Hasta La Gadget!

As app stores proliferate with the rise of multiple mobile platforms, one question remains: Which one will you choose? (Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com)

In the mobile world, tablets and smartphones are only as good as the apps they’ll run. Besides, what’s a tablet without apps? A fancy digital photo frame.

There’s no dearth of choice in hardware out there, and considering the pros and cons of a mobile platform’s application ecosystem is equally important to purchasing the device itself. From “open” to closed, sprawling to sparse, each platform’s parent company has a different philosophy when it comes to delivering apps.

Over the past few years, application markets have been popping up hand in hand with new hardware releases, all in varying states of maturity. Some, like Apple’s iOS devices, have flourished. Others, like Android devices, have seen tremendous growth and promise. And still others, like RIM’s BlackBerry products, have dwindled. But whatever the case is with the hardware, half the battle lies in figuring out how to beef up an app ecosystem properly, and how to catch on with consumers.

Why is an app store so important? In today’s app-obsessed age, a software ecosystem defines a gadget’s longevity as an investment. Customers get more value from their hardware if they have access to the latest and greatest apps. And programmers will make software for app stores that have a large audience and a viable future.

We took a look at some of the most prominent mobile-application ecosystems out there today, comparing the benefits and drawbacks of each. Before buying that next tablet or smartphone, we suggest you take a look.

Apple’s App Store

For better or for worse, Apple’s approach is clear: We’re in control.

Well known by now as the “walled garden,” Apple reviews every app submitted to its App Store. Developers are required to follow a seven-page list of strict guidelines in order for their app to be approved.

But the vetting process has its upside. Official reviews from Apple employees means an average of higher quality apps — more wheat, less chaff.

The Good:
Apple worked extensively with developers from the beginning, and it shows. As of late May, the App Store is host to more than 500,000 approved applications, with over 85,000 registered developers creating apps for the platform. The iPad alone has over 90,000 native applications available for download.

If your app is featured on the App Store’s front door, you’ve got a chance at striking it rich. Steve Demeter made $250,000 in just two months after releasing his application. The creators of MacHeist, another popular iOS game, have raked in millions.

The Bad:
With such a large ecosystem, it’s difficult not to get lost in Apple’s sea of apps. That’s hard on developers — who want to be seen, and want their apps downloaded — as well as customers who just want to find a cool app. Despite Apple’s careful curating and centralized location for apps, it’s nearly the same amount of work as finding an independently distributed web app.

Apple’s wait time to approve your app is also uncertain, ranging anywhere from two days to two weeks, according to independent app developer Ralph Gootee.

And of course, Apple maintains complete editorial censorship control over any and all apps submitted. So if your ideas are too racy, twisted or politically incorrect, you’re probably susceptible to Apple’s axe.

Android Market

Even though the gradual development of iTunes gave Apple’s App Store a 10-year head start, Google’s platform growth is a force to be reckoned with.

As the second biggest player in the mobile app space, Android has made staggering gains in the two-plus years it’s been publicly available. In May, Google announced that the platform surpassed 200,000 apps in the Android Market, and a recent tweet from Android chief Andy Rubin claims 500,000 new device activations every single day.

The Good
Google’s main draw rests on its heavily-marketed “open” approach. Although this mainly applies to the open source principles of the Android platform code itself, some of this openness ideal has spilled over into the Android Market. Unlike Apple, for instance, there’s absolutely no vetting process for developers who want to submit apps to the Market. As long as developers follow the relatively lax rules Android has in its submission agreement — no malware, no porn — many types of apps make it in to the store that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to find with Apple. Upload the app and boom — it’s available for download almost instantaneously, no waiting period required.

Not to mention the other open aspect of Android apps: alternative markets. Unlike Apple, which only lets you download applications from its official App Store — unless your iPhone is jailbroken, of course — Android allows the existence of app markets outside of its own. By authorizing installations from “unknown sources,” you can install an app store provided by someone else, right on the phone. And through a process called sideloading, you can transfer apps you download from a website to your Android device either via USB, or by downloading the .APK file independently. Although you run the risk of installing malicious code, it’s far more choice than you’d otherwise get with an iOS device.

The Bad
Despite the burgeoning platform’s promise, developers still have problems making money on their apps. Eighty percent of all paid applications in the Android Market are downloaded less than 100 times, according to a study published by Destino in May.

And even with the flood of Android-powered tablets hitting the market this year, relatively few native tablet apps populate the Android Market. As of early June, only 232 apps created specifically for Honeycomb are available for download through Google’s store.

The Android Market web-based presence isn’t as mature as that of its main competitor. Unlike Apple, which has allowed access to its App Store via desktop or laptop since 2007, Android launched its web store in February of this year.

Google is still working out the web store kinks, too. In May, Android drastically revamped the Market’s front page, highlighting top paid, free, grossing and trending app downloads, among other categories. By contrast, Apple has had much more time to mature its landing page with a three-year head start.

In Symantec’s bleak, dystopian world, it doesn’t matter whether you choose Android or iOS — you’ll be making yourself vulnerable to attacks regardless of the camp you’re in. The company just concluded a study pitting iOS’s security against Android’s — an undertaking intended mainly for corporate IT staffs trying to figure out which devices they can safely issue to employees. (Curiously, despite the enterprise focus, you won’t find a single comparison against BlackBerrys.) Although iOS won higher marks when it came to thwarting traditional malware and showed a more modest advantage in terms of data loss, data integrity, and service attacks, the two platforms proved equally adept at preventing web-based attacks — and equally powerless to catch socially engineered ones. And when it came to implementing certain security measures, such as permissions-based controls, Android pulled ahead.

Ultimately, Symantec (which sells mobile security software of its own, by the by) concluded that both “are still vulnerable to many existing categories of attacks,” not least because both platforms allow users to sync with third-party apps or web services that may or may not be secure themselves. Indeed, Symantec’s thesis is that Apple’s App Store approval process helps explain its lead in the malware-blocking department. Also, in shocking news, Symantec adds that people using jailbroken are especially attractive targets for attackers, and that these devices are as vulnerable as computers. Don’t say no one warned you. Head past the break for a press release with a summary of the findings or, if you’re curious, hit the source link for a PDF version of the full report.

Continue reading Symantec report on mobile security concludes iOS and Android both vulnerable to attacks

Symantec report on mobile security concludes iOS and Android both vulnerable to attacks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard not to love Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, especially if you’re amongst those who’d rather look at text on a quality backlit screen than an e-paper display. Not only did we enjoy the e-book reader when we first reviewed it, but it keeps getting better thanks to updates to its hidden Android core plus the recent addition of its own app store complete with Pandora and Angry Birds. And while there’s also a decent bundled web browser and music player, it’s not the software that we like the most — it’s the hardware, and particularly the value proposition.

See, $250 ($200 on sale) buys you a gorgeous 7-inch 1024×600 pixel capacitive IPS panel with excellent contrast and viewing angles, an 800MHz TI OMAP 3621 CPU, a PowerVR SGX 530 GPU, 512MB RAM, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, 8GB of built-in storage, an accelerometer, and a microSD card slot — all wrapped in an attractive 12mm thin package. Sure, there’s no 3G radio, no camera, no microphone, no ambient light sensor, and no haptic feedback, but despite its lower-end specs, the Nook Color just begs to be turned into a full blown Android tablet.

And that’s just what we did, by installing CyanogenMod 7 on Barnes & Noble’s color reader, complete with Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) and the full suite of Google apps. Take a look at our screenshots gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video and impressions.

Continue reading CyanogenMod 7 on the Nook Color hands-on (video)

CyanogenMod 7 on the Nook Color hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading iRiver’s MX100 Android tablet spotted in China? (video)

iRiver’s MX100 Android tablet spotted in China? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Wakemate promises to get you out of bed pain-free, every morning

Wakemate promises to bring you around from the land of dreams into an alert, awakened state every single morning, without a klaxon or bacon cooker in sight.

It’s wristband that monitors your movements throughout the night and, when you get close to your pre-set optimum waking time, it waits for the shallowest part of your sleep cycle before sounding the alarm. The Wakemate pairs with your Android or iOS device via Bluetooth, and uses this to track your sleep and wake you with your favorite music.

Our sleep runs in 90-minute cycles, and ideally we should wake at the part of shallowest sleep. If you feel like your regular alarm clock sometimes drags you from the very depths of sleep, that’s because it is — it’s waking you from deep sleep.

There are iOS apps which use the iPhone or iPad’s accelerometers to do the same thing and — once calibrated — they do a good job. They also require you to sleep with your device in the bed, and for the app to remain powered on, draining the battery rather quickly. Bluetooth also sucks the juice from your phone, but not nearly as much.

The Wakemate is available to buy right now, for $60. Or you could do what I do, and live nine time zones ahead of your employer, so that you can get up as late as you like and still be early.

Wakemate product page [Wakemate. Thanks, Renee!]

See Also:

• Wooden Dock Turns iPhone into Retro-Tastic Alarm Clock
• iPhone Alarm Bug Lets Europeans Snooze an Extra Hour
• Wake Up! Five Great iPhone Alarm Clocks