High-Risk Permissions

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Ellen Messmer via Jim Dalrymple:

Of the 412,222 Android apps evaluated from Google Play, Bit9 says more than 290,000 of them access at least one high-risk permission, 86,000 access five or more and 8,000 apps access 10 or more permissions “flagged as potentially dangerous.”

While I've no doubt that "wallpaper" apps don't need access to anything on one's phone this excerpt seems unfair to Android. We all remember Path-gate, and the outrage over that. It happens in iOS as well. And if you read through what Bit9 says are 'high-risk permissions' some of these very permissions are available to devs on the iOS platform as well. Like GPS location data and Contacts data. Granted, iOS now requires users to expressly approve any application's access to this data, but that by no means makes the average user totally safe from an app maliciously crafted by a devious developer.

What I think would be more interesting would be an analysis of 412,222 applications on the iOS App Store to see how many of them access 'high-risk permissions' the difference there would be a much more honest comparison.

iOS vs Android

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Loren Donelson:

Since I’m noodling a move back to iOS, I thought I’d make a list of things that I’ll miss about Android — things that might make my shiny new iPhone 5 end up on Ebay.

Usually posts like this are real eye-rollers but with the exception of WiFi Hotspot (which iPhone can do right now) these are well-reasoned and a couple of them I want for myself. Like "Drag-and-drop":

It’s so much simpler on Android. I just connect my phone via Micro-USB cable and drag-and-drop files directly onto my phone in the Finder.

Or "Settings Automation":

Locale is hands down my favorite app for Android, and there’s nothing comparable on iOS. I use it to change phone settings like 3G data, volume, and ringtone, based on conditions like location, time, Wi-Fi, plugging in headphones, and more.

Hope Scott Forstall is paying attention.

On "Open" and Open Standards

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Michael Steeber on Mozilla's new Firefox phone OS:

The entire operating system is built around the open standards of HTML5, allowing all of the device capabilities to be built as HTML5 applications. This is a stark contrast to the closed, rather locked down nature of the iOS ecosystem.

Just because the Firefox OS runs an HTML5 platform doesn't mean it is "open" or "closed". It simply means that is the development framework. Apple uses and supports a lot of open standards, AAC, h.264, HTML5, CSS3, and many others.

An open standard does not equal an open OS.

Mobile Browser Usage

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AppleInsider reporting that iOS is responsible:

The 65.27 percent share of Apple's iOS platform, which is found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, was up from 62.65 percent in May. Apple's share has steadily risen, growing from a 53 percent position in August of 2011.

Apple's next closest competitor in mobile browsing market is Google's Android platform, which took 19.73 percent in the month of June. Android has also seen its share grow since last August, when it took 15.98 percent of mobile browsers.

Okay, so what? Filter that stat through the lens of this stat and it becomes much more impressive (Joel Mathis, reporting for Macworld):

ComScore’s report, released this week, was based on a survey of 30,000 smartphone subscribers. The company reported that Apple’s iOS platform ranked second to Google’s Android platform—31.9 percent to 50.0 percent, though Apple’s 1.7 percent growth in share from February to May doubled Google’s gain during that time.

Google's Loss-Leader

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Ewan Spence on the strategy for Google's loss-leading Nexus 7:

The Nexus 7 strategy is based around the Google Play store, where apps, music, and media can be purchased and consumed on the new 7 inch tablet. As a launch offer every tablet will come with free credit to spend in the Play Store – once you buy something the hope must be you’ll keep on buying with your own money.

Interesting, but it doesn't really jibe with what is well know about Android's users (Gene Minster, via Apple Insider):

In other words, it appears that Apple has roughly 85-90% market share in dollars spent on mobile applications

Should be interesting to see how this shakes down, but suffice to say that I doubt upsetting your hardware partners to try and make it up in purchases from a customer base that aren't big spenders may not be the best bet.

Chrome on iOS

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Killian Bell:

Google Chrome is quite possibly the best web browser you can install on your Mac or PC, and it could soon be the best browser on your iOS device, too. 

10-to-1 that Chrome grows faster on iOS than Android. Any takers?

As a side note, I prefer Safari. Tried switching to Chrome but it didn't take. And with Safari 5.2 looking so great I can't see a switch coming any time soon.

iOS vs Android (Instagram Edition)

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Matt Brian on the Instagram Android app:

[T]he iOS version of [instagram] took about six months to reach 5 million users, on Android it took just six days.

The reason it only took six days is because of the success on iOS. Instagram was a good enough product to stand out on the App Store. And, after no Android-compatible alternative arose the launch of the original Instagram on Google Play was met with much exuberance and gleeful clap-dancing.

So… yeah, that comparison is just terrible.

iOS Game Pad?

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Killian Bell on the rumour that Apple is developing a physical controller for iOS:

iOS devices are terrific for mobile gaming, but they could be even better. They’re already stealing market share from portable consoles from the likes of Nintendo or Sony, who saw their share of software sales slip from 70% to 36% and 11% to 6% respectively between 2009 and 2011. But there’s only so far they can go without physical controls.

I can't see it happening. Honestly. However,  what I could see is Apple developing a bluetooth controller for Apple TV that allows iOS game to be played on your 1080p HD screen. On the flip-side, perhaps Apple has plans to bake in new APIs for hardware developers to create physical controllers. So they've built one for testing purposes.

Please iPad, Don't Hurt 'Em

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Devin Coldewey:

It’s not entirely fair, of course, to compare a fragmented and developing ecosystem like Android tablets to the world leader, the iPad.

This kind of stuff drives me nuts. Android gets a free pass for sucking because, well it's hard to compete with the establishment. Like iPhone did? iPhone came out in 2007, it wasn't available globally until 2008 and it was an instant hit and crushed the mighty, market leading Blackberry, and Nokia. Just like the iPod at $399 in 2001 was the defacto mp3 player within 3 years. Not successful, but the standard. No one gets a free pass.

(Via Daring Fireball)

On Phone Choice & Satisfaction

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Matthew Panzarino:

The publication also asked people why they chose the phone that they did, and got some interesting results in return. Windows Phone devices were most often picked for their operating system, demonstrating that the Windows name does have adoption power after all. The iOS customers liked the availability of apps and BlackBerry users were unsurprisingly convinced that email ease and a physical keyboard were integral. Android users were split between screen size, operating system and 4G capability being the deciding factors.

I have thought since I first saw it that Windows Phone looks like a really solid choice. Having spent no time with it I am unable to give a reasonable comparison to my iPhone. I suspect the average consumer doesn't care what phone they have. And once they have one they like it. My first iPhone was like magic in my hands. I'd never seen or used anything like it. I'm sure that if my first experience had been with a WP7 phone I would have felt the same way about it.

What is interesting though, is that the #2 reason people chose iPhone rivals or is greater than every reason people chose Android. The #3 reason people chose iPhone meets or exceeds every reason people chose Blackberry. And the #4 reason people chose iPhone destroys all but the number one reason people chose Windows Phone.

 

Pull-To-Refresh

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Sarah Perez, on 'Pull-To-Refresh":

And if you’re wondering why there’s been so much interest in this one patent app, when every tech company under the sun has stockpiles of patents at their disposal, it comes down to the nature of the interaction being published. It’s a feature that feels so obvious, so natural, and so much like the way things are supposed to work on iOS devices, that many assumed it would eventually be translated into the core Apple apps. It feels like something Apple itself should have patented, then graciously suggested to iOS developers and designers that it’s the preferred way to refresh data in their apps.

I am so annoyed that iOS Mail and Safari apps don't have this feature. I couldn't agree with the above statement more.