One of the big problems Microsoft has with the phone industry is that Microsoft wants the phone to be the user's "platform" (yes, obviously a Microsoft platform) whereas phone operators generally want it to be a delivery vehicle under their complete control. If a phone is a platform like, say, a PC or Pocket PC then you should be able to upload your own data (form Outlook, natch), download whatever games you like, and generally install any third party applications that turn you on. Most network operators are not wild about that. They want to ensure you can only run what they allow you to run in whatever way they allow you to run it. Usually they invoke ideas of "protecting the network", which is the argument BT (or the General Post Office) used in the decades when you rented a black phone with a dial and lumped it. Microsoft added a licensing system so that a network operator could either control everything or nothing, depending on the licence requirements. (Basically, apps have to ask for permission to run.) Orange duly launched a smartphone, the SPV, based on Microsoft Smartphone software (based on PocketPC 2000, based on Windows CE).
Well, since Microsoft is famous for its tight security control, the world will no doubt be shocked and amazed to discover that the system has proven defective within a few weeks of the launch. The Inquirer has the story. Naturally there's a patch to download (Microsoft is the world leader in patches), but this has its own amusing aspect: the only people who can install a patch that disables the hack are people who have already hacked their phone. As the Inquirer says, "Eh?"
