Hasta La Gadget!

There’s no such thing as a perfect mobile app store strategy — you’re either too draconian, too arbitrary, or too loose in your policies, and as far as we can tell, there’s no way to find a balance that isn’t going to trigger an alarm here and there or get a few people worked into a lather. If you’re too loose, for instance, you’re liable end up with the occasional bout of malware, which is exactly what appears to have gone down recently in the Android Market with a few fake banking apps published by a bandit going as “Droid09.” As you might imagine, the apps end up doing little more than stealing your information and ending your day in tears; the apps have since been pulled, but that’s probably little consolation for those already affected. The moral of the story? Be vigilant, keep a close eye on those system permissions the Market warns you about as you install new apps, report sketchy ones, and — as always — use a hearty dose of common sense.

Phishing Android apps explain our maxed-out credit cards originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A stout 20,000 apps in the Android Market, eh? Not so much, according to none other than Google itself — which, with all due respect to original counter AndroLib — has a little more street cred here, especially when they’re deflating the numbers rather than inflating them. A spokesperson for the company told us this afternoon that “there are currently more than 16,000 free and paid apps in Android Market” without specifying paid-to-free breakdown or differences among regional Markets, so we don’t much basis for figuring out where Google’s number comes from; we’d count it ourselves, but we’ve… uh, we’ve got dinner plans this evening. So until someone can conclusively prove otherwise, we’re going to say that the Market has yet to crack the 20K mark in any region where the Market operates — not to say you can’t find a fair share of goodies among the 16,000 that are out there.

Google downsizes AndroLib’s Android Market app count by a few grand originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer loves it some Google. And unless Google’s trying to stamp out your revenue stream, who doesn’t? Now Acer chairman, JT Wang, says that he expects to be first to market with an official Chrome OS netbook — sometime in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes‘ sources. In fact, JT says that Acer’s been working on a Chrome OS device since mid-2009. This despite admittedly weaker than expected demand for its dual-boot Android netbook, the Aspire One AOD250. Guess even the Google halo isn’t enough to shoehorn its smartphone OS into a market dominating position on cheap ultra-portables. It’s worth pointing out that DigiTimes‘ moles aren’t saying anything new with the launch time-frame since Google’s target for its gold Chrome OS build has been 2H of 2010 ever since the lightweight OS was announced. Not that the timing matters too much since we’ll likely be seeing plenty of Chromium OS netbooks flooding the grey market long before the second half of 2010.

Acer to launch first Chrome OS netbook, Android-based Aspire One sales disappoint originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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October 19th may be under a month away, but that’s still an eternity in “waiting years.” Thankfully, Motorola has posted up a handy guide that spells out exactly what kind of pre-loaded software comes with the CLIQ, and we’ve got to say — the list is fairly impressive. For starters, users will get access to LastFM, an array of Google features, Yahoo! Mail (funny, real funny), Digg, Mint, Facebook, Twitter, Travel Channel, MTV and Amazon’s MP3 Store. On top of all that, Moto’s throwing in QuickOffice — a piece that demands $9.99 on the iPhone — as well as TeleNav Navigator, which has also found itself on a few other Android-based smartphones over the centuries. Hit the read link for the full list, but only if you don’t mind the tease.

[Via Phandroid]

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Motorola impresses with pre-loaded apps list for CLIQ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As must-have mobile apps go, Pandora ranks high on the books — with the proliferation of 3G and WiFi, it comes dangerously close to obsoleting the need to carry around your own 8, 16, or 32GB worth of tracks — and another big-ticket platform has now joined the compatibility short list. This time around it’s Android that’s getting hooked up, offering a home screen widget and background playback (we’d expect no less on Android) over whatever type of network connection you’ve got handy. Using Wham! as a station seed is still indefensible, but we’d say the argument for scooping up a G1, myTouch 3G, or Sprint Hero (when it’s available, anyhow) just got a bit stronger.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio

Pandora comes to Android, world’s networks that much closer to buckling originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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