The older the crab, the tougher his claws
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Iphone update kills Exchange access
OWNERS OF OLDER IPHONES and Ipod Touches will be in for a nasty surprise if they decide to update to the latest OSX for Iphone 3.1.
The point release - which is supposed to improve security, reliability and fix bugs - also stops all devices older than the brand new Iphone 3GS from accessing some Microsoft Exchange 2007 servers, according to reports.
Users are telling us that after installing the update, a message informs them: "Policy Requirement - The account [account name] requires encryption which is not supported on this iPod/iPhone". Although the encryption policy is a server side option, thousands of users have been succesfully syncing to these servers for many months without problem.
Which leads us to conclude that Apple devices have been misleading Exchange servers into thinking that they are capable of carrying out the level of on-device encryption demanded by their system administrators when they quite clearly are not.
The fact that Apple has been loudly extolling the virtues of the Iphone as a business class device whilst potentially compromising the security of companies all over the world is beyond irony. And any business that has decided to offer Apple devices to its employees for use with Exchange 2007 servers will now have a major headache to deal with.
The immediate solution seems to be either to turn off the need for on-device data encryption - which as anyone who has ever lost a mobile phone will agree is an entirely bad idea - or to upgrade every one of your Iphone-toting employees with a shiny new 3GS. Which is very nice for Apple's Iphone shipments and will make for some happy employees, but does nothing to improve business bottom lines in such troubled times.
The only other option is to 'downgrade' to OSX for Iphone 3.0. All very well if you know what you are doing and a) have a suitable Itunes-recoverable backup, b) use Time Machine and are happy to revert your entire sytem to a previous state or, c) are willing to install a back-up from a dodgy P2P or Usenet download.
It's not clear whether these older devices are capable of offering data encryption and can be fixed with a further update, as Apple is remaining tight-lipped about the problem.
But unless the Cupertino company wakes up and smells the cappuccino, it will do untold damage to the fragile relationship it has built with the few companies - not including the herd of media darlings with £100 haircuts - brave enough to dip their toes into Apple waters.
With much of the marketing surrounding the release of Snow Leopard relying on promises of Exchange support out of the box, we have to wonder whether Apple has betrayed the trust of business users once too often. µ
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Other than the constant upgrades, The limited functionality that they have been teasing users with and the ever changing crippled updates...I am not really seeing a good reason to have one other than to be one of the "in" crowd.
All mobiles have the capability to use hardware encryption, since it is required in the GSM specs as well, however Apple might not be able to access it from its el cheapo phone chipset.
Other news stories on this subject make a point of saying the Exchange policy requires on-device HARDWARE encryption. Presumably as opposed to regular software encryption? I wonder how many phones out there support hardware encryption. Apple made a big deal about the 3GS doing it; I don't remember any similar fanfare around a Windows Mobile or Nokia device. So it seems possible to me that Apple is the first company to implement the specification correctly, and it seems possible that their previous incorrect implementation is actually standard practice in the industry and not necessarily unencrypted/insecure.
"Apple devices have been misleading Exchange servers into thinking that they are capable of carrying out the level of on-device encryption demanded by their system administrators when they quite clearly are not."
I'd prefer to see actual evidence of that before implying that's the case.. It is after all possible that Apple have just *broken* the secure support in the latest release.
Whilst I disagree with a *lot* of what apple does and the tight controls they seem to enjoy placing on the public, I can see the virtues in *some* of what they do.
"/me strokes my Nokia which DOES support Exchange."
I used to use a Nokia E90 and before that an N95 which supported exchange, but come one... it was like living in the green screen days compared to the interface the iPhone presents you. Don't even get me started on what happens when you receive a calendar event on a nokia. "You mean I have to go out of my email, into my calender, find the date, look to see if I'm free, then go back into my email, locate the message and accept it"... or you could just hit iphones "Show me in the Calendar" then back and accept. Plus it shows invitees, and a whole pile of other stuff the Nokia decides isn't important to you.
It's not perfect by any means, and I believe Apples QA of the software should be called into question for allowing something through that breaks things for so many people. The battery life is junk, the new pase into phone is missing the ability to edit the number (position the cursor) like all other pastable fields, and the list goes on.... but it's still a pretty cute usefull and productive device (unless you want to use exchange on on older iPhone with update 3.1 obviously ).
"Apple devices have been misleading Exchange servers into thinking that they are capable of carrying out the level of on-device encryption demanded by their system administrators when they quite clearly are not."
Since when did a Microsoft product truly take the time to think about the the politesse or punctilio
{beyonce had one of the
best videos of all time!}
completing the authentication and password setup process?
The recipient decrypts and views the message using the Voltage Zero Download Messenger decoder ring using any browser on any OS.
"The fact that Apple has been loudly extolling the virtues of the Iphone as a business class device whilst potentially compromising the security of companies all over the world is beyond irony."
{Really?}
Caveat Emptor Vole Venditor or a bottle of ginger beer.
The privity is either horizontal or verticle with respect to the steveadores, err Gothamites of Cuckoo Bush.
Secrets are a virtual prerequisite in this house, don't you think?
I don't know... Ask Jeeves.
So is this kind of a forced upgrade to an iPhone 3G S?
I don't use exchange myself (I'm happy with a secure imap server) but if I did, I would not choose an iPhone.
/me strokes my Nokia which DOES support Exchange.
Maybe they'll be an app to fix it coming out soon, or a service pack, sorry I mean upgrade at £30.
Rob
I'm not sure if Google Blogspot did something at exactly the same time, but the Insert Link Enter URL dialog box on Blogger no longer supports cut-and-paste on the iPhone with 3.1. Which makes pasting in a copied URL rather difficult.
This useful feature disappeared when I updated my iPhone to 3.1.
The workaround is to type a random letter into the Enter URL dialog box, and then revert to editing the post's HTML and pasting the copied URL over that random letter.
Apple has the right to exist and to do whatever it wanted as far as product and marketing goes. Good or bad, natural market selection will always prevail in the end anyway.
What Apple doesn't seem to realize is that we are not in th 40'S anymore. People are more educated, have access to a lot more information a lot faster. If you are not careful with your corporate attitude nowadays, you can paint yourself in the corner very quickly. Look at what happen to Nvidia.
Everybody in the industry hates them as well as most of the well informed public. Sometime good, sometime average product, but 95% of the time, you would just love to smash there impudent head with a 50 pound rock.
Apple has become a sweet looking, even fashionable company on the outside, but deeply rotten on the inside. And the inside real nature of Apple is showing its ugly face more and more every day.
Ipod explode? Just send threating legal letter to the poor family to make sure they will shut the fuck up. *BOOM* story splill on the net... Public 1, Apple 0
I won't write all what Apple did wrong recently. Suffice to say that this example, and today story, as many others, are VERY representative of Apple's bad attitude as of late. Back door deal, denial, stupid marketing plow / spin off, false representation, black mail, plain lie, unilateral decision without consulting the community, etc... The list goes on and on.
Apple better put its act together and exorcise the "god syndrome", "Apple is perfect", "We can't do nothing wrong", "It's everybody else fault" kind of self destructive, paranoiac and dictatorial behavior or die a slow, painful corporate death.
Mark my word, Apple... Mark them well..
A lot bigger and stronger empires have fallen before you. A little respect and humility goes a long way with us, simple humans. Remember that.
Ramon Zarat
This is clearly not a problem, it´s a fantastic new Feature
My iphoney will just loose the only productive reason for me to have it.
They're just killing the cow.