The following was posted on Gizmodo and will explain what the problem looks like and how to avoid it until Apple comes up with a fix for this bug. 

First, password protect your phone and lock it. Then slide to unlock and do this:

1. Tap emergency call.
2. Double tap the home button.

Done. You are now in your favorites. This seems like a feature, because you may want to have emergency number in your favorites for quick dial. The security problem here is double. The first: anyone picking up your phone can make a call to anyone in your favorites. On top of that, this also opens access to your full Address Book, the dial keypad, and your voice mail.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the second one is even worse: if you tap on the blue arrows next to the names, it will give you full access to the private information in a favorite entry. And it goes downhill from there:

• If you click in a mail address, it will give you full access to the Mail application. All your mail will be exposed.
• If there’s a URL in your contact (or in a mail message) you can click on it and have full access to Safari.
• If you click on send text message in a contact, it will give you full access to all your SMS.

Hopefully, this major security break that fully exposes your most private information will be solved as soon as possible. Until then, you can avoid any potential breach doing the following:

1. In the iPhone home, go to Settings.
2. Click on General.
3. Click on Home Button.
4. Click on either “Home” or “iPod”.

This way, the double-click on the home button will take the user back to the unlock screen (if you use “Home”) or the iPod screen. I recommend using Home. You will lose the ability to quickly access your favorites for a quick call—which is one of my favorite features—but that’s better than having all your private mails, contacts, and SMS database compromised.

[via Gizmodo]

Shortly thereafter, the iPhone 2.0.2 update was released with hopes to provide numerous bug fixes and clear up some of those reception problems. We also posted a side-by-side comparison video of the iPhone 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 software, of which it would seem the update really produced a speed boost. Jobs also admitted to the numerous third-party app crashes users are experiencing and promised a fix for those as well.

On the business side of things, Apple seems to be geared up to produce 40 million iPhones next year. Plus, the iPhone is set to release in Turkey from Turkcell and in Russia in October. It was also determined that if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can “kill” the kill switch fairly easily.

We had several fun things of note this week as well, including two reviews of free apps like PapiJump and Tris. We got a look at the Nike+ app, however it seems the screenshots may have been fakes.

A video demo showed up online of Real Racing, which is a networked multiplayer game for the iPhone. An app that simulates a hologram is also supposedly in the works. You can get your hands on a Mobile Phone Telescope for your iPhone as well, though it seems to be intended for paparazzi looking to get off a couple of quick photos.

QuickPwn was also released this week, and has been updated once already. You don’t have to worry about updating to 2.0.2 now with this latest fix from the Dev Team. In fact, an update to the GUI was also made to give it a newer look.

You will still need to update your iPhone software via iTunes to 2.0.2. But you can pwn it by following the directions below taken from Boy Genius Report:

1. Download and open QuickPwn
2. Select iPhone 3G
3. Browse to the IPSW (you can download this file from iTunes, then dig it up)
4. Select Cydia / Installer / Boot Logo etc in QuickPwn
5. Go! (read instructions on screen)
6. Wait
7. Enjoy

[via The Boy Genius Report]

3G performance on the phone running 2.0.2 was by far improved. And though it may not be running at lightning speed, it’s certainly a big improvement, especially when compared to the performance of the phone running 2.0.1.

You can see three side-by-side speed tests below. In each test, the iPhone running on the update completely loads iPhoneBuzz.com before the phone running the old OS even begins or gets close to completing. Tests where the phones were switched to use Wi-Fi loaded pages at about the same rate. Wi-Fi is also still considerably faster than 3G when loading a page.

Sure, this may not be the most scientific of tests, but it certainly seems like a massive improvement, wouldn’t you say?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYR2WOD6WsY[/youtube]

While encountering any sort of problems with a product is frustrating, I have to say I’m impressed with Apple this time around. Unlike with MobileMe where customers were pretty much ignored, they’ve really stepped up to the plate to provide a solution, fast.

Now, whether or not these bug fixes actually work remains to be seen. Looks like I’m off to tinker with my newly updated iPhone for the rest of the day. 

[via Gizmodo]