market - 31/43 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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: Amazon Provides Clarifications] Amazon App Store's DRM To Be More Restrictive Than Google's?

Posted by Will Shanklin in Android OS, Applications, News

An interesting little tidbit came across to us in an otherwise ordinary posting on Amazon's app developers' blog. While developers will have the option to use DRM or not in their apps, those that do use the digital licensing service may present problems for those users who are temporarily without an internet connection.

Comparing it to the way Amazon currently handles the storing of Kindle books, the curious part of the post reads:

"Any app that has Amazon DRM applied to it will require users to have installed and signed-in to the Amazon Appstore client to access the app. When an app is accessed by the user, it will verify with the Amazon Appstore device service as to whether the user has an entitlement to the app.

Mar

You Voted, We Tallied: Your Top 10 Favorite Android Apps

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

In last weekend's (non-)poll, I asked for your three favorite Android apps. You did your part, and nearly 100 people took the opportunity to vote. Now it's my turn, so I've compiled the results and I'll list them below along with details and a brief description of each app.

The Results

1. Launcher Pro (+ Plus) - 20 Votes

Given just how not-so-attractive Android 2.2 and below is, it's not really surprising that a launcher should take the top spot. What is a bit more surprising - at least to me - is that it really dominated ADW (which came in second, below) with more than twice as many votes.

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

Only 0.3% Of The Global Population Owns A Tablet - But There Are Over 5 Billion Mobile Subscribers

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News, Off-Topic

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky has run the numbers on tablets and lined them up for comparison against a bevy of other figures. Surprisingly, there are 5.113 billion mobile subscribers in the world (out of 6.898bn global population), but only 394 million smartphone and tablet users.

Abramsky's calculations show that there will be more than 400m tablet users by 2014. Equally as impressive is that he thinks 185m tablets will be sold in 2014 - or 47% of the number of smartphones and tablet owners today.

It's a bit surprising that the number of smartphone and tablet users is so low, but then again, that just speaks to the massive upside potential of the market.

Mar

Google's Human Body Browser Is Now Available (Again) For Honeycomb Devices

Posted by Zak Stinson in Applications, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Google Body, the Google Earth-style anatomy app announced at February's Honeycomb event, has finally hit the market. After spending the month as a web app, owners of a shiny new Honeycomb tablet can glide through skin, muscle, bone, organs, veins and nerves with the swipe of a finger.

Note: Yesterday, Google published Google Body and then almost immediately pulled it for an unknown reason before we even got a chance to announce it. Today, it seems like the app is finally available again.

Those lucky ones of you who get to play with the app may notice there is only a rendering of the female anatomy for perusing.

Mar

Marketplace Coming Soon To A Google TV Near You

Posted by Josue Alamo in Google TV, News

We now have yet another reason to rot in front of our televisions: Google will be expanding their Market to include its experimental television platform, Google TV. Ashish Arora, Product Manager of Google TV at Logtitech, broke the news at OTTCon on Tuesday.

“It will happen shortly.” said Arora during a panel discussion. “It’s a given that it will happen this year, 100 percent. We’re talking about a very short term.” Arora hopes the Market will bring about some ambitious ideas into its television sets. "It won't just be weather apps," he said. "What will be really interesting will be to tie the content to what you're watching." Cisco has begun to experiment with such tie-ins, toying with the ability to “live tweet” during broadcasts.

Mar

The Mother Of All Android Malware Has Arrived: Stolen Apps Released To The Market That Root Your Phone, Steal Your Data, And Open Backdoor

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

Last Updated: March 6th, 2011

Update 2: Google has officially acknowledged DroidDream and is taking further steps to correct it. Details can be found here: Google Acknowledges DroidDream: Remotely Wiping Apps, Removing Exploit, Making Changes To Prevent It From Happening Again

Update: For more details on DroidDream, check out out the follow-up post. It includes more information about the virus and how it works, who's to blame, and provides a link to a flashable .ZIP that prevents the virus from working.

Openness - the very characteristic of Android that makes us love it - is a double-edged sword. Redditor lompolo has stumbled upon a perfect example of that fact; he's noticed that a publisher has taken "...