Your iPhone probably isn't calling home, just might not want you up in its Core Location

It appears we can all breathe a big sigh of relief when it comes to our iPhone apps. According to John Gruber (Daring Fireball), that suspicious looking URL discovered in firmware 2.x which appeared to be set to deactivate applications may be something slightly more innocuous. According to Gruber -- via "an informed source at Apple" -- the "clbl" in the aforementioned URL stands for "Core Location Blacklist" and is actually used to stipulate that specific pieces of software don't have access to... you guessed it... Core Location. Gruber argues that this makes sense, as the API is covered by fairly strict rules in Apple's SDK. So it looks like (at a glance) this was much ado about nothing -- thanks to a little misinterpretation by Jonathan Zdziarski -- though we are considering getting hot under the collar that Apple reserves the right to deny Core Location access. How dare they?

[Thanks, Paul]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 8th 2008 12:14PM]

This Jonathan Zdziarski guy seems to spew a lot of attention-grabbing headline stories. He's also the same guy that brought on the whole "refurbished iphones still have previous customers' data."

While it was true, the methods (a video of his "law enforcement techniques" in order to retreive the data from the iphone) are not just a plug it in and click "retrieve." It would be extremely hard for more than 80-90% of the users to do something like that simply because it was not a script kiddie friendly click and roll kind of thing.

And relying on old data is just as stupid in the first place. While there might be data left behind, it is neither guaranteed nor perfect. Also, the moment you start using your phone and start making changes...guess what? Those changes get written over the "previous data."

As for someone who is smart enough to figure out how to retrieve data, it looks like Zdziarski could have figured out that this was nothing more than a "Dont allow to access location" thing.

Guys and Gals, he has a book on his way.... increased attention=increased sales anyone?

[Hazman Posted Aug 8th 2008 1:05PM]

That's a "Your Mum" joke waiting to happen.
I'll do it.
"I was up in your Mum's Core Location last night, awww yeeeeaaaahhh"

[Kizorblade Posted Aug 8th 2008 1:18PM]

+1 to you, he who can take lame jokes and turn them into something funny.

[rony Posted Aug 8th 2008 1:21PM]

bah!!!! apple this apple that..........I'm sick...steve jobs suckssssss...apple is rotten....Microsoft Foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 8th 2008 1:50PM]

Yep and thanks for once again posting in an Apple related thread just to say how much you hate them. All you're doing is adding to the post count, which makes the Apple articles more popular. That's the best part about you trolls, you are the ones making the Apple articles so prevalent on Engadget.

Thanks for posting!

[DeAthWaGer Posted Aug 9th 2008 1:56AM]

doooood!

where can I get me a 9X16 version of ET? I love vertical-vision!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2008 2:05AM]

I'm not complaining about the Apple developers who encourage jail breaking of your IPod Touch/Phone. But why does ITunes want to phone home every time I try to sync something?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2008 1:44PM]

So Jobs has confirmed that the iPhone does in fact call home and potentially erase applications on your phone if Apple decides so?