MacRumors

The Wall Street Journal reports that the four major U.S. wireless carriers have reached an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission to work toward a centralized database to track and disable stolen mobile phones.

The database, which the wireless companies will build and maintain, will be designed to track phones that are reported as lost or stolen and deny them voice and data service. The idea is to reduce crime by making it difficult or impossible to actually use a stolen device, reducing resale value.

Currently, Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. block phones that are reported stolen from being reactivated. AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA don't. All four have agreed to be part of the new database.

The report cites a study from the New York Police Department showing that electronics are now the most commonly stolen type of property, with mobile phones accounting for over 80% of thefts in that category.

According to the plan, the major carriers will develop individual databases within six months, integrating them over the following 12 months. Smaller carriers will also join the database after that point. The database will also be interoperable with similar efforts in other countries to allow for international tracking of stolen phones, although many countries have yet to develop such databases.

As noted by ifoAppleStore, Apple has typically taken a hands-off approach when it comes to stolen phones, with Genius Bar staff routinely offering free warranty replacements in exchange for stolen phones. Apple's policies reportedly stem from a lack of centralized tracking of stolen devices and a desire to not become involved in potential confrontations over the stolen merchandise, but an official database supported by the carriers could help Apple become more proactive about handling stolen iPhones.

This weekend, AT&T began unlocking iPhones for off-contract customers. This allows the iPhone be used with a SIM-card from overseas carriers, or T-Mobile in the U.S. In addition to unlocking phones for off-contract customers, AT&T is also quietly unlocking iPhones for U.S. service members still under contract with the carrier.

Carriers are required by federal law to suspend service without penalty for deployed military personnel upon presentation of their military orders, but AT&T is not required to unlock the phones of deployed service members. Instead, the company is choosing to do that on its own.

AT&T declined to comment, but we have independently confirmed that AT&T is unlocking phones for service members upon request. Deployed soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines should contact AT&T customer service to get more information about having their iPhones unlocked.

Thanks Taylor! (Photo courtesy Otterbox)

Facebook has announced it is buying the extremely popular photography app-maker Instagram for a reported $1 billion.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the acquisition in a blog post today:

For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

Apple named Instagram its iPhone App of the Year for 2011. Instagram is also the 19th most downloaded free iPhone app of all-time. Instagram launched an Android app just last week.

Instagram is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White has released a new research report today outlining some of the takeaways from a recent trip to Asia to talk with companies in Apple's supply chain. According to White, chatter from those suppliers is pointing toward a larger 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5, which will also include a redesign bringing a "new, sleek look".

In our view, this will be the most significant iPhone upgrade with a four-inch screen and a new, sleek look that we believe will require a Unibody case. This new, sleek look will be the most important reason that consumers decide to upgrade to the iPhone 5, while we believe the addition of 4G will also attract buyers of the new device.

White notes that some suppliers are expected to begin ramping production of components in June, ahead of a launch in the August-September timeframe leading into a blockbuster final quarter of 2012.

As in any discussion of a larger screen on an iPhone, the issue of screen resolution is certain to be a key sticking point. With the iPhone currently offering a 3.5-inch Retina display, an increase to 4 inches would require one of two changes: an increase in resolution that would yield difficulties for developers by adding yet another device size to the mix, or a decrease in pixel density that would maintain the current resolution but see density drop to roughly 285 pixels per inch from the current 326 pixels per inch.

Among White's other takeaways from his trip:

- Display issues have caused a bit of a bottleneck on supplies of the new iPad, but the shortages seem to be easing. Any small constraints on March quarter sales numbers would be compensated for by a boost to June quarter sales.

- Suppliers suggest that a smaller "iPad mini" is still in the works, but launch timing remains unknown.

- While the new iPad is not yet officially available in China, some resellers are already carrying the device. Speculation is pointing to a potential May release for the new iPad in China, although evidence for that timeframe beyond a recent regulatory approval appears scant.

9to5Mac claims that Apple is internally testing new iPhone hardware that is based on a variant of the A5X system-on-a-chip used in the new iPad, with the company disguising the hardware in existing iPhone 4/4S bodies in order to keep its potential plans for a new form factor a secret.

Much like they did last year, Apple has internally seeded a prototype next-generation iPhone with the iPhone 4 design. The actual next-generation iPhone is specifically said to not include the iPhone 4/4S design, but Apple is testing these new devices in older casings to throw off leaks. The purpose of the prototype iPhone that we heard about is to test a variation of the “A5X” chip in an iPhone.

With the A5X having been designed with quad-core graphics in order to drive the Retina display of the new iPad, the variant being used in the iPhone prototype will emphasize other performance gains coming from the S5L8945X application processor included in the package. Like the new iPad, the prototype iPhone 5 reportedly includes 1 GB of RAM, up from the 512 MB found in the iPhone 4S. According to the report, the test iPhone 5 hardware carries a code name of N96.

The report also cites evidence of an "iPod5,1" reference in iOS 5.1 code suggesting that Apple is working on a hardware update for the iPod touch. The device was left nearly untouched in last October's update, with the addition of white models being the primary physical change to the lineup as the iPod touch retained the A4 chip even as the iPhone 4S received an upgrade to the A5.

Proving that Foxconn employees, even those associated with worker hiring, aren't necessarily privy to information on launch schedules for Apple products, Kotaku reports on an article from Maeil Business Newspaper offering new claims on an iPhone 5 launch date. The report notes that the newspaper contacted the chief of human resources at Foxconn's facility in Taiyuan, China to ask about hiring and iPhone plans, with the employee disclosing that the company has just received an order from Apple for the iPhone 5 ahead of an expected launch date of "around October".

According to a recently published article, the paper asked the head of human resources at Foxconn's Taiyuan factory about the iPhone 5 release date. The human resources head apparently told the paper, "We just got the order. It [the release] will be around October."

The report comes just after a Foxconn recruiter at the same plant claimed last week that a hiring surge of roughly 18,000 workers is supporting production of the iPhone 5 for a June launch.

As we noted in our earlier report, a September-October timeframe has seemed much more likely than a return to a mid-year launch, as Apple would likely prefer to maintain at least a one-year interval between product updates. Returning to a June-July launch for the next-generation iPhone would bring that interval down to only 8-9 months, a rather fast turnaround for the company that is still rolling out the iPhone 4S to new markets and carriers.

On Friday, AT&T released a statement that they would now be offering SIM unlocks for iPhones that are no longer under contract. The process of SIM unlocking a phone allows it to use SIM cards from other carriers. This feature is frequently used during international travel to allow the use of mobile service from local carriers. The Next Web detailed the basic steps required by AT&T.

The process is painless and only takes a few minutes in the chat. The only piece of information required by AT&T is the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, which can be found under Settings>General>About on your device.

Once you’ve completed the procedure, Apple pushes the unlock code during the next 72 hours to your email address, so the code comes from the mothership, not from AT&T. Once Apple completes the unlock request, a customer has to back-up and restore and tether the device to iTunes to complete the unlock process.

MacRumors readers shared their experiences on Sunday trying to unlock their out-of-contract iPhones in our discussion thread on the topic. Responses from AT&T service representatives were mixed with some seemingly unaware of the process.

Others had better luck, such as Exegesis48, who was able to get his iPhone 3GS unlocked immediately.

I called AT&T Tech Support and was able to get my iPhone 3GS unlocked no problem. In fact, the representative waited on the line to ensure I received my unlock confirmation email, at which point he told me to backup and restore my phone to receive my unlock. I did this and was able to receive my unlock IMMEDIATELY.

Experiences may have improved over the day. Some early callers were told the process would complete on April 16th, while others were told to simply wait 48-72 hours for the confirmation email.

Several readers have noticed that Universal Studios' movies are now available for re-download through Apple's iCloud service. In March we reported that both Fox and Universal were not yet participating in iCloud video streaming due to contractual obligations with HBO. HBO was reportedly working with both Fox and Universal to loosen these restrictions.

HBO agreed to loosen its arrangement with Warner Bros., which is working with iCloud, and also is in talks with Universal and Fox to do the same, the spokesman added.

When searching for movies in iTunes, Universal movies no longer contain a warning that the movies are not available through iCloud, while Fox's movies retain the warning:

Another reader was able to confirm he was able to re-download 40 Year Old Virgin. Previous movie purchases from Universal should now be available for redownload in your previous purchased menu on iTunes.

Fox is also said to be in negotiations with expectations that their movies would also become available through iCloud in the near future.

Digitimes points to a report in Taiwan's Economic Daily News claiming that Apple is planning to introduce updated iMac models in June, a bit later than some had initially hoped given Intel's Ivy Bridge launch schedule that would see quad-core desktop processors launch at the end of this month.

PC ODM Quanta Computer and chassis supplier Foxconn Technology are expected to benefit from the launch of Apple's latest iMac desktops, which are set to launch in June with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report citing sources from the upstream supply chain.

The report repeats a claim from earlier this week indicating that Apple will be using anti-reflective glass for the new iMac, and also suggests that updated MacBook Pro models are due "at the end of the second quarter".

Unfortunately, Economic Daily News does not have a terribly good track record when it comes to Apple rumors, with past misses including an iPhone nano in 2009, a 7-inch iPad in 2010, and a Retina-display iPad by the end of 2011. But perhaps coming in support of the newspaper's claim of a June launch for updated iMac models, How to Arena earlier this week claimed a similar June-July timeframe for updated iMac models.

As for Economic Daily News' claim that Apple will be releasing MacBook Pro updates at the end of the quarter, which would mean late June, Apple's situation appears to be complicated by chip availability from Intel. While quad-core chips appropriate for the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro are said to be launching on April 29, dual-core chips viewed as successors to those used in the current 13-inch model do not appear to be launching until early June.

Recent reports have indicated that production on new 15-inch models has begun ramping up but that 13-inch MacBook Pro updates won't begin ramping until June, and it is unclear whether Apple would introduce the new 15-inch models before the 13-inch models are ready.

AppleGazette has assembled a large collection of photographs taken inside Apple Headquarters in Cupertino. The collection includes photos of the reception areas at 1 Infinite Loop, shots of the atriums, The Company Store, Apple's Town Hall auditorium, the Apple gymnasium and more.

For such a private and secretive company, there are a decent number of photos taken inside the walls of headquarters. Of course, we have seen lots of plans for the new Apple headquarters which should be completed in a few years.

Reuters reports that five people have been charged with intentional injury in southern China after a teenager sold one of his kidneys in order to purchase an iPad and iPhone. According to the report, those charged include the surgeon who removed the kidney and another person who arranged for the transplant into an undisclosed recipient.

The boy, identified only by his surname Wang, now suffers from renal deficiency, Xinhua quoted prosecutors in Chenzhou city, Hunan province as saying.

According to the Xinhua account, one of the defendants received about 220,000 yuan (about $35,000) to arrange the transplant. He paid Wang 22,000 yuan and split the rest with the surgeon, the three other defendants and other medical staff.

The iPad 2 in Apple's Chinese online store ranges from 2,988-5,499 yuan, while iPhone pricing begins at 2,888 yuan for an unlocked iPhone 3GS and goes up to 6,788 yuan for a 64 GB iPhone 4S.

The report indicates that Wang is from Anhui, one of the poorest provinces in China, and that he is suffering from renal deficiency since the transplant, a condition that is continuing to worsen. Interestingly, a nearly identical story surfaced last June, and while the teenager in that case was identified by a surname of "Zheng", the cases are so similar in their details that they may be referring to the same event.

Trading and sale of human organs is banned in China, where low organ donation rates have led those in need of transplants to seek out alternatives to established organ matching programs.

(Image from Kidney News [App Store])

AT&T has announced it will begin unlocking customers' iPhones once their 2-year contracts have expired. The move will free up the currently-locked devices to use a micro-SIM from any carrier offering a network compatible with the device.

AT&T issued this statement to MacRumors:

Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability to unlock their AT&T iPhones. The only requirements are that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee.

Last month, 9to5Mac reported that AT&T had agreed to unlock a user's off-contract iPhone 3GS under a "special one-time exception" after the user sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook about the issue. AT&T had previously refused to unlock the device, which the customer wanted to continue to use after moving to Canada, but relented after being contacted via Cook's office.

There have been many different hacks to unlock iPhones over the years, but this policy change will make it extremely easy for AT&T customers to legitimately and permanently unlock their iPhones for use on any network.

Earlier this week, Gareth Wright disclosed his recent work showing that Facebook's app for iOS contains a security vulnerability that could allow malicious users to access login credentials held in a .plist file associated with the app. Obtaining a copy of that .plist file could allow a malicious users to automatically login in to the affected user's account on another device. The flaw reportedly also exists on Android devices.

Wright first discovered the issue while using iExplorer to browse files on his iPhone, discovering that the Facebook .plist file maintains the full oAuth key and secret needed to access his account in plain text. Working with a friend, Wright was able to demonstrate that simply moving that .plist file to another device granted that device access to his Facebook account.

After backing up his own plist and logging out of Facebook he copied mine over to his device and opened the Facebook app…

My jaw dropped as over the next few minutes I watched posts appear on my wall, private messages sent, webpages liked and applications added.

Scoopz then opened Draw Something on his iPad which logged him straight into my account where he sent some pictures back to my friends.

Wright outlines a number of different ways in which a malicious user could obtain the login credentials, including customized apps, hidden applications installed on public PCs, or hardware solutions such as a modified speaker dock that could siphon the data.

Facebook has issued a statement claiming that the issue only affects devices that have been jailbroken or lost, as it requires either installation of a custom app or physical access to the device. But as pointed out by Wright and confirmed by The Next Web, unmodified devices need not be lost in order to be targeted, as simply plugging in a device to a compromised computer or accessory would be sufficient to allow the data to be gathered.

Furthermore, The Next Web has confirmed that the same issue affects Dropbox for iOS, similarly allowing a user to simply copy the .plist file from one device to another in order to gain access to the account. Given that two high-profile apps are vulnerable to credential theft, it seems likely that other services are also affected by the same issue.

As multiple reports note, there is no evidence that this method of collecting login credentials is actively being used in a malicious manner, and users can protect themselves for the time being by not connecting their devices to public computers or charging stations.

Update: While Wright's initial post claims that the issue affects "locked passcoded unmodified iOS Devices" when connected to a PC set up to capture the .plist file, The Next Web has now updated its report to indicate that in its testing the technique does not work on devices protected with a passcode.

Apple has released its second update in two days to the OS X implementation of Java. The first update closed a vulnerability that has led to the infection of more than 600,000 Macs via a trojan horse. The infections have received increased media attention in the past day, including a splashed headline on the Drudge Report.

While yesterday's Java for OS X Lion 2012-001 update closed the vulnerability in Java 1.6.0_29, there's no indication what the new update -- called Java for OS X 2012-002 -- fixes. The update notes link to the same support document as update 2012-001.

Last year, Apple introduced a security update to OS X that would automatically remove malicious software from OS X installations. It isn't clear if the infected machines can be fixed via the internal OS X security mechanisms.

In OS X Mountain Lion, the next version of the OS X software that will be released this summer, Apple will include a feature called Gatekeeper. The new system relies not only on Mac App Store distribution as means of vetting apps, but also on a new "identified developer" program under which developers distributing their applications outside of the Mac App Store can register with Apple and receive a personalized certificate they can use to sign their applications. Apple can then use that system to track developers and disable their certificates if malicious activity is detected.

Previously-released data from NPD on U.S. Mac sales for January and February have demonstrated relatively anemic year-over-year growth, with January sales tracking only 1% above the previous January's performance and February sales coming in 4% higher. Still, analysts have suggested that ongoing growth in international markets could compensate for stagnation in the U.S. market as consumers continue to wait for product updates. Consequently, analysts have generally been holding firm on their predictions of 15-20% Mac unit growth on a worldwide year-over-year basis for the full quarter.

Some analysts had also held out hope that Apple could sneak in at least one update to its Mac lineup before the end of the quarter to provide a spark for Mac sales, but with the first group of Intel's Ivy Bridge processors not launching until the end of the month, Apple was unable to update its main Mac models within the first three months of the year.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty is out with a new research note today incorporating NPD's data on U.S. Mac sales for March, and as might be expected given the lack of hardware updates, Apple continues to fall short of analyst expectations, with Mac shipments down 4% year-over-year for the first calendar quarter.

Huberty continues to believe that international growth will offset at least some of the flat performance in U.S. sales for the quarter, although she appears somewhat pessimistic that it will be able to reach her 15% growth target on a global basis. Nevertheless, Huberty seems optimistic that booming iPhone and iPad sales will make up for any shortfall on the Mac side due to the balance of profits among the segments.

Although the US retail market improved in March, Apple shipment growth decelerated as the company faced much tougher Y/Y comparisons due to a notebook refresh this time last year. US retail data suggest Apple shipments fell 4% Y/Y in C1Q12 compared to our estimate of 15% global Mac unit growth. We expect faster international growth to offset some of the deceleration in the US. In fact, the divergence between international and US growth has accelerated from about four points in prior quarters to 15 points in C4Q11. More importantly, we expect demand upside from iPhone and iPad (83% of gross profit) to more than offset any Mac downside (9% of gross profit).

On a broader basis, the PC market is seeing even more substantial declines in sales, with U.S. PC sales tracking for declines of 10-15% year-over-year for the quarter. That performance is, however, better than Huberty had been modeling for, and major PC manufacturers such as HP and Dell could see some upside if their final results fall in line with data released so far.

Announced at CES earlier this year, the LaCie's new Thunderbolt eSATA Hub is now shipping. The device allows external eSATA drives to be connected to Thunderbolt equipped Macs. The daisy-chainable hub includes two eSATA ports and retails for $199.

eSATA is a high performance drive connector used to connect external hard drives to your computer. eSATA has never been a standard option on Macs, but is a faster alternative to USB 2.0 and Firewire and is commonly found on high performance external drives and storage arrays.

For those who are have existing eSATA drives or are waiting for Thunderbolt drives to drop in price, this could be a good interim solution. The Hub isn't yet available for order on LaCie's website. We spoke to someone at LaCie's sales center who told us the first batch had sold out, but that more were to arrive in a few days. Interested parties can contact LaCie sales directly to place an order for one of these backordered units, and it'll ship out when LaCie receives them.