So, we had a bit of a week, didn't we?

September 12

On Monday, iMore learning Apple would announce the next iPhone on Wednesday, September 12 and release it on Friday, September 21, along with the iPad mini, and perhaps more. That's later than the first four years, when new iPhones hit in the summer, but earlier than last year when the iPhone 4S didn't put in an appearance until October. It is, however, right around the time Apple used to announce the new iPod lineups, and put everything in place for the traditionally massive holiday quarter. And that certainly seems like the new sweet spot for the new iPhone.

No doubt we'll have more on this over the next week, and the weeks leading up to the event.

But in the meantime, iPhone and iPad mini aside, what other devices are you hoping to see updated next month?

What's the best way to steal someone's password?

You ask for it.

It's a cliche but it's true. We've talked recently about security and the importance of really strong passwords (and 1Password has a great guide to creating your own). But what do you do when it's not the password itself that's guessed or brute force attacked? What do you do when it's just given away?

That's what happened to Wired's Mat Honan this week when a hacker apparently called up Apple Support and, using what's called a social engineering attack, conned them into resetting Honan's iCloud password and giving him access to Honan's account. What happened next was a nightmare, including Honan's iPhone, iPad, and Mac getting wiped, his Gmail, Twitter, and Gizmodo's twitter account getting hijacked, and his life turned absolutely upside down.

There are several takeaways from this:

1. Apple has to enable multi-factor security for iCloud, and never -- not ever -- give access to someone who calls them (hang up and call back on the registered phone line, okay?).
2. On systems that do support multi-factor security, like Google, use it. I hate the idea of giving Google my phone number, but I hate the idea of having my life stolen more.
3. Always make sure you have local and cloud backups of all your machines, always. It's not that expensive, and it's much cheaper than losing priceless photos, videos, or having to waste time starting from scratch.

What happened to Honan was terrible, but if any good at all could come from it, it's a reminder for all of us to review our own security and backups practices and make improvements wherever possible.

I'm using 1Password to generate strong, unique passwords for every site, and I lie like crazy when it comes to security questions. I also store almost my entire home directory on Dropbox for online backup, and use SuperDuper and a Time Capsule for local backup.

How about you?

The Bladepad is an iPhone case / Gamepad combo that is currently seeking funding from Kickstarter. It consists of an easily removable iPhone case complete with a clip on gamepad that includes two joysticks, a D-Pad and many buttons to enhance your iPhone gaming experience.

Playing games on your iPhone will never be the same! Bladepad brings a full console controller to your phone with a convenient and comfortable gamepad that maximizes portability and minimizes unnecessary bulk. Connect Bladepad to your iPhone via Bluetooth. Place your iPhone in the protective case and the gamepad slides out beneath your phone. When you are done playing, the gamepad slides back in place under your phone.

Bladepad makes use of high quality components and materials to provide a durable device that is built to last. Inside is a powerful micro-processor and Bluetooth module from Texas Instruments. Additionally, Bladepad has a real metal bezel made out of the same lightweight and durable alloy that is used in the iPhone 4/4S. The bezel is actually a solid metal plate that protects Bladepad for long-term use.

If you would like to be one of the first to try this gamepad, you can become an early adopter with a pledge of $59 or more to secure one should they make it into production. The Bladepad currently has just over $6k of pledges and it needs to hit over $55k to gain enough to be funded. As with all of these Kickstarter projects, just because a particular item reaches its funding total doesn't guarantee it will be made. I guess the saying goes; you pays your money and takes your choice!

There is no doubt in my opinion that gaming on the iPhone is hugely popular but is being held back by the lack of hardware buttons and a joystick. Lots of innovation is taking place on this front as we have already seen solutions from iCade and one or two others. The problem however is that there is no set standard for including support for a gamepad. Developers can chose to support one particular solution or none at all and until that changes, you could well be wasting your money as your favorite games may well not have any gamepad support at all.

The only long term solution to the problem would be for Apple to release its own gamepad and give all developers the ability to easily add support for it. Then we will we see most games taking advantage of the gamepad and it will become an essential part of gaming on the iPhone iPad and iPod touch.

Can you ever see Apple releasing its own gamepad? Would you buy one if they did?

Source: Kickstarter

Apple is reportedly interested in acquiring The Fancy, an online social sharing network similar to Pinterest, but with a strong commerce component as well. A 20-person New York startup, The Fancy allows users to share things they like, and then buy those things, with The Fancy taking 10% of the sale price, with a system in place for users to get a cut as well. Owen Tomas of Business Insider reports:

The objective: to secure a role for Apple in the growing e-commerce market, putting the 400 million-plus users with credit cards on file with Apple's iTunes Store to work shopping—with Apple getting a cut of the action.

There's no word on whether or not talks are continuing, or if the deal is at all likely to go through, but BI does say Apple CEO, Tim Cook and The Fancy CEO, Joe Einhorn recently spent time together at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference. Cook also has a The Fancy account, where he's shared a few items, an unusually public move for Cook.

Before anyone gets too excited, however, Apple was also recently reported to have been interested in buying into Twitter, a interest that turned out to be over a year old, and no longer in active discussion.

Meanwhile, Twitter integration was added to the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with IOS 5, and Facebook integration is coming this fall with iOS 6. And either way, it seems Apple's interest in creating their own social networks waned with the ill-fated Ping.

Anyone fancy a little more social commerce sharing and buying on iOS?

Source: Business Insider