App downloads during Christmas week break record

The last week in 2011 was the biggest ever for Android and iOS. According to mobile app analytics company Flurry, over 20 million devices were activated between Christmas and New Year, and 1.2 billion apps were downloaded. That's about 60 percent higher than every week of December before Christmas, and marks the largest number of apps ever downloaded in a single week, passing a billion downloads for the first time.
Christmas Day was the high point of the week for activations, with 6.8 million. Downloads were a bit more spaced out, with only about a fifth of them taking place on the 25th. Flurry doesn't give numbers for iOS and Android individually, but Andy Rubin of Google tweeted the following a few days later:
Andy Rubin: UPDATE: There were 3.7M Android devices activated on 12/24 and 12/25.
From this and previous reports, Fortune's Philip Elmer-Dewitt deduced that about 1.6 million more iOS devices were activated on the 25th than Android ones. However, this doesn't account for Kindle activations, which he says wouldn't be counted in Rubin's tweet. Regardless of who took the top spot, if these numbers are right, Google and Apple have a lot to celebrate now that the holidays are over.
Source: washingtonpost

Android Security: Six Tips to Protect Your Google Phone

CIO - Google's Android Market mobile software shop was hit last week with its first major malware attack; a popular application called "DroidDream" proved to be infected with malicious code that could steal users' personal information, and Google was forced to use a built-in Android "kill-switch" to do away with the problematic app--but not until after it had already infiltrated thousands of Android smartphones.

The Google Android platform has never been more popular; in fact, Android now holds a commanding 31% of the U.S. smartphone market share, making it the most popular smartphone OS in the country, according to ComScore.

Slideshow: 8 Essential Android Security Apps

Android has also never before represented such a significant target for hackers and other baddies looking to profit off of the platform's popularity. In other words, now is the time to get smart about Google Android security. The following six tips and tricks will help do just that.

1) Protect Your Android with a Password--Now!

The single most effective security measure you can take to protect your Android device is to lock it with a password. It sounds simple, but a strong password--or even a weak one--will protect you and your smartphone from the vast majority of threats; if a malicious party can't get past your password screen, your data and everything else on-device is generally secure.

Depending on the model of your Android smartphone, you'll have a variety of password options, but they're all accessed in mainly the same way. Open up your Android Settings menu and scroll down to the section called Location & Security Settings or something similar. First, enable Screen Unlock Security and you'll then be presented with a number of password options, depending on your device.

For example, my Motorola Atrix 4G provides password options for a Pattern Lock, for which you can set a specific "swipe pattern" to unlock your device; a PIN Lock that uses numbers to secure your handheld; a Password Lock, for which you can employ both letters and numbers; and finally, a biometric-based Fingerprints Lock that employs the Atrix's fingerprint reader for authentication.

Though the Fingerprint Lock is the most secure option...I'm a bit wary of storing my biometric information on Google's servers, so I opt for the Password Lock. In order of "secureness," the Fingerprint Lock is most secure, followed by the Password Lock, PIN Lock and finally, the Pattern Lock. But using any one of these Android password security options is better than not using one at all.

(Note: If you choose to employ the Pattern Lock option, it's a good idea to frequently wipe your touch screen clean, since repeated entry of your pattern lock can leave a "trail" that can be spotted by hackers and used to gain access to your device.)

Read more

Android Overtakes BlackBerry As the Top U.S. Smartphone Platform [REPORT]

The trend was obvious for quite some time, and now it finally happened: Android is the most popular smartphone platform among U.S. subscribers.
According to comScore’s data, Google’s Android rose from 23.5% market share in October 2010 to 31.2% in January 2011, enough to securely grab the first place from RIM’s BlackBerry, which fell 35.8% in October 2010 to 30.4% in January 2011.
Apple’s iOS experienced a minute growth in the same period: from 24.6% to 24.7%, while Microsoft and Palm continued losing market share, ending at 8.0% and 3.2%, respectively.
Recent data from Canalys showed that Android is also the world’s most popular smartphone platform, and with the onslaught of Android smartphones this year, we’re sure that Android will continue doing well throughout 2011.
Source:

Android Bests iOS, BlackBerry For Smartphone Lead

Android has surpassed both Apple's iOS and RIM's BlackBerry OS to to become the number one smartphone platform in the U.S., according to the latest numbers from Nielsen. 

Nielsen has published a report about smartphone platform and smartphone maker penetration in the U.S. market. In the period between November 2010 and January 2011, Google's Android platform rose to hold 29% of the U.S. smartphone market. That puts it just ahead of Apple's iOS and RIM's BlackBerry OS, each of which holds 27% of the market.  

Does that mean Google is winning the smartphone war? That depends on your point of view. Sure, Android is now the top smartphone platform, but Google doesn't sell smartphones -- its partners do.
"An analysis by manufacturer shows RIM and Apple to be the winners compared to other device makers since they are the only ones creating and selling smartphones with their respective operating systems," Nielsen reported. 

That means Apple and RIM make profits on everything related to their operating systems and devices -- not just one or the other.

Looking at how the rest of the market shakes out with respect to operating systems, Microsoft's platforms fall into fourth place, with about 10% of the market running either Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile 5.x/6.x. HP's webOS platform grabs the fifth place position with 4% of the market, and Nokia's Symbian platform takes sixth place with 2% of the market.

But what of the phone makers themselves?

HTC comes in third overall behind Apple and RIM with 19% of the U.S. market. HTC's Android handsets represent 12% of the total market, while HTC's Windows Phone devices represent 7%.

Motorola owns 11% of the U.S. smartphone market, and lands in the fourth spot. Motorola's market share breaks down to 10% of the total from Android and 1% of the total from Windows Mobile 5.x/6.x.

Samsung holds the fifth spot with a total smartphone market share of 7%. HP and Nokia bring up the bottom of the market with 4% and 2%, respectively.

Apple and RIM definitely have an advantage due to the fact that they make their own software and hardware. Android may hold 29% of the overall smartphone market, but it is a horse race between HTC, Motorola, and Samsung for dominance in that 29% portion. Apple and RIM own all 27% of their iOS and BlackBerry portions.

Source

 

Google pulls infected apps from Android Market

Infected Android apps were pulled from the Android Market. Photo credit: Bonnie Cha/CNET News

The apps contained malware called DroidDream hidden in seemingly legitimate apps and were pulled on Tuesday, mobile security company Lookout said in a blog post on Wednesday. Between 50,000 and 200,000 users downloaded the infected apps, said the company.

"Unlike previous instances of malware in the wild that were only available in targeted alternative app markets, DroidDream was available in the official Android Market in addition to alternative markets, indicating a growing need for Android users to take extra caution when downloading apps," the blog post said.

Lookout did an analysis of one of the infected apps, Bowling Time, and found that once a user runs the program, sensitive data such as the International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI), the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) code, the device model and SDK version are sent to a command and control server.

The malware appears to open a backdoor into the device that can download more code, and it also seems to be able to send other sensitive data to the command and control server, said Lookout.

DroidDream uses two consecutive exploits to attempt to break out of the Android sandbox and gain root access: 'exploid' and 'rageagainstthecage'.

Google had no official statement at the time of writing. Previously, Google has said that the combination of the sandbox, user-authorised permissions and the ability for users to flag suspect software are sufficient security provisions to compensate for the dangers of allowing all developers to upload applications freely to the Android Market.

Hackers are targeting Android apps as the mobile platform gains in popularity, according to security company Symantec.

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More than 50 Android apps found infected with rootkit malware

Google Android ... beware of apps bearing malware

More than 50 applications on Google's Android Market have been discovered to be infected with malware called "DroidDream" which can compromise personal data by taking over the user's device, and have been "suspended" from the store.
Google removed the apps from the Market immediately on being alerted, but it is not clear whether it has removed them from devices to which they have been downloaded. As many as 200,000 Android devices could have been infected.
The revelation comes from Android Police, a news site on Google's operating system, which calls it "the mother of all Android malware", noting that its examination had found that it "steals nearly everything it can: product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID. But that's all child's play; the true pièce de résistance is that it has the ability to download more code. In other words, there's no way to know what the app does after it's installed, and the possibilities are nearly endless."
Lookout, a security company, which in a blogpost lists the 50-plus apps discovered to be infected. (The list is also below, via Lookout.)
Smartphones running Google's Android software have become enormously popular and are reckoned to be close to taking over worldwide as the fastest-selling smartphone platform, ahead of Finland's Nokia. Its growth has been fuelled by the fact that the software is free to license, and for developers there is no charge or checks to putting apps on the Market – unlike Apple's iPhone App Store, which checks every app against a suite of tests for suitability before allowing it on its store.
That has led the Market to grow rapidly, but also makes situations like the latest one – which is not the first case of malware found on the Market – harder to avoid.
The malware was first discovered by a Reddit user, Lompolo, who spotted that the developer of one of the malware apps had also posted pirated versions of legit apps, using the developer name "Myournet". But two other developers' products have also been found to include DroidReam.
Lompolo noted that "Myournet" had "taken 21 popular free apps from the Market, injected root exploit [code] into them and republished". More worryingly, those had seen between 50,000 and 200,000 downloads altogether in just four days.
DroidDream contains code which can "root" – take complete control of – a user's decice, and send detailed information such as the phone's IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) and IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) numbers and send them to remote servers. But as Android Police's team found, the code can go much further in rooting through a phone.
It's a rather brutal reminder of the fact that Android's openness is both a strength and, at times like this, a weakness – though Google's rapid action, in which it pulled the apps from the Android Market within just five minutes of being alerted, is encouraging.
It now looks likely that security companies will begin to compete to offer antivirus and anti-malware products for Android devices – which, given its rapid growth, could prove a fertile area for them with PC sales flat.
If you have downloaded any of the apps below, you should contact your phone company.

 

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/mar/02/android-market-apps-malware

Would Android apps on BlackBerry be a smart move for RIM?

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop described the smartphone market as a "three-horse race" at the Mobile World Congress, with those horses being iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7.

His omission of BlackBerry seemed strange, with Research In Motion's handsets still selling like hot cakes to companies, but also teenagers, for whom the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service remains the key reason to own a smartphone in the first place.

Even so, Elop's snub reflects a wider tendency in the mobile industry to talk down or ignore RIM's significance as a smartphone force going forwards.

A number of developers I spoke to at the Mobile World Congress thought that tendency is unfair, but many admitted that against increasingly fierce competition from Apple, Google and now Microsoft/Nokia, RIM cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

Few suggested that the company should take off its blinkers and hitch its saddle to one of the frontrunners in the smartphone race, but it seems that could be on the cards. Could BlackBerry's riposte to Elop be a partnership with the platform he spurned: Android?

Mobile startup ShopSavvy suggests so. In a blog post, the company explains that its barcode-scanning app is not available for BlackBerry, yet its analytics software has unearthed some fascinating data.

"According to ShopSavvy's flurry logs someone in Waterloo, Ontario (Canada for the geographically challenged oh and BTW it's where RIM is based) has been running ShopSavvy for Android on various BlackBerry devices," the post explains.

The app has been run twice on a BlackBerry 8600, and once each on a BlackBerry 8300 and 8520 since the start of January. ShopSavvy's news follows speculation earlier this month that RIM's upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be able to run Android apps.

"This makes sense since BlackBerry OS can support Java Virtual Machines and it would be pretty easy to compile Android in one of the them," explains ShopSavvy's post. BlackBerry handsets running Android apps? It may be technically possible, but is it a stroke of genius or an act of folly for RIM? Read more...

Source: guardian

Facebook Acquires Beluga, a Group Messaging Service

Facebook on Tuesday acquired Beluga, a group messaging start-up for mobile phones.

In a letter on Beluga’s Web site, the company’s co-founders said  the acquisition by Facebook would not affect the service and the team of three developers who built Beluga were “excited to continue to build our vision for mobile group messaging as part of the Facebook team.”

The letter also hinted that Facebook had no plans to shut down the service, saying, “Beluga and Facebook are committed to create new and better ways to communicate and share group experiences.”

In the past, Facebook has acquired start-ups to take advantage of a company’s developer talent, rather than the actual product the company has created.

Beluga is one of a series of group chat services that allow people to communicate over SMS. Another company that offers a similar service is GroupMe, which recently raised over $10 million in financing.

The acquisition of Beluga is another in a series of small start-ups Facebook has purchased over the past year to help expand its platform, specifically focusing on mobile services. Other acquisitions include Drop.io, an online storage service, and Hot Potato, which was also a mobile messaging service. Both products have since been shut down, and are being integrated into the Facebook platform.

MG Siegler of the blog Tech Crunch, who first reported news of the acquisition, said one reason Facebook purchased Beluga was to hire the company’s three co-founders, who are all ex-Google employees.

 Source: bits.blogs.nytimes.com. See more...

15 Best Google Android Apps for Newbies

If you just nabbed a new Android smartphone or tablet, or are coveting one, which apps should you download immediately? Check out these 15 picks.

Android Apps to Grab 

One of the best things about Google's Android mobile OS is the vast collection of crafty developers constantly working away on new mobile applications for Android phones and tablets. In other words, Android is all about the software. And there's certainly no shortage of Android apps.

As such, navigating Google's Android Market can be intimidating for new or beginner users, to say the least. So we handpicked 15 free Android apps that every Google phone or tablet owner, whether you're a newbie or power-user, could benefit from installing.

Keep moving for details and download links. (Note: The following apps were tested on a Motorola Atrix 4G running Android v2.2.1, but most should run on all new Android devices.)

Pandora Radio for Android 

A variety of cool, free Internet radio applications exist for the Android platform, but none offer the same quality music catalogue and customization options as the free Pandora for Android app. Pandora is easy to setup and use: Create and account, log in, simply pick an artist or band you like and the application creates a custom "station" based around that artist, with similar tunes, selected by other like-minded listeners.

Download Pandora Radio from the Android Market

Read more...

 Source: pcworld

Motorola Xoom: Eight Reasons it Beats the iPad

Honeycomb, more powerful hardware, and a higher screen resolution are just a few of the reasons Motorola's tablet is superior to the iPad.

I bought the Motorola Xoom the day it came out, and have been using it ever since. It's a spectacular tablet and superior to the iPad. Here are eight reasons why. (When specs on the new iPad are released, I'll follow up this post with another one.)
Honeycomb
Android 3.0, called Honeycomb, is a thing of beauty. It's optimized for tablets, and cleaned up some of Android's rough edges. It's as intuitive to use as the iPad's iOS, but far more customizable and feature-rich. Notifications are handled better and multitasking and switching between apps is easier. The widgets are far better than anything in the iOS as well. If you were put off by earlier versions of Android because of a sometimes-confusing interface, you'll be pleased with Honeycomb.
More powerful hardware
The Xoom has an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor, which make the tablet fast and smooth-operating. It's also capable of playing 3D games. The iPad has a pokey, single core processor. Advantage: Xoom.
Higher screen resolution
The Xoom's 10-inch screen has a resolution of 1,280 x 800, and is widescreen, so it's great for watching movies and videos. The iPad's 9.7-inch display is only 1,024 x 768.
Front and rear cameras
With the Xoom, you get front and rear cameras, for taking photos and videos, and for video chat. With the iPad, you get no camera. Two trumps none.
A better browser
The Chrome browser built into Xoom is far superior to the iPad's Safari. It does tabbed browsing, and like the PC and Mac versions of Chrome, a single box does double-duty as a search box and for typing in a URL. And it will also automatically sync your bookmarks with Chrome on your PC and Mac.
It will play Flash
Flash wasn't quite ready for the Xoom launch, but it will be available soon. As you've no doubt heard, Flash will never be available for the iPad. So the Xoom offers you a greater choice of content than does the iPad.
No Big Brother
When you get an iPad, Apple determines what apps you can download and what apps you can't --- and it uses a heavy hand. It's banned many apps, even once banning one by Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist Mark Fiore, until publicity forced Apple to change its mind. And Apple also banned an app that allowed people to get information from the WikiLeaks site. Such an app is available for free for Android. The upshot: With the Xoom, you can download any app you want, either through the Android Market, or from the Web.
Better built-in apps
Google's built-in apps, including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar, beat anything built into the iPad. And because of the Xoom's Tegra 2 chip, you'll be able to use vector graphics and 3D rendering in Google Maps.

Source:www.pcworld.com

Apple iOS is tightly closed, Android is mostly open

 By James Kendrick

No matter which side of the Apple fence you sit on, there’s no denying the iOS system is tightly closed. Sure it can be jailbroken but Apple takes a rather dim view of that practice. That’s the first thing Android enthusiasts are quick to point out in discussions about the evil Apple system. Google has taken great pains to make Android a completely open platform that works to the user’s benefits. That is mostly true, but the fact is there are several layers of “openness” in Android; it’s not cut-and-dried.

Google likes to state that modders are free to do what they want with Android, it is a user’s system after all. That refers to the base Android OS, though, not the fancy bits (Google apps) that make Android a solid platform. Not that long ago Google put the hammer down on Android modders who were including Google apps in custom ROMs being distributed on the web. Those are proprietary apps and not open source like Android proper. The Google apps may be free, but they’re not freely distributable.

In the early days of Android phones there were Google branded handsets, and those that weren’t. The branded ones shipped with all of the Google apps installed, while the non-branded Google phones did not. That resulted in some Android phones handling Exchange email out of the box, and others that did not (non-branded phones). Google licenses Activesync technology from Microsoft to handle Exchange email, and that required Google branding to use by OEMs. Google was never clear about the terms for getting proper branding, but sources indicate it was a healthy chunk of change that OEMs had to pay Google to use the “free” Android platform. We don’t see many non-branded handsets on the market currently, so perhaps this has changed.

The “openness” of Android has stimulated a healthy modding community that lets savvy owners change Android phones at will. Virtually every Android device released has mods produced, some even prior to release, that add features not included on the device as shipped by the OEM. Google is very hands-off with this community so it is thriving. The OEMs are not so tolerant of it, as is evidenced regularly with some handsets.

HTC has largely ignored the modding community and let its handsets get altered by the relatively few owners that desire to do so. That changed with the release of the T-Mobile G2 last year, as that handset included safeguards to prevent permanent alterations. It was never clear if HTC or T-Mobile was behind the restrictive safeguards (each pointed fingers at the other), but it was the first (and only) HTC Android device to include such technology.

Motorola has always taken a dim view of “modding” its Android phones, and has taken active steps to prevent it from happening. The Droid X was released with eFuse technology, hardware that shuts down the device (bricks it) when it detects the system software as shipped has been altered by the owner. Motorola was quick to respond to the outcry that erupted when this technology became public knowledge, and stated it would never use it to permanently disable phones that had been modded. It would, however, disable the phone until the mods had been removed and the phone returned to its officially released state. Not as open a platform as some might think.

Those familiar with both iOS and Android acknowledge that the latter is far more open than the former, but it’s not completely open and not even uniformly so across the various Android devices. While owners of Android gadgets can mod them for the most part, it immediately voids the device warranty with the carrier and OEM. Even evidence of customization can be enough of an excuse to void the warranty, so it’s not something everyone is comfortable undertaking. It also usually disables updates rolled out OTA by the OEM for upgrading the device, so modding the Android device should be done with full understanding of the implications of doing so.

I am happily using my Android phone with a custom ROM, and have been for quite some time. But I know what I am giving up doing so, and the risks I have willfully taken by doing it. The platform is open enough to allow me to do the customization, which I like, but not open enough to be tolerant should I run into problems and need help from the producers of the hardware.

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Ten Ways Google Will Take Over The Wireless Market

Two primary anti-Apple techniques have worked to make Google the big player in the mobility market; open platform and free software. Using the two main principles from what is called “Open Source,” Google has once again proven that free is the most profitable business model of all, and you don't even need a winner to win the game.
Google has attempted to move into the hardware end of the mobile market several times, all with mixed results. Nevertheless, the market hype surrounding the launch of the Nexus One, Google's first branded smartphone, it’s hard to imagine that other handset makers were inspired to go Android by the hype-and everyone thought hype was the exclusive property of Apple.
Proven Platform Viability
Once Android was proven a viable platform for the smartphone market, Google let its own hardware platform fade, and the others exploded on the market place. Does anyone really believe that Google simply “got lucky?” Apple has always refused to share the fun and kept both the technology and the marketplace for Apple products a closed platform. Google makes its money with free everything and by leveraging that weight and the clever move of Nexus One, Android is the new standard for smartphones and tablet PCs.
On the Application end of the market, Google gives it to the developing community as well. Apple’s recent announcement of its 10 billionth app download comes on the heels of the announcement that Android devices are activating 300,000 times per day. Android App developers have a free, wide-open path to that huge market; Apple, not so much. This means that a greater number of developers, competition, and growth-in short massive marketplace vigor, which also allows for a greater number of Android apps to continue to be offered free, further encouraging distribution and growth.
The Competition & Fight for Dominance
Why should Google fight to succeed in the mobile hardware marketplace when there are so many excellent handset manufacturers just lining up to get Android? Well, it has something to do with the fact that not only is Android free-and any company using it can freely customize it-but the companies get paid to install it as well Maybe that’s where the 300,000 activations per day come from?
Could Apple have mimicked Google's strategy and win the game? No. For decades, Apple has followed the closed, market exclusivity that shaped Mac and the Apple OS. They couldn't just turn 180 degrees at the last minute. The greatest weapons against Apple in the mobility marketplace are two words; free and open. Apple is not dead yet and the company does have a sizable customer base, which will continue to be a part of the landscape.
However, for every iPad or iPhone that goes online, many times that number of Android devices will activate. Ultimately, the new mobility ecosystem of applications, cloud-computing assets, and consumer applications will favor Google by sheer volume. Much of this will come from the Global Android market place where price is a major issue for both consumers and developers. The future mobility marketplace will be Android and Google's.

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• About Bob T. Wilson

Bob T. Wilson is the technology writer at velocity guide, a site dedicated to keeping its readers informed of the constant advances in mobile computing technology and Internet Service.