Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Peter Graham,
Also, I believe iOS allows any app access to your address book without requiring any privileges. I think that’s most likely a genuine mistake, and it’s going to be fixed in the next iOS, but the idea that iOS protects you from malicious apps in a way that Android doesn’t is simply false.
You’re right, but access to the address book isn’t the same thing as malware. Path seems to be the worst of them. They were compiling a datavase of everyone's personal info until they were caught.
Edit: I see a lot of stories saying that Apple was to fix this (with compulsory prompts) in iOS 5.0.2, but not that it did, or what level of granularity there is to the granting of permissions. (Android does mandate prompts, but it’s all-or-nothing, unlike Location Services, which lets the user choose not to allow location data, while still being able to use the app.) Anyone know?
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Peter Graham,
the idea that iOS protects you from malicious apps in a way that Android doesn’t is simply false.
So why haven’t we seen hundreds of thousands of iOS users infected with malware, the way Android users have been?
As you say, iTunes can't absolutely guarantee the behaviour of any app, but it demonstrably offers more production than the Android market does.
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
But there is a tendency for apps to wind up asking for a wide slather of privs, even when they make marginal use of them. It’s hard to tell if an app wants ‘telephony’ for some half baked in-game feature, as a simple error by the coder, or to build some huge, intrusive database back at the mothership.
So I checked. Far out.
I am wrong about Angry Birds. On whatever platform it runs (ie: not just just Apple but Android too), it demands access to location data and who the user is calling. The device still has to be a phone, obviously.
But it's not the worst: Flickr has access to location data, text messages, contacts, who the user is calling, and the camera. And Shazam has the same access as Angry Birds. Facebook and Yahoo? Don't even ask. This is evil.
I've amended the post accordingly. -
Hard News: Who'd have thought?, in reply to linger,
To the extent that these compete for time and resources, evaluation cannot be allowed to trump all other aims.
Which is what has happened in the US, as Jolisa has explained: the shift to "teaching to the test" has tragically dumbed down education itself there.
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Clint Fern,
I also find the Apple OS doesn’t work how I’d like and for my work my system is far more suitable.
I haven't been terribly happy with Lion myself, but switching to Chrome as my default browser has considerably improved matters.
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Dylan Reeve,
The iPad is entirely useless when first purchased (or at least mine was) without iTunes. So immediately to even use the device I have to install that software and accept any terms it requires.
Since iOS5 you can activate and use your iDevice without a PC. You don't even need a wi-fi connection if the device is 3G-capable and Apple changed its updates to a delta format, rather than full packages to lighten the data load.
To continue using the product in the way it’s intended I also have to continue accepting any changes in those terms that Apple chooses to make.
True. If you wish to use iTunes for backup, sync and managing the contents of your device, you'll need to agree to the iTunes T&Cs, and to changes therein. There are software alternatives, but I'm not entirely sure I'd trust a free third-party app.
In this case Brian has found a condition in the terms he doesn’t wish to agree to and as a result the usability of the product the bought and owns outright is seriously compromised. Maybe not to the extent the article applies, but certainly in some ways.
His disagreement was based the belief that editorial apps trick users into purchasing subscriptions, but no example was provided of that happening. I've honestly never seen it myself and it hasn't happened to Brian. The idea that your credit card is debited to the sum of a purchase you've agreed to make doesn't seem unreasonable.
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Here's a case where I do think Apple has behaved badly -- selling an extra year of AppleCare warranty without making it clear to customers that Italian consumer law already requires a standard two-year warranty. They've rightly been slapped.
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Tom Ackroyd,
If I want to update an app on an iPad will the update proceed even if it’s not able to run on the installed iOS?
It would be a bit surprising, given that any installation on MacOS will check for OS compatibility first. But I dunno: maybe.
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Don Christie,
In the end it is consumers like us that are being prevented purchasing devices of our choice…but that has always been Apple’s way, you get to choose, so long as you choose Apple.
Lord forbid anyone should have to defend everything Jobs said: he was eminently capable of being both wrong and an arsehole. I don't like the current patent wars either.
But that wasn't what my post or the original column were about.
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Hard News: The not-so-Evil Empire, in reply to Gareth Ward,
Could you expand on that? I don’t see the hoop and loops of Apple as noticeably more hoopy or loopy than those of Google, Microsoft, Facebook etc?
One day, perhaps, Google will find a way to let my Google Apps profile work with Google+. That would be good.
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