White One Is Thicker

Before its 10 month late launch, white iPhone4 was intensively rumored all over the world. Widely believed to be unreal, the white smartphone finally arrived in App store yesterday, April 28th. The Apple lovers are all happy, rushing to get one, but… there is one big BUT!

The white iPhone 4 appears to be significantly thicker than its black counterpart. The pictures obviously prove it- the black one is 0.2mm thinner than the new white iPhone4. 

The reason for thickness is said to be the extra UV protection and other tweaks added to reduce the "unexpected interactions" between the cover's whiteness and the internal components. It seems that apple sacrificed a bit of slimness for the iPhone to function smoothly. 

White iPhone4 0.2mm thicker than its black counterpart

The difference is so small that its actually below the JND (Just Noticeable Difference) edge for consumers with disarmed eye. But the implications caused by this 0.2mm are much greater than we can imagine- the problem is the cases! Unfortunately, Apple's own spec page doesn't highlight the change in thickness (measured at 9.5mm by TiPb). Instead it still shows a 9.3mm depth with a tiny disclaimer stating, "Actual size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process." This fact misleads case producers while creating tight fitted cases for iPhones, forcing to start manufacturing a new line of their product specially for white iPhone4.

via AOL Inc.

Apple Answers Questions!

Apple decided to respond to the hubbub aroused about the gathering and use of location information by heir devices. To be objective and consider the arguments of both parties, we decided to publish Q&A session without any change, as we did in case of two American citizens accusing Apple, in our previous post. So it's up to you to decide who's right and who's not.

So here is the whole story, without any change. In case of further questions, do not hesitate to ask.

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone? 

Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this? 

Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.

3. Why is my iPhone logging my location? 

The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.

4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone? 

The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon (see Software Update section below).

5. Can Apple locate me based on my geo-tagged Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data? 

No. This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form. Apple cannot identify the source of this data.

6. People have identified up to a year’s worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today? 

This data is not the iPhone’s location data—it is a subset (cache) of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database which is downloaded from Apple into the iPhone to assist the iPhone in rapidly and accurately calculating location. The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don’t think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.

7. When I turn off Location Services, why does my iPhone sometimes continue updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple’s crowd-sourced database?  

It shouldn’t. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below).

8. What other location data is Apple collecting from the iPhone besides crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data? 

Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.

9. Does Apple currently provide any data collected from iPhones to third parties?  

We provide anonymous crash logs from users that have opted in to third-party developers to help them debug their apps. Our iAds advertising system can use location as a factor in targeting ads. Location is not shared with any third party or ad unless the user explicitly approves giving the current location to the current ad (for example, to request the ad locate the Target store nearest them).

10. Does Apple believe that personal information security and privacy are important? 

Yes, we strongly do. For example, iPhone was the first to ask users to give their permission for each and every app that wanted to use location. Apple will continue to be one of the leaders in strengthening personal information security and privacy.

Apple arguments seem to be very honest, doesn't they?.. Have your say! 

Two American citizens against Apple!!

Vikram Ajampur and William Devito- the owners of iPhone-and iPad accuse Apple for illegal gathering of information for their own purposes.

The appeal may be granted as the protest of all the users of Apple devices to protect their interests. According to the accusers, Apple collects data of the users about their location, without warning, and illegally collects personal accounts of life violating the rights of inviolability.

Citizens are particularly concerned by the fact that they have not been informed in advance. The complainers require Apple to remove this offending feature from next product additions and insist on payment of monetary compensation.

 The Appeal was led by the scandalous discovery of British Pete Uorden, former software engineer of Apple, who revealed some strange files in iPhone memory by accident. 29 thousand records have been found by the specialists, who argue that these files track the users’ destinations, and get into the computer automatically while synchronizing. They also claim that the files remain in the memory forever.Experts created a data visualization program to make their discovery available to everyone. Allen said that if Apple does not delete the function, at least it should inform consumers about the functions to shut down the service offer.

Later, the same experts said that the function of the software made a mistake and was not premeditated. "In case of conspiracy the files of the company would be more reliably hidden and we would not be able to find them so easily. Most probably, that this is an error or software engineers are the result of incomplete “. - they say. 

However, the study conducted in the United States and other countries by public authorities and human rights organizations was severely criticized. The governments of France and Germany have already said that such action is unacceptable and the incident may become a pretext for launching the investigation. 

What do you think, is Apple dishonest while integrating this feature in the device, or is it our “fault” that we are being tracked (if so)?  

Steve jobs,  who is currently on a medical leave due to his health worsening, replied to a user who tried to frighten him by switching on Android device, that it’s not an iPhone, but Android, who is keeping track of all the users….

You can even see CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL by the two citizens against the company in details right HERE