From: Gizmodo ~ Five Million Android Users Might Have Fallen Victim to Another Malware Attack

According to Symantec, 13 apps from three developers—many in the official Android Market—have been carrying malicious chunks of code called Android.Counterclank, and are suspected of running on as many as five million phones, stealing info and running ads against the will of the device’s owner.

Google fucks it’s Android users over yet again.

Further notes: Android Central ~ Latest Android Malware Scare Might Be Premature

Android Central disagrees with calling this malware. The hidden trojan code spams your notification bar, hijacks your homepage, hijacks your browser by installing bookmarks to it and forcefully installs a search icon on your screen.

BUT that’s not malware!

There are whole industries built around removing junk like this from your desktop computer but because this is on Android it should not be called malware? What script kiddy said that shit? Read that whole thing for yourself do not just take my word for it. This is supposedly the top Android site around. Look at them sidestepping the real issues and acting all indignant about the use of the term “malware”. Heaven forbid it must be an Apple plot!

This is why I still do not have an Android phone yet.

It’s obvious that from the people creating the OS to the people making the phones to the people “supposedly” monitoring the app store none of these assholes could care less what happens to you or your phone after you buy one.

The key thing to look for is how they blame the user for installing the app despite the fact they know from experience stuff like this will cause your Android phone pretty significant performance issues and no one would do it on purpose. They know the developer does not come right out and clearly explain what these apps really do in hijacking basic functions on your phone but they still have the nerve to justify developers having a right to do this shit to unsuspecting customers. I think most of these guys commenting are actually developers not normal users.

This is not really a problem with Android. It’s a problem with the snobbish “fuck off and die” “you should have known better” attitude that permeates so much of the Android market from the hardware to the apps. Google stays quiet about all of this and does nothing really to stop it since they want to keep these “developers” around because Android developers make very little money as it is but they also want to sell you the user their cheap ass OS too. So I guess the compromise is to simply allow this Wild West “Windows on a phone” style to keep going on in the “official store” where they are even too fucking lazy to post a sign Buyer Beware Because Google Don’t Care!

They also obviously do not scan the apps being sold to you despite continued customer complaints and damage to their reputation.

From: The Verge ~ A good smartphone comes but once a year

I love this graphic. It explains without any words WHY a consumer will get an Android phone for free or for next to nothing but eventually they will pay top dollar to switch to Apple out of pure confusion and relatively poor user experiences and the overall feeling of being ripped off.

Sure Android will “dominate the market” for the simple fact that phone makers flood the damn market pumping out millions of cheap disposable Android phones a year most of which will never actually be sold with the product lifecycle of a fanboy on meth. Just look at all the Android phone versions a single company HTC brought to market this year alone. How many iPhone killers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

It has also been proven again and again that only the most popular models, even though the pictured Android phones are all made by the same company HTC, will be supported properly and updated in a timely manner so choose carefully which one you put your money on. Then expect whatever Android phone model you do end up choosing will be outdated the minute you walk out of the store by the same company that promised you that was their best phone a minute ago.

My advice is only idiots spend any money on Android products whatever the function you want it for so stay as close to getting it for free with your contract as it allows with whatever selection they have and get the biggest screen size with the highest resolution you can find by either HTC or Samsung which tend to be the most popular and decently made.

Just remember it’s not an Apple!

Android setups are not a stable environment to invest any real time or effort or money into. It is never “done” or even out of Beta very long and it will always be better with the next OS version or with the next firmware update or with the next super mega powerful chipset just like Windows/Intel messed with us for years before people wised the hell up and said enough a more powerful chip in a new plastic shell does not make up for crappy software. These tablets and phones will never be worth anything for any length of time and this is plainly the philosophy of Google.

Now look at Apple… Once a year update with something a little bit faster and a little bit better and no surprises and they all function the exact same rock solid way. That’s why Apple is winning in sales of apps and happy repeat customers who keep coming back for the functionality and simplicity and longevity of the product.

Sprint HTC EVO 4G

FREE!

That’s right folks FREE it has a huge 4.3-inch display, snaps pictures with an 8-megapixel sensor, and uses Sprint’s 4G WiMax network and runs Android 2.3. So it’s faster. It has more options than any of those wannabe Android Tablets. Unlike those fake Android tablets it’s supported by Google and runs every Android eBook reading software in existence with NO RESTRICTIONS.

And unlike those other fools YOU don’t have to sell your soul to Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Kobo. You are just replacing your old cell phone with a bigger better one for FREE. Got that, FREE.

Fuck Nook & Kindle for FREE! Offer says it ends the 14th. Keep an eye out for other great deals on huge phones like this. They should be in the works since AT&T and Verizon have not come up with anything yet.

From: Phone Arena ~ Samsung Galaxy Nexus Review

Listen, I am going to repeat myself yet again here…

BEFORE I would waste a single penny on a Kindle Fire or a brain dead Kobo touchie feelie tab or whatever cheapo wannabe Android Tablet you might want to talk about buying for two or three hundred dollars…

I would go down to my local Verizon headquarters with the best 4G system that already services my cell phone and get one of these Google/Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones on one of those nice deals where I would be blowing that two or three hundred dollars on some thing practical and useful and with a Super AMOLED HD screen, Dual-Core 1.2GHz processor, HSDPA, 5MP camera and a fucking 4.65 inches HIGH resolution of 720 x 1280, giving a ppi of 316!!!!

Unlike Amazon or B&N everything about this baby is fully and totally supported by big daddy Google. Those other ripoffs cannot say a single word about that because Google would have them on toast.

Amazon is not giving you that kind of techy cutting edge hardware for no two hundred god damned dollars and here Samsung/Verizon, for what looks like is going to be just 99 bucks more than the Kindle Fire for signing, wants to pack your little holiday shopping cart up with the latest greatest tech available on the planet.

4.65 inches of high definition color and hell that size screen is only an inch or so off from that midget Sony eInk reader and for about the same god damned price Sony STILL wants for that bad business decision. What do they call it now… A Wi-Fi-cking Bother?

I swear, they do fleece the suckers so easily with the whole “distracting you from comparing their cheaply made broken junk with multi-functioning dependable cell phone based devices that actually work” when it comes to this shit.

If you want a tablet buy an Apple iPad period end of discussion. Anyone telling you the iPad is not the best tablet available on the market at any price range is flat out lying to your face. If you can’t “afford” one then don’t buy a tablet go buy a BIG screen Android smart phone where the cell phone company is subsidizing most of the cost but don’t act like buying cheaply made hacked up junk only teenage script-kiddy hackers can make fully functional or Google cannot support directly with OS updates is practical, thrifty, or smart.

Only complete idiots would recommend you do something like that.

Oh, and my big ass bank I work for is gearing their ENTIRE mobile support platform on Apple and Blackberry because Android and Windows phone makers have no cohesive “SECURITY hardware features” offered across the board unlike the fruit salad twins Apple or Blackberry who build hardware based SECURITY into every single phone they make. You know that silly Find My iPhone app? Yeah, guess what that is… remote tracking and remote shutdown and wipe the private data out. Once your phone gets stolen you want it to forget everything you have told it and play dead on command at the hardware level.

Corporate Security gold standard there! Apple keeps your data safe and secure.

That should tell you where Apple is going to kill Microsoft and Google next (Security Dependent Corporate Platforms) and the big guys have only themselves and their lame ass “using cheapskate third party hardware makers to sell their flash infested battery killing OS” to blame. Maybe Microsoft should just buy Blackberry outright and integrate RIM directly into the Exchange Server platform and get some secure mobile technology on top of all that.

Whoops! Looks like Blackberry just got caught selling their noted security features out in the Carrier IQ spyware shit storm now happening.

Why do people buy this crap? WHY?
You are buying a underpowered tablet that has a hacked up cobbled together version of Google Android that “out of the box” denies you the ability to download from the Google App Store… Yeah, I am going there. These tablets by not having access to the Google App Store or using a vanilla install of Android as such are not supported officially by Google at all ever… because they are pieces of CRAP!

Do I need to be more blunt?

The only reason anyone is talking about this pile of trash harkening back to the old consumer debt based “Company Store” is they are being sold for $200 and no one mentions they all require severe hacking by some teenager living in his mom’s basement to get them even close to being “real” Android Tablets if that is what you wanted in the first place.

Listen, I convinced my boss to buy an iPad2 and you know what he told me yesterday? He cannot live without it. I convinced my dad to buy an iPad2 and you know what he did last week? He bought an iPhone 4s because that is how much he loves his iPad2. I do not get the feeling that any of these cheap hacked up fake Android Tablets are going to do it for people like the full on iPad experience.

If you want a tablet, buy a fucking tablet. The best is the Apple end of story there is not a single piece of proof out there to say otherwise. If you want to save money I already told you the secret is to buy the wi-fi only edition of the iPad2 because you can get better deals on cellphone data plans and better connection speeds to boot using one of those new stand alone 4G wi-fi boxes.

If for some irrational reason you still want to waste money on a half baked Android Tablet buy one that is at least fucking supported by Google the maker of the OS because it is not like either of these book sellers has any history or exemplary track record supporting their junk equipment in the long run.

Here! An Asus eee Pad Transformer for $400! Asus is a known powerhouse of a computer company and this doohicky will likely go on sale this holiday season maybe a bit closer to $300 and you can buy it from Best Buy with one of their awesome extended warranty plans. It has a complete install of Honeycomb and it works with the Google App Store “out of the box” like it was built to from the get go and it is cheap “in tablet terms” and it is “the real thing” without some online slumlord channeling ONLY THEIR CRAP for you to buy everytime you use it. It’s a no brainer, cheap Asus versus crappy Kindle, go Asus!

Quit with the penny wise, dollar foolish shit OK? Buying dumbed down products for consumer zombies willing to sell their souls to some online merchant is stupid. Practical is not pinching pennies on throw away junk. It’s getting the most for your money from a decently built setup with an OS that you know is supported by a major company with a computing background like say Google.

Hackintoshes are an example of being practical and saving money by using known exploits in an OS which ends up working exactly the same as any iMac or MacPro by slapping together just the right “off the shelf” brand name computer parts.

A Kindle Fire on the other hand is an example of fooling yourself into believing some fly-by-night cheapo sleazy hype by a glorified bottom of the barrel “dollar bin” book seller trying to pawn off “fake” Android look-alikes as if they were “real”. Amazon, a modern day snake oil salesman if there ever was one. Jeff Bezos always struck me as the anti-Steve Jobs.

Um yeah, so the Samsung Galaxy Tab is now blocked from sales in Europe and Austrailia by Apple lawsuits. Seems Samsung made their tablet a little too much like an iPad.

Sprint just dropped their version of the Blackberry Playbook. I guess that should say something about sales of that tablet.

Dell is killing their 5 inch Streak. That was their big deal for this year.

It looks like the year of the iPad 2 killers is not turning out that way. I expect even more tablets to stop production or become severely hard to find much like all those non-Kindle/Nook/Kobo eInk devices have been disappearing off the shelves.

As I keep saying over and over again… Stick with the really successful and well supported big screen HTC Android phones available from several carriers if you want to go Android and of course the iPad2 if you are looking for a tablet.

UPDATE! HP DUMPS WebOS!

OMG folks! WebOS was a brilliant competing mobile OS for Apples iOS. The fact HP could not make a go of it means that we will be seeing some severe shake ups going on soon. It looks like Apple could be seeing long term domination of the mobile market as far as a totally original mobile OS not based on ripping off Oracle/Java, Microsoft/Windows or Apple’s work like Google did with Android. Now that Google is buying a cell phone maker they will now be open to direct lawsuits and with such big players in the mix I expect Google to see some big problems coming their way.

From: ZDNet ~ Malware sneaks by Google’s Android Market gatekeepers again

Android is the new Windows.

Which means once you buy it you are responsible to keep it secure because it’s not like Google really cares if you get ripped off since they only remove problems after the people get screwed by their market place. So 26 more apps have been found to contain malware from the same guys that gave us DroidDream which will root your device and grab your information if it can.

I would also take a quick look at Lookout which is an Android security app and information provider and seems to stay on top of these Android security problems better than Google.

You should not have to jump through hoops like this just to read eBooks on an Android device but oh well you get what you pay for.

Samsung ~ Infuse 4G From AT&T

THIS is what I would be looking at if I wanted an Android Tablet this year…
4,5 Inches of 480×800 Super AMOLED Plus display
1.2 GHz processor

It’s a phone and an super slick Android mini-tablet eBook Reader that will fit in your purse.
Best of all your work might get you one as a business oriented cell phone.
Yeah baby! You heard me use the magic words… business expense!

After years of using Firefox and I mean YEARS both for work and for play I have finally had enough.

I just updated to Firefox 4 and um NO… Time to switch to Google Chrome!

Not that Chrome is all that. I mean Google built a whole freaking browser and forgot to do things like include the stupid Google Toolbar. No! I mean it, that is how brain damaged Google can be.

Their own fucking highly loved Toolbar and they totally forgot to stick it in their browser!

I have finally come to the realization Firefox is just another bloated slow frustrating beast like Flash Player and I really do not know exactly why but it has become that way and no, I will never seriously use Safari on a Mac beyond installation or patching the OS and then only IF I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TOO.

Let’s face it, Safari is a hot mess with far too many security issues and year after year it never seems to get any better. And it is not like Apple has not been warned to get lost with their crappy excuses about it all.

Hell, we don’t even officially test with it at work because we think it is such a lost cause of a browser and we are a big internet using company. Apple just cannot seem to clean up that group of perpetual slackers at Safari. They should probably just dump the whole crew and start over from the ground up they might do better and have a more secure product in the long run.

In the end I like having the same browser in whatever OS I am using for whatever reason and Chrome provides that cross platform goodness. I just wanted to finally admit Chrome is just all around faster on a Mac even if I do not like the fact it does not seem quite as straight forward or smooth to use as Firefox.

Google finally won me over with a more nimble Chrome.

Teddypig wrings his hands in anticipation of say a $199 dollar Xoom or well…

With the coming Android Tablet glut all the actual mega FAIL price possibilities will be endless this year and cheap. Really really cheap. Maybe even free (As in Nook door prizes because Barnes & Noble can not seem to update one of those underpowered Android no name “who knows who actually made it” tablets they slapped together without messing up the wifi and when THEY fuck it up with one of their updates you the customer have to send it back to one of their third world factories just to fix it. HILARIOUS!) but definitely disgustingly horribly failtastically cheap.

I will so love picking over the corpse of all the iPad wannabes from this year when all is said and done. It was always about having all those useful and money making iOS apps you hardware humping losers!