Android posts

Many developers and users of Apple's iOS devices bemoan the "walled garden" of the App Store approval process, but it appears that the company's measures have prevented mass data theft from iPhones, and iPads.

At the Black Hat security conference being held in Las Vegas this week, mobile security firm Lookout announced that an app distributed in Google's Android Market had collected private information from millions of users, then forwarded it to servers in China. Worse than that, the exact number of affected users isn't known, since the Android Market doesn't provide precise data. Estimates are that the app was downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times.

The app appeared to simply load free custom background wallpapers, but in fact collected a user's browsing history, text messages, the SIM card number, and even voice mail passwords, and then sent the data to a web site in Shenzen, China.

This is different from the recent AT&T website leak that could have let a hacker access 144,000 iPad 3G user email addresses, since in this case the data theft actually did happen, was being perpetrated by malicious hackers, involves much more personal information, and affected many more people.

So what's the difference between the security methodologies used by Google and Apple? Apple approves iOS apps only after they've gone through a strict (and frustrating to developers) process, while Google's Android Market simply warns the user that an app needs permission to perform certain functions during the installation. iOS apps must be signed by an Apple-created certificate, which means that malicious developers have a harder time distributing malware anonymously.

Lookout also noted that iOS remains virus-free, since third-party apps can only be distributed through Apple's heavily-moderated App Store, and the apps run in a sandbox environment where they can't affect the system. Lookout chief executive John Hering said that "he believes both Google and Apple are on top of policing their app stores." It's just those odd cases where apps don't do what they're advertised to do that can cause problems for users.

[via AppleInsider]

It's always a fun moment when a friend comes by to say "Yeah, I just got this Android 7" tablet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to send it back." Not without letting us take a quick snapshot, you're not! This $199 KIRF tablet is a dead ringer for a squeezed, shrunk-down iPad -- there's even a little square on the Home button, even though it's a bit cockeyed.

The battery had run down on this unit (a hardware on/off switch! How quaint), but it's running a build of Android 2.1 that's fairly well convinced it's on a phone -- down to the non-functional signal bars on the screen.

Pictured here with the genuine article, the miniPad seems to be scaled for a smaller, cozier world. At least it might fit in a pocket.

If you've got pictures of ersatz Apple wannabe gear in the field, pop them in our Flickr feed and shoot us a note.

Thanks Christien!

Millennial Media has a new report (out this morning) that they sent along, and it's got some interesting research, based on their advertising network, about Apple and its place in the smartphone market. As you can see above, Apple's still got the majority base of OS users in the smartphone market; while we've heard that Android has pulled ahead in sales, this research shows that Apple has a clear majority in terms of actual OS usage.

Android did, however, see an increase in the number of devoted, single-platform developers. Currently, 31% of single-platform devs are working on Android (an increase of 2%) and 57% are creating apps for the iPhone. Games remain the number one app category on the network, while social networking apps are down and news and sports apps are up.

Finally, Millennial is seeing a huge spike in ad requests. Apple ad requests jumped up 36% month-over-month, and iPad ad requests alone blew up 205% month-over-month in June. Both Android and RIM saw big ad request increases as well, suggesting that more developers are learning how to successfully use ads in their apps.

There's an old saying, "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." For Henry Blodget of Business Insider, perhaps we should change it to "When all you have is a comparison between Windows and Mac OS from the 1980s, every situation looks like a repeat."

In an article entitled Hey, Apple, Wake Up from January 5th, 2010, Mr. Blodget compared the "iPhone vs Android" market to "Mac OS vs Windows" of the 1980s. I missed the article the first time, but that turns out to be OK because 6 months later (almost to the day) he's written the same article again, but this time with a chart!

Featuring a headline that couldn't be any more link-baiting if it included LeBron James' free agency choice or Lindsay Lohan's ice cream card, This Android Chart Should Scare the Bejesus Out of Apple rehashes what is almost exactly the same article ("NEW AND IMPROVED! NOW CONTAINS REFERENCES TO THE iPad!") and ends with a chart showing "Percent Of Developers That Have Developed For Each Mobile Platform" showing Android in the lead over iPhone/iOS.

The body of the article links not once but twice to his previous article, plus a callout box to his previous article (which also links to another article about the same chart), and at the end of the article, in case you missed it, there is a "See Also" link which will bring you back to -- wait for it -- the same article he wrote back in January.

Memo to H. Blodget: Saying the same thing over and over again does not automagically grant it the mantle of truth.

I've often wondered why, instead of creating their own social gaming platform with Game Center, Apple didn't just swallow up a successful third-party platform like OpenFeint. Now, it seems that Apple may have lost its chance: OpenFeint announced this morning, after another multi-million dollar round of financing led by Chinese gaming firm The9, that it will be extending its social gaming network to Android apps. The same features and services available to developers on iOS devices will soon be available to Android developers, and OpenFeint is launching on Android with a few major app developers in tow and support for Google Checkout and a few other services.

Now, this may not mean much for those of us who only use iOS devices; OpenFeint will carry on as it has, and it will still integrate with Apple's Game Center as planned. However, it does mean that OpenFeint is no longer serving developers at Apple's whim; if there's something that Apple doesn't allow them to do that the Android platform does, they can still carry out those plans.

Of course, it's a big step for Android as well; one more significant iPhone developer service is now available on Google's open source platform. It's a very interesting move by OpenFeint, and I don't think it's the last we'll see of major iPhone-based services opening up to the competing Android platform.

I wouldn't have called July 4th weekend as a great time for releasing studies about in-depth App Store information, but it was certainly that, as quite a few studies came to light this weekend about how the Android and the Apple App Stores compare. First up, App Store HQ has released some information from their own database of developers indicating that Apple's iPhone still has a larger developer base than the Android platform, and while some developers have gone cross platform, most prefer to stick to one or the other. Additionally, a recent survey of mobile developers shows this may all be in due course: the majority of developers prefer the iPhone for now, but in the long run, 54% of developers polled say that Android has the best "long-term outlook."

Analytics firm Distino also released a report this past weekend, about App Store offerings rather than developers, and it found that about 80% of iPad apps on the App Store were paid, with only slightly fewer for the iPhone. Google's Android market, however, has 57% of its apps listed as free, the highest percentage by far of all the mobile marketplaces tracked. That may give some indication as to why developers currently prefer the App Store -- they can make more money there, with a larger audience more ready to open the wallet. But don't count Android out -- the service is still growing (only developers from nine different countries can distribute paid apps), and as the platform becomes more viable, it seems developers will be ready to move in the future. As Appcelerator concludes, Apple's store is the current winner of developers' attention, but as soon as developers see a flexible platform with a solid userbase elsewhere, they'll happily go there. too.

Not all of the developers on the App Store are starting up gigantic companies or breaking new indie ground. A large number of them, like Darren Sillett and his wife Samantha of Mighty Mighty Good Games, are just experienced programmers who choose an idea and stick with it, iterating and testing to see what works and what doesn't on the App Store. Sillett's biggest app is one of a few versions of Sudoku on the iPhone, but since day one, he and his wife (former Microsoft developers -- Sillett actually worked on Windows Vista) have been playing with this idea of word games on the iPhone, and they've tested all of the tricks. They've released free versions, included ads, tried different pricing and versions, and so on. As a result, they've found success with over ten million downloads of their free apps and over 200k in paid-app sales.

Sillett told me that his next big step will be to bring some of his apps to the iPad, and he's planning on going universal. While there will be some extra stuff in the iPad version, he thinks that universal is the best choice for his customers, at least while he's testing the waters. We also talked at length about iAds; Sillett says that ads have proven more beneficial for him in just the last few months, as ad companies and customers have really started to move the market along.

Well, I guess if Apple is planning to sell phones through Verizon as has been rumored for a long time, then turnabout is fair play. The latest scuttlebutt says that AT&T is readying to announce its own next-gen Android-based cellphones sometime next week, putting the news smack dab up against any potential Apple announcements at WWDC. The HTC Aria is the latest device that AT&T is supposedly welcoming to their network, but it could be any number of Android phones, really; if AT&T goes for one, there's no reason they won't invite a few more in as well.

[As noted by commenters, AT&T began selling the Motorola Backflip in March, which is an Android 1.5 device; however, the phone has been reportedly held back from the full Android experience, and cannot install arbitrary applications like other Android devices. The Dell Aero is also announced for the carrier but does not yet appear to be shipping. –Ed.]

Of course, we don't know the details behind all of this. Given that we've never actually seen the agreement between AT&T and Apple, it's possible that AT&T was free to sell any handsets they want at any time, and they were only avoiding non-iPhone OS phones just to keep their exclusive deal popular. It's also possible that there was a clause in the agreement at some point that Android was a no-no, but when exclusivity drops, so does that clause. At any rate, we only have to wait a week to see what happens. If there's a vPhone at WWDC, an AT&T Android phone may not be far behind.

[Since the Backflip is present in AT&T's lineup along with other smartphones, it's clear that Apple is not preventing the carrier from offering devices of many flavors. –Ed.]

At least that's the word from Net Applications, the company that measures visits to clients websites. The latest report says the iPhone not only keeps a large lead over Android, but it actually enlarged its global share last month, going from 30.4% to 32.8 %. At the same time, Android increased from 5.3% to 6.2%.

If you look at a percentage increase, Android is still moving up faster, growing its share 17% month after month, while the iPhone grew 8.25%. Java ME, still in heavy use by many older smartphones, including phones from RIM, Sony Ericsson and Nokia, keeps a number one position as the most popular platform for mobile surfing, but Net Applications says it is rapidly losing market share to both the iPhone and Android.

Recently, Apple and Android made news when another research firm, NPD, reported that Android sales were much better than the iPhone in the U.S. But that wasn't unexpected -- there are many more Android handsets to sell, and even NPD admitted that report was "very limited."

It's an article of faith that Mac users prefer iPhones to other smartphones... right? But if we allow that there might be a cohort of Android users on the Mac (not to mention WinMobile and Windows Phone 7 aficionados), chances are they are going to be looking for some simple solutions to help with media and app management. Without iTunes support for these phones, anyone looking for a local sync tool for shared content between computer and phone is probably heading for a DoubleTwist install (still free to download and use, by the way).

At least, there wasn't another solid option besides DoubleTwist, until Dazzboard came along. The browser-based 'media webtop' has been available for Windows browsers for a while. It added Safari/Mac OS X compatibility a few weeks ago, and today we have an exclusive TUAW tidbit: support has been extended to both Firefox 3.6 and the Chrome beta on the Mac.

With the required plugin installed, the Dazzboard site allows you to easily drag and drop media and applications onto scores of phones; in fact, it supports almost anything with a USB Mass Storage mode. The web tool lets you organize music, apps and images with all your non-iPhone devices, and provides one-click posting to social networks or other destinations if you feel like sharing.

You can see a demo of the Dazzboard interface here, and if you choose to sign up for the beta it's free of charge. While the smooth integration of the iTunes/iPhone ecosystem may be a pipe dream, with Dazzboard at least your other devices have a fighting chance for sync savvy.

Here's an intriguing idea: author Neal Stephenson and a few friends (including Greg Bear and Nicole Galland) are going to be releasing a set of serialized stories as apps for the iPad and the iPhone. The project is called "The Mongoliad," and is based on a world designed by Stephenson (author of the great novels Snow Crash and The Diamond Age).

The apps will present "an ongoing stream of nontextual, para-narrative, and extra-narrative stuff," and even ask readers to interact and create their own stories in the universe with some "pretty cool tech." Interesting.

There's not a lot of information out right now about what the project is exactly, but there is a Facebook page with a few more details, and a skeleton page where you can sign up for more information. I guess they're taking the wraps off of the project in a few days on May 25th, so presumably then you'll be able to download the app (which will also be available on Android and the Kindle), and see what it's all about.

I'm a big fan of Stephenson (as anyone interested in computers and how they work probably should be), so I'm definitely intrigued about what he and his colleagues will do with Apple's platform. Stay tuned.

[via SuperPunch]

Android's new features in the upcoming version 2.2 (aka "Froyo," announced this week at Google I/O) are certainly intriguing, but some sections of the press have gone off the deep end in their analysis of what this means for the iPhone and the smartphone market in general.

PC World's piece, "7 Ways Android 2.2 Froyo Tops Apple's iPhone," is a perfect example of this phenomenon, and it reads like it was written by someone who's never even held an iPhone. All seven of their points are easily debunked, even leaving aside the fact that they're comparing today's iPhone with the as-yet-unbuyable Froyo phones of tomorrow.

Read on to find out why -- and bring marshmallows.

We were wondering what happened to Simplify Media, the well-regarded software that offers your Mac ubiquitous access to your DRM-free music and photos via iTunes, an iPhone or iPod touch.

In March, we reported that the company was "heading in a different direction," which turned out to be a sale to Google. The Simplify Media app was removed from the app store, and the ability to share your iTunes library with others was removed. The sale was just announced this morning at the Google I/O conference.

Google intends to use the product on Android Phones, and it will be a component part of an iTunes-type of service that's in development.

If anyone had any doubts about Google offering competition for Apple, this should remove it. Competition is good, and this will be most interesting to watch. The nasty part is that Simplify Media for the Mac ecosystem is likely gone for good.

If Apple is losing any sleep over those recent smartphone numbers, it's not showing it. Their official response to the recent news that Android is selling more phones than iPhone OS could adequately be defined as: "meh." Spokeswoman Natalie Harrison says that the survey was "a very limited report," and that Apple is "far outselling Android on a worldwide basis." She goes on to say that "with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon." Like I said: "meh."

It's notable that she does use iPod touch numbers in her calculations, and we're not quite sure if those belong in a survey of smartphones. But she does have a point -- Android may have won this battle, but Apple is still winning the war, and the fight is far from over. There is an interesting parallel here to OS X and Windows -- Apple's OS lives squarely on just a few official devices, while the Android system operates on third-party hardware over any number of platforms. It's certainly possible that Android could win on numbers, even while Apple "wins" on usability and quality. But market share has never been Apple's game, and you can't look at any of the money they've made lately and believe they've done anything but succeed.

[via Engadget]