Hasta La Gadget!

In a blog post, Google has described how it remotely removed two safe but “practically useless” applications from Android phones. The two free applications billed themselves as being for “security research” but because they “misrepresented their purpose in order to encourage user downloads”, the Android team nuked them from afar using its remote kill-switch, removing them from connected users’ phones.

The post on the Android Developers blog is written by Android Security Lead Rich Cannings. Cannings cites violations of the Android Market Terms of Service as the reasons behind the deletions. Far from being controversial, these terms were clearly stated as far back as October 2008, and only apply to apps from the Android Market itself. Back then I predicted the fuss that would come about if ever the switch was used in public:

If Google gets serious about throwing the kill switch for apps which violate the agreement, there is likely to be a fuss, from the technology blog world at least.

This isn’t the first time Google has wiped apps from users’ phones, although its the first we remember that has an accompanying blog post. While it is reassuring to know that Google is patrolling its App Store, its a little disturbing to know that your favorite, non-malicious app could disappear without your permission. In this case Apple – ironically – wins, for users at least. Remember Netshare, the iPhone data tethering app that briefly made it into the App Store? It was soon pulled by Apple, presumably at AT&T’s request, but those people who downloaded it continue to use it to this day.

Exercising Our Remote Application Removal Feature [Google / Android Developers Blog]

See Also:

• Android Market Terms of Service Confirm Googlephone Kill Switch …

Photo: laihiu/Flickr

We’ve gotta tell you, looking at that belligerent red eye gracing the visage of the Droid X, we weren’t entirely sure the thing wouldn’t go all robot apocalypse on us if we ever tried disassembling it. Thankfully, someone else has taken that risk for us, and now we’ve got all sorts of nude pictures to gawk at. This teardown comes complete with some very practical how-to instructions, including the advice to use your nails to pry the case open instead of a metal screwdriver — but only if you don’t want to leave your roided-up Droid with battle scars. Hit the source link for more of the good stuff.

Droid X torn down, found to contain stuff originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew Google had the power to remotely remove Android apps — Microsoft and Apple have backdoors into their mobile operating systems, too — but it’s always a little disconcerting to see a kill switch used. Such is the case today, as we’ve just heard Google unleashed the hounds this week, siccing bits and bytes of remote deletion power on a pair of “practically useless” but still Terms of Service-infringing apps. Curiously enough, Google admits that most who’d downloaded these programs had deleted them already, and that this “exercise” of the remote application removal feature was merely a cleanup operation. Google says users will get a notification beamed to their phone if an app is removed, however — so as Big Brother as that all sounds, at least the company’s being nice and transparent about the whole matter, eh?

Update: To be clear, the developers of the offending apps had already removed them from the Android Market, so this was technically a cleanup. The only question is why Google would go out of its way to mop up an app that absolutely no one would miss.

[Thanks, Matt]

Google flexes biceps, flicks Android remote kill switch for the first time originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re back with episode No. 2 of the new, improved, videographic Gadget Lab podcast. In this episode, Brian X. Chen and Dylan F. Tweney discuss the top gadget news of the week: The launch of the iPhone 4, the rollout of Verizon’s and Motorola’s Droid X, and the public release of Android 2.2, aka “FroYo,” which sports a fully functional version of Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1.

(It didn’t make it into this podcast, but don’t miss Brian’s video introduction to the iPhone 4.)

We also show off a handful of iPad and iPhone apps: the excellent photojournalism-centric Guardian Eyewitness, an impressive library of medical images called 3D4 Medical, and a photo shooting, editing and sharing app called Camera+.

Oh, and then there’s iKamasutra XL.

And we wrap things up with a plea to save the seahorses. (Seriously: Overfishing may be leading some of them to the brink of extinction.)

You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our mugs, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast.

More than 10% of worldwide smartphone market share: that’s where Samsung plans to be, on triple its current handset volume, by the end of 2010 according to Lee Donjoo, senior VP of the company’s Mobile Communications division. Mind you, such a jump would be staggering in terms of growth with Samsung owning less than 5% of global smartphone market share currently. A move to 10% would place them at number 4 globally according to IDC’s numbers, behind Nokia, RIM, and Apple. The Android-lovin’ Galaxy S / AT&T Captivate is good, but is it that good? We’ll see. Regardless, the term “smartphone” can be defined many ways, and we suspect that Samsung’s new Bada OS being pushed into devices previously classified as featurephones could help pad Samsung’s numbers.

Samsung plans to double its smartphone share by end of year, jump ahead of HTC and Motorola originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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