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"I demand a walled garden, and I will gladly pay 30% to ensure all apps are reviewed, approved, and subject to the whims of the closed-shop store providing them

"I demand a walled garden, and I will gladly pay 30% to ensure all apps are reviewed, approved, and subject to the whims of the closed-shop store providing them." This is obviously a serious issue - as the OP notes, the double-edged sword of openness. Still, the speedy response of Google makes me feel warmer than the (not-so-common now) decidely un-speedy application process Apple put many developers through. Edit: As jevans points out in response, and others have noted in this discussion, Google's 5 minute response time might be better characterised as '1 week of sitting on their hands when the developers complained, and 1 rapid response when it went public in a loud way'. I'm feeling less warm now, and looking fondly at the non-smartphone Nokia I own which is so clearly targeted at the 11-year-old-girl's-first-phone market that it came inside a pink cardboard handbag. But has no malware.

S_A_P 16y ago
Would be nice to find some middle ground here for sure. Seems to me that this is only starting to become a serious issue. This also seems to be a much easier route than finding 0 day Flaws on a PC, and while most folks would think twice about installing software from the back alleys of the internet, they may not feel that way about android.(yet)
- corin_ 16y ago
  Most HN readers might think twice on a PC, but anti-virus creators have got rich off the majority who don't think twice.
nicpottier 16y ago
This is probably where third party 'app stores' come in. EG, Amazon's app store or someone else's who manually picks what apps go in may become the 'trusted' source for apps. It is pretty difficult given Android's structure to have any chance of keeping the automated shipping of apps while also retaining security. Yes, you can keep adding more warnings about what apps do, but in general I don't think people read them, and you can ask for an awful lot of privileges. The great thing about Android is just how much power you have to do stuff as an app maker, but that is of course one of the main problems as well.
jevans 16y ago
I'm not sure I would qualify Google's response as "speedy." On the Reddit thread, the developer of the real Guitar Solo Lite claims to have been attempting to contact Google about this issue through various channels for a week with no response. http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/fvepu/someone_just_ripped_off_21_popular_free_apps_from/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/fvepu/someone_just_...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
sid0 16y ago
The Apple walled garden is way more dangerous, because it's almost as easy to slip malware into your code (remember, Apple doesn't do full source code audits), and the false sense of security makes users even more complacent. It really is a perfect example of security theatre.
- nhangen 16y ago
  I would like to see you qualify that comment with fact. Apple does not examine full source code, but they do watch network traffic and examine API calls. At least they do something.
  - sid0 16y ago
    You can slip the malware in as a timebomb. It's not exactly as easy as it is with Android or an open platform, but it is almost as easy.
    - ceejayoz 16y ago
      Why aren't we seeing it happen, then?
      - joebananas 16y ago
        It's much easier to spread FUD on the internet than to actually do it.
      - moe 16y ago
        How do you know it isn't already happening? Do you monitor the outgoing traffic from your cellphone?
        ceejayoz 16y ago
        > How do you know it isn't already happening? There is no evidence that it is happening, with plenty of security researchers and interested amateurs keeping their eyes open for it. There's nothing special about iOS that prevents you from discovering this sort of app behaviour that isn't present on Android.
zmmmmm 16y ago
> Google's 5 minute response time might be better characterised as '1 week of sitting on their hands when the developers complained, and 1 rapid response when it went public in a loud way'. To be fair, the first complaint was of copyright infringement, the second was of malware. You can hardly expect the same response time to both kinds of issues.

S_A_P 16y ago

Would be nice to find some middle ground here for sure. Seems to me that this is only starting to become a serious issue. This also seems to be a much easier route than finding 0 day Flaws on a PC, and while most folks would think twice about installing software from the back alleys of the internet, they may not feel that way about android.(yet)

corin_ 16y ago
Most HN readers might think twice on a PC, but anti-virus creators have got rich off the majority who don't think twice.

nicpottier 16y ago

This is probably where third party 'app stores' come in. EG, Amazon's app store or someone else's who manually picks what apps go in may become the 'trusted' source for apps. It is pretty difficult given Android's structure to have any chance of keeping the automated shipping of apps while also retaining security. Yes, you can keep adding more warnings about what apps do, but in general I don't think people read them, and you can ask for an awful lot of privileges. The great thing about Android is just how much power you have to do stuff as an app maker, but that is of course one of the main problems as well.

jevans 16y ago

I'm not sure I would qualify Google's response as "speedy." On the Reddit thread, the developer of the real Guitar Solo Lite claims to have been attempting to contact Google about this issue through various channels for a week with no response. http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/fvepu/someone_just_ripped_off_21_popular_free_apps_from/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/fvepu/someone_just_...

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

sid0 16y ago

The Apple walled garden is way more dangerous, because it's almost as easy to slip malware into your code (remember, Apple doesn't do full source code audits), and the false sense of security makes users even more complacent. It really is a perfect example of security theatre.

nhangen 16y ago
I would like to see you qualify that comment with fact. Apple does not examine full source code, but they do watch network traffic and examine API calls. At least they do something.
- sid0 16y ago
  You can slip the malware in as a timebomb. It's not exactly as easy as it is with Android or an open platform, but it is almost as easy.
  - ceejayoz 16y ago
    Why aren't we seeing it happen, then?
    - joebananas 16y ago
      It's much easier to spread FUD on the internet than to actually do it.
    - moe 16y ago
      How do you know it isn't already happening? Do you monitor the outgoing traffic from your cellphone?
      - ceejayoz 16y ago
        > How do you know it isn't already happening? There is no evidence that it is happening, with plenty of security researchers and interested amateurs keeping their eyes open for it. There's nothing special about iOS that prevents you from discovering this sort of app behaviour that isn't present on Android.

zmmmmm 16y ago

> Google's 5 minute response time might be better characterised as '1 week of sitting on their hands when the developers complained, and 1 rapid response when it went public in a loud way'. To be fair, the first complaint was of copyright infringement, the second was of malware. You can hardly expect the same response time to both kinds of issues.