Android's Uncurated App Marketplace Draws Criticism, Google Activates 'Kill Switch' on Two Apps

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-gb; Dell Streak Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

You're on an Apple forum for Apple customers who own Apple products...

So then why is an Android article on this site? I find it rather amusing that MR will post something negative about Google or Android, but never anything positive.

Also i thought this was a discussion forum.. not a "I will bow down to S. Jobs, and give him a rimjob if he asked me to" forum.

With all the crap that has ben slung at Apple about the iPhone 4 they probably wanted to sway some negativity Google's way.

I wonder if we'll see an article posted on how Safari has been knocked into 4th place in the U.S to Chrome here?

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/...d=news_view&newsId=20100628005768&newsLang=en

I'm sure the more than impressive sales for the iP4 will aleviate some of the hard times Apple has had lately.

 

[dogie678]

Apple's kill switch is to stop a grown adult from accidentally seeing a pair of tits missed during the approval process. Google's kill switch is to stop malware. That's the difference

Google?

You mean the company that censored search results and limited freedom of speech in China for 4 yrs? Who I should add still censors search results in 23 other countries.


Or is this the company that stole unencrypted emails and passwords from wifi users for 4 yrs and is now the target of several lawsuits?

 

[Hal Itosis]

i guess you missed the whole Mobile Safari security blunder? you mindlessly buy into apple's walled garden, to only be told he's secure, to be as venerable as every other platform in the world but to believe otherwise. on top of all that, you are limited. disallowed. sent to your room by daddy steve without dinner.

you bottom boys love to be told what to do because you're not strong enough or far too lazy to make up your own damn minds.

good luck, fanboy.

Wow... sounds like some Flash developers' cheeks are still smarting from being spanked off the iPad. Bitter much?

[btw, nice Freudian slip there. ]

 

[Silverado]

With all the crap that has ben slung at Apple about the iPhone 4 they probably wanted to sway some negativity Google's way.

I wonder if we'll see an article posted on how Safari has been knocked into 4th place in the U.S to Chrome here?

The implication that MacRumors does not report positive Google/Android news is quite uninformed. There have been MANY such news items. The last I recall was very recently when they noted that the Droid X will challenge Apple's claim that the iPhone 4 display has the highest resolution on the market.

I'm sure the more than impressive sales for the iP4 will aleviate some of the hard times Apple has had lately.

Hard times?! Every other corporation on earth would love to have Apple's "hard times"

 

[wovel]

Correction: The issue is that most users blindly click "accept" or "yes" to any prompt that comes up because they treat their smartphone like their computer.

The issue is people are dumb and don't read, not that they can be mislead.

Really, so how do I know my GPS app that wants to access the Internet is not sending out my current location or acting as a bot for that matter?

So people who download GPS apps should click no on access to the GPS and to the Internet? Please explain how it is the users fault for allowing permissions the application they downloaded might actually need.

I would think an app that did one thing that required certain permissions and then misused those permissions to do something else, would be the definition of "misled"...

 

[ChazUK]

Hard times?! Every other corporation on earth would love to have Apple's "hard times"

I was referencing the alleged issues with the iPhone. And yes, I'd love some Apple hard times too.

 

[bobr1952]

I like the moderated approach--I don't have the ambition or desire to try and sort through all that crap myself--so this would be a prime reason why I would stick with my iPhone.

 

[Frobozz]

While this essentially supports my preconceived bias away from the Android platform, it is still telling.

I look at Android as the Windows XP of mobile computing. It will do anything ... poorly. It will do a couple things really well. It will be difficult to find good apps and you will have to educate yourself about how to do so. It's so wide open that, unfortunately, there's a lot of noise in the signal.

When you have to learn where to find the useful apps, and are constantly worried about downloading spyware apps, you've lost me.

This boils down to a basic systemic difference that you either agree with or you don't. Do you want a benevolent overlord or not?

 

[GQB]

I'm rereading "Atlas Shrugged" and this whole app ecosystem is a prime example of how a lack of individual responsibility can lead to a socialist police state.
.

I'd read it exactly the opposite way... that lack of regulation leads to chaos.

(from a recovered Randian.)

 

[Mal]

The implication that MacRumors does not report positive Google/Android news is quite uninformed. There have been MANY such news items. The last I recall was very recently when they noted that the Droid X will challenge Apple's claim that the iPhone 4 display has the highest resolution on the market.

Actually, probably a bad example, considering the article was incorrectly interpreting the (poorly worded) advertisement. However, I agree with your overall sentiment.

Hard times?! Every other corporation on earth would love to have Apple's "hard times"

Heh. If this is what hard times look like, I need some more hard times myself.

jW

 

[jdechko]

Yeah, I don't recall ever being asked for access to contacts on my iPhone (only location services).

I'm fine with the app store as is, but I'd also like the ability to install apps from other sources that *I've* decided to trust and put on my phone.

Maybe a $4.99 "Pro Mode Enabler" that you buy from Apple after signing away your liver and first born to confirm you know the risks. Most people can let Apple do the thinking for them and those of us who want to use the full power of our phones can.

It's called "Jailbreaking" and it's free.

And let's be honest, neither Apple nor Android truly let you "do whatever you want with the phone" right out of the box. Most of the devices are locked to a carrier and don't allow complete, unfettered access to the device in its initial state. Android devices must be "rooted" and iOS devices have to be "jailbroken" in order for one to have complete access to the device.

Why this debate is even occurring is beyond me.

However, in my opinion, as well as the reviews of several other well-respected tech journalists, the Apple App Store is the best for the untrained, uncaring mass of consumers. If my mom were to ever get a smartphone, it would be an iPhone simply because it's the easiest device to use. For techies like many of us, Android devices can be great because you can do just about anything on them (see the N1 as a USB host--Awesome!). But then, iPhones can be jailbroken to enable a lot of similar customizations as well. So for techies, it's a push. Go with the device you want.

But anyway, this isn't completely on topic, so I'm done.

 

[chris200x9]

What are you on about man? "Socialist police state"? This is how words lose their value, when people just start throwing them around like so many crushed paper balls.

...... ok let's see: not accepting personal responsability with an app -> app store. App store = "police state" for your phone. We can jump to the conclusion not taking personal responsability for ANYTHING -> police state. It was just an example, chill.

 

[redkamel]

It really comes down to this in my mind. I run about 30 apps. My friends run way more than that. Do I (or my friends) have the time to make sure every 1-5 dollar app, most of them just for fun and life style stuff, is not malware, updated with malware, hacked, doing something weird, etc etc? No, I do not. I do not care to. It's a cookbook or price checking app on my cellphone, not a program on my computer. So I guess if Android users want to deal with checking to make sure their free Vuvuzela or soccer schedule app is not spyware, or that their grocery store list is not hackable, than more power to them. Frankly I don't really care to do that. So Apple can lock down their Apps all they want. Its not like it removes any actual functionality from my real world life.

 

[JAT]

Are you really as dense as you appear from all your posts in this thread, or are you just trolling?

Let's see.. you don't hear a transcript - you look at transcript. A quick glance at a transcript takes a split second, as opposed to dialing into your voicemail and listening to it. Yep, just another thing you cannot do on your "curated" iPhone.

My bro-in-law does that from Google Voice (dropped his home phone for this) on his 3G iPhone.

 

[chris200x9]

Yes Apple's approval process makes the app store more secure. didn't you read the article or my posts?

Ask yourself why this hasn't happened on iPhones (yet), but it already happened on Android phones?

Security researcher creates botnet for Android, tricks 300 users to download the app

http://blogs.forbes.com/firewall/20...letes-and-downplays-botnet-demo-android-apps/

I don't think that's how it work. obligatory xkcd cartoon:

 

[AppleFan1984]

The review process may find applications that crash, or that do damaging things out of sheer stupidity. It will likely not find cleverly written malware.

+1 Insightful

What really protects you is that Apple has the identity of the submitter of the application. You wouldn't write malware if your identity is known.

As others here have pointed out, like Apple you need to pay to have your app in the Android store.

Such requirements have not prevented security breaches in the iPhone:
http://www.google.com/search?q=iphone+security+breach

 

[AppleFan1984]

How do we know the apps we download for OS X (or Windows) do not have an unpatched backdoors that are concealed? Well, the answer is that we do not know. Does this lack of knowledge prevent us from installing applications? No, it does not.

Some in these forums have argued that the precedent established with the App Store will become the "norm" on OS X as well:
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/25/apple-considering-rebranding-mac-os-x-under-new-ios-umbrella/

 

[JAT]

The daily mail here in the UK, posted a story yesterday that Steve Jobs twittered that there would be a recall on the iphones. The only problem was that it was a parody account on twitter, and the journalist thought it was the real Steve Jobs. Good to see media standards falling around the world

Seems the same as it has been for hundreds of years to me. Media = crap

 

[RazHyena]

Because I can customize my phone to work the way I want it.

So...you don't know how to customize your iPhone?

 

[deenybird]

Do I (or my friends) have the time to make sure every 1-5 dollar app, most of them just for fun and life style stuff, is not malware, updated with malware, hacked, doing something weird, etc etc? No, I do not. I do not care to. It's a cookbook or price checking app on my cellphone, not a program on my computer. So I guess if Android users want to deal with checking to make sure their free Vuvuzela or soccer schedule app is not spyware, or that their grocery store list is not hackable, than more power to them. Frankly I don't really care to do that.

It's people like you, who need their hand held through life, that ruin things for the responsible folks. I actually pity you for your ineptitude as it sounds like even the simplest things, downloading mobile games, is difficult for you.

 

[WilliamLondon]

Because I can customize my phone to work the way I want it.

Do you complain when you can't turn your car into a skateboard, your toaster into a fridge or your television into a magic blanket?

If you don't then why do you come here to decry a device we like which doesn't easily allow *you* to do something unimportant to us? What is the purpose of that?

Go tell Ford they have failed because your Ka doesn't easily allow you to customise it so it can fly.

 

[JAT]

Actually, probably a bad example, considering the article was incorrectly interpreting the (poorly worded) advertisement. However, I agree with your overall sentiment.

Actually, it is a perfect example. MR posted "breaking news" that showed the HTC product in a very positive light, with no bias. If there was bias, arn would have used negative language at first, for no apparent reason. (like so many forumites did) The negatives only came up when facts showed the original report incorrect.

 

[uberamd]

Because I can customize my phone to work the way I want it.

I hardly ever see anyone with a "ZOMG Custom" Android device. 99% of the ones I have seen in person look just as stock as my iPhone.

 

[dgree03]

Do you complain when you can't turn your car into a skateboard, your toaster into a fridge or your television into a magic blanket?

If you don't then why do you come here to decry a device we like which doesn't easily allow *you* to do something unimportant to us? What is the purpose of that?

Go tell Ford they have failed because your Ka doesn't easily allow you to customise it so it can fly.

Analogy = Fail...

 

[dgree03]

I hardly ever see anyone with a "ZOMG Custom" Android device. 99% of the ones I have seen in person look just as stock as my iPhone.

Except with widgets...