A prodigal son returns to Apple, former Apple CEO John Sculley reflects on being the guy who fired the world’s most successful businessman, and AT&T slips up on security. That and more in the remainders for June 9, 2010.
Apple’s worst security breach: 114,000 iPad owners exposed (Gawker)
A flaw discovered by a security research group apparently resulted in the obtaining of e-mail addresses linked to iPad device identifiers. Of course, whereas the headline suggests that this is an Apple issue, the flaw—which has since been fixed—was actually on AT&T’s servers. The story also somewhat glosses over the fact that the people who discovered the flaw apparently passed the exploit on to unnamed third parties, raising the question of exactly what kind of “security researchers” these guys are. (Update: Our colleagues at IDG News Service have more details.)
webOS notification designer joins Apple (LinkedIn)
Former Apple designer Rich Dellinger has returned to the company after a stint at Palm, where he was responsible for the webOS’s notifications system, leading some to hope that it portends revamped notifications for the iPhone. Which, if Apple holds true to form, ought to show up about two years from now.
iBook modder finds a novel home for iPad (Engadget)
One intrepid fellow figured out a way to mod his vintage iBook into an iPad case, complete with room for a hardware keyboard. We applaud his ingenuity, but we also have to point out that he basically just turned a sleek 2010 iPad into an iBook, circa 2000, so uh, yeah.
Why I fired Steve Jobs (The Daily Beast)
Remember when Steve Jobs got fired from Apple 25 years ago? The man who ousted him, then CEO John Sculley, waxes nostalgic to The Daily Beast: “Maybe he should have been the CEO and I should have been the president.” Or—and I’m just going out on a limb here—maybe he should have been the CEO, and you shouldn’t have fired him and paved the way for you, Michael Spindler, and Gil Amelio to run the company into the ground. Maybe.
Portal 2 Pushed Back Into 2011 (Giant Bomb)
The sequel to Valve’s surprise hit will not drop in fall 2010, as expected. Instead, the company put out a press release titled “VALVE ANNOUNCES MAKING GAMES IS HARD” and reminded everyone that all life on Earth wouldn’t explode due to the game being late. And I actually did not make any of that up.