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Found 68 articles

May

[I/O 2011] "0-Click" NFC Sharing Coming To Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

A lot of interesting products and services have been demoed at Google I/O 2011, including a number of interesting features for Ice Cream Sandwich, Android's forthcoming iteration. One of the less flashier features demoed is the 0-click peer-to-peer NFC sharing. This allows compatible Android devices to share content (contacts, links, YouTube videos) between the devices by simply placing them in close proximity to each other. No app needs to be run and no buttons need to be clicked - hence the "0-click" moniker.

Sharing data between devices in this manner is not a completely novel concept as the cross-platform app Bump already provides similar features.

Apr

Tim Armstrong: We Got AndroidPolice!

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Off-Topic

Today is a big day for all of us here at AP, but more so for our loyal and dedicated readers!

Over the past few weeks Artem and the senior editorial team behind AP have been in deep discussions with Tim Armstrong, CEO and Chairman of AOL, and Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, and early this morning an agreement was reached that would see AP join the ranks of the veritable who's who of tech blogs, such as TechCrunch and Engadget.

So how did all of this happen? And what happens to AP now?

A few days after we broke the story on the "Mother of All Android Malware," we were contacted by Ms.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Mar

Android Survives Hacking Competition - iOS, Blackberry Get "Pwned"

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

With all of the recent concern about malware in the Android Market, it may lead one to make the generalization that the Android OS is nothing but a big loser in the mobile security department. It looks like that may be a faulty conclusion, if the results from hacking competition Pwn2Own are any indication. In this year's contest, held at the CanSecWest Security Conference, Android and Windows Phone 7 both survived unscathed, while iOS and Blackberry fell to the hackers.

Pwn2Own is a computer hacking contest where cyber attackers attempt to hack into a variety of devices and browsers, both mobile and desktop.

Mar

PSA: Infected "Android Market Security Tool March 2011" App Floating Around

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

It seems evil-doers' depravity knows no bounds: we've just heard word from Symantec that an infected version of Google's Android Market Security Tool March 2011 is floating around the "black markets" - meaning it's not in the Android Market, but it is floating around the 'net in APK form. Luckily, it's not nearly as bad as DroidDream (the malware it was designed to remove), but it's malware nonetheless.

Specifically, Justin says it's closely related to (or possibly the same as) "Fake 10086" malware. Asian users seem to be getting the brunt of it, and it collects information such as IMEI, phone number, and other minor tidbits, which it then uploads to this site.

Mar

Google Squashes A Potentially Serious Bug In The Android Market

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

Google has responded to the alarm raised by an Android security expert of a bug related to the Android Market that could have caused a lot of trouble. The security hole was related to the recent implementation of the Android Web Market, and would have given hackers the ability to install malicious software fairly easily.

Co-founder and chief technology officer at Duo Security Jon Oberheide discovered the flaw last month and notified Google, who fixed it within "the last week or so." Users would have merely had to click on a malicious link on either their phones or on their desktops to activate the unwanted installation of rogue software.

Mar

[Updated] Google Acknowledges DroidDream: Remotely Wiping Apps, Removing Exploit, Making Changes To Prevent It From Happening Again

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Google continues to be admirably quick to react to DroidDream, the nasty Android Trojan we helped uncover on Tuesday. After removing the offending apps from the Market in just a few minutes of finding out about them, a new post on the Google Mobile Blog reveals that they're now ready to take further steps.

Update: The tool Google is using to bulldoze DroidDream malware off your phone has surfaced in the Android Market: Android Market Security Tool. From the app's description:

"There is no need to download and install this application on your own.

This is an Android Market security update that undoes exploits caused by the malicious applications that were removed from Android Market on 03/01/2011.

Mar

The War Against Infringement On The Android Market Is Heating Up: Fruit Ninja Clones And More

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Development, Editorials, News

The Android market is filled with apps of questionable legality. But oftentimes, overpriced, branded theme and clock apps like those you'll find here are considered relatively harmless - who's stupid enough to buy them, anyway? Still, apps in this category are in clear violation of registered trademarks - and that doesn't sit well with their holders.

Google even has a page for developers and copyright holders to submit DMCA takedown requests for apps on the Market. Google's form guides you through what information is needed, and how to identify the apps in question - really, it makes the whole process quite simple.

Mar

Looks Like Google Is Starting To Listen - Hundreds Of Pirated Books/Apps Deleted From Android Market Minutes After Report

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Up until some recent events, it was quite hard to get through to Google regarding anything going on in the Android Market, be it stolen apps, copyrighted material, or getting any feedback regarding why your own app was removed. Sure, they still listened to DMCA requests and malware reports, but it seems that complaints by mostly large copyright owners saw any action, while reports by small-time developers getting ignored were getting abundant around the web.

The Android Market really doesn't need more bad publicity at this point, and Google knows that. Whether they will be beefing up their service personnel to handle complaints in an appropriate manner or not remains to be seen, but they are already quite a bit more sensitive to Market complaints, at least thrown by us into the atmosphere on Twitter.

Mar

Updated: DroidDream Is Bad - But We Think We Found Something Even Worse (Maybe)

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

Update: After having a back and forth with Android Security, there's some disagreement as to just how malicious these apps we linked in this post are. We may have jumped the gun here, so hold tight, and we'll keep you informed.

First off, no, we're not trying to be sensationalist. And I'll admit up front that we're a bit light on details at the moment, but we've got a guy who is a professional, seasoned coder, and that's not the type of guy whose opinion you ignore. With that said: yes, we really think that we found something worse.

Among the flood of (mostly) related security/piracy tips we received in the wake of the DroidDream discovery was something that was worth a closer look: two more developers who were putting up more stolen apps.