Apple bans iPhone 3G patch omission talk from forum

A Reg reader who brought up Apple's decision to exclude the iPhone 3G and other older devices from its latest security update on an official forum has received a firm rebuke for his effort.

Apparently the post, which was quickly deleted, failed three separate rules of the Apple Discussions soviet, as a curt notice to our source explained (extract below):

Apple removed your post on Apple Discussions, titled "Please Apple, you cannot leave a major share of your customers vulnerable," because it contained the following:

Speculation or Rumors Discussion of Apple Policies, Procedures or Decisions Petitions

Damn straight. Frankly our man can consider himself fortunate not to have his account deleted for suggesting Apple (at minimum) ought to release patches for Safari for the iPhone 3G. An iOS 4.3 update, released on Wednesday, which includes a number of critical security fixes, is incompatible with both the iPhone 3G and older versions of the iPod Touch. You need the iPhone 3GS, or later, or iPod Touch third generation to take advantage of the update, which includes a number of critical security fixes as well as performance and functionality improvements.

Our source, who wisely asked to remain anonymous, was referred to the forum's terms of use, which include "helpful information about using Apple Discussions".

"We encourage you to continue using the Apple Discussions while abiding by our terms of use," the email ends.

We take that to be Cupertino speak for "Cross us again, young man, and you'll find yourself in re-eduction camp".

The text of the offending message (published with permission) can be found below. It is tempting to think our man's (unstated) main crime was to link to a Register article that is mildly critical of Apple, but maybe that's just our paranoia seeping through.

Dear Apple,

Following the reviews of the new IOS 4.3 release I was absolutely baffled that Apple is leaving a major segment of their customers vulnerable to security issues in the iPhone. Various security issues have been identified on IOS 4.2 and lower. Some of them in Safari. Yet iPhone 3G users are not offered security updates as they are encapsulated in IOS 4.3 release.

I feel that Apple has an obligation to at least keep supporting previous generation of the product for at least 5 years after EOL of a product in terms of providing security patches when major security leaks have been identified.

I would like to ask fellow 3G users to react to Apple too so this issue will appear on Apple's management radar screen!

See article in The Register, titled: Apple security update leaves iPhone 3G users unprotected http://www.theregister.com/2011/03/10/apple_update_omits_iphone3g/.

Regards

®