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Carrier IQ Software May Be in iOS, Too
New submitter Howard Beale writes with this excerpt from The Verge: "To date, the user tracking controversy surrounding Carrier IQ has focused primarily on Android, but today details are surfacing that the company also may have hooks into Apple's iOS. Well-known iPhone hacker Chpwn tweeted today that versions at least as recent as iPhone OS 3.1.3 contained references to Carrier IQ and later confirmed it's in all versions of iOS, including iOS 5." The details are still emerging; however, iPhone users will be happy to hear that while it's reported that the software is available to the OS, "the good news is that it does not appear to actually send any information so long as a setting called DiagnosticsAllowed is set to off, which is the default."
everything it collects is viewable to the user and you can turn it off in settings > general > about > diagnostics & usage
Is this software specific to various handsets or is it specific to the carrier?
So far it has seemed to me that this guy is using Sprint and thier phones seem to have it. But, people on AT&T are reporting that their phones do not have it.
Does anyone know for sure?
Aren't we told that Apple's walled garden would prevent non-sanctioned applications from running or even being installed? Does that mean that Apple is complicit in installing Carrier IQ?
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
It matters because what the contract allows is ambiguous at best and definitely does not cover all that CarrierIQ is capable of (what it is configured for on a given phone from a given carrier may be a different story). In fact, keystroke logging of text messages may be in violation of federal wiretap laws, particularly if the logging continues even when the phone is not connected to a cellular network.
Do not click the link, it is evil.
"the good news is that it does not appear to actually send any information so long as a setting called DiagnosticsAllowed is set to off, which is the default."
This is supposed to be reassuring? How many people will ever read about this? And how long until it's turned on by default? Or perhaps turned on by a remote message.
I've found it useful as an example for people who don't understand why we need free/open software. This story simply means that if you use your phone to access anything that is protected by a password (or PIN or whatever), that little hidden bit of software is making a copy of your login, password, account numbers, etc., and sending it off to some site that you know nothing about. Whoever has that information can then get into your account and do as they like with it. I've seen a lot of worried looks, and I know a number of people who have held off on the idea of using their phone to access their bank accounts as a result of this information.
I try to get the idea across that, as long as there's any software that's not freely available to us software geeks ("hackers" to the media), so that we can study it and expose such little nasties, nobody's information or accounts or identities can be considered safe. This sort of software can and does send all your private information to some unknown strangers.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
In other news, hackers have discovered that the game, Angry Birds, mysteriously turns on a setting called "DiagnosticsAllowed".
Good news: last time you looked, he was still sitting in the back and hadn't stabbed you yet.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Here's my "diagnostic log" or at least one of them:
deviceId: "aac0e3b1805c47f85e759c5d............"
isAnonymous: true
deviceConfigId: 101
triggerTime: 1320879763561
triggerId: 72014
profileId: 1012
investigationId: 0
bluetoothServiceDisconnectionResult {
timestamp: 1320879561
deviceOUI: "\00\066="
service: 8
result: 104981
}
seems a bit less intrusive than the one demoed yesterday.
...when they wrote iOS? Weird.
I can understand it being found on Android devices since individual phone companies (who are absolute sh** at making software - personal experience) would want to avoid doing it themselves, but Apple?
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carriers and handset makers need the ability to monitor their networks for problem cell sites and areas of low to no signal as well diagnostics about the phone and any problem apps.
if you go for tech support it's not like the people magically know everything that is wrong with your phone. the diagnostics data is collected and analyzed. if you complain of dropped calls its important to know where they are occuring
Not only is it off by default, apparently it's only allowed to access information at a layer that doesn't give away the farm. It's not recording your keypresses, the sites you visit (which apparently the HTC version does even if you're on WiFi) or anything else that's possibly a significant security risk. Supposedly, it really does act just as it's claimed to in the press releases.
(I'm aware that I use 'apparently' and 'supposedly'; I have no concrete info that I've tested myself, this is just what I've read today.)
Interestingly, it looks like the "pure" Android phones (i.e the Nexus line) don't ship with CarrierIQ
It is not, however, important for them to have the keystrokes that you enter into your phone before sending encrypted communications. There is NO WAY that this is not a violation of the law if it is not explicitly mentioned in the ToS, as keystroke logging could never be remotely construed as even remotely necessary for system diagnostics; its only purpose is the violation of privacy.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
There should be a way to block all the accounts of this troll or to report him to /. editors, apparently he created a thousand of these accounts.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
The question is, can a government agency or anyone else call up Apple or a carrier and have them remotely activate CarrierIQ on the iPhone?
I don't care if it's "off by default". I care if it's "controlled by the user". There's a clear and concise distinction, and Apple's track record does not lead me to believe that Apple doesn't have absolute control to remotely activate this or any other setting at their discretion. Even if they were unable to before, they may have added that remote capability since they've lost several phones before.
I8-D
Of course, when Apple does it, it must be okay. If other maufacturers do, BURN THEM AT THE STAKE!
DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
It is actually required to be integrated for all devices for certain carriers (this includes Data Cards).
When was the last time you got any useful technical support from a cell phone carrier? Those guys play a classic game of passing the buck, blaming your handset (which they didn't make) interference (which they can't control) and anything else that's not the service they provide.
The notion that some Level 42 World of Warcraft Paladin who spends his days providing tech support for a cell carrier:
1) Has access to any useful information that relates directly to your handset,
2) Has the analytical skills to determine its meaning without rolling a 20 sided die
is patently ridiculous. They'd at best have access to your current outstanding balance.
North Americans need to stop buying handsets from manufacturers: start buying unlocked, carrier independent handsets and you'll change the industry. As long as over 90% of us are committing to contracts that are longer than the average length of time your phone lasts, the oligarchy that is the North American cell phone industry can do whatever it wants.
Skot Nelson music is my saviour / i was maimed by rock and roll
Every link to evenweb.com is goatse.
The more you know...
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Bullshit. I've NEVER had anyone get or reference any information from my phone when I've called tech support for an issue. My guess is no one has. Tech support is some basic troubleshooting (is the phone turned on, do you have a signal, have you rebooted it etc), the next step is to send it in or take it to a service center. This collected data is not used to support the end users at all. It is used to provide metrics to the carrier and your privacy is ignored.
Err...hold your pitchforking. It was posted on ./ about two weeks ago and was a big story.
DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
see "Android Dev Demonstrates CarrierIQ Phone Logging Software On Video"
At least according to US laws, the content of your communications are still considered private. It's just the destination and time of communication (bookkeeping data) that has no expectation of privacy.
The fact that SMS keystrokes can be recorded is clearly a violation of privacy.
I'm also quite worried about the fact that I have to put the password for my work account into my phone in order to receive my work emails. I expect those to be private as well, especially since the password field is masked with *'s (which definitely implies that the password is private). The fact that some previously unknown company may know my work password is frightening to me.
:(){
Geez, Robert! This took less than five seconds.
So, are you trolling or are you just too lazy to type "CarrierIQ" into the search bar?
Sigh!
For those who are gunshy about clicking links here (is that a Goatse I hear?), just search Slashdot for CarrierIQ
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
Honest question: When this is turned on do we still get billed for it's usage? Could this be also called bandwidth stealing? If I'm on a 200mb/month plan and this is on how much data is it using of my data plan? I know it will depend upon my usage of texts and websites and so on but do you think it doubles my usage allowed?
No, the carrier cannot turn it on remotely. Theoretically Apple could turn it on with an OS update but then they would get excoriated in this forum and others. The data they are collecting is harmless and they allow you to turn it off completely. They also let you see the data.
What I see on my phone is:
1. Reports on connection strength and radio parameters
2. Reports on low memory conditions and whats running when they happen
3. Application crash reports. These may be sent to the app developer so the app can be fixed.
Note that if you click the link at the bottom of the Diagnostics control screen they provide a very long detailed description of what they collect and what they do with it. This page repeatedly states that no personally identifiable information ever leaves the phone.
Part of the agreement is to allow Apple and the cellular carrier to monitor and be able to diagnose problems. One has zero expectation of privacy anyway with a cell phone, so having software which is present as per a signed contract is to be expected.
Keylogging my username and password for my https or ssh connections is definitely not part of the agreement as I understood it (and a valid contract is a meeting of the minds, not an evil trap full of gotchas), no any other data that I might be typing in to encrypted or even non encrypted sessions. Sure, I admit that the non encrypted sessions might be listened to by someone, but the expectation is that the someone in that scenario is not my phone provider using a tool the installed before I bought it.
We can't buy carrier independent handsets because all of our cellphone networks are incompatible. Sprint phones sometimes work on Verizon, Verizon phones never work on Sprint, neither of them work on GSM, and AT&T and TMobile, the two GSM carriers, have incompatible 3G networks. Don't get me started on "4G" and the half-dozen different things it's been redefined into meaning.
Also, for every carrier except TMo, the monthly price is just as high when you bring your own phone as it is when you take the carrier subsidy.
So, since buying your own phone doesn't make it portable across networks, and costs more money up front and the same amount per month, there's no point. That's why everyone takes the carrier phone and contract; it's not because we're all stupid, it's because it's the most cost effective solution in a shitty market.
I'll echo many of the other comments here: It's not really the fact it logs everything. The question is what is it doing with that information.
While I'm not a full-fledged hacker, I know enough about logging and event triggering to know that the computer has to be able to keep track of events so that things that rely on events can be triggered. The best examine is browser events. If there's code to pop-up a window on a click, the browser has to register the click somewhere and the handler has to then pass the buck to function to open the window.
If Carrier IQ proper is collecting this data -- for any reason -- it should be disclosed and it should be able to be turned off. If Android, Apple, et al is using Carrier IQ has an event logger, it should be clear that the information is internal to the phone and is not available to other applications.
Overall, it seems like Android, Apple, et al got caught with their pants down. Assuming the best, they just forgot to mention that this software was a part of their OS.
We don't live in Shouldland.
But the carrier does not require software on the user end to detect these problems. Hell, having extra data thrown around the network is worse than using DPI or other means at the RADIUS to detect and correct issues in the dataflow.
-Your friendly neighborhood Telecom Network Fault Manager
And where will they get those, if not from the manufacturer? Obviously they can't buy carrier independent handsets from the carriers.
Or did you mean that they should stop buying phones from the carriers instead?
I am just going to guess that Android devices that were rooted and run custom ROMs don't have Carrier IQ installed. If that is the case, everyone should bitch and whine about the right to have root access on their devices, and the right to add whatever freaking ROM they want. If the carriers are keylogging their devices, we should be able to disable that feature. If they don't let us do that, we should be able to wipe off their spyware.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Apple is in fact circling the drain now. They`re playing "follow-the-leader" with features on their phones.
Do you have anything other than your own personal opinion to back up your "fact"? AAPL corporate earnings continue to grow, their products continue to sell and expand their market share, they are the #1 or #2 company in the world in terms of market cap and they have a ginormous cash hoard to draw upon for further R&D and expansion.
If you want to see a perfect example of a company that actually IS circling the drain, take a look at RIM.
"follow-the-leader features"? Siri-ously (har har)? Oh look, Google has a Siri-like app now! Leading-the-followers is more accurate...
What if you decided to become one later? We've got our eyes on you.
Denying it just makes you look more guilty.
So, let me get this straight. Someone who can replace the brakes on their own car is an "elite mechanicist"? I know plenty of hillbillies who can upgrade their braking system. There's nothing elite about them, they just know how to work on cars. Just like there's nothing elite about those of us who can modify our system software on our handheld computers (telephones), we just know how to work on computers.
Anyone can learn to change brakes on a car, anyone can learn how to change (software) parts on a phone. Just for some reason, most people think that the "magic box" needs "magic people" to work on it. That's why people don't try to learn how to do these things, there's this perception that it's just *so* complicated that any mere mortal cannot possibly know how it works.
Example, I got my first car in 1996. It was a 1984 Buick POS. At this time, I had no idea how cars worked. It was constantly breaking down because I drove it like I stole it. A couple friends of mine were pretty competent at mechanical repairs, so we started diagnosing and repairing our cars (which were also early 80's POS's) together, and now, 15 years later, I feel pretty confident I can complete most basic/intermediate auto repairs myself, if I needed to. Granted, being around people who knew about them helped, but they themselves were self-taught for the most part.
At the same time as I became friends with some car guys, they also became friends with me and some tech guys. Now, those guys are pretty competent at (at least the basics) of technology and how it works. My friends and I were self taught at computers. So between the (say 6) of us, I don't think there isn't a mechanical or technological thing we couldn't do, if we needed to. Nothing elite, nothing special, just regular people who want to know how the things we use every day work.
I know what everyone will say next: people have busy lives and most could care less about how a cell phone, computer, car, electricity, or the like operates. I get that, but at the same time, if they *really* care about if their phone is spying them, or their brakes are substandard, or whatever, they can either buy a new device/car, pay someone to modify the system software/brakes, or learn how to modify the system software/brakes themselves. (With Apple, you have no such option, btw.)
What's so hard to understand about that?
There appears to be more privacy issues beyond monitoring in the phone. My Smartphone (GT-I9100 v.2.3.4) won't allow access to https://www.google.com./ It also doesn't allow the addition of private certificate authorities or the removal of bad ones. To make matters worse, it won't display the fingerprint of a certificate. So the only option is to accept, on faith, the issuer name displayed. It seems obvious that the handset makers don't care about privacy or potential harm to customers.
That's what I was thinking. When this came out yesterday about HTC and RIM people went nuts on this forum about privacy, but when it comes out that Apple is doing it too, well it couldn't possibly be the benevolent apple overlords are doing something inappropriate. Hell, they are going to start touting it as a feature pretty soon.
I got here through a series of tubes
It was on the front page yesterday: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/30/0423256/android-dev-demonstrates-carrieriq-phone-logging-software-on-video
The U.S. laws on data collection provide protection. It's a federal offense, and has been for many years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Communications_Privacy_Act
That doesn't help if the carrier chooses to ignore the law.
carriers and handset makers need the ability to monitor their networks for problem cell sites and areas of low to no signal
First, handset makers don't have networks or cell sites. Second, why do carriers need to use my device to test their network, they don't have their own equipment to do that? And if my device is transmitting diagnostic data, why the hell are they charging me data fees to send them diagnostics? I should be charging them. The point is that they don't need to use my device to test their network. And if they're going to ask me to do that, they sure as hell better tell me and better give me a way to opt out. Neither of those happened when I bought my phone. iOS took the right path with specifically calling it diagnostic mode, and having it disabled by default. Sprint tries to hide it from me. That's not right.
as well diagnostics about the phone and any problem apps
Again, they don't *need* the ability to do that. It would be *nice* if they had it, and frankly if they asked me I might allow them. But since they try to sneak it in the backdoor now I simply don't trust them and it's finally pushed me to the point where I'm ready to install Cyanogenmod and get rid of their software altogether. So now they get nothing.
if you go for tech support it's not like the people magically know everything that is wrong with your phone.
Yeah, you're right, even with all the data my phone has been sending them they still don't know what's wrong with it. So why should I send the data to them?
if you complain of dropped calls its important to know where they are occuring
A diagnostic application specifically for monitoring dropped calls is completely different than the software that is actually being used. Dropped calls are just one aspect that they try to highlight to claim that the software is benevolent, and then they deny the ability to log keystrokes even when proof is shown that they are.
If the company is lying about what their capabilities are and what data they're collecting, then that's a major red flag. That's enough to get me to remove the software.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Great post. I don't condone this stuff at all. But buyers being wary is a big part of the solution. Cell phone contracts are loans. We borrow the phone subsidy and pay it back over time in our monthly payments. If we buy an unlocked phone outright we have the flexibility of leaving a bad provider. I know there are caveats, but the strategy dominates alternatives. If you need to borrow money for a phone, don't borrow it from the carrier!
Cell phone contracts are loans.
With the principal and interest payment bundled in the monthly bill. The trouble is that Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T don't give a discount on the monthly bill if I buy the phone up front at full price. So why do I still have to pay principal + interest to the carrier for a phone that I already own outright? It'd be like having to pay a car payment to the bank (and not just tags and liability insurance) for a car that I've already paid off.
I was just about to give such a reply, but you beat me to it, and yours is even better than mine would have been.
My mom doesn't have to know how to root her phone and load CyanogenMod. But it does create a market for a business which can do these things for people who lack the necessary expertise.
:(){
Yes, this outdated and rarely enforced law will surely be used to protect us by the government, who completely respects citizen privacy and stand up against corporate abuse...
</sarcasm>
Wouldn't this same logic apply to an ISP and your computer? Should they be able to install a key logger on your computer to "diagnose" connection issues? Isn't a smart phone a computer with a phone?
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
That's why everyone takes the carrier phone and contract; it's not because we're all stupid, it's because it's the most cost effective solution in a shitty market.
It depends on what you want to do with the phone. If you e.g. use it for tethering, the cost of buying an unlocked international version for full price recoups itself pretty quickly.
Also, it is possible to have 5-band 3G phones that work on both AT&T and T-Mo, so you can at least switch between those two. For example, Galaxy Nexus is 5-band HSPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 - which covers both AT&T's 1900MHz, and T-Mo's 1700/2100 MHz.
You can, you just can't do it naively. You'll need to do some research. Usually this involves looking at the product page and a quick google search for what networks your carrier supports. However, if you buy your phone without a plan, then chances are you can choose a carrier that supports your phone, rather than a phone that supports your carrier. My phone is unlocked and works on AT&T when I'm in the states, so I got a prepaid plan with AT&T :-)
I have D&U turned on on my iPhone 4S. Why? Because I'm a geek and if I can help out some other geeks at Verizon or Apple, so be it. But, guess what? I can see what's transmitted, no rooting required. Here's a typical entry:
deviceid: "xxx"
isAnonymous: true
deviceConfigid: 101
triggerTime: 1322150199352
triggerId: 655363
profileId: 10109
investigationId: 0
locationaUpdateSession {
timestamp: 1322150199351
timestampEnd: 1322150199351
desiredAccuracy: 1000
cellAvailable: true
wifiAvailable: true
passcodeLocked: false
airplaneMode: false
ttff: 0
ttffGps: -1
bundleid: "com.apple.weather"
achievedAccuracy: 99
}
Enjoy your paranoia! I refuse to participate.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
Car analogy: just because you buy a car on hire-purchase doesn't mean the bank gets to do whatever they want with the car. Even if you don't pay up, there are still certain limitations to what they can do to repossess the car.
And even if you rent a car, the rental agency doesn't get to do whatever they like with the car once you've rented it out.
IANAL but I suspect recording conversations in the car and recording videos of the interior would generally not be legal unless you get permission from the court.
Now better known by their working acronym of NSA.
Think about it. CarrierIQ is a front for the NSA.
I hope you didn't post that from your cell phone.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You are off by a few hundred billion, do your research...
AAPL is #2 with a market cap of $360 BILLION. XOM (Exxon/Mobil) is #1 with $380 B.
I agree, it's completely fucking absurd. But, unfortunately, we can't rely on anyone but ourselves these days, let alone bought-and-paid for "experts" who work for the companies we are supposed to "trust". Heh.
That's the point I have been mulling over as well ever since this mess came to light. There's only two reasons why this software would log the content of text message/email/search. Either a government agency of some sort requested this feature (or outright demanded it), or the folks behind CarrierIQ built in this ability so that carriers could use this info for their targeted advertising platforms.
If it's the former reason, this fits in line with PATRIOT-Act provisions, and if it's the latter, then quite simply, CarrierIQ broke the law, violating both the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the various laws based on wiretapping.
In this first case I mentioned, they still might get into trouble, if those parts of the software were enabled by default, as it was recently decided in some US Circuit Court case that the government is required to obtain a warrant before they may obtain access to such data as this CarrierIQ software provides.
I guess we'll find out once the inevitable lawsuits spring up.
@Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
Even if he/she didn't, his/her ISP knows he/she posted that.
-- Cheers!
Android? With a little looking and forethought, you can replace the "Angry Backstabbing Murderer" with a "cute blonde". You can even tweak the Blonde to have bigger boobs if you want.
I wish those were real settings you could tweak on an Android device.
All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
To be fair, tethering service costs the same one way or the other. It's just easier to 'steal' that service when your phone is unlocked. Not that I in any way, shape, or form support charging for tethering separately from phone data, it's how the contracts are written.
And by unlocked, I really mean jailbreaked..
As far as I'm concerned, "tethering service" amounts to enabling the appropriate widget on operator-supplied phones where it's otherwise disabled, so I don't need it.
Yes, I know that their contract says something else. I very much doubt that those provisions are meaningfully enforceable in court - any more so that the requirement to, say, only hold the phone in your right hand (and never in the left one!) when making a call through operator's network. Reason being, tethering is something I do to the device, not to the network, and they can't enforce what I do to my device - it's mine. They can legally enforce what goes over their network - i.e. packet content - but that's a different thing, and is not how they define tethering in contract in any case.
Pragmatically, since I use it to tether an Android tablet through an Android phone, good luck catching that.
With Apple's history of tracking, that statement is laughable. Google sought user permissions before collecting data.
But CarrierIQ is not a part of Android, it's not a function installed by HTC, it's a function installed by US carriers (yet to find it on an Australian phone). But remember that if this had not had been discovered on Android, it would never have been discovered on IOS.
You still think that code is the answer, but it isn't. Dennis Richie demonstrated long ago how even access to the full source doesn't make you safe.
Here you're using a logical fallacy. You're treating "safe" as a binary concept, implying if you're not 100% safe, you are 100% unsafe. This is not the case.
Having access to the code does not guarantee security nor provide absolute security, but it does give you greater security by being able to interrogate the code and find out what it's doing. With Closed Soruce, you're taking the manufacturers word that they aren't doing anything untoward and this is it. You get the same gaurantee with Open Source, but with Open Source you also get to see the code for yourself.
Fixed that for you.
CarrierIQ has been around for years before Android or IOS (company started in 2005) and their software is borderline illegal already in the US, it's well and truly illegal in other jurisdictions. It's pretty obvious already that the carriers using CarrierIQ dont care about nor fear the law in this regard. If new laws were introduced, they would still be as infective and closed source would make it easier for them to hide what is actually being recorded. In addition to this, a court case will take years and in the end, they'll get a slap on the wrist and keep doing because it's more profitable and class actions aren't that costly.
Further more, US carriers are more effective at influencing lawmakers then US citizens. Any further laws would only serve to help the telco's collecting information.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
It's kinda nice to be at the beginning of such a huge mess.. and know it while it plays out.. The carrier IQ storm is , i think gonna be just *huge*.. this is the lull before the proverbial s* hits the fans.. IMHO
This may not be a popular position to take, but I suspect you might just be right.. I have already seen the rot set in with their desktop OS.. which started just about the time that SJ's healt took a severe turn.. 10.6 was the first to 'upgrade' to be demonstrably worse than it's predecessor, and many feel that 'Lion' continues that trend.. I don't know about iOS but if it follows the same pattern, there could be problems. The situation with Snow leopard is serious enough to make a 15 year mac veteran dump OSX for Linux.. that shows it's not just a couple of 'quirks'..
Actually, I felt betrayed when I found out that Apple has this installed. But ummm, predominantly Android phones were being sold by asshole carriers with a rootkit installed and enabled - actively sending keystrokes and personal data. The same rootkit is on iOS but it's disabled by default. Why would Apple need to sell this as a feature? It IS a feature. At least it's not enabled by default.
I think you're just a little too emotionally invested in your hatred of Apple. Why waste your time? Besides being guaranteed to be modded up, I mean.
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. - Hunter S. Thompson
The only plausible explanation for Carrier IQ is a government mandate to the carriers to install wiretapping capabilities. Which makes it ironic that a class-action lawsuit is proceeding which will probably eventually bring in the FCC too, i.e. the very government that put Carrier IQ in place in the first place.
You're saying Snow Leopard was worse than Leopard? That's just nonsense. Snow Leopard was the best ever version of OS X. It was only for Intel Macs, so those still on PowerPCs might have been disappointed it wasn't for them. But it was certainly a great upgrade for those that upgraded.
The situation with Snow leopard is serious enough to make a 15 year mac veteran dump OSX for Linux.
PowerPC?
For sure, Lion has some problems. But Snow Leopard was excellent.
Agreed but it seems to me that the EU is more serious about consumer protection than the US, perhaps from being less controlled by corporations.
I'm American but living in the EU so I have a bit of both perspectives, if no hard data to hand to back up my feeling on this...
blindly antisocialist = antisocial