A serious security hole in the latest iPhone software exposes e-mail, text, and voice messages to whoever gets a hold of the device despite it being password-protected.

Basically, clicking emergency call and double-clicking the “home” button brings up the favorites on iPhone 2.0.2, which opens up the address book, the dial keypad and voice mail, according to a report on Engadget, which got the tip on the hole from the MacRumors Forum.

Then, clicking on the blue arrows next to the names gives access to private information in a favorite entry, clicking in a mail address opens up the mail application, clicking on a URL in the contact information opens up Safari, and clicking on “send a text message” in a contact gives full access to the text messages.

The report suggests using the “home” setting so that double-clicking on the home button will take whoever is holding the phone to the unlock screen page.
Engadget reports that a fix for the hole will be included in the next firmware update, but it’s not known when that update will come.
Representatives from Apple did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

[Posted by Elinor Mills to our sister site News.com]

Though such a procedure is sure to void your warranty, you can (fairly) easily remove the iPhone 3G’s screen, gaining access to internal components and allowing possible resolution of certain longstanding manufacturing issues as well as repair of hardware damage.

A post to the Hackintosh forums offers steps for doing so with a standard suction cup, such as the one used by some windsheild-mounted devices.

The poster, flash31, describes using the procedure to resolve the “light leak” issue that has affected some units:

1. “Pull the suction cup toward you and the screen should come out (bottom first)
2. You will see 3 cables running from the top right corner of the screen to the main board of the phone. 3 cables are numbered 1, 2, and 3. Remove the cables in that order. (Note: in the picture, my number 1 cable has already been detached, number 3 is underneath number 2)
3. Once the three cables are detached, the entire LCD unit is now separate from the main board. I found two youtube videos that might aid.
4. Look on the left side of your iPhone LCD unit; you will notice that Apple has already applied a small strip of electrical tape to the metal casing. Unfortunately, this strip is sometimes misaligned, causing light leakage. Simply add more electrical tape to anywhere you experience light leak. Note: the tape does NOT have to cover the black rubber gasket (the part that meets the bezel when assembled). Simply apply electrical tape to anywhere on the metal frame supporting the LCD unit. Apply tape to all the places you experience light leak.
5. Reassemble the phone, reconnecting cables 1, 2, and 3, and then re-screw the two screws holding the LCD unit in place.”

We certainly don’t recommend performing this procedure in-house, though it does reveal the iPhone 3G’s internals as significantly more accessible than those of its predecessor.

AT&T announced Tuesday it’s expanding its iPhone international data plans, in a move designed to cut consumers’ reliance on pay-per-use data services. Under the expansion, which is slated to begin Wednesday, iPhone users can add one of two international plans to their existing service.

The 100MB iPhone plan will cost an additional monthly fee of $119.99, while the 200MB plan will run an additional $199.99 a month. Both plans can be added or dropped from users’ existing plans at any time, without penalty.

On a pay-per-use data basis, users could pay as much as 0.0195 cents per kilobyte, which translates into nearly $40 for 2MB of data, according to AT&T. “AT&T has worked diligently to provide affordable options for international roaming because the feature-rich mobile experience of iPhone is indispensable to users,” Bill Hague, AT&T wireless operations international executive vice president, said in a statement. “With these new international data plans, iPhone users can access more data in more countries for less cost.”

Although AT&T’s two expanded data plans offer the discounted data roaming package in 67 countries, such as China, India, Israel, and the United Kingdom, the rate outside of these areas is higher.

A 1 cent per KB rate is charged for areas outside the 67 countries, but a higher rate of nearly 2 cents, or 0.0195, per KB applies in 20 countries such as Bolivia, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia,Turkey, and Venezuela.

AT&T also advises iPhone users to save data costs by taking several steps, such as using Wi-Fi whenever possible, turning off automatic e-mail checks, and keeping data roaming in the preset off position.

[Posted by Dawn Kawamoto to our sister site, News.com]

Several users have reported an issue in which the iPhone’s Mail application suddenly fails to retrieve new messages, generally after switching from one connection method to another (e.g. WiFi to EDGE or vice versa).

As desribed by one Apple Discussions poster:

“If I switch from edge to wifi or visa versa, the phone will no longer retrieve new mail without me doing a restart. It seems whatever mode it’s in on startup won’t let go of the control of mail until a restarts.

“Last night I was using WiFi and receiving mail fine. Early this morning I turned WiFi off as I was going out and would not have WiFi access. A few minutes ago, back at home, I switched WifI back on and got a flood of several emails from as early as 10:30 this morning.”

The only genuine workaround for this issue appears to be a full restart of the iPhone. Hold the sleep/wake button then slide to power off the device, then turn it back on.

Alternatively, you can try force-quitting the Mail application by launching it (if it is not already active) then holding the home key for several seconds until the Mail app disappears and you are returned to the home screen.

A number of users have reported an issue in which movies previously playable movies are suddenly unplayable after an iPhone sofware update.

One user writes:

“I had the same issue with some of my Videos that were converted using Visual Hub. Once I upgraded my iPod Touch to 2.0 they stopped working. I eas confused at first as all of the the ones that still worked were in 4:3 aspect ratio. Anyway after trying many different solutions and settings. I found that if I used ffmpegX instead of Visual Hub to encode I had no problems with any of the resulting my videos-both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio and different frame sizes.”

Per the above user’s commentary, re-encoding movies may be the most viable fix for this issue. Try using an alternative video encoder or a lower resolution/bitrate.

A small snippet of text on an online forum at Myst Online reveals a new project that will bring the classic adventure game to the iPhone. The post reads:

“iMyst: This is a small project that probably a very few of you know about. We are porting Myst to the iPhone. Ok, before some of you start groaning, this is an outside funded project that is keeping a few developers employed… but it is really more than that. It is an interesting and fun project. This is also a very small team with three of us (which includes Derek, Rand (not Randy) and myself).”

If you are an old hand at computer gaming then you will remember when Myst was first released on the Mac, September 24, 1993 then ported to a number of platforms. It was the best selling PC game of all time, eclipsed only by The Sims in 2002.

Reports out of France indicate that Orange, the iPhone’s officially sanctioned carrier there, may be artificially bridling the device’s network throughput, forcing it to use slower 3G data rates where significantly faster 3G+ data rates are available.

iPhone users in France have reported download speeds between 350 and 450 kbps typical of 3G, but slower than generally offered by 3G+/HSDPA. The iPhone’s hardware expressly sports full HSDPA capabilities, and Orange’s network is advertised as HSDPA compatible, meaning that users should experience speeds that are between three and six times higher. The iPhone 3G is capable of attaining these higher speeds when linked to networks other than Orange, such as SFR in France and various other European providers.

Most interesting, an iPhone Atlas reader purports that some users have achieved the higher data rates with Orange thanks to a software-based change enacted by customer service representatives.

Thomas Burgel writes:

“A very few lucky iPhone users could get their Orange subscription unlocked by Orange technicians: much higher downloading speeds are, technically, possible on Orange’s network.”

Burgel also shares the anecdote of an Orange customer who allegedly received some spurious information followed by an odd denial from company representatives:

“An Orange representative unofficially got in touch with one of forum members. He first acknowledged a technical problem on Orange side, and said they were working on it. Unsatisfied with this response, the forum went on speculating. Now, the most interesting part of this story : the same rep got in touch again with the same forum member, and changed his version of the facts, clearly blaming Apple for these downloading speeds. Yes, Orange can settle the problem on his side, but this would require a modification on the device side that Apple wouldn’t accept.”

Meanwhile, screnshots showing the discrpancy between a throttled and allegedly full-speed iPhone 3G on Orange’s network have surfaced:

Throttled:

Full-speed:

Apple’s iPhone 2.0.2 update was the first update pushed by Apple and AT&T in a unique way: SMS messages to all active accounts that arrived late last week.

The controversial update is the first to be aggressively pushed by either of these companies who are usually quiet about such releases, which are usually accompanied by scant release notes and little intentional publicity. Apple has even gone so far as to create a new website that offers step-by-step instructions for performing the update. Still, however, no detailed release notes are provided.

Apple has publicly stated that the 2.0.2 update is designed to fix some issues related to the iPhone 3G’s poor 3G network performance, though users report mixed results.