of kids want an iPad
The Nielsen Company presented a cadre of individuals with a list of nice, shiny gadgets and let them cross off anything and everything they'd like to buy in the next six months, and 31 percent of kids 6-12 picked the iPad as one of them.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
So much for open source
@MoonWalkerCTE More ike open-sores
@MoonWalkerCTE
your an idiot
On android it tells you what will be accessed but on the closed iOS is tells you nothing
@DefPoet Word I agree 100% but I read them, you read them. Does anyone non-savvy read them? I would imagine that no iphone users ever would if they were there.
@MoonWalkerCTE
Or any sort of intelligence shown by users who download wallpapers that have full internet access even though they were fully warned by the open source OS you're bashing. BTW, if you read the article, you'd learn it happens in Apple's closed garden as well...but that OS doesn't bother to tell you.
@DefPoet
On iOS a wallpaper application that accesses that kind of data and upload it would never have been approved in the first place. That kind of abuse is ridiculously easy to spot.
@DefPoet Look at you calling me the idiot. iOS 4 and previous versions of iOS have always asked for your permission. And in iOS 4 you can also see when it is being used.
@MoonWalkerCTE
What does open source have to do with it?
@MoonWalkerCTE
"If you're an iPhone user, the only privacy notice you'll see from an app regards your current location -- as much a warning about the associated battery hit from the GPS pinging as anything."
RTFA idiot!
@drange
Hah! Yeah, like a 15 yr old kid can't get a tethering program past Apple's rigorous standards!
@drange
What like that coloured flashlight app that actually allowed tethering wasn't approved? Oh wait it was!
@drange
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/07/05/app-store-app-farm-steal-your-money/ hmmm stealing info or stealing money -_-
also
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/i-am-rich-iphone-app-a-steal-at-99999/2368
That alone invalidates every single app agruement
@MoonWalkerCTE
Permission to install, and what access rights an app has, are two different things fanboi.
@drange
"On iOS a wallpaper application that accesses that kind of data and upload it would never have been approved in the first place. That kind of abuse is ridiculously easy to spot."
WRONG!
Remember a couple of weeks back? The coloured "flashlight" that actually was a USB tethering app? Yeah, an app that supposed to show coloured blinking lights but had deep access to your phones data and could reroute it to an attached device or wherever it wanted. Apple didn't know until Engadget reported it. So don't be too sure about their vetting process.
@DefPoet
The first links is about hacked iTunes accounts being exploited and the second was a program that didn't do anything at all, not even steal your data. The developer of the former case has been blocked completely and in the latter case the app was pulled. What exactly is the point you're trying to make with these 2 examples?
@PookiePrancer
@fais
Yes that app was a screwup by Apple and should never have been approved, but let's not forget that it got pulled within a week or so.
Compare that to the masses of Android users who don't read or heed any of the warnings about access to private data, which effectively means loads of people have their data exposed without anyone ever doing shit about it 'because they allowed it themselves'.
Net result that one store tries to protect ignorant people (which are many, if not most people) and sometimes fails doing that, the other store tries to warn ignorant people so they can make an informed choice to get raped of their private data. You decide which one of the two methods is better for yourself, my guess would be the App Store model.
@fais That didn't steal my personal data though
@MoonWalkerCTE
Sorry dude, but you proved yourself to be the idiot once more. If you had read the article and/or owned an iPhone or iPod Touch, you would know that the only permission an app asks for is your location, that's it.
On Android though, BEFORE YOU INSTALL the app, you get a full breakdown of every single area of your device the app will have access to.
So if you were to download a wallpaper app and it says it wants access to your contacts..... Something is definitely fishy.... and THAT, is the power of open source.
@Tes A hidden feautre is better then something secretly stealing your personal data.
The title of this headline should be: Android wallpaper app that steals your data was downloaded by millions
@MoonWalkerCTE
Er...that's not the point and if you THINK that's the point you're not really worth discussing this with. The point is Apple DIDN'T see code it ordinarily wouldn't approve of in an app. They ASSUMED it would need no internet access so didn't check what it did access. That fact alone says any number of apps in the app store could ALSO have access to TCIP protocols on your phone, data packets that you don't want anyone seeing and be able to re-route it to places you're unaware of.
@Plazmic Flame So users how to read 200 words to know if this app is malicous or not? I don't know about you but I currenly have 262 applications on my iPhone and I don't think I would want to read through every app.
@DefPoet Someone charges a lot of money for a stupid app, and that is "stealing"? No. That's stupidity on the user part, but not stealing.
@DefPoet You have other comments here I would like to argue with, but I just cant keep up. Let's just say, Android is perfect for someone like you. You make apple fanboys look tame.
@DouchePoet
oh mocking someones name on the internet real mature!
rock on bro btw I use whats best for me at the time
I have no allegiance to a stupid company that only wants your money which btw is every single company that has/does/will exist
@MoonWalkerCTE Where are you getting 200 words from? Either way, if you don't want to read it, that's fine, but if someone gets their personal info sent overseas by a flashlight or something, that's the fault of user stupidity on Android, not Google.
@MoonWalkerCTE
200 words? more like 20 for each app
and if you would rather not know about what an app has access to that qualifies you as a sheep
@DefPoet
But what about those that just want more more gee-bees? LOL.
I think there's a reason Android is attracting mostly the geek power users and the iPhone is attracting both the gen and pro consumer. One company tries to protects users by vetting its store from such apps and the other is *open* to whatever. Is Google even doing anything about those Apps that steal your voicemail password, text message?
@dave95
Read this and stop eating Engadget FUD.
http://phandroid.com/2010/07/29/another-app-stealing-data/
There is no stealing of voicemail or voicemail passwords, SMS messages or your browsing history.
@Tes
on a side note
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100729-703774.html
Japan pwns apple!
@drange
But you missed the point once again: APPS ON THE APPLE APP STORE ARE DOING THE SAME THING! The difference is, you never got to make an informed decision; Apple keeps you ignorant, not protected.
"That fact alone says any number of apps in the app store could ALSO have access to TCIP protocols on your phone, data packets that you don't want anyone seeing and be able to re-route it to places you're unaware of."
@Tes
Possibly, but this is all still only talking about hidden network access, which in itself does not allow sending private data from your phone, since the app would require access to said data first. Now, on iOS there should be only one way of accessing *any* data stored on the phone but outside the application sandbox, and that is through API's that are easily caught by the API scanning that Apple performs on every binary. I'm not saying this method is infallible, but the fact that a flashlight app that uses the TCP stack slipped through, does not automatically mean that a flashlight app that wants to snoop around outside it's own sandbox would also have slipped through.
The simple fact remains (and that's my whole point here): any app store has a risk of malicious apps slipping through and doing nasty things to personal data. Android tries to stop it at the user level, assuming that users are careful what they allow apps to do. The amount of Windows malware and viruses has proven that this logic is flawed. Apple tries to stop malicious programs from getting on your phone in the first place. This method might fail sometimes, but at least the app can be pulled as soon as somebody finds out it is rogue, so other users won't be affected.
@DefPoet On iOS, you don't need to worry about warnings because uncle Jobs is working to keep you safe unlike Android.
@PookiePrancer
No, you are misinterpreting the data. It only says something about how many apps do that kind of stuff. Not how many apps do it while they're not supposed to do so. For all I know, there's simply more apps in the App Store that do useful stuff with your contact list or calendar or whatever, there's no way saying anything about the amount of malicious applications based on the data in this article.
@PookiePrancer
By the way, I would be much, much more worried about apps that pull in third party code than apps that steal my contacts. If someone finds out my moms phone number, well that's bad but not terrible. If someone manages to remotely turn my phone into a botnet node or have it make random calls or whatever, now that's a real problem.
@Unverified User
Dug. No I didn't. I never said anything about how the data is used.
@PookiePrancer
Apple vets every app that is submitted to the App Store before it goes up for distribution. In the few cases where a "bad" app slips through, it is immediately taken down by Apple.
Google doesn't vet apps that go into Android Market.
It sounds like you prefer having no scrutiny over the apps that get placed in Android Market.
Personally, I think having Apple review apps and act as an intermediary before apps go into the App Store, is preferable and makes me feel a bit more secure.
@drange
Well good for you! I prefer to make informed decisions. Good for me!
@MoonWalkerCTE
I was thinking the same thing about the headline, and if it was an iOS issue, you can be sure that Apple/iPhone/ or iOS would have been used, and the comments would be a several hundred due to it. Most comments being from phandroids all denouncing Apple by posting the exact opposite of what they are posting now. I think engadget had a feeling that if it had indeed chose to put 'android' into a negatively slanted headline, the rabid, irrational & adolescent minded phans would be accusing engadget of Apple bias somehow & generally piss & moaning like the crybabies they seem to be.
I was interested in Android, just like I am in Linux - but I have to say the people representing Android within the comments are epic assholes. They have even stolen 'smug & elitist' association crown from Mac users. Congratulations, dicks!
@DefPoet
You really shouldn't expect people to act friendly towards you when you're the one who came out of the gate calling someone an idiot for their comment. That was an unwarranted attack and not mature to boot. I agree with your point on the actual issue, but you ruin it by going over the top.
That being said...
@MoonWalkerCTE & iPhone 4
I find it scary that you would argue it is better to have no information given to you about what an app is going to have access to when it installs. I would like to have that information so I can make my own decision as to what I feel safe with, as opposed to what some guy someplace in the world working for Apple may think I will be ok with. It's just pathetic to argue that less knowledge on the end user's part is a better option. If you don't like Android then fine, but this is one issue where it simply does give you some more power and that is a good thing.
(It is shocking how weak the arguments are that people will make to fight the iphone vs android fanboi war. You aren't convincing people of anything when you make such clearly ignorant pitches.)
@Duke
Amen.
@Joao Cagao
Talk about the pot calling the little black. Your last comment was so civil...hypocrite.
@ViewRoyal I really do wish some of the people who visit this site would grow up. Please research before you go around assuming things about Android. I know you just love your Apple world but you need know this Google possess the ability to remotely pull any app they choose but the reasons they don't is because most people even the average person READS before they install something. Im not saying it isn't a problem but it is not as serious as Engadget is making it out to be. One thing they are not mentioning is how many people still have this app on their phone. Yeah a million people may have downloaded it but it only takes one person to write a comment about the app that says it steals you data before everyone stops using it. I can't help but think the people who downloaded these apps have got to be the most dumbest people on the planet (or ex iPhone users who live in a fantasy world where they dowload the shady 2 star app because eveyone must be lying and it can't possibly be THAT bad lol jk) because no one just blindly downloads things. These things happen to ALL OS's and no that doesn't make it better I would prefer of Google erases all spam apps off of the market including the redundant soundboards but until then the little kids using smartphones need to be more responsible about the things they download to their phones.
@Plazmic Flame
FYI for everyone: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/07/29/wallpaper-app-causes-android-security-scare
Update: "has been found to mine much less data than early reports indicated."
I guess I'll post the update since Engadget will likely ignore updates to this story til tomorrow...i.e. after the damage has been done.
@recharged95
They've made an amendment, but in real life I have never seen or met anyone who saved their voicemail pin as part of the voicemail number...just seems a rather foolish thing to do.
Does anyone do this?
I'm starting to see the same argument I've seen with Windows fans over the decades. It's the foolish users fault for not knowing how to protect themselves thoroughly from viruses and malware etc. It's the foolish users fault for not researching thoroughly about that simple app, reading every word in its EULA and knowing all about its technical specifications before they download. I truly hope that Android (and Smart Phones in general) don't follow in the same path as Windows and Google starts to get a little more pro-active as they attract more gen consumers.
@DefPoet What, you own the copyright on the word "poet" being used in a name? Who the f*ck are you Steve Jobs? Just change your name, no big deal.
@luniboy
Sigh ... why dont you do your own research before posting. Most people read from install .. really??? Do you read any of those license agreements before you install software on your PC?? I admit I dont most of the time. Please being an android fanboy is not any better than being an apple fanboy. The different between google and apple's approach is simple. With idevice apple decide what is good and bad. For google device .. you have to defend yourself. Calling people who install bad apps ignorant or even stupid does not make you any smarter.
@Joao Cagao
First, if you don't like the back and forth between Android and Apple fanboys, you picked the wrong tech blog.
Second, nobody says "epic" anymore. You sound like a 'tapout" t-shirt wearing douche-bag when you say it.
@Kenny Fn Powers
Kenny, you are an epic d-bag.
@WhatDoIKnow
" Do you read any of those license agreements before you install software on your PC??"
20 words vs. thousands of words. Major difference.
@Joao Cagao
Wow. Seriously? Two idiots try and make an invalid point, people call them out on it, and suddenly you're making strawman hypotheticals where "Had the situation been completely different, the outcome would have been completely different!" Obviously you know this with 100% certainty because....?
@Tes 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.
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.