A group of mobile security researchers say they have discovered a vulnerability in many mobile apps running on iOS that could allow a hacker to hijack the information being provided to a mobile device when used over an unsecured WiFi network. [More]
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Amazon Wriggles Its Way Around Apple’s Restrictions With Update To Kindle iOS App
By 7.31.13
It’s kind of like that song lyric, “Do a little dance, make a little love/get down tonight.” Except in this case the little dance is Amazon’s tricky runaround of Apple’s app restrictions, the love-making is a free sample of an e-book and getting down tonight is well, reading, I suppose. Amazon has pulled off a neat trick with its latest update to the Kindle iOS app in order to skirt Apple’s rules about in-app purchases.
Did Your Kid Make In-App Purchases On Your iPhone Without Asking? You Might Be Due Some Cash From Apple
By 6.24.13
A couple years back, Apple came under fire from parents and regulators after reports that kids were making in-app purchases, sometimes to the tune of four figures, on their folks’ iPhones and iPads. The company has since changed its policy to prevent children from draining their parents’ wallets in this fashion, but that didn’t stop the class-action lawsuit from the people who’d lost money before the policy change. [More]
![[I Don't Want Your F***ing App]](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tumblr_mm2vg8oomh1spd2y3o1_500.png?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
If I Wanted Your Bleeping App, I Would Have Bleeping Downloaded It
By 5.13.13
Part of the appeal of having a proper smartphone is that you can point my mobile browser at a website and look at it. You can even look at sites that aren’t designed for mobile phones…well, as long as they aren’t Flash-based. One annoyance of browsing the interweb with a smartphone is that every site and its cousin has its own proprietary mobile app, and they want you to download it. One person finally became annoyed enough with getting nagged to install unwanted apps that they began cataloging screenshots. [More]
How To Avoid Handing Your Tot A Blank Check Made Out To Apple
By 3.19.13
Maybe you sneer at posts such at this one about a five-year-old who bought $2,500 worth of digital cars in mere minutes, or this one about a child who spent $1,400 on Smurfberries on her parents’ iPad. You’d never be so stupid as to hand a child a device with the password already entered and ready to go. Jamie might have said the same thing…until she did. [More]
Chubby Checker Suing Over Male Endowment Measuring App For Obvious Reasons
By 2.13.13
Warning: once you’ve read what we’re about to say, you’ll never be able to think of legendary singer Chubby Checker the same way. The man behind “The Twist” is suing the makers of an app that measures a man’s endowment, anatomy-wise, because well, he doesn’t want to be associated with that particular piece of equipment. [More]
Great… Now There’s Android Malware That Can Infect Your PC & Turn It Into A Listening Device
By 2.4.13
In general, the malware relationship between PCs and mobile devices has been a one-way street, with infected computers passing on their digital disease to their mobile mates. But now come reports of at least two infected Android apps whose malware heads in the other direction. [More]
Apple Pulls Photo Apps From App Store Because It Doesn’t Want You Seeing Any Nudie Pics
By 1.23.13
While what you do with your smartphone in the privacy of your own home is totally your business, Apple has a strict policy against pornographic images, or really, any nude photos being searchable on applications made for iOS. As such it has issued a smackdown against two of Canadian company 500px’s popular photo-sharing apps, pulling them from its app store citing nudie shenanigans. [More]
Capital One Android App Traps My Phone In Infinite Updateless Loop
By 12.17.12
David’s Android smartphone, a Galaxy S, is still working just fine. It just has one problem: he can’t upgrade it to a newer version of the Android operating system. He’s stuck on 2.2. So what? It doesn’t affect him all that much except for how his bank’s app requires a newer version of Android than that. His phone gets stuck in a loop of being unable to update. [More]
FTC: Mobile Apps Made For Kids Are Secretly Collecting Info On Minors, Sharing It
By 12.10.12
The Federal Trade Commission has been doing some digging around to make sure kids on the Internet are protected and has subsequently come up with some shocking news. Most of the mobile apps the agency checked out by way of the Google Play and the Apple App store are not only gathering info from kids without parents’ knowledge or their permission, they’re also sharing it. [More]
New York Times All-Access Digital Subscription Means ‘Except Your Android Smartphone’
By 6.11.12
Mark enjoys the New York Times, and is happy to support their superior acts of journalism in a modern way with a digital subscription. This subscription would allow him all-you-can-read access from computers, tablets, smartphones…you name it. He owns an iPad and an Android phone, and tried to set up Times apps on both devices. The Android version refused to work, even when he reinstalled the app. His emails about the problem were answered but evidently not read. He decided to cancel his subscription…which is when the final insult came about. They offered to extend his subscription for a dollar, but ended up shortening it instead. [More]
Why Do App Developers Release iPhone Versions First?
By 5.2.12
Even though there are still significantly more smartphones running some version of the Android operating system, it’s not uncommon to see developers come out with an app for iPhone users weeks or months before they release anything for Android. What’s up with that? [More]
Want To Spy On Your Friends' Bank Accounts? Lend Them Your iPhone!
By 4.12.12
Letting someone borrow your iPhone to log in to their bank’s app quickly, then log back out is no big deal, right? Like letting a friend borrow your computer to check their web-based e-mail. They log in, they log out, they leave no trace. Unless it’s Chase’s iPhone app. Then you get all of their account alerts, no matter what you do. (Short of deleting the app, we assume.) [More]
Apple Removes App That Let Users Make Fake Driver's Licenses
By 12.12.11
Well, that was quick. On Friday, we wrote about the iOS app that allowed users to craft fake driver’s licenses — for the sole purpose of entertaining and amusing their friends, of course — and how one U.S. Senator had appealed to Apple CEO Tim Cook to have it removed from Apple’s online store. Looks like that may have been sufficient, as the app has is no longer on sale. [More]
3 Free Apps For Your Kindle Fire
By 11.17.11
If you sprung for a Kindle Fire this week, you’re probably looking for apps to feed your e-reading, web-surfing, movie-watching tablet. But because the device is so new it’s not immediately clear which downloads you need. [More]
Walmart Launching 3500 Store-Specific Facebook Pages To Promo Local Deals
By 10.12.11
The one major criticism I’ve always leveled at Walmart is that the chain is just too small. If they were really doing things right, all our cities would be enclosed and connected in one long continuous Walmart where all our desires can be met at everyday low prices. To edge closer to that utopia, Walmart is launching several new Facebook pages. 3,500 of them. Each is pegged to a specific local store and will serve up deals just for that store. [More]
Google Wallet Smartphone App Launches With Visa, MasterCard Inside
By 9.20.11
Google’s vision of having cell phone customers buy stuff with their smartphones at cash registers is becoming reality. The Google Wallet app, which allows compatible devices to use their virtual credit cards to make purchases, has gone live. Visa and MasterCard are currently on board, and Google says future updates will include American Express and Discover. [More]
