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The way apps can interoperate in Android is definitely an advantage over iOS for developers, but it's a security/sandbox issue not a lack of capability in the O

The way apps can interoperate in Android is definitely an advantage over iOS for developers, but it's a security/sandbox issue not a lack of capability in the OS. iOS hugely trails Android in malware... Coincidence? App Store allows programming languages and even VMs. It doesn't allow running externally sourced code.

wslh 13y ago
But the same can be applied to copy&paste. We are not talking about rocket science....
njs12345 13y ago
Any malware issues on Android have more to do with differences in vetting than the intents system.
danpalmer 13y ago
It is a security issue, but I don't think it is what is causing the Android malware issue. The Intents system on Android is a security issue because most developers don't use it smartly and end up exposing their apps to SQL injection on the internal SQLite database they use. Actually, the fact that Android uses a virtual machine for it's code has pretty good security benefits over running native code as on iOS.
- Tloewald 13y ago
  This is true in theory if not practice, but the point is that Apple blocks third party VMs (or did).
- glhaynes 13y ago
  Actually, the fact that Android uses a virtual machine for it's code has pretty good security benefits over running native code as on iOS. Howso? I'm trying to think of what a VM could guard against aside from illegal memory accesses, which of course iOS hardware (like any other modern hardware) guards against for native code.
  - danpalmer 13y ago
    As everything must eventually exit the VM to use hardware or certain features, you have more control over the boundary. On iOS, as you run native code, you could theoretically do direct device access in assembly and the OS has far less control over that. It is also possible to inspect the bytecode for a Java program and know with much more certainty what it's going to try and do, which instructions it will try and run, etc.
    - glhaynes 13y ago
      On iOS, as you run native code, you could theoretically do direct device access in assembly and the OS has far less control over that. But the hardware access protection ensures user code doesn't access anything it's not supposed to. And its up to device drivers to manage devices and ensure that access to them by user code is done properly. Static inspection of Java bytecode can allow you to verify the safety of some things and so do fewer checks at runtime; but to my understanding, native code has all the same protections in the end as code running in a VM.
TerryBenn 13y ago
Bullshit. Windows RT has similar app interoperability and significantly advanced share functionality when compared to iOS and yet has no 'security issue' nor 'malware'.
- Tloewald 13y ago
  No users either.

wslh 13y ago

But the same can be applied to copy&paste. We are not talking about rocket science....

njs12345 13y ago

Any malware issues on Android have more to do with differences in vetting than the intents system.

danpalmer 13y ago

It is a security issue, but I don't think it is what is causing the Android malware issue. The Intents system on Android is a security issue because most developers don't use it smartly and end up exposing their apps to SQL injection on the internal SQLite database they use. Actually, the fact that Android uses a virtual machine for it's code has pretty good security benefits over running native code as on iOS.

Tloewald 13y ago
This is true in theory if not practice, but the point is that Apple blocks third party VMs (or did).
glhaynes 13y ago
Actually, the fact that Android uses a virtual machine for it's code has pretty good security benefits over running native code as on iOS. Howso? I'm trying to think of what a VM could guard against aside from illegal memory accesses, which of course iOS hardware (like any other modern hardware) guards against for native code.
- danpalmer 13y ago
  As everything must eventually exit the VM to use hardware or certain features, you have more control over the boundary. On iOS, as you run native code, you could theoretically do direct device access in assembly and the OS has far less control over that. It is also possible to inspect the bytecode for a Java program and know with much more certainty what it's going to try and do, which instructions it will try and run, etc.
  - glhaynes 13y ago
    On iOS, as you run native code, you could theoretically do direct device access in assembly and the OS has far less control over that. But the hardware access protection ensures user code doesn't access anything it's not supposed to. And its up to device drivers to manage devices and ensure that access to them by user code is done properly. Static inspection of Java bytecode can allow you to verify the safety of some things and so do fewer checks at runtime; but to my understanding, native code has all the same protections in the end as code running in a VM.

TerryBenn 13y ago

Bullshit. Windows RT has similar app interoperability and significantly advanced share functionality when compared to iOS and yet has no 'security issue' nor 'malware'.

Tloewald 13y ago
No users either.