Dan Graziano:
Over the three-month period, the company found more than 14,900 new malicious programs targeting the platform. Nearly half of the malicious files were classified as multi-functional Trojans that were programmed to steal data from smartphones and could also download and install programs from remote servers.
There is a much better alternative you know.
Alex Arena:
I settled on the Sony Xperia Pro, with the knowledge that if I didn’t like it, I’d only have to wait a few months for the new iPhone.So far the experience has been terrible; I’ll be in line, come September.
MG Siegler:
The problem is that all of these different devices require testing for each and every app. They all create a different Android experiences — some in subtle ways, some in big ways. Some run certain Android apps, others don’t. Some apps work fine on one device then are buggy as hell on another one. Sometimes this gets fixed, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the popularity of that device and the resources the development team has.
Yes, that’s a problem.
Hacking experts have demonstrated ways to attack Android smartphones using methods they said work on virtually all such devices in use today, despite recent efforts by search engine giant Google to boost protection.
Open wins.
Matt Gemmell:
Piracy isn’t a symptom of social disease. Well, it might be, but your bank manager won’t care about that inconsequential detail. Piracy is a symptom of failure to find an effective business model.
So many good points in this article.
In attempting to fend off Apple and Microsoft’s suits against Motorola Mobility and advancing its own patent litigation against both companies, Google, which is facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad over what some allege is abuse of SEPs, has been arguing that proprietary non-standardized technologies that become ubiquitous due to their popularity with consumers should be considered de facto standards.
So, Let me get this straight. Apple spent billions of dollars researching the best interface for mobile devices and patented their findings. Those methods of interacting with a mobile device became so popular, Google illegally integrated them in its inferior Android operating system.
Now that they’ve been caught, they are arguing that the features are standards and are not Apple’s at all.
You know what else is ubiquitous? Search. Why not hand the code for that over to Apple and let them make a search engine to compete with Google.
Dirtbags.
At the heart of BlueStacks is a multi-OS runtime with breakthrough virtualization technology. Apps developed for different operating systems can execute simultaneously, side-by-side, on the same computer.
Congrats to Marco on broadening the market for an app I use everyday on iOS and my Mac.
Kim-Mai Cutler:
Animoca, a Hong Kong mobile app developer that has seen more than 70 million downloads, says it does quality assurance testing with about 400 Android devices. Again, that’s testing with four hundred different phones and tablets for every app they ship!
What a bunch of shit to make your developers go through.
Tempted to try out the much talked about Instagram app? Well, be careful where you get it from – as malware authors are distributing malware disguised as the popular app.
It’s great to be open.
Under questioning from Oracle’s lawyer, Page said Android was very important but disputed the notion that it was critical.
That makes sense. Usually things you steal aren’t considered critical.
I love it when Gruber does this.
AppleInsider:
After hearing Page’s interpretation of Jobs’s words, Isaacson spoke out this week in a speech at the Royal institution of Great Britain. Isaacson said he felt that Android had ripped off many of his ideas found in the iPhone and iPad, and that his ire was very real, according to Macworld.“It’s almost copied verbatim by Android,” Isaacson said. “And they license it around promiscuously. And then Android starts surpassing Apple in market share, and this totally infuriated him. It wasn’t a matter of money. He said, ‘You can’t pay me off, I’m here to destroy you.'”
It’s time for Google to shut up.
I don’t know what happened here. But I can state the facts. As much as it hurts for Android loyals, they depend on iOS first apps. And that’s a shame.
Apple has been leading the way in hardware and software innovation for the past five years. It’s not too much of a surprise that developers try their apps on iOS first.
Charles Arthur:
Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011, if figures provided by the search giant as part of a settlement offer with Oracle ahead of an expected patent and copyright infringement trial are an accurate guide.
Jason Ankeny:
Any discussion what’s hot is inevitably followed by a conversation around what’s not, and that’s Android. Appcelerator reports that 78.6 percent of developers expressed interest in building apps for Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) smartphones during the first quarter, down from 83.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and down from around 87 percent a year ago. Given that Android’s market share has continued to explode over the last 12 months, you can’t blame consumer disinterest for developer apathy in the platform; the culprit is–you guessed it–fragmentation.
Can’t blame them.
The following pie chart and table is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date noted below.
Collection date was March 5, 2012.
For one, we’re in the middle of production on another game, and can’t simply drop everything to implement this because Google finally delivered on a year-old promise. And secondly, as I mentioned on Twitter, our Android apps aren’t making money.
Winning.
[Via DF]
Chris Ziegler posted a good look at Chrome for Android on The Verge.
MG Siegler brings up a good point:
Second, it’s only compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich which is currently on — wait for it — 1% of Android devices.
So congrats to those 1%, I guess.
BGR:
Impressive data points from Apple’s record-setting holiday quarter continue to trickle out, and new estimates suggest that the company accounted for a staggering share of mobile profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt wrote in a research note on Tuesday that Apple took in approximately 50% of all mobile industry revenues last quarter. Even more impressive, the analyst says Apple’s high-margin iPhone lineup accounted for more than 80% of all mobile phone profits. Read on for more.
How can this be if Android is winning?
Vancouver Sun:
Canadian singles who use Android phones are more likely to have sex on a first date and partake in one-night stands, in comparison to those with other types of smartphones, according to a results of a survey.
A new study from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows that Apple is growing faster in the smartphone market than Android. […]
Steve Peterson for Industrygamers: Market research firm IHS iSuppli is projecting that in-app purchases will account for 64% of total app market revenue by 2015, up from 39% in 2011. These percentages reflect the total from both iOS and Android … Continued
MG Siegler:
Holy shit, over 70% of the Android phones sold in the U.S. are now contributing money to Microsoft’s pockets. Microsoft, not Google.
Amazing how much money Microsoft is making from Android.
MG Siegler on what he hates about Android:
But I cannot respect their decision to continue to work on this platform that perpetuates our imprisonment. I have to believe most simply chose not to think about these things. But they should. They really should.
MG goes through some of the history of Android and why he really dislikes some of the things that Google does.
Apple makes products that people want. Unlike their competition, they also make products that work and last. Evidence of this is in the latest ChangeWave customer satisfaction survey results. […]
Last week, I bought an iPhone 4S. I hadn’t planned on buying one, but my upgrade became available eight months ahead of schedule, and I couldn’t help myself.
When I learned that my upgrade was available, my mind didn’t stop for a moment to consider an Android or Windows Phone device, I simply went straight to the Apple Store and bought a 4S.
Matt Alexander:
Rather than building the best device for the user, manufacturers are intent on differentiating themselves from increasingly similar products. Absurd product names, enormous screens, and LTE connections cannot, and will not, disguise the fact that all of these devices are running the same operating system and have largely similar internals.
BOOM!
And Gruber nails it again.
When Google released its iOS Gmail app, I argued that it was a woefully missed opportunity for the software giant. With Gmail for iOS, Google had a unique chance to impress iOS users with a well-designed app for a widely used service. Instead, as we all know, Google released a pathetic implementation reliant on UIWebView, and squandered a phenomenal Trojan Horse moment.
In stark contrast to Google’s well-publicized folly, Microsoft is doing everything it can to impress iOS users.