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Apple Pushes Unwanted Software To PCs, Again
itwbennett writes "Blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols wags his finger at Apple for indiscriminately pushing the iPhone Configuration Utility 2.1 update out to Windows users, since it is a tool for business system administrators to set up and administer corporate iPhones — the blogger himself (and practically every other iPhone user) not being of the corporate iPhone user persuasion. But more than just unnecessary, the update actually puts him and millions of other iPhone owners/Windows PC users at increased risk by installing 'not just a configuration program, but the Apache Web server as well,' says Vaughan-Nichols. 'A Web server like the one Apple [is] adding to your PC... [is] a gateway just asking to be hammered on by an attacker. Managed properly Apache is as safe a Web server as you'll ever find, but ordinary PC users shouldn't try to manage it, and even an expert can't do anything with it if they don't know it's there.'" Reader CWMike notes that Apple pulled the iPhone Configuration Utility from the update list after a few hours.
the update actually puts him and millions of other iPhone owners/Windows PC users at increased risk by installing
Millions? Lets see here, the update was only recommended for a few hours and was quickly pulled. How many people do you think update constantly? If Windows updates are any indication (and most just install in the background with almost no user interaction) chances are very few. We aren't talking about "millions" but a few thousand in the worst case.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Personally I hope they spend more time on the main iTunes program itself. Mine always freezes if I allow the program to sync as soon as the iPhone is connected! Disabling that function is the only way I have found allows me to connect the iPhone without having iTunes stall.
Is this the second update to version 9 of iTunes already? It seems just last week the 9.01 (?) was released!
No one else reporting on this "issue" (it was a mistake folks - chill out) has mentioned installing Apache, which would definitely be a huge issue.
Has anyone here independently seen this supposed Apache installation?
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
I'm not so sure if asking me if I'd like to update/install something is the same as having it "pushed" to me. I had the Apple Software Update thing pop up on me the other day, I unchecked the items I didn't want (the iPhone Config Util being one of them), and I went ahead and updated the software that I did want. So how exactly are they "forcing" this one me?
Apple only pushes the iPhone Configuration Utility updates to those who have the utility installed already. This is the case with my home and my work computers where only my work computer contained a previous installation of the iPhone Configuration Utility.
It appears to be more of a screw-up by Apple rather than the intent of pushing unwanted software.
The previous ones were probably Apple deliberately (and stupidly) trying to push its software to Windows machines that didn't have it already.
Given that almost no one needs the iPhone Configuration Utility among regular consumer-type users, I can see no benefit to Apple in deliberately pushing it out, and thus conclude that it was just a mistake.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Software updates are pulled from the client, not pushed to the client. There's an important difference between the two and the phrases shouldn't be used interchangeably. For software pushes, see: Amazon Kindle + 1984 book deletion
Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
When I build a Windows box, I turn off QuickTime's default automatic updates and delete the shortcut from the Start menu.
(I also install Flash and Java in front of the customer, so I can show them the "already checked box" scam).
They push Yahoo! toolbar unless you uncheck the box.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Sun was pushing the Bing toolbar with a pre-checked box until last week... now they're pushing Carbonite 30-day trialware the same way.
Quicktime Alternative, FTW.. No iTunes, no iPhone, no iToilet...
How many free passes does Apple get before you start to question their infallibility?
Probably about as many as there are strawman constructions of people's conceptions of Apple as a company.
Tweet, tweet.
First Jobs steals a liver and now he's trying to take over my computer. I'm pissed.
I had the Apple Software Update thing pop up on me the other day, I unchecked the items I didn't want (the iPhone Config Util being one of them), and I went ahead and updated the software that I did want. So how exactly are they "forcing" this one me?
Wait until the Apple Software Update pops up again and you discover that all the items that have even a minor version number change are back — even though you selected "ignore this software" — and not only back, but checked by default again, because, even though you refused to install an enormous new program when it was on version 4.3.2, surely you'll want to install it now that it's 4.3.2.1.
I have several business clients that feel a need for QuickTime. A couple of them even paid for QuickTime Pro. They certainly do not need iTunes. Yet, even though they paid money for the product, it won't stop trying (at least as of the last time I checked this summer) to trick them into installing 120MB of extra software as an "update" over and over. I've already had to uninstall iTunes twice for clients because Apple makes it look like it's a QuickTime-related "update" so important that it starts popping up again after a couple weeks (new version!) even after being ignored. There is no excuse for ASU's resetting the "ignore" flag on uninstalled software except to trojan machines with iTunes and Safari behind the computer tech's back and hope a large portion of users think that's just how their computers work now.
When IE and Windows Media Player were doing these kinds of things in Windows 9x, everyone howled, yet at least Windows Media Player doesn't embed itself in the startup registry where everyday users can't remove it. iTunes does.
This makes owning and supporting a computer more difficult for users. I don't have time to answer questions from my friends every time a software publisher pushes out a new update. I've taken to telling them, "If it's a Microsoft auto update, install it. If it's an Apple auto update, install it. If it's an Adobe auto update, install it." When Apple starts pushing out software that is not necessary as part of their update process, it adds unnecessary confusion and software bloat. Like another poster above said, he only has Quicktime installed but the Apple updater is pushing iPhone utilities and Safari onto his desktop. Doing that is just bad form, no matter how descriptive the accompanying text is.
For the average user it has been just "snuck" onto their PC. The average user knows very little about there machine or the updates, my sister would not have the faintest idea what safari or boujour are or whether she needed to update them, they have learnt over time that the right thing to do is keep your machine UPDATED and the result is that a heap of garbage gets installed as users stick with the default selected options. apple is abusing the trust people play in updates.
It looks like the only way to get Apple to start behaving responsibly would be for Microsoft to put Apple Software Update on the list of targets for the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, until Apple eliminates the default checkboxing of "updates" to software the user hasn't installed.
The point that I'm trying to make is that I want people to be able to trust software publishers to only deliver updates that they need. I want to be able to tell my friends and family, "If Apple sends you an update, you can install it. You don't have to second guess it." With Apple pushing software updates on users who don't need them, I can't tell people to trust what Apple is asking them to install. That is the problem.
By the same token you can click on Microsoft's updates and, you know, actually read what they are for and what they do. They even have a link to tell you.
Err... Most of the time.
Fairness in our bashing would go a long ways.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Additionally, in my experience, these Apple updates happen mostly when launching iTunes.
Picture it, if you will: A user wants to play some music, download a sitcom, or just sync their iPhone. So they launch iTunes, just like they have before. And instead of getting to do those things, they get an annoying thing that won't fucking ever go away until they press OK. Sure, they can cancel it (but then it just comes back), or they can read it and deselect things, but why should they be forced to do these things?
They just want to instruct the computer to provide some manner of entertainment. Instead, the computer ends up instructing them.
This, I think, the paradigm which bothers me most: That the computer switches from being told by the user what it should be doing, to telling (or at least suggesting to) the user what to do.
Kid-proof tablet..
So ninjas are visible and easily disabled in your world, eh?
In my world, if a program is called 'iPhone Configuration Utility' yet it does not perform configurations relevant to the average owner of an iPhone, then its big-time ninja.
...without any method of preventing it, or any notification that that was happening.
And for the record, it has only been a single year since the iTunes update (version 8) installed...
Apple Mobile Device Support
Bonjour
MobileMe
You claim that I am filled with nerd rage, eh? I claim that you are fucking ignorant.
"His name was James Damore."
I think it's a sekrit ploy by Steve Jobs to focus the negative virus/malware based attention away from Apple and toward Microsoft.
What better way to add fuel to the "Apple doesn't get viruses" lie than to have Apple install not just an exploitable software, but a fucking web server, which can be used to proliferate more worms/malware/viruses on the Windows machines.
I would say that's exactly what is happening, especially when a different post here mentions that this "update" was "intended" for corporate IT administrators... I'm a systems administrator; do you have any fucking clue how pissed off I would be to find out that Apple just turned my network of workstations into a network of web servers? Thankfully we don't have any automatic updates turned on, and every time I update our images I intentionally neglect iTunes and Quicktime.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck