Damn, it was a fun conspiracy while it lasted. Despite previous reports (our coverage here) Gizmodo is now quoting a German site Heise Online that claims that the iPhone doesn’t phone home.
According to Heise Online the iPhone doesn’t send an IMEI (the phone’s unique identifier) back to base but only application specific, but personally unaware data.
I’m not an expert on hidden data sending tools so I’m not even going to pretend to know which side to take, but certainly the original claims, that started at Hackintosh and was supported at other sites which came with some cool graphic evidence (below). More interesting still was the claims that hackers are now working on ways to tackle the issue: if they don’t exist, why are they working on it…or was it all a case of creative reporting? Who knows, I’ve still not been game enough to update my iPhone from 1.0.2.
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For one thing, the picture on the Gizmodo post is hilarious.
does this happen only with newer version of the iPhone software ?
Dear Sir
So there are others out there who do creative reporting too ?
TFN
i’ve seen this unethical behavior before
post something really bad damaging some reputation then days later post an apology in small caps that nobody reads.
Faux news does that a lot
M$ is king
I am still waiting for an apology
or a lawsuit
beware, apple fanboys are here.
Stop. #4/5-time.
Calm down, Hammer. This is the internet. Better, this is a site that specializes in two things: breaking tech news, and rumors of breaking tech news. They can’t hit every nail on the head. It’s silly for people to try to demand that TechCrunch be something it’s not, just because they have a good readership. They have a good readership PRECISELY because they do what they do.
I don’t think Apple will really feel the impact, old chap.
You should at least update your phone from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1. The features in 1.1.1 are worth the upgrade. Better yet, there’s a single-click jailbreak at http://jailbreakme.com that will get you the third party apps that really give you some functionality.
I guess those hackers are hired by some one might be a possible upcoming competitor.
Is it more buzz secretly generated by apple? hehe. Well I did stop using the stocks and weather apps but I guess i will be back to taking a peak at apples stocks.
So I am not in your internets sniffing all your pr0ns?
Re: Hammer
I think you don’t understand. An unique & identifiable key *is* being sent back to the MotherShip for a couple of applications. This is a real cause ofr concern. Apple has come out and said that the key cannot be tied to a person. End of story.
Duncan, I think you need to explain this story a little further so that more people understand it and has a better chance of spreading around. This is a big story.
@Steve Ballmer, wait for the zunephone eh haha as long as its not locked to a single provider then i might
the only reason i havent bought an iPhone is because of it being locked to a single carrier (over here in the uk its o2) and they are a terrible provider on contracts.