Gizmodo: Contacts

Aurora Feint iPhone Game Is Back Sans Security Concerns

Jason Chen — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Aurora Feint, the iPhone game that was de-listed because of security concerns, has made it back onto the App Store. So what did the developers do? They ripped out the contact list integration entirely, opting for a more Nintendo friend code-like system that they will introduce in the near future. And if you're still worried about their security, this is what they've currently got in place:

In the meantime, remember these things:
1) We do not pull data from your contact list before notifying you. There is now a notification in-game when this is done. And it is only done on the community page by YOU pressing the submit button.
2) We never store your contact list on our web server.
3) All data sent over the wire is now completely encrypted.
4) No contact data is saved on your phone's hard drive anymore. This has been removed.

Sounds good to us. [Aurora Feint]

Aurora Feint iPhone App Delisted For Lousy Security Practices

Jason Chen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:22:53 EDT

Remember that Aurora Feint Puzzle/RPG game that we told you we liked? Turns out we don't like it anymore. In fact, we're actually pretty damn scared of this app, seeing as Apple de-listed them from the App Store due to privacy and security issues. To the developer's credit, they were forthright with what they did and didn't do.

According to their forums, if you opt-in to the community feature, Aurora Feint looks through your contact list, sends it unencrypted to their servers, and matches you up with your friends who are currently playing right now. Great feature, for sure, but that whole looking through our contact list and sending it in plain text to your server is cause for us to go OMGWTFBBQ.

When we discovered that the Apple SDK allowed us to look through your contact list we thought it would be a great idea to automatically show you which friends are playing the game. Why automatically? Well, everyone always complains about the keyboard on the iPhone and how annoying it is to type on it. So we thought, "Hey, why don't we make this feature REALLY easy to use – no typing!" And such, the community feature was born. Some people have said that it would have been ok if we had a better notice explaining what was going on. I agree! We weren't trying to be sneaky about how this worked. It was just overlooked. No one we showed it to even asked a question about it – nor did we. It just simply never came up as a potential issue when we beta tested the game with early users.

Upside is, if you didn't use the community feature, you're OK.

In the 1.0 version of the game we just didn't get around to doing everything we wanted to do in time for the launch: remember we tried to do a high quality game in 10 weeks flat. So, if you opt-in to the community feature, when you refresh your friends, the data is sent unencrypted to our web servers. Before you freak out though, let me explain why this was done. We just thought that it was a cool feature and that we'd implement security stuff if we became popular. To that end, the web server we launched with was a teeny box with almost no power. We spent the first few days scrambling to scale our servers. We really had no idea how popular we were going to be. We added this feature in near the end of our development cycle and simply decided that we didn't have enough time to spend to make it secure in advance of knowing if it was even going to be a hit.

Good intentions by slightly amateur programmers. It's alright. No malice intended. They're actually asking the community as to how they should proceed, and you should go tell them.

It's also a credit to Apple for finding out the mistake and shutting it down. Even though the line about having all apps be vetted through the store in the first place was to make sure all of them are safe, some stuff like this still slipped through because it's pretty much unfeasible to test each application to make sure they're not sending out your private data. Apps and app updates are already delayed for a week or more because Apple's checking them out. [Thanks mjborch1]

Contacts With Coverflow Concept Kind Of Cool

Matt Hickey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:00:52 EDT

Coverflow isn't my favorite feature of OS X, but I have to admit it is neat, but that's about it. There are more efficient ways to organize pretty much any data you can think of, but this idea of applying the technology to your iPhone's Contacts list intrigues me. Nothing fancy here, it would likely be a piece of cake for Apple to throw together, and I'm a little mystified as to why it hasn't yet. It wouldn't be the first time photo browsing for contacts has been used, but it would be the coolest. And yes, I really have Kevin Rose's contact info on my iPhone, and no, he doesn't know about it. [TechAu]

DARPA Wants Contact Lenses to Turn Real-Life Combat Into Call of Duty 4

matt buchanan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:45:46 EDT

The problem with cool strap-on heads-up displays a few lucky soldiers get to use on the battlefield today is that they're bulky affairs that make them look like half-assed cyborgs. Plus, the interface is limited. The Pentagon wants to develop contact lenses that'll put "first-person-shooter-type video game" graphics on top the soldiers' vision. Yes, they want to make real-life combat the realest Halo match ever.

Specifically, they're looking for "information on technology areas for the creation of micro- and nano-scale display technologies for the purpose of creating displays that could be worn as transparent contact lenses." And they want it now. Okay, like three to five years, but that's practically immediate for the Pentagon. Right in time for Halo 5. [Federal Business Opportunities via Danger Room]

iPhone 2.0 Firmware Update to Include Search Feature?

Sean Fallon — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:20:50 EDT

Some sharp-eyed folks over at blargKaboom analyzed last week's SDK event and noticed a search icon in Contacts. Interestingly enough, the icon appears in a screenshot about 9 min and 30 sec in, but not in the actual demo. Hopefully, this feature will be ready by the time the final version rolls out in June, because manually searching through a ton of contacts can be a real bitch. [Apple and blargKaboom via Ubergizmo]

Electronic Contact Lenses Give Future You Crazy Eyesight, Heads-up Display

Jason Chen — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:18:03 EST

Having the internet be constantly displayed no matter where we look is a dream we've had for years, but having to shove an electronic contact into our eyes makes us think twice. This prototype device, which has red LEDs and can be worn for up to 20 minutes (tested on rabbits) with no adverse effects. The contacts beam images directly into the eyes, which means you can have either superhuman vision by feeding a zoomed-in image to the device, or even heads-up displays like Arnold had in T2 or RoboCop had in RoboCops 1, 2 and 3. [MedGadget]

Magnetic Contact Lenses Keep Tabs On Where You Look

kevinhall2 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:00:04 EDT

By slapping magnetic contact lenses onto your eyeballs, sensors can track where you're looking. This could have important applications for the disabled, especially for those who rely on their eyes for control instead of disabled body parts. Right now, however, the Office of Naval Research is the largest sponsor, so you can probably file this patent under Helping Us Blow Shit Up.

Previous methods often employed visual solutions such as cameras, which can get mucked up by rapid motions, light, or glasses. They hope to use the technology to better track the attention of combat personnel such as pilots, whose eyes help them interact with their heads-up displays. [New Scientist]

Zyb Backs Up Your Contacts Online

Jason Chen — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:20:12 EDT

What's more painful and time consuming than entering in 300 of your contacts into a new cellphone? Entering 400 contacts into a new cellphone. Screw that. With the Zyb online service, you can back up your contacts ala the T-Mobile Sidekick, so you'll never have to do that again.

The Zyb service supports 200 types of phones, and once backed up, your contacts can be managed using a web interface and shared with other Zyb users. The service is based on the SyncML data interface, so most phones should be able to use it. Check the list to see if yours is supported. Best yet, the service is free. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Zyb via Pop Gadget]