By Katie Marsal
Published: 06:35 PM EST
While its Irish division is just receiving the iPhone, O2 UK said on Thursday that the iPhone led its best-ever quarter at the end of 2007. Also, PayPal cautions users to avoid visiting its site with Safari, and Apple has issued an iPhoto fix.
O2 UK's Q4 2007 buoyed by iPhone
Britain's primary cellphone carrier, O2, reported on Thursday that the iPhone was one of the
primary drivers of its success in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Though still refusing to confirm or deny
reported sales numbers for the specific Apple device, the provider said the 483,000 net customers it picked up during the three-month span was the most ever for the company. About 276,000 of these had signed a contract and included the iPhone customers in their ranks, as the handset requires an 18-month agreement.
O2 also boasted that the device was the "fastest selling device that [it has] ever had" in the country and that the average revenue per user is about 30 percent higher than for a typical contracted subscriber.
About 60 percent of all iPhone users have come from other providers, and the iPhone has had the highest satisfaction levels yet of any O2 device with a record low return rate, the company said.
PayPal issues Safari security warning
Apple's primary web browser is the last one any PayPal customer should use when visiting the payment site, said a new
warning from the company's chief info security officer, Michael Barrett.
The technology expert cautioned that, of all the major browsers, only Safari lacks two clear anti-phishing measures. There is no filter to block or warn users of fake websites that may use a PayPal-like website address to scam users, he warned.
Safari also lacks a recent development known as an Extended Validation (EV) certificate. It turns the address bar green when visiting trusted sites that use the certificate, letting them know that the site is authentic.
While only Internet Explorer 7 currently uses EV, all browsers except Safari, including Firefox and Opera, at least support a basic filter and are likely to receive EV soon. The transactions themselves on Safari are said to be secure but may be deceptive if a phishing scam forges a security certificate.
"Safari has got nothing in terms of security support, only SSL [Secure Sockets Layer encryption], that's it," Barrett said.
iPhoto 7.1.3
Lastly, Apple has issued a minor patch for its latest version of iPhoto.
Version 7.1.3 (
16.9MB) resolves issues with creating cards as well as wire-bound photo books.
