What's Apple response...

T

Tinchohs

Registered
I've been following the story of the possibility to develop apps for the iPhone.

As much as I am OK with web-based apps and the story of stability, there is one critical area that it is really a deal breaker for me and the iPhone.

An Electronic Wallet. How are you supposed to be productive with a supper smart phone, if when you are out and about, you cannot have access to critical and confidential information (i.e. Bank Accounts, passwords, PINs, etc.)?

I don't know about you, but to me it's my most critical app in my Smart Phone.

Does anyone know what's Apple planning to do about this?

I exchanged emails with a few wallet developers for the Mac environement that are hands tied about being able to make the applications synch with the iPhone.

Thanks for your guidance! Martin.
 
If you can password protect the iPhone, you could simply have those numbers in a note or a contact field. Not the answer, I know, but maybe a workaround for the first week. :)
 
But, the challenge I assume is that what ever password the phone has (if it has), will not be high security, and having all my data available it's kind of risky.

If it was a thing of a few weeks, I would certainly not mind. My concern is how long it will take for Apple to have a solution like this, if they are planning one at all.

Thanks, Martin.
 
You're making some grand assumptions! What makes you think that the security protection on the iPhone will _not_ be at same level as that used in OS X itself?
 
That would be an a possibility. This way I would be able to use a wallet that transfers to the iPod, and use the OS security to protect my data.

Do you have any pointers that might lead to the phone having the same OS security than OSX?

Thanks.
 
It actually is. I guess I was thrown-off by the fact that the security I am used to seeing in a phone is a simple password approach. But might very well be the case that in the iPhone it's better.
 
well... more or less, os x security is also "simply password based". but i'd at least wait and see how it'd work and how you can work it. we haven't seen anything security-related about the iPhone just yet.
 
There is no one level of "OS X security", though. Login passwords are not very secure. Encrypted disk images (like what File Vault uses) are pretty good, but it's unlikely the iPhone will offer that. Even if it inherits that core functionality from OS X, I doubt Apple will put in any way to access it.

I wouldn't recommend leaving unencrypted sensitive information on any device that could easily be lost/stolen/"borrowed".


Personally, I don't buy the security issue at all. Since when do phones need to be more secure than computers? It's also hard to imagine it being that hard to make it secure when it's based on OS X. Basically, I think it's just an excuse. The real reason could just be to avoid bad PR and FUD. After all, they don't just need to make it secure; they need to make it look secure, too.

It could also be that they intend to use a licensing system, so that other companies can develop apps, but only if they go through Apple, similar to what they've done with the iPod.
 
Mikuro said:
After all, they don't just need to make it secure; they need to make it look secure, too.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. If Apple said "Yes, here is the SDK and you can develop applications for the iPhone that access all of its hardware and software features" then some potential buyers would be put off by worries about security. I figure at the moment Apple are trying to strike a balance that will give the iPhone the best start it can get.
 
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