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Google has the power to not only remove applications from users' Android phones, but remotely install them as well.
Last week, Google told the world it had exercised its Android "Remote Application Removal Feature," reaching out over the airwaves and lifting two applications from citizen handsets, and as pointed out by the man who built this pair of vanished applications – security researcher Jon Oberheide – the company can use the same persistent handset connection to install applications as well.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/google_remote_android_application_install/
Lol sooo is this true?
Yes, it's to stop viruses and it's great.
its also the biggest security risk ever announced for a cell phone....... theyve basically told the world that they left a backdoor open to hack any android phone
just remember if google can access your phone and install apps......... there are countless others in the world who have the ability to do the exact same thing to your phone
lol this is not that big of a deal
a lot of phones can do this. its a security feature to prevent viruses and other harmful programs from residing / being installed on your phone. they will only use it for good.
if your thinking this is a way to get root on your phone, it could be, but very very difficult to do as it is heavily locked down with little way to get in.
It's not a good way to get root. And google won't use it for any reason other than to protect its users or it would be facing quite a bit of legal action and people would stop buying their product... you want to appeal to people.
The Apple fanboys are already screaming "See! now we're on even level now!"
Farrr from it apple, far from it.
I saw some post on another site
C---, 6th July 2010.
"@Ma----- 33,000 games on the iPhone's App Store... none of which are going to torch your battery or send your banking information to a private server in Europe."
Posts like this are just so dumb -.- iphone users actually believe that this is true...
Alright here's the deal. I have an app idea for a game that I plan on creating that is very simple, and I have a good feeling it will take off. My worries is that developing it will almost be pointless because of the lax android market policy. I am a new programmer, so my worry is I will make the app pretty decent, and some more experienced programmer will be able to duplicate it and make it better. This just doesn't seem right. I know this happens all the time (Fruit Slice, for example, is a Fruit Ninja knockoff and it's free).
Android is a love it/ hate it relationship. Users love being able to download just as good of knockoffs for free, but I'm sure this is a major turn off for developers who worked hard on their original idea's, just to have it undercut by another developer who will offer a similar (or even better app) for free. Part of me wishes I could just develop it for iOS, but I don't have a Mac or iPhone, and don't ever plan on getting one.
My question is, is there anyway to stop it? Like a patent, or something similar? This is my major hesitation to developing for android. I know I'm not going to be the best programmer out there, but it's the idea that make the apps, and that's where I feel like (I'm sure a lot of other people do too) I could do some contributing. Let me know how you guys feel about this
Anybody? 10Char
welcome to programming for any platform. There are (free) alternatives to almost every single program (android-based, windows-based, etc...)
I think you're in a very bad place to ask about that question. Programmers are usually not at all fond of patents since they tend to be overly broad, hard to detect and generally of low quality. (In case you haven't noticed that's also my opinion)
But yes, if that's what you want to do, a patent would be the way to go. Copyright protects your code, but not your idea.
Make it free. Put ads on it. If it takes off make an iOS one
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
As far as I can remember, from my Intellectual Property Law class, software (i.e. apps) cannot be the subject of a patent. But of course, this changes from country to country.
Here are some links you might want to read up on:
http://www.wipo.int/patentscope/en/patents_faq.html#software
http://www.freibrun.com/articles/articl2.htm
Computer-based inventions... yeah, they're not supposed to be patentable: Not in the US and even less in the EU. The key point is how computer-based inventions is defined. The standard way around it is simply to patent "a machine doing XY" instead of "XY"
Basically, the patent clerks don't check for anything but formalities. I used to help out on the peertopatent platform, but it just became ridicolous because the clerks would let everything through no matter what prior art or explanations of obviousness we provided.
Patenting is the worst thing you can do. Don't you read all the patent BS going around lately? Also, spending money on a patent won't be enough, you'll also need to spent money enforcing it, and you won't make any friends by being a litigator.
All you can do is provide the best product you can come up with and hope for the best. If someone makes something similar but better, well, you'll just have to work harder. Or drop the whole thing.
But as others have said, you'll have this problem on *all* platforms. A practical example, when Nero released their burning app for Linux, my thought was "This is kinda cool, but why would I pay for Nero, when there's K3B and other apps that to the job, but are open source and free?"
The trick is to provide something others don't have. In the case of NeroLinux it's familiarity for ex-Windows folks or dual-booters. In your case it could be more features, better graphics, easier to navigate interface, regularly provided additional content... something in that direction.
hey people,
i have been reading as of late that cyber crime has been increasingly growing on smartphones. should i install AV protection on my atrix is the question.
what is your opinion?
No.
As long you don't download warez apps - you are safe.
Something I've been wondering about is video files. I get a lot of video files from questionable places and I'm just wondering if these can ever contain anything malicious. Any thoughts?
I use Lookout, if you ever install third party or non-Market apps I would recommend it, although in 14+mo I have only found one app it flagged as malicious as I was trying to install it.
It's a great question to ask.
All my apps come from the Android Market, but I browse the net a lot.
Most of it is normal websites, but I still wonder if and when it will become "necessary". (then again there's always the emails)
Especially since Android is growing, and not all hackers are friendly...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Coming from CrackBerry site where everyone touts BB security and thinks there is someone on every street corner just waiting to hack your phone.. I've wondered this as well. However.. I've yet to read of anyone ever having their financials stolen due to cellphone hackery. Of course.. anything's possible.. but I think as long as your smart about WHAT your downloading and from where.. there shouldn't be any issues. Most of the Trojans out there come direct from China and aren't being plagued in our Market.. yet. At least Google's good about yanking apps that are deemed malicious when they do discover them.
^ The only one that really caught my attention was the wallpaper malware incident a while back.
I'm pretty good at trying to figure out why an app needs permissions, but the average user doesn't care which IMO is kinda scary...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
Android security problems are GREEEEEATLY exaggerated. When the media finds one malware app, they start spreading the news all over the internet.
Though, in 99% of cases such app isn't even on the Android market.
Well guess what? Same goes for iPhone - if you jailbreak and install an app outside the iTunes market that contains malware - you get screwed.
So yeah, the only way to get malware is by installing something from an untrustworthy source.
Additionally, you can use an app like Permissions Denied to monitor / retract permissions from untrustworthy apps.... or better yet - just don't install such apps in the first place. There are always alternatives for everything.
Hello to everyone!
Maybe it's a stupid, noob question, but I googled for this without success.
And even a search in these forums was not helping, so... let's start!
It's saturday morning here and I start my weekend in one of the most disappointing ways...
Some minutes ago, my Galaxy Note showed a red icon in the status bar. I checked it, and it was Zoner antivirus. Hooray!
The malware that it found was exploit.AndroidOS.Lootor.A, and I don't know what it is, but it really sounds bad.
The disappointment went worse when I discovered that the malware (according to this antivirus) was in the latest Superuser update. Something I'm not going to uninstall without thinking twice.
What should I do? I think I'm going to follow my elephant-phone's suggestion and uninstall the update, since it's telling me that I can use "the original version" (at least, in Italian the message I see means literally that).
If you tell me -as I think- that it is just a false positive, I'll be happy to reinstall any update, but anyway I am asking for the opinion of more experienced users.
Thanks in advance!
PS: while I was writing here, there were some evolutions in this problem.
I followed the instructions and uninstalled some update (or at least the phone told me so).
Now it seems that Superuser should be uninstalled because it has inside
exploit.AndroidOS.GingerBreak.A
HELP!
I'm not going to uninstall superuser (I think I couldn't anyway), but I am worrying now!
PPS: ok googling exploit.AndroidOS.Gingerbreak.A I found that it is a false positive, so I assume that also exploit.AndroidOS.Lootor.A is safe... but I still would like some confirmations, I am quite new to Android and this is not the way I want to learn lol.
Virus scanners on android truly are pointless. They will pick up anything that changes the root permissions llike Super user or the root exploit. As long as your not using apks from iffy sites like 4shared or something you will be fine.
So how can we solve that?... I found a couple of apks on APPLANET that lead to a GAME CASINO on real market... Strange but that´s look like a virus to me...
Thank´s in advance.. Cem..
Don't use applanet unless your begging for a virus or to have your phone make calls to long distance numbers and send texts to paid account. Also no one on XDA will help you with any black market app markets.
zelendel said:
Virus scanners on android truly are pointless. They will pick up anything that changes the root permissions llike Super user or the root exploit. As long as your not using apks from iffy sites like 4shared or something you will be fine.
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I'm not expert enough yet to discuss your point, it just seemed weird to me since it is the very first problem I had with an android anti-malware software. I've run Superuser for something like two months without any warning...
Anyway it's solved now, even if not in the best way. Something messed up in my beloved phone when I rebooted it one moment after my last post... I had to re-synchronize all my accounts and to reinstall most of my apps, it seemed that my phone lost all app data.
Now it's ok (luckily, I've learned enough 'til now to bring it slowly back to normal) but the procedure was painful.
Great lesson here: wether you consider antimalware useful or not, don't rely on it more than on good ol' common sense!
PS: anyway, why are they pointless? Aren't they able to find possible problems? I've recently learned that "possible" problems aren't necessarily problems, but it seems strange to hear that they are useless... just an explanation please.
Always good to have a virus scanner on you're android mobile. Even i've you only downloading wrom the market it can be infected (Very small change). Nothing is secure in this world. Better to have protection one time to much then to have it to late. How more popular android is going to be, how more change you can have for infections. Even its still low. Lookout cost nothing and says nothing about my superuser and other rooting apps. I use it on my tablet and phone and it works great.
Recently read a test and no Antivirus App was able to find more 15% of the Viruses, plus they always slow my phone down.
Best solution for me is being cautious and checking permissions.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
i think it might be a good idea for all that root their devices to first understand the concept of a false posotive virus scan result
also it may be worth understanding that from anti virus software standpoint any alteration to system safety may be undesirable as its designed for the end user who doesnt even know what root is ..
increasingly android caters for 2 markets, the sort of people who come here and probably own about 30 devices including pcs tablets phones etc and love tech.
and the other market of people who own a pc with xp on it and one phone, only running android because thats what the salesman sold them - and not because they insisted on Android.
terminal 7 said:
i think it might be a good idea for all that root their devices to first understand the concept of a false posotive virus scan result
also it may be worth understanding that from anti virus software standpoint any alteration to system safety may be undesirable as its designed for the end user who doesnt even know what root is ..
increasingly android caters for 2 markets, the sort of people who come here and probably own about 30 devices including pcs tablets phones etc and love tech.
and the other market of people who own a pc with xp on it and one phone, only running android because thats what the salesman sold them - and not because they insisted on Android.
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Click to collapse
Oh I have to agree. Too many people get Android because its cool and then they root because they think its cool. They should understand what they are doing before they make a choice for the OS on their phone.
If you think running Linux is too much trouble to run and keep up on your computer why would you run it on your phone when it takes just as much to keep up?
terminal 7 said:
i think it might be a good idea for all that root their devices to first understand the concept of a false posotive virus scan result
also it may be worth understanding that from anti virus software standpoint any alteration to system safety may be undesirable as its designed for the end user who doesnt even know what root is ..
increasingly android caters for 2 markets, the sort of people who come here and probably own about 30 devices including pcs tablets phones etc and love tech.
and the other market of people who own a pc with xp on it and one phone, only running android because thats what the salesman sold them - and not because they insisted on Android.
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Click to collapse
Yes, but you know, I had the naive hope that an antivirus for Android should check if an app is going to do a bad use of the permissions I give to it.
I.E. : I see a game that requires internet connection for multiplayer. It's ok, isn't it? In a perfect world, an antivirus should check if that game is going to connect to its multiplayer server or to a bad one... (it's just an example, I think that important brands aren't likely to lose their reputation that way)
Anyway, would you suggest me to give Avast a try? At least, I've seen that it has decent anti-theft features...
Max Morden said:
Yes, but you know, I had the naive hope that an antivirus for Android should check if an app is going to do a bad use of the permissions I give to it.
I.E. : I see a game that requires internet connection for multiplayer. It's ok, isn't it? In a perfect world, an antivirus should check if that game is going to connect to its multiplayer server or to a bad one... (it's just an example, I think that important brands aren't likely to lose their reputation that way)
Anyway, would you suggest me to give Avast a try? At least, I've seen that it has decent anti-theft features...
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Please receive this feedback as intended, respectfully and well meaning...
if your finding yourself having concerns when an anti virus flags up your rooted status and yet you still feel the need for an anti virus package i suggest you un-root and keep to a stock kernel - this way the anti virus software will inform you of any possible intrusion or system change.
if however you must have root i think you need to simply come to understand more about what the anti virus packages can do .. or actually what they are limited to doing - might i suggest spending some time learning about a popular linux distribution too as it will bring about a different frame of mind and then you will realize that the anti virus software flaging SuperUser as a virus is actually neither true or a false posotive .. its just working from a different set of perspectives to that of a confident root enabled computer user .
i hope this makes sense without coming across in the wrong way, i just really think people should learn from XDA and the devices they buy & come to XDA for help with .
Respect the info found at XDA -and its users, we all learn together here
.
No malware in superuser app. Proceed
sent from an HTC sensation on CM7 alpha #10
super user by chainsdd has been around for a long time. and was developed to make being rooted easier, a lot easier. it gives you control over all files on your device. the developer is very trusted. no worries
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium.
Thanks to every single user that chose to spend some time for this post.
I was kinda sure that Superuser had to be safe, but lack of experience made me fear that somehow I could have downloaded the wrong package, or something...
The weirdest thing, is that Superuser and antivirus have been there together for a while, so I wondered what on earth was happening.
Well, I've done a mistake and now I've learned something... it's ok.
terminal 7 said:
Please receive this feedback as intended, respectfully and well meaning...
if your finding yourself having concerns when an anti virus flags up your rooted status and yet you still feel the need for an anti virus package i suggest you un-root and keep to a stock kernel - this way the anti virus software will inform you of any possible intrusion or system change.
if however you must have root i think you need to simply come to understand more about what the anti virus packages can do .. or actually what they are limited to doing - might i suggest spending some time learning about a popular linux distribution too as it will bring about a different frame of mind and then you will realize that the anti virus software flaging SuperUser as a virus is actually neither true or a false posotive .. its just working from a different set of perspectives to that of a confident root enabled computer user .
i hope this makes sense without coming across in the wrong way, i just really think people should learn from XDA and the devices they buy & come to XDA for help with .
Respect the info found at XDA -and its users, we all learn together here
.
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Click to collapse
This was interesting.
First of all, I am not offended at all and I don't understand how I could.
Well I could probably live without root (except for a couple of useful apps)... but I'm not going to un-root it for now.
I am a sturdy guy and I want to learn everything (everything I am interested into, I mean) about this OS. Trying and trying again, at the cost of some little problems if needed.
As for Linux, almost all my PCs have also it inside (win7 mostly for games), and I have never had a problem worth this name when using it. Never had something like an antivirus there, just some common sense and everything was fine.
I think I should have the same attitude towards Android as many of you have suggested. And I am willing to get some more info about android's antivirus limitations. Just because I'm curious.
Can you suggest some particular post here in xda?
Thanks again!
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
Hi Guys
apologies if this has already been answered i did search and found a few pots but they didn't give me all the information i was hoping for or match my criteria exactly.
Ok so i have a 3 year old son,
his hand to eye coordination is coming along and ever since he's been able to unlock his mothers ipad we cant get him off it.
i have no problem with him using the technology at such a young age in moderation and im sure it can be quite educational with the right apps etc.
however using his mothers ipad is not ideal, its totally open he could accidentally press anything from in app purchases or anything that is available on the internet which is a scary thing.
we came to the conclusion that he needs his own tablet, that we can load with selected app's and he can play etc.
i looked at the tablets designed specifically for kids like the vtech's leapfrogs etc but im not exactly sure they will be the best way forward because they wont really grow with him yes they are probably great for a certain age range but as he gets older it will loose its usefulness.
i need something that's going to be pretty much a disposable price (£30/£60) lets be frank this is probably going to be destroyed on several occasions.
so i want want an android tablet the bigger size the better. I need it to be able to root the device as i want to take advantage fully of titanium back and restore direct to a replacement device if needed.
needs to be able to run sort of childrens apps available i know the can be a broad spectrum but lets just say the average ones (processor / memory consumption wise)
i have seen lots of different softwares to lock the os down, so only use certain apps etc but any other suggestions would be great. or anyone who has made something similar.
cheers guys
cap
There's a dedicated thread for such questions here,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620179
I'll close this thread.
Good luck!