Safari

Apple released iOS 4.3.4 (build 8K2) fixing a PDF exploit which makes possible wireless jailbreaking by visiting the JailbreakMe.com web-tool  in mobile Safari. The exploit could also be used to inject and execute any code on iOS devices. The iOS 4.3.4 download is now available through iTunes for the iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1 and 2 and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch. Verizon iPhone users will get the same fix via the iOS 4.2.9 update (build 8E501). Contents of the Verizon iPhone firmware update is outlined in this support document (here for iOS 4.3.4 for all other devices).

Stand-alone downloads below:

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Apple has already announced that they will be building a new mapping service based on crowd-sourcing, and in iOS 5 Apple is more clear about this. Apple is also more clear about their use location in iOS 5 beta 3, putting in a clear and descriptive boot screen (on first setup) that discusses the device’s location services. This screenshot is shown above. (Thanks, Devin and PiratX!)

In addition, we are noticing speed improvements and bug improvements throughout the operating system. Notably, the camera application is much faster to boot with the iPhone 4. More snappiness is present in Safari. Also, a slight user interface tweak in the iTunes WiFi sync menu is present. That is shown after the break. Let us know if you find anything else… tips@9to5mac.com.

Update: Reminders.app got a new icon! Shown after the break.

Update 2: New location services preferences! After the break..

Update 3: You can now disable/enable voice roaming. Neat.

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iui_BLtj4wg]

One of our readers took it upon himself to jailbreak one of the Apple Store iPad 2 Smart Signs (video above). If you aren’t familiar, the Smart Sign is the iPad in front of each Apple product. As we revealed earlier this year, this sign explains and provides specifications for the product it sits beside.

Customers are not able to actually use this iPad for anything but the Smart Sign application, but with the right top-secret gesture anything is possible. That’s where reader Adrian came in. He figured out the secret gesture, went to the home screen, launched up Safari, and jailbroke the Smart Sign with the new JailbreakMe 3.0 tool.

Now that it has been done, no one else needs to do this, mmk?

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Facebook is having an event tomorrow which many believe is a Skype tie in, which could lead to a Skype iPad app or a Facebook iPad app, or both! in one?!  That’s well and good, but  TechCrunch takes a look at some of the upcoming features of a bigger project that might also receive a mention tomorrow: Project Spartan.

It seems a bit sensationalized, but it comes off like this: Sometime in late July (soon!), Facebook will reveal a HTML5 platform with automatic Facebook logins using a new set of APIs which make a great iOS/Android social gaming platform.  Facebook has a few developers signed up already, Zynga is probably one of them.

Notes one developer:

Facebook wants a cut of the Apple’s mobile app market, that’s been clear this entire time. Perhaps it’s not war against Apple — maybe Apple is just going to ‘gift’ Facebook the share of their market (the HTML5 share) in exchange an alliance being formed whereby Apple get’s some exclusive access to Facebook’s 600 million-plus users and thereby cutting out Google (exclusive to some degree, Facebook is too open for it to be fully exclusive). In this theory, it’s not Facebook Spartans vs. Apple, it’s Facebook/Apple Spartans Vs Google.

The Spartans have been told to code specifically for the iOS flavors of Safari — both iPhone and iPad.

So, it sounds like Facebook is going to build a nice HTML5 platform (like Chrome) for social gaming. Hopefully one of the games is 300.

Last week’s leak revealed that @Comex had another iOS PDF exploit in the works.  Looking at Jailbreakme.com this evening, it appears that a new version of the famous iOS untethered jailbreak is about to be unleashed.  The ‘coming soon’ yellow sticky looks like the sticky Apple puts on its store right before new products hit the virtual shelves. 
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@comex, a member of the Dev-team has been working hard on an iPad2 jailbreak since the device was released.  The jailbreak will use another PDF exploit via jailbreakme.com and support iOS 4.2.1-4.3.3.  Last night, however, one of the jailbreak beta testers leaked the exploit online.  This version of the JailbreakMe 3.0 exploit has not been confirmed by the Dev-Team or @Comex himself.  Many users have reported that this exploit only works with WIFI-only iPads and issues with Safari crashing.  (Sounds wonderful!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-u2ukWWd6A]

We must reiterate that this Jailbreak has not been confirmed by the Dev-Team to be working or even safe.  Several iPad2 Jailbreak related malware have been distributed recently, so proceed with caution if you must attempt to use this leak. Hopefully we will hear from the Dev-Team or even receive an official iPad2 Jailbreak soon. Screenshot below:

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Steve Jobs’ favorite analytics company, Flurry, has some interesting numbers that put app usage above web usage.

Today, however, a new platform shift is taking place.  In 2011, for the first time, smartphone and tablet shipments exceed those of desktop and notebook shipments (source: Mary Meeker, KPCB, see slide 7).  This move means a new generation of consumers expects their smartphones and tablets to come with instant broadband connectively so they, too, can connect to the Internet.

Yeah but those devices have web browsers…

Our analysis shows that, for the first time ever, daily time spent in mobile apps surpasses desktop and mobile web consumption.  This stat is even more remarkable if you consider that it took less than three years for native mobile apps to achieve this level of usage, driven primarily by the popularity of iOS and Android platforms.  Let’s take a look at the numbers.

But what if one of those apps is a web browser like Opera?  (via Business Insider.)

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The News Corp.-owned New York Post started blocking iPad readers who use Safari today.  Instead of showing content on the iPad, it gives a link to the NYPost App with the following statement:

Thanks for coming! NYPOST.com editorial content is now only accessible on the iPad through the New York Post App. If you are a current New York Post App subscriber, please visit the App Store and download the latest version to access NYPOST.com through the INDEX. If you are not a current New York Post App user and would like to subscribe, please download from theApp Store. Thank you.

Subscriptions run $6.99 per month, $39.99 for six months or $79.99 for the year, with no option for single-issue digital purchases.  News Corp also launched The Daily magazine earlier this year, the first Tablet-only daily magazine.

If the NYPost wasn’t total garbage anyway, I’d be upset.  Hopefully the backlash from this move discourages others from copying this game plan.

Interestingly, Skyfire and Opera Mini still work (below).

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The above video pits browsing capabilities of Windows Phone’s Internet Explorer 9 mobile running on a “Mango” device against iOS’ Safari browser running on an iPhone 4 and Android’s WebKit-based browser running on a Samsung Nexus S. The results clearly show IE taking the lead in terms of speed. WinRumors explains that the Windows Phone browser came in first with 20 frames per second versus only two frames per second for mobile Safari, or ten times slower. Android came in second with 11 frames per second.

Naysayers are free to test their device themselves by visiting said benchmark in mobile Safari. Something’s fishy here, if you ask me. The HTML5 speed reading test comes from the Microsoft-operated ietestdrive.com site and it’s just one of many available tests. How do we know the test wasn’t specifically designed to favor Microsoft’s mobile operating system? It wouldn’t be the first time flawed testing was used to bash Apple’s browser. Read on…

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According to a Blaze study stemming from 45,000 Android and iOS tests, the Android browser on average loads web pages 52 percent faster than mobile Safari. The results are inconclusive, however, because it’s unclear whether Blaze’s measurements take into account the new Nitro JavaScript engine that comes with iOS 4.3. The report was completed before this complaint was made public and Blaze is arguing that the lack of Nitro boost can “slightly” skew the results given that “JavaScript only accounts for a small percentage of the total load time.”

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Why is it that Apple’s otherwise excellent Safari browser seems to be more prone to vulnerabilities than rival offerings from Microsoft, Google and Mozilla? Ever since security whiz Charlie Miller in 2008 broke into the MacBook Air in two minutes through Safari, the browser has been the subject of intense criticism for its various security weaknesses. Well, Safari just got pwned again at yesterday’s HP TippingPoint-sponsored hacking challenge at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

This time, the bragging rights belong to the French security firm Vupen which won a cool $15,000 and a MacBook Air for beating its perks in pwning Apple’s browser. It took the team just a few seconds to exploit an unpatched Safari vulnerability. “We pwned Apple Safari on Mac OS X (x64) at pwn2own in 5 seconds,” they tweeted.

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As we showed you back in January, Google Instant is now live for all users on iOS and Android.

Instant Previews provides a fast and interactive way to evaluate search results. Starting today, Google Instant Previews is available on mobile for Android (2.2+) and iOS (4.0+) devices across 38 languages. Similar to the desktop version of Instant Previews, you can visually compare search results from webpage snapshots, making it easier to choose the right result faster, especially when you have an idea of the content you’d like to see.

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We just love surprises here at 9to5Mac, from the news that the MacBook Pro is the biggest-selling laptop on Amazon at time of writing (second-best in the UK) to the peachy-keen deals on Apple Protection there, but that’s not what this story is about — this surprise comes from the developers at Occipital who have uncovered secret augmented reality capabilities within Mobile Safari for iOS 4.2, woot!!
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