to the AGO from Apple:

To which I responded back to the AGO’s office:

Subject: Re: xxxxx : A notice from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office
From: ejo@go2jo.com
Date: July 22, 2009 1:43:37 PM PDT
To: xxxxx@atg.wa.gov

Dear Mr McKenna …

Thank you for being so prompt. I did get the attached PDF of Apple’s response.

Of course Apple skirted their own security issue(s) with the iTunes Store and The Apple Developers Connection website. My identity was “stolen” because of the ease one can change a password for an Apple ID.

They have outright avoided answering the question put before them. How did someone get access to my iTunes account? How, and at what time was the Apple ID changed? And in what manner was it changed, via a phone call, eMail, or the Apple website form?

The hijacker did not steal my identity to use my debit card, but stole my Apple ID and was able to log into iTunes which had my debit card attached to make purchases. There is a huge difference. And puts the onus on Apple to answer how that happened, not the credit card company. My iTunes account could have had ANY card attached to it, the responsibility is Apple’s because someone was able to hijack my Apple ID and log into iTunes at all. Without that step none of this would have happened.

That and only that is the issue! How did that happen? Apple has not answered that question at all.

I wasn’t concerned with getting the charges credited back. They were. The debit card was canceled and a new one issued. I was more concerned that no one has legally called Apple’s security issues to task. Apple’s “Apple ID” is the only way to log into ANY of Apple’s (supposedly) secure websites, or any of their electronic stores (to make a purchase.)

If this type of thing does not fall under the purvey of the AGO, I guess it’s time to try to start a class action suit against Apple.

If you have any further comments please send them along.

Thank you for all your help.

Joe Streno

And that pretty much says it all. Apple won’t admit there is a problem with their security in respect to changing a password for their Apple ID. This one item, the Apple ID is used to sign into any Apple related website, and to purchase anything on the iTunes and Apple Store. Apple could solve the entire issue by devising another more secure way to change a password and gain access to another person’s account. It’s a problem that has gone on for years, yet Apple turns a (not so) blind eye and let’s the problem continue. The other piece of the unsolved puzzle is … are there hackers out there that are intercepting an Apple ID as one is logging into a Developers Connection account? Or is it when someone is joining an Apple website for the first time. All unanswered questions seemingly unimportant to Apple.

So Apple …. is Apple ID security bulletproof? I think not! So the question remains … what to do next. I’ll wait to see what Apple reports back.

I now have both personal {@joestreno} and work {@emacconsulting} accounts for Twitter, blogs for personal {go2jo.com} and work {emacconsulting.com} thoughts … not to mention personal accounts with Facebook, MySpace, Blip.fm, and Ping.com. Though Ping.com is a site that lets me simultaneously update my Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace … plus any other social media sites I might need to update my status on.

Sometimes it feels like I’m teetering on the abyss of info overload! Or maybe “sharing” overload. I can share my thoughts, my photos, my musical tastes, my recipes, my current location and possibly more information than anyone would need to, or even care to know.

What’s a self-promoting egotist entrepreneur computer consultant like myself going to do? Too little time? Too much to share? Enter Blogo …

Blogo is a Macintosh application that I happened to stumble upon by Googling “twitter clients mac“. I found this great article … Micro-Blogging: 26 Twitter Desktop Clients For Mac. In this article was a small review for Blogo. I went to the Brainjuice website and downloaded the “21-day free trial”.

Once I fired up this great little app I got more than I bargained for. The first surprise is being greeted by bespectacled bunny that looks like something out of “Donnie Darko”. I not only found a way to update all my social media sites via Ping.fm support, I got something else that I’ve been looking for for quite a long time. A dedicated Mac application that I could blog from, without having to have an Internet connection, and be logged into my Wordpress account to write a new post. I’m using Blogo right now to write this post. Hell … I didn’t even pay the very worthwhile fee of $25.00 yet and it’s uncrippled and allows me to post to any of my blogs or social media sites.

To be fair, and accurate, you do need a web connection to set up Blogo and have it set up your Wordpress template. But after that … you can even preview new posts without a connection. You can even save files of your posts to your hard drive. Pretty cool features if you ask me!

Blogo lets me see my input in rich text format, and with the click of a button, I can also edit the html directly. I can post photos, edit the size location, and alignment. I can add basic formatting, block quotes, lists and links, all from a nicely designed buttons to the right of the text editing field.

Below the text editing field, I can also add keywords & by adding a hashmark I get #categories. Nice touch! Below that is a list of any images I have added. The list of nice touches goes on. The coolest thing other than full screen mode, is the previewing of the post. Blogo can download the needed elements from a Wordpress blog. I get to see my post preview as if I were previewing it from within Wordpress … all within another Blogo window. Slick slick slick!

I’m sure as I use it more I’ll discover more as I use it. And I have a feeling it will become a huge part of my writing/blogging arsenal. Once I post this … I may hop on over to Brainjuice and pony up my $25.00 USD.

I’ll leave you with a little Blogo wish list. I wish the developers would …

1. Allow larger viewing font sizes in both editors (old eyes).
2. Allow me to add rel=”lightbox” tags to images easily. *
3. Add the “more” tag to the button pallet. *
4. Add text color button to the pallet.

I’m sure I will come up with more features I’d like to see … but those are the ones that jump out at me right now. All in all … color me impressed with my new fave blogging tool … Blogo. Go Brainjuice!

* Update: 07.20.09

I eMailed Brainjuice this morning after posting my article and I was informed by Ben via eMail that items 2 and 3 already exist.e said, “P.S. You can turn on lightbox in the account options, and insert a more separator from the Format > Insert menu.” Thanks Ben!

“Tweetboard is a fun and engaging micro-forum type application for your website. It pulls your Twitter stream in near real-time (max 1 min delay), reformatting tweets into threaded conversations with unlimited nesting. Conversations that spun off the original conversation are also threaded in-line, giving your site visitors full perspective of what’s being discussed.

Tweetboard is also a powerful viral tool that engages your website visitors. Each time someone posts (or replies) via your board, a link back to the corresponding conversation is appended to their tweet, creating a viral stream of Twitter traffic to your website.”

Written by the folks at 140ware, this little piece of java heaven is a little tab that resides on the left side of your site. When there are new Tweets to be read the tab color becomes red and displays the number of new tweets since your last visit. When first opened you are presented with only the new tweets, with another tab to see all tweets. These tweets will be any that the website owner has entered in you their Twitter account, or those who have visited the Tweetboard and left a message. Forum users must have a Twitter account and be logged in to post to Twitter via Tweetboard. If they don’t at least they can read the threads.

The Alpha version of Tweetboard has only been up and open to public use within the past few days. You must go to the Tweetboard website and ask for an invitation. Once you get a reply tweet, you paste a snippet of java code which can be found on their support page into your website or blog, log into your Twitter account through Tweetboard, and wait for Twitter stream to populate Tweetboard for the first time. That’s it. One piece of advise, you also have to include your Twitter username in the pasted code. Make sure you do not use the @ symbol. Your username should look like yourusername, not @yourusername.

Since it’s Alpha release 140ware has been busy tweaking the java code (that is the heart of this app) continuously. Yesterday, it had “issues” with Microsoft IE7, or more rightly IE7 had issues rendering standards based java and HTML. On Sunday 6.29.09 it was announced that Tweetboard had become IE7 compatible. Pretty amazing to see such fast turn around. I also had asked some questions on the tweetboard.com support page and got prompt answers. Several of them.

One of the current drawbacks of Tweetboard is not being able to see friend’s feeds. But in reply to a question on the Tweetboard website, “You will be able to moderate your friends post early this week, it’s our next update!” So it seems that fixes and feature will be headed our way.

If I had a feature wish list this is what I’d ask TweetaClaus for:

1. URL shortening button.
2. Add image button.
3. An “Expanded” button on the All tab.
4. Seeing my entire Twitter stream, including replies outside of Tweetboard, as an option.
5. A friends tab, so you don’t have to leave Tweetboard.

That’s it for now. If you have any thing you’d like to see in upcoming versions of Tweetboard, leave a message, or use my installed Tweetboard. Either way it would be interesting to hear your views. Happy Tweeting!

Updated: 07.02.09
Updated: 06.28.2009
Updated: 06.26.2009

I have always had a fascination with the idea of developing for the Mac. I guess those seeds were planted “… way back in the days of old” when I was creating custom stacks in Apple’s HyperCard, or creating custom databases in Filemaker. Developing for the Mac, or now for the iPhone, is one of those dreams many Apple Fan Boys and Girls have had. To build that one illusive application that everyone wants. Needs. Must have! Cha ching! Hey … I didn’t say my motives were altruistic.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I went out the other day and bought “Programming in Objective-C 2.0” by Stephen G Kochan and Erica Sadun’s “The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook“. Yesterday I started reading Programming in Objective-C 2.0. To get started I needed to log into my Apple Developer Connection account and download the latest version of the Apple developer tools which includes Xcode, Apple’s programing environment.

While I was there I also registered for the iPhone Dev Center. To do so I had to register with my current Apple ID. I then needed to fill out an iPhone developer questionnaire. With that done I could then download the latest version of the 2.08GB Apple iPhone SDK.

Sometimes things don’t always go as planned …

Somewhere after finishing the first program exercise of chapter 1, I needed to stop and take care of some personal finances. I went to Chase.com and had a look at my checking balance. To my surprise there were two pending transactions for $50.00 each from the iTunes store.

I knew right off … they weren’t MY charges. Immediately I went to the iTunes store and tried to log into my account with my Apple ID. “Sorry Apple ID does not exist.” (or something to that effect.) Now wait! I just used this very same Apple ID to log into the Apple Developer Connection just a few hour earlier. Hmm. Maybe I typed my password incorrectly. Type type type. “Sorry Apple ID does not exist.”

Okay. New tact. Let’s try resetting the password. I clicked on the link and was sent to this page on the Apple website. When I put in my correct eMail address I was told “Account does not exist.” I was livid! Someone had broken into my iTunes account! And they locked me out!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Like any good investigator the first thing I did was a Google search on “apple id login stolen” … and I got a bunch of hits. One was to a site called “dropsafe”. The post here was from 2006 entitled “Easy AppleID Password & Account Theft“. The second hit I looked at was from a Technorati Discussion which points to this blog post by Marko Karppinen, principal at MK&C, an eight-person software development studio in Helsinki, Finland, “Apple just gave out my Apple ID password because someone asked“. They too had a similar issue with their Apple ID being easily “hijacked” by someone other than the real owner.

With this information in hand, I tried calling Apple. “Sorry. Please call back during our normal hours of business.” I tried calling Chase. “Sorry Our systems are down. Please call our dispute department during normal business hours.” Does no one have 24 hour customer service anymore? It was now 12:30 AM and there was nothing I could do. I went to bed.

Woke up around 7:00 AM and got right back to it. I first called Apple customer support. I spoke to a very apologetic and very helpful agent named Heather Banks. I told her what happened. In our discussion of the the hijack and charges made to my Chase debit card for two iTunes electronic gift certificates, eMailed to the gMail address rosianhotmailcom568@gmail.com, she put me on hold while she spoke directly to an iTunes Store agent. They first wanted to void my account and issue me a new one. I said no. There were too many purchases and computer registrations attached to that account. They finally reset the password, restored my old eMail address & I was able to log back in. Yeah!

I then changed my Apple ID & my password, as well as my “security” question. All was right with the world. Well almost. I was still pissed off, that Apple’s security for handing over anyone’s ID was, using an eMail address, a security layer that includes your birth month, and birth day, and a question of your own devising. The first two things could be found out easily by looking at any of my blogs, my FaceBook account, or my Twitter account. But my question is … did this person know my info from my registering on the Apple Developer Connection, or is someone watching the list of “newbies” and then exploiting their Apple IDs somehow? Too many questions, and not enough security, or answers on Apple’s part.

What is still incredibly irksome is that this has been going on for YEARS!!!!! And Apple hasn’t done a thing to improve the security around their Developer Connection site or getting or resetting a password associated with an Apple ID that is just an eMail address that ANYONE can know or find out. How secure is that???? Not very … evidently!

So I filed a complaint online with the Washington state Attorney General’s office, via a very well done web page. Now I don’t know if this is the under the prevue of the AGO … but by this point … I didn’t care. My next step was to write this post, which will go up on both my blogs, to warn others. Then off to the Better Business Bureau to lodge yet another complaint against Apple for for such lax security. Then I’ll try to write to TUAW, MacWorld, MacNN etc etc and try to get this story out …. yet again!

I’m frazzled. Tired. And feeling violated. I don’t expect some grand mia culpa from Apple. But I am hoping to shed light on this problem, in the hope that others will pressure Apple to act in the best interest of their customer’s security.

Hey … APPLE … are you listening.

::::::::::::::: Joe stepping off soapbox :::::::::::::::

This is a letter I sent to Apple Developer Connection today, via a web form on the Apple website. I figured this way I might actually get something in writing from Apple. They sent a confirmation eMail with a “Follow-up” number. It’s a start to getting some real response from Apple.

I’ll try to keep this post updated as I get more info.

As of right now, I have not been contacted by Apple yet. Maybe tomorrow.

The Good news is, the two $50.00 charges disappeared from my Chase.com online account. Which means Apple must have canceled them, though they still show up in my iTunes purchase history.

Here are the the iTunes Gift Certificates that the “bandit” purchased. Now I wonder if the person is stupid enough to actually cash them, or if s/he did cash them while I was locked out of my account. But then again, I didn’t see any purchases other than the cards. So honestly … what good are the cards, unless someone this person tries to sell them on Craig’s List or something. It makes no sense.

So we’ll see what happens tomorrow, Monday. I really do want to hear from Apple. We’ll see.

Called Apple customer support yesterday (07.01.09) spoke to customer service agent Bob Henderson. I asked him why Apple did not credit back the charges for the two iTunes cards charged to my debit card. He informed me that the procedure was to file a dispute with Chase and then Chase would contact Apple. I also asked him why no one at Apple (iTunes Store, or Developer Connection) has contacted me yet. He said he did not know. I then asked him why Apple has not fixed this gaping hole in password security? He said Apple has been looking into it (yeah right), but if I’d like to write an eMail to him outlining what I’d like to see happen to make things more secure, he’d be happy to pass it along to “the powers that be.” I’m in the process of doing this.

On the Attorney General front …

Got a reply back from the Washington State Attorney Generals office in response to my filing a complaint against Apple. Color me amazed!

Now we’ll see what will happen. This may be part of the reason no one from Apple has contacted me. Or not. I’ll tell you this post is getting a LOT of traffic. Don’t know what that means, other than people are interested.

I’ll keep adding to this post unless, something major happens & requires me to start a new one.

You have to love these guys. They are modern day heros. Now Apple might think contrary, but you have to admire the Dev-Team’s vibrato. Their stamina. Their commitment. This disparate group of programmers, hackers, telecom industry workers, et al, from all over the world, doing what Apple should have done all along. Make the iPhone open to any and all GSM networks around the world. There might be those who would brand them thieves and hacker-thugs. But I commend them.

Having been an early adopter of hacking my iPhone, I am in awe of these guys. They have taken the task and turned it into an art form. They’ve taken the time to find the vulnerabilities of the iPhone and the OS to deliver their payload through any available vector. And then they wrap what use to be a terminal command line nightmare, into the slickest Mac and Windows applications I have seen so far, to accomplish the task. Thank you all for the hard work you do. And thanks to Apple for not trying to rain on the Dev-Teams achievements.

I spent maybe 30 minutes total this morning using PwnageTool and iTunes to get my custom 3.0 .ipsw file built and onto my iPhone. Once that happened, the Pwnage payload did its “magic” on the iPhone by auto configuring itself. While this was going on I Tweeted about it. (Okay I’ve become a TwitterNerd or perhaps a TwitWit now). Then I did a restore from the backup I did before starting all this, like a good little iPhone citizen should do. While that was happening I made my Peet’s coffee and breakfast. I knew it would take a bit of time to load all my iPhone apps, music, etc back on the phone.

The next step is to get all my Cydia apps and hacks loaded … WinterBoard, Five Icon Dock, Open SSH, BossTools, TMobile Carrier Logos, etc. These things are the icing on the iPhone cake. So now it’s time for me to SSH into my iPhone and load my custom desktop, and dock I’ve created. It’s a job … but someone has to do it.

I know. I know. It’s just a phone. Get a life! But hey at least … I pwn it!

There has been a huge ramp-up for the release, starting long before last weeks “World Wide Developers Conference” (WWDC). The fan-boy blogs and the Twitter-verse has been on fire. But Apple has also been pushing hard too. This is their cash cow, their baby. That and all the iPhone apps that will now have to be updated and OS 3.0 compatible by the OS 3.0 release date tomorrow? We’ll see.

Well actually I have seen. I Tweeted earlier tonight in two separate tweets :

Those #iPhone #apps are just pouring out. I got 4 just today. Seems like everyone is trying to get their apps 3.0 ready. Keep ‘em coming. 10:19:19 PM June 16, 2009 from Tweetie


#app #iphone updates:
iTV http://bit.ly/xiL4J
Amazon http://bit.ly/158j1y
Twitterific P http://bit.ly/VBHkG
Trip Cubby http://bit.ly/o9BS8
10:16:14 PM June 16, 2009 from Tweetie

@MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev-Team did a live broadcast and demo of “UltraSnow” the new iPhone OS 3.0 jailbreak. You have to love these guys! The software isn’t officially released and already they have a jailbreak written and ready to go for the new OS. You can find out all the particulars on the Dev-Team Blog.

So I’m ready with my 1st-gen iPhone for the Dev-Team to deliver PwnageTool and QuickPwn their two wonderful jailbreak apps … for the rest of us. Oh how I’d love a new shinny iPhone 3G S … but alas … I’m poor. And seeing how I use T-mobile I can’t get a subsidized iPhone from AT&T. I paid full price for my original one. Not again. But then again I’ve heard that before too. I’ll just take a wait and see attitude. I know I’ll get enough of the new OS benefits. But will they be enough? Only time will tell.

So iPhone enthusiasts, fanboys/fangirls & the uninitiated … start your engines! 3.0 is coming! 3.0 is coming!