Mac tips, iPhone applications, and the like
Dec 31
My Software iPhone, news, Take Me Home No Comments
Well, due to an App Store snafu, Take Me Home’s version number is wrong—1.0.1 instead of 1.1—but the new version is now available via iTunes. This release fixes problems people with the original iPhone and iPod Touch were having; there is now a progress bar that fills up as your iPhone has a better lock on your current location.
Dec 17
My Software iPhone, news, Take Me Home No Comments
I submitted version 1.1 of Take Me Home to the App Store today. Hopefully, it will be available soon. Take Me Home 1.1 adds the following features:
-Updated UI
-Better feedback for current status when the application is getting location updates
-Ability to customize map type
This update may appear as version 1.0.1 in iTunes, but that will be fixed when I update the version number with the next upload.
Take Me Home is available via iTunes for $0.99.
Dec 11
Miscellania iPhone, news, Take Me Home No Comments
Apple rejected Take Me Home 1.0.1 for a small issue, so I’ll have to hurry up and finish 1.1 to get that issue fixed. Rest assured it’s being worked on.
Dec 11
Miscellania meta, WordPress Comments Off
I’ve updated this site to WordPress 2.7. Wahoo! I also cleaned up some old posts, re-did some tags, and cleaned out old tags. Posts are also now sorted into categories.
Dec 10
My Software iPhone, news, Take Me Home No Comments
I’ve submitted Take Me Home 1.0.1 to Apple. It’s a small UI update, so I’m hoping that it will be available within the next few days.
Dec 09
My Software iPhone, news, Take Me Home No Comments
I’ve created a roadmap for Take Me Home that outlines my plans for new features. Take Me Home is currently at 1.0.0, and I hope to release version 1.3 by the end of January. I’m going to do one feature at a time to get new features out as soon as possible, rather than have big releases with lots of time between them.
Dec 07
My Software iPhone, news, shameless plug, Take Me Home 1 Comment
My first iPhone application is for sale! It’s called Take Me Home, and its sole utility is to create a map from your current location — automatically determined via GPS — to your saved home address, saving you clicks and providing convenience.
You can buy it on iTunes or check out my page for it. Take Me Home is 99 cents on the App Store.
Dec 04
Miscellania Google, Google Earth, malware, security, spyware 12 Comments
The Mac blogs around the ‘net are all abuzz today about Google’s release of a Mac version of the Google Maps API, but I noticed something funny when I installed it. The plug-in is a standard Mac Internet Plug-In, meaning you can install it at either /Library/Internet Plug-Ins or ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins. So why does the install package prompt you for administrator credentials when you choose to install it into your home folder? The answer lives at /Library/Google.
It turns out that when you install the plugin, the installer also installs a software update component, code-named “keystone.” It installs the following components:
/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/TicketStore/ — does anyone know what this does? I sure don’t./Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist) that runs when you’re logged in, presumably to fire up the daemon so you can receive updates without administrative privileges.Interestingly enough, this software component is never mentioned by Google. It isn’t an option you can deselect in the installer. Even worse, the plugin’s uninstall instructions don’t say a thing about it. This means that after you follow the plugin uninstall instructions, your computer is still checking in with Google’s servers to make sure that it’s up-to-date. I’m reluctant to call this malware, but it sure seems like spyware, doesn’t it? At the very least the installer ought to mention something.
Be cautious when installing this plugin onto any computer where security is essential. Any software component that runs as root, such as the updater this installer installs, is another attack vector for intruders trying to get at your data.
For what it’s worth, the API plugin does work if you only copy the stuff in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins to a computer or to your user account, so it appears that you can still use the plugin in a secure environment, you’ll just have to update it yourself and not have Google do it for you.
I’ve also mentioned this on the official Google Group.
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