iPhone hacker chpwn has posted an informative look into how Carrier IQ is incorporated into iOS. Unlike the version Trevor Eckhart discovered in his Android devices, Carrier IQ for both iOS versions 3 and 5—version 4 is still unknown—is disabled by default. If the appropriate setting is enabled on iOS 5, the user can disable it with a single setting change.

When enabled, does Carrier IQ on iOS capture the same level of data that was seen in Trevor Eckhart’s Android demo? No, it appears Apple has limited much of what Carrier IQ will monitor. Below are chpwn’s findings:

• CoreTelephony
  • your phone number
  • your carrier
  • your country
  • active phone calls
    • (However, I only saw it noting that a phone call was active, not what number was dialed or it was received from. But, I am not going to claim it doesn’t do that: it’s certainly possible, but didn’t see it.)
• CoreLocation
  • your location (Only, however, if Location Services are enabled.)
  • (Possibly more I haven’t yet found.)

As Carrier IQ claims in their video, communication with the remote server is all done via SSL. Importantly, it does not appear the daemon has any access or communication with the UI layer, where text entry is done. I am reasonably sure it has no access to typed text, web history, passwords, browsing history, or text messages, and as such is not sending any of this data remotely.

1. Launch “Settings”
2. Select “General”
3. Select “About” (first entry)
4. Select “Diagnostics & Usage” (towards bottom)
5. Select “Don’t Send” if not already selected

While enroute to Sydney, Australia, passengers aboard Regional Express flight ZL319 were given a fright as an iPhone 4 “started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke accompanied by a red glow.” A flight attendant extinguished the phone and fortunately no one were harmed.

Apple recently announced a recall for the first generation iPod nano, citing “in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk.” While rare, a defective battery does have the potential to cause electronic devices to overheat and catch fire. Judging by the age of the iPhone 4, I feel it is safe to assume this is most likely an isolated incident.

From the Regional Express Press Release:

MEDIA RELEASE

MOBILE PHONE SELF COMBUSTION

iPhone 4 Fire

Regional Express

Regional Express (Rex) flight ZL319 operating from Lismore to Sydney today had an occurrence after landing, when a passenger’s mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow.

In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the Flight Attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully.

All passengers and crew on board were unharmed.

The matter has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as well as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for investigation and directions.

The mobile phone in question appears to be an Apple iPhone (see picture below) and has been handed over to ATSB for analysis.

Regional Express (Rex) is Australia’s largest independent regional airline operating a fleet of more than 40 Saab 340 aircraft on some 1,300 weekly flights to 36 destinations throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. The Rex Group comprises Regional Express, air freight and charter operator Pel-Air Aviation and Dubbo- based regional airline Air Link, as well as the pilot academy Australian Airline Pilot Academy.

[Via BGR]

Last week, Craig Mundie—Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer—told Forbes that he was not impressed with Siri, claiming that Microsoft has shipped similar technology in Windows Phone—via TellMe—for more than a year. He agreed with the reporter that much of Siri’s hype is “good marketing”, and that “Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for, you know, more than a year.” From the interview:

Both the iPhone and Windows Phones have shipped with speech-to-text converters for years, and were able to handle predefined voice commands. What sets Siri apart from previous attempts is its ability to understand natural spoken language.

TechAU decided to test Craig Mundie’s claims that Siri is no different from TellMe outside of marketing. What their demonstration shows us is more than Siri’s ability to understand natural language, but also how it excels at speech-to-text conversions:

Out of four requests, Microsoft TellMe was not able to correctly convert the speech-to-text once, whereas Siri performed flawlessly.

Are you looking to pick up a new Android phone, but concerned that your phone may never see an OS update moving forward? If history repeats itself, there’s a good chance your Android phone will stop receiving updates within two-years, in contrast to the iPhone which receives OS updates for the first three-years. Michael DeGusta posted an analysis of existing Android and iPhone models, and mapped out when their installed OS was current or outdated. From a simple glance, it is obvious the iPhone is easily the most supported and phones from Motorola are the most neglected.

From Apple’s Press Release:

Apple® today announced it has sold over four million of its new iPhone® 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, in the first five days of its release, and more than 20 million customers have signed up for iCloud®, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices. iPhone 4S is available today in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on October 28 and more than 70 countries by the end of the year.