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back to article Data-gobbling, dollar-munching iPhone bug unearthed

The reason why you found an enormous but unexpected iPhone data-connection charge on your phone bill may have been discovered in Estonia. From Cult of Mac comes word that Estonian blogger Oliver K. has discovered a bug in Safari for iPhone that will leave open a Motion JPEG video stream even if you close the Safari app. The …

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  1. gollux
    Grenade

    Totally awesome...

    A godphone tax for watching streaming video, what's not to like about it?

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  2. Neoc

    Too much money in your account?

    There's an App for that.

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  3. Nordrick Framelhammer

    Apple quality control strikers again

    That is they didn't even bother.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Although to be fair

    ...if you can't afford roaming costs, just turn off roaming on the phone altogether.

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  5. ledmil
    Thumb Up

    @ Neoc

    ROFL, beat me to it :)

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  6. BOBSta
    Jobs Horns

    Comment?

    "Apple did not respond to our request for comment on this report"

    Do they ever?

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  7. Alex Walsh

    iPhone users who subscribe to unlimited data plans

    You evidently don't subscribe to the mobile industries definition of "unlimited" then :D

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  8. shaunm
    Paris Hilton

    just another day..

    hey hunny i'm home, youl never quess what safari did today.....safari is becoming more like ie day by day.

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  9. Dave 142

    roaming

    while this is obviously unacceptable I would recommend that iPhone owners select the 'no data roaming' option while abroad if you don't want to have any unexpected bills.

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  10. Rafael 1

    HP

    "avada Safari"... isn't that the course Voldemort used to empty Harry's bank account?

    Got to stop drinking before 8am.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Apple

    "Apple did not respond to our request for comment on this report"

    They never do... they don't like the fact that el reg highlights the fact that they're over-priced pieces of <iExpletive>

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    legal responsibility?

    Is Safari (and therefore Apple) liable for your additional data charges as it failed to cut the connection despite leading the user to believe they had?

    Surely it is a clear failure of the software.

    Now about that bit in all EULAs that says software makers are liable for nothing even if you die based on use of their software.

    Hmm... i can hear lawyers rubbing their hands at this one!

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  13. Admiral Grace Hopper
    Megaphone

    AC @ 10:14

    I read that as -

    "over-priced pieces of <Explorer>"

    which doesn't change the meaning much, TBH.

    Oh, and can we have a moratorium on the " ... there's an app for that" gag, it was funny once.

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    WebCams

    OK, maybe slightly off topic, but if you want to connect to web cams from your iPhone, you should check out Live Cams by Barry Egerter. (I have no affiliation - its free). I suspect this one will close the streams properly :) Some fantastic pre-configured cams, but you can connect to any cam if you know the IP, port and user credentials.

    Perhaps El Reg can do a review, and publish a web cam in Reg Central for us all to see them busy at work.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Lucky

    750MB in an hour? I can't get that kind of reliable data connection in the middle of London! This guy should be thanking them. I bet it was for porn anyway and he's just trying to weasel out of it.

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  16. Sam Liddicott
    Thumb Down

    turn off roaming indeed

    Apple users might actually want roaming and all the goodies that their iPhone and service plan promise.

    They might also want to control their own iPhone.

    I'm an apple hater (because they hate me and all their customers) but I admire their cunning getting revenue (I believe they revenue split with the telco) behind the users back after the purchase.

    Sam

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  17. Marvin the Martian
    Stop

    @adm. Grace Hopper

    I for one welcome any "...there's an app for that"-moratorium wielding overlords.

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  18. Aaron 10
    Unhappy

    Yep...

    I've noticed the same thing on my iPhone. I was wondering why my battery was draining like crazy. It ended up being my house's web cam webpage continually updating. Granted, it is MPEG-4 but it still kept a continuous connection.

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  19. Neoc
    Badgers

    Moratorium on the "...there's an app for that" gag?

    Waddayaknow - there's an app for that.

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  20. Robert 3
    Jobs Halo

    or

    Or you can jailbreak and get backgrounder, which can selectively "blacklist" app so they can't run after you close them. Safari stays running to make reloading faster.

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