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It turns out all iPhone applications run as root and any application vulnerability means winner takes all.

The iPhone has been turned into a “pocket-sized … network-enabled root shell,” said H.D. Moore, thanks to the well-known security researcher having published shell code and instructions for the smart phone on how to use it as a portable hacking platform.

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Palm posted disappointing financial results Monday, swinging to a loss for the first time since 2003.

During the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2008, which ended August 31, Palm recorded a net loss of $800,000, compared with net income of $16.5 million last year. Smart phone revenue was up 21 percent, but overall revenue was up just 1 percent from $356 million last year to $361 million this year.

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Nokia has responded instantly to the iPhone update-bricking fiasco by running a series of flyposter ads pointing out its own hardware and software is open.

While this is to be applauded, it’d be better if companies like this opened their products because they truly believed in openness, rather than to beat the competition over the head. After all, Apple itself used open source with OS X (kernel, web browser) mainly because they knew it would irritate Microsoft. Since that initial blow, they’ve been a lot less eager to promote open source.

It won’t downgrade the firmware, meaning so far you can’t re-unlock an iPhone that’s been 1.1.1, but it’s still 1.0.2 in all its third-party application glory.

The iPhone Dev Team folks are working on a way to downgrade the new firmware to let people unlock their phones again, but for now AT&T users sitting pretty, and non-AT&T folks can at least do the WiFi thing.

Click for more on HowTO: iPhone 1.1.1 to 1.0.2 Downgrade »

Palm Inc introduced its smallest smartphone on Thursday, delivers much of the functionality of a traditional smartphone with an attracting price tag.

The Centro will available in red and black, offers all of the features you would expect from such a device – a keyboard, a camera (1.3 megapixel), a decent display (320×320 pixel), Bluetooth connectivity, an MP3 player as well as organizer application. What is surprising, however, is that it also comes with EvDO wireless broadband capability, which should make the web browser and embedded Google Maps much more useful applications than they are, for example, in Apple’s iPhone.

Apple has shipped an iPhone software update for security purpose, also disable 3rd party apps and unlocking.

The mega which shipped today as iPhone v1.1.1, patches seven holes in Safari, a code execution and denial-of-service bug in Bluetooth, and two flaws affecting the built-in Mail service, which could allow malicious hackers to launch executable code, steal e-mail credentials or take control of the device’s phone-dialing capabilities.

Also, a post-update reactivation requires a genuine AT&T SIM. In other words, it looks like Apple may have just disabled thousands of unlocked phones around the world.

Official pics of the Samsung/Armani mashup.

Tri-band 900/1800/1900 GSM, 3 megapixel camera, 2.6-inch 262K color QVGA touchscreen LCD, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, microSD expansion, full Internet browser, and support for H.263, AAC/MP3/WMA audio and MPEG-4 video. Fine and dandy but this little guy also features a haptic feedback user interface like Samsung’s SCH-W559 handset loosed long ago in China — “users can feel an immediate mild vibration when they touch icons on the display.”

Click for more on Samsung’s Armani phone has a surprise: a haptic feedback UI »

“Unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs” could cause “irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software.”, officially said.

Merely three days after hearing of one user’s run-in with Apple over his unlocked iPhone, the company has released an official statement about hacking and unlocking.

Click for more on Apple finally weighs in on iPhone hacks, unlocking »

Relief from the tangled mess that is the cell phone charger market today is finally in sight

Last week a group of power players in the mobile phone manufacturing industry gathered to discuss the future of phone charging and data exchange. The companies reached an agreement to put an end to the mess of incompatible proprietary power connectors that has plagued the cell phone industry for years.  The companies agreed to adopt a new USB standard called Micro-USB: a shrunk-down portable version of the USB 2.0 standard.

Click for more on Micro-USB Mobile Phone Charging Standard Announced »

With 45nm processor and integrating a memory controller, video encode/decode engine and graphics all on a single chip, Intel described this as the chip the iPhone would have wanted.

The “Moorestown” processor was revealed, not realistically about to hit the market until 2009 or 2010, Intel described this as the chip the iPhone would have wanted.
With 45nm processor and integrating a memory controller, video encode/decode engine and graphics all on a single chip it will allow concept products like the device shown, to become a reality.

Click for more on Intel demos iPhone-like MID of the future »