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Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

pocketables.com

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Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#61

Post by troels »

mibbitier wrote: post #34
CF_HoneyBadger wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bug" my arse...someone was trying to prove a point / make a statement and it bit them. Hard. They will have to do some heavy backpedaling for me to believe it was a bug. I'm a developer. Ive created bugs and fixed bugs. This is not a bug. This is a "feature".

It may well have been a "fun thing" they added in there, but never intended to release to the public. The "bug" could well have been that it was enabled in the public release. So, it's a feature, but the bug could have been that it was unintentionally 'enabled'.

So they created a weapon and accidentally fired it at someone? In most jurisdictions, that would still be an offence.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#62

Post by UnoriginalGuy »

MrJagil wrote: post #60
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some more digging to check that Tracey as above is in fact an employee of the company who makes this app and indeed she is: http://www.being-a-broad.com/2010/11/tracey-northcott-of-enf... There are lot's of other verification links on google, just look for "tracey northcott enfour"

What a repulsive link. Those images are really distasteful.... Not the pregnancy part but the staging of it. As if your entire being revolves around your stomach, and therefor so should everyone elses. Sorry, I'm sensitive to this kind of thing. As if her life suddenly has meaning, so now she has to compensate for all the lost time. Congratulations, though.

Sorry. I only linked that because it is the first thing that came up in my google results and offers a fairly credible level of "proof" (since it has her name, photo, and the company's name).

If she had something more professional I would have linked that and will happily edit my post with something like a LinkedIn profile or similar. I wasn't trying to embarrass or show up their spokesman, she just Tweeted from a non-company twitter account and frankly she could have been "anyone." So I wanted to verify that this person could speak for that company and share my findings.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#63

Post by SnydenBitchy »

MrJagil wrote: post #60
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some more digging to check that Tracey as above is in fact an employee of the company who makes this app and indeed she is: http://www.being-a-broad.com/2010/11/tracey-northcott-of-enf... There are lot's of other verification links on google, just look for "tracey northcott enfour"

What a repulsive link. Those images are really distasteful.... Not the pregnancy part but the staging of it. As if your entire being revolves around your stomach, and therefor so should everyone elses. Sorry, I'm sensitive to this kind of thing. As if her life suddenly has meaning, so now she has to compensate for all the lost time. Congratulations, though.

Good for you, I guess?

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#64

Post by hackmiester »

activepeanut wrote: post #53
kstenerud wrote: post #19

Most likely, their "piracy detector" was nothing more than checking for "MobileSubstrate" (a library present in all jailbroken phones) under the silly assumption that jailbroken = pirated. Booby trapped software is NEVER a good idea. No matter how clever you think you are, you're not clever enough.

What do you think of disabling IAPs if IAPCracker or IAPFree is detected?

That sounds good, as long as you don't go on the internet and talk shit about the user if it is detected.

Popping a message like this would be good: "Sorry, this section of the app is incompatible with IAPCracker. Please contact support if you have received this message in error."

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#65

Post by DanBC »

evoxed wrote: post #42

What happens if you don't have a twitter account? Are you unable to open the app or does it behave normally?

They claim "complete offline use - no internet connection is required" - but that doesn't seem accurate when compared to the article.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#66

Post by pooriaazimi »

I don't have this particular app, but I have Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (5th ed.), also by Enfour, Inc. that I bought last year for, I don't remember, $50 I think (at the time, now they've dropped the price).

The latest version displays "I'm a software thief" as a notification, says to run the app in safe mode and then crashes.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/longman-dictionary-contempor...

Oh, and I'm not jailbroken.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#67

Post by aidenn0 »

OldSchool wrote: post #52

I'm a fan of privacy so I don't understand the draw of twitter beyond the original purpose of broadcasting a message to a known list of people. Perhaps even 1-way followers if you add in celebrity types as tweet sources. I guess the tipping point is the 'tweet back' feature. At its worst it seems like a narcissistic 'I want to have public conversations with another individual.' If twitter id's were all anonymous I su…

An example: DJB posted something about why crit-bit trees are superior to hashes, I replied asking about cache-issues with crit-bit trees and he responded back with information about how to make crit-bit trees cache aware.

That is a very useful public conversation to have; indeed 20 years ago it could have happened on usenet.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#68

Post by Jagat »

john78 wrote: post #28
trotsky wrote: post #18

im confused about paying $50 for a dictionary app

They also sell a 99 cent American Heritage Desk dictionary app. They are a Japanese company that's been making apps and accessories since the Newton. Their website is interesting - http://enfour.com/

It's ironic how their tagline is "The Global Communications Enabler"

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#69

Post by tommizzle »

Jagat wrote: post #68
john78 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also sell a 99 cent American Heritage Desk dictionary app. They are a Japanese company that's been making apps and accessories since the Newton. Their website is interesting - http://enfour.com/

It's ironic how their tagline is "The Global Communications Enabler"

coincidental

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#70

Post by mindslight »

This is just the kind of thing comes along with the philosophy that the user shouldn't be the ultimate owner and controller of their computer.

Why isn't the app given an opaque 'twitter handle', which may be a real account, a no-op, or has a moderated posting ability? And why is the app allowed to view general properties of the system, looking for system software which it deems unfavorable?

Because Apple decided that instead of implementing the above security features (and giving their UI designers the task of making such capabilities understandable and non-overwhelming), they would simply only allow "good" apps. Well guess what - "good" doesn't scale.

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