Apple does Fu-Bar

Apple recently dropped the iPhone 3.1 update on the world and many users did the MINOR .1 revision update. I say minor because it is customary to have any .x updates be bug fixes and minor tweeks to the system. However, this was a little more then just a tweek if you look at it from the IT/Security/You Should Have Told Us perspective.

Little did anyone know but this Minor update disabled the iPhones abuility to sync with an Exchange server. Now at first look you would think something changed on our server causing this disruption of my precious email to my well equipped iPhone.

However, upon further investigation you would find out that this was actually something Apple did because all transactions to an Exchange server have to be encrypted and the iPhone isn’t doing the encryption. Ok, so the new update isn’t doing encryption and now I have to check my email some other way, or at least until the fix comes out.

So whats the big deal right?

Well, the BIG deal is that the iPhones have been able to sync with an Exchange server since July of 08 which means they were telling the Exchange servers that they were encrypting the data even though the were not. Which means that Apple has been bullshitting everyone by letting them think that their product was up to par and actually following the guide lines that are layed out but it was actually connecting and sending all information falsely.

Way to go Apple. Just another notch in your “Hey lets screw the end user” belt.

O, and just in case you were interested, you can read about how they did a little more bullshitting on their VPN policy support here>>.

So much for the iPhone being a solid Corporate product.