Apple has seeded iOS 5.0.1 firmware for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to developers. Those who are registered in the iPhone Developer Program can now download iOS 5.0.1 for their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch from the Dev Portal.

Apple finally released iOS 5 to the public on October 12. Before that, the company announced their latest and most definitely their greatest iOS update at WWDC 2011. iOS 5 has over 250 new features for supported iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Since its announcement at WWDC 2011, Apple seeded a total of seven iOS 5 betas before finally releasing it to the public. However several issues were reported with iOS 5 final version therefore the successor to that, iOS 5.0.1, has now been seeded to developers only at the moment.

iOS 5.0.1 can be downloaded on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 1, iPod touch 3G and 4G, like all previous iOS firmware versions. Do keep in mind that this is a minor update and does not come with any new features.

Apple claims to have fixed the iPhone 4S battery drain issue in iOS 5.0.1 firmware. Apart from that, this new iOS 5 update comes with a host of stability and performance improvements as well as critical bug fixes. iOS 5.0.1 also fixes the security code flaw on iPad 2 running iOS 5 firmware. iOS 5.0.1 also improves voice recognition for Australian users.

As we previously mentioned, Apple only releases beta iOS firmware to developers only. Meaning that you have to have a developer account with Apple which alone costs $99 per year. Those who have a developer account can now download iOS 5.0.1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch from the developer portal. On the other hand, it seems like more non-developers are anxious to get their hands on beta firmware as compared to registered developers. For such budding beta testers, iOS 5.0.1 firmware IPSWs are openly available on file sharing websites, however it is illegal to distribute beta firmware as Apple does not release iOS firmware betas to the public.

Everyone knows that Captchas are annoying, but according to a team of Stanford University researchers, they don’t even work.  In a test of major websites like Visa’s Authorize.net, Blizzard, eBay, and Wikipedia, the team managed to get past various Captcha security systems using a basic decoding technique from the field of machine vision.

Machine vision was developed mostly as a way to control robots, by allowing them to detect various shapes and remove visual noise from their surrounding environment.  However, these same techniques have now been used in the creation of Decaptcha, a tool which was able to decode 66 percent of Captchas from Visa’s Authorize.net and 70 percent from Blizzard.

According to the team, any result above 1 percent means that systems are not working and should be pulled down.  While the results of these tests varied widely, Google’s Captchas proved to be the most secure.  The researchers had a zero percent success rate when trying to decode the Google Captchas, including one system called ReCaptcha developed by Carnegie Mellon University and purchased by Google.

However, in an interview with Cnet, a representative for Blizzard said that Captchas are not used to secure systems, and are mostly in place to cut down on spam and other minor annoyances.

Shon Damron from Blizzard said “It’s common knowledge that Captchas are fundamentally unable to fully guarantee application security, but they do protect against certain threats. While we use Captchas as an initial layer of security, primarily to minimize spam with regard to new account creation, they represent one of many different security technologies that we employ to protect our infrastructure and customers.”

According to a recent report, “do not track” browser options may not work the way you think.  In many ways, these options are simply an ineffective suggestion to websites, with voluntary compliance and no power over third party ads.

Most websites these days are commercial in nature, meaning they display ads and generate income from them.  Every time that a website is loaded, content is also loaded from various ad networks and independent advertisers, who can still track your web activity despite having the “do not track” option enabled.

Internet users are able to block ads with certain tools, which will block a lot of tracking.  However, it is almost impossible to view online advertisements and avoid tracking at the same time.  Jonathan Mayer from the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford has recently reviewed a number of antitracking tools, with these key results:

1. Most desktop browsers currently do not support effective self-help tools. Mobile users are almost completely out of luck.
2. Self-help tools vary substantially in performance.
3. The most effective self-help tools block third-party advertising.

Indeed, the situation is so confused that Google do not even have a “do not tracking” option, instead using something called “Keep My Opt-Outs” on their Chrome browser.

“The idea of ‘Do Not Track’ is interesting, but there doesn’t seem to be wide consensus on what ‘tracking’ really means, nor on how new proposals could be implemented in a way that respects people’s current privacy controls,” said a Google spokeswoman in an interview with Wired.com.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari do have a “do not track” option, although as Mayer shows, they are mostly ineffective without the use of third party tools and techniques.

Google has launched a new feature which takes Street View indoors, with a number of businesses included in the initial implementation.  While this service has been under development since April 2010, there is renewed interest lately due to wider involvement and the expansion of available imagery.

Google announced plans to introduce 360 degree business photos back in May, saying “This experience, using Street View technology, includes 360-degree imagery of the business interior and storefront. With this immersive imagery, potential customers can easily imagine themselves at the business and decide if they want to visit in person.”

The functionality of this service has only now reached a point where it is useful however, with a “renewed interest in the past few days because as promised, as more of the imagery becomes available, we’re getting more of it online.”

Businesses who want to be involved and photographed can apply online, with individual businesses able to request the removal of certain photos if they don’t like them.  While this entire project does raise some important security and privacy issues however, the fact it is restricted to businesses is likely to keep potential problems from getting out of control.

If individual people accidentally end up in photographs, Google has said “we’ll either run the 360-degree imagery through our state-of-the-art blurring technology to blur out faces of any employees and customers who appear in the imagery, or we won’t publish the still photos if people are in view. Remember, only people with the authority to make agreements on behalf of the business can submit an application for photography, and by submitting the application you’re confirming that you have that authority and that you will follow the steps set out here.”

Facebook has added a new ‘subscribe’ feature to its comments box plugin, allowing users to easily follow comments that are made by other users who have enabled subscribers.  This feature has been well received by most Facebook users, and is likely to grow in the future through the continual evolution of the Facebook subscribe button.

“Today we launched a ‘Subscribe’ link in the Comments Box plugin to give people the ability to subscribe to commenters in one click, and give commenters another way to grow their Subscriptions base,” read the official Facebook launch post.

According to InsideFacebook, this new feature will “encourage civil discussion”, with people able to attract more subscribers through the use of intelligent comments and community interaction.  In a sense, it will create a tighter link between individual comments and the reputation of the person who made them, in theory at least.

By allowing active commenters a greater opportunity to attract new subscribers, Facebook are hoping to create a healthier, more engaged, and more responsible community.

With these new changes, anyone who allows people to subscribe to them will have a subscribe button placed next to their name on their Comments Box.  A subscriber count is also displayed in some situations, with users able to select the volume and types of updates that they receive.

Quite a number of iPhone 4S owners have reported that they are facing battery drain issues on their new devices. While the iPhone 4S battery should be performing well and good considering the fact that its new, there seems to be a major problem with battery timing on almost all new devices. Now, Apple engineers are reaching out to iPhone 4S owners and are using their help to find a fix for this issue.

Basically what Apple engineers are doing is contacting various iPhone 4S owners and questioning them about their usage habits and the subsequent battery drain that follows after their usage. They’re allow asking permission to install a monitoring program on their devices so that relevant data could be collected. This data will help Apple engineers in developing a fix for iPhone 4S battery drain issue.

One such gentleman who was contacted by Apple engineers, revealed the whole story to the Guardian:

My battery life was extremely poor – 10% drop in standby every hour. I noticed that the usage figure was roughly half that of standby, even when the phone was not being used, so I assumed something was crashing or running in the background. I switched off all the new features including Siri and location services, but it was still really poor. I also tried setting up a clean phone with no apps but it is still really poor.

I then got a call from a senior [Apple] engineer who said he had read my post and was ‘reaching out’ to users for data and admitted this was an issue (and that they aren’t close to finding a fix!) and asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file below and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info. I extracted the file from my Mac after a sync and emailed it to him. He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!

It must be kept in mind that the battery on iPhone 4S actually has 0.05 Wh more capacity than the battery on iPhone 4. However on the iPhone 4S spec sheet Apple has posted a standby time of 200 hours against the previous 300 hours standby time. No specific reason has been posted for this, though its possible that the standby time on iPhone 4S is less due to the power A5 dual-core processor, Siri, location services and a increased number of new background processes.

It looks like Apple will soon be able to find a fix for iPhone 4S battery drain issue considering the fact that they are working closely with iPhone 4S owners in a bid to resolve this issue fast.