An interesting article over at Cybershack which his fundamentally about dangers involved with open source development Vs the strict control regime of Apple.

Ie, Apples point of view:

“By its very design, an app downloaded from the App Store cannot corrupt or damage an iOS device,” says Apple internal PR spokesperson Fiona Martin. “The approval process for apps on the iTunes App Store was created to ensure avoiding apps that degrade the core experience of the iOS device

Vs the Android experience:

In the case of Nokia, it is plainly laid out in its warranty Terms and Conditions: “This Limited Warranty does not cover user manuals or any third party software, settings, content, data or links, whether included/downloaded in the Product, whether included during instalment, assembly, shipping or at any other time in the delivery chain or otherwise and in any way acquired by you.”

In other words, if you install an ap from the marketplace and it stuffs your phone, your on your own.

From Google:

A spokesperson from Google, who did not want to be named, said in an email that if an application fails “Please contact the developer of the application or game for more information and support. We don't provide support for any of the apps, as they are built by third-party developers. You can find the developer contact information on the application screen in Market. However, in the Android Market Help Center, we offer help content about adding or removing applications, and some general information about apps in Market.”

The company says it does not review applications for the Android operating system, but if an application does violate Google’s terms and conditions, it will be deleted. A bit late for that if it crashes the operating system, no?

Sounds like running Android really is just like living with a Jail broken iphone.

Like everything backup, backup, backup

Sounds like running Android really is just like living with a Jail broken iphone.

or a pc....

Not really. Android Apps are only limited to certain functions and it even tells you in a lot of detail what the app does with your phone (accesses contacts, network communications, location services, syncronisation, etc).

Where as Jailbroken iphones are not limited by anything. Was that your point Tic ? Otherwise, I'm not seeing the difference still which may just have a lot to do with my lack of Android experience.

No root access.

For which system?

Iphone has it via SSH if its Jailbroken doesnt it?

He is trying to say that security wise running an application on a jailbroken iphone (no limitations) is not as secure as Android because the apps ARE limited and will warn you before certain events occur (like the app trying to access your contact list).

...AFAIK know anyway. I have an iPhone- does the job. Never owned an android or jailbroken me iPhone.

Ahh, you could be right there. Maybe Tickles can confirm.

I thought you missed out on updates and stuff if you had a Jail Broken ohone?

Judging from the Android threads, rooting your Android is more of a hassle than Jailbreaking an iPhone...

Not really. Most phones you either copy an update file onto the phone, download an app from the market, or download an app onto your PC. It's really easy.

Yer you are more open to getting rick rolled. But if you're getting rick rolled you're probably an idiot. An example I can think of is before angry birds was released on android, some dude put an app on the market called angry birds (which was in fact a wallpaper or something similar) for $1. It had something like 50k downloads.

Now if the users would read the comments saying "THIS IS A FUCKN RIP OFF AND A CON!!!!111" or even quickly glance to the top of the screen to see it had 1/5 stars, they wouldn't download it. (good thing android has a 24 hour money back policy for those idiots who did download it.)

Also as others have stated, when you install an app it will say this application will access the following: root access, calls, home screen, contacts etc. But again, most people don't read that and just click install.

It’s not the end of the world and android. You just have to have a clue. At the moment the android market is pretty clean from malicious apps IMO. Sure it could be a problem in the future.
You would think people are use to this kind of shit from windows anyway. Ie you don’t go clicking any old exe file you find on the net...

Jailbreaking is pretty basic on iPhones...

Plus, if you want to un-jailbreak, all you do is "restore" and its back to the way it was...

People assume that android users use the market place like the app store, the trick to the android marketplace is to go there knowing what you want.
The only people who get caught by virus's and shit apps are the mum and dads who should of bought an iphone.

that is why i laugh so hard at iphone/mac users

that is why i laugh so hard at iphone/mac users

I'm not getting the joke. Explain !?

I'll take the one that gives me more freedom and doesn't have a stupid biased app approval process thanks

I realised my above description can be pretty abstract if you haven't used Android; so here's two screenshots. The first is a replacement for the default SMS application, which as you can see requires access to various personal details, ability to send SMS, etc.

The second is for a game, which you would not expect to access your personal information (and as you can see, does not). There's no analogue to this on iPhone, where all apps can do anything limited only by a human reviewer's ability to figure out if an app is "bad".

(The "Show All" section hides things most people wont care about, in an attempt to avoid information overload. In this case, it says the app has control over the force-feedback vibration function)

So basically the moral of the story is you can only get stung if you're retarded and have never used a computer or the internet before.

Good to know.

I recently purchased the Nike Plus app for iPhone ($2.50, and pretty darn good), and when I was setting it up it said something like "Do you give Nike permission to save your de-identified data", which I didn't care about, until I read the next line which was something like "and have access to your personal information even when you're not logged in"... haha I'm paraphrasing but it was about that dodgy.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/09/some-android-apps-found-to-covertly-send-gps-data-to-advertisers.ars

... They used TaintDroid to test 30 popular free Android applications selected at random from the Android market and found that half were sending private information to advertising servers, including the user's location and phone number. In some cases, they found that applications were relaying GPS coordinates to remote advertising network servers as frequently as every 30 seconds, even when not displaying advertisements. These findings raise concern about the extent to which mobile platforms can insulate users from unwanted invasions of privacy.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/09/some-android-apps-found-to-covertly-send-gps-data-to-advertisers.ars

How dare they send personal information to advertising companies! Get an iPhone and Apple will take care of sending your personal information to advertising companies for you, take a cut, and then charge you for the privilege! (probably)

The only thing Apple did wrong there was remove the app - if people were that stupid to pay $1000 then good on the developer.

i'll count that as a vote for android.

Any app that wants root access has to be specifically granted it, so it's pretty safe.

Any app that wants root access has to be specifically granted it, so it's pretty safe.

I'm talking more about virusses propagated through bluetooth/wifi exploits & sms messages or whatever rather than some random app I decide to install.