Or you can read the warning and decide....

If you ever need to install useless applications, why would you carry on installing after noticing the piriviliges required?

I understand that ease of use is important but taking clueless beings as lowest common denominator is certainly not the way to go forward. A little bit common sense and responsibility should be required instead of policing the marketplace.

Re: The Scourge of the Internet -- China

Numpty.....

1. China has the largest population in the world, around 1.3 billion people, so it's likely that you'll get more of everything from a place that there's more than anyone.

2. Acording to Sophos, China is numer 2 in the league table of countries that host the most malware and spam relays, however, number 1 is the USA doing 10% more than China (http://www.sophos.com/report2007) which isn't bad for a country with less than a quarter the population (per capita, the states is 5x worse than China).

Saying "Nobody does more to give the shaft to web surfers than Chinese people" is just plain stupid, nasty (and ignorantly racist), it's as stupid as saying "on average people in this world have less than one testicle each", while it might have a basis in statistical accuracy you cannot make such a sweeping judgement about "Chinese People".

Troo dat

Every country in the world runs the entire gamut of human behavior.

Crass (and racist) generalizations about people are the stuff of simpletons and trolls.

Not possible to.....

.....express it better than you have just done. Loads of kudos - agree completely.

If we all pulled together on this one

we could get more men to carry donor cards, preserve their testicles (in formaldehyde, or possibly aspic?) post-mortem and donate them to the poor. How long would it be until EVERYBODY had one?

I admit I do feel a little guilty because I'm married to a man with three.

(The heart should be golden).

If you get into bed with Apple...

you are going to get royally shafted...

simples

So...

I'm not allowed to sleep with my antique Babe the Pig plush anymore?

What is the world coming to!

Sorry?

What;' this got to do with Apple, it's is about an Android app problem isn't it?

Jeez, just cos it has a big A at the beginning you Apple-haters just suddenly stop reading once you hit an upper-case A?

@wang N Staines

"If there is no control and vetting of apps then stay away from the platform."

You mean like Windows, Linux, Mac and pretty much every platform going?

Google and Apple do vet the apps that appear on their market places but there will always be a chance something nasty slips through. Unlike Apple, Android gives a warning when installing every app about what it is allowed to access.

Of course I'm forgetting that Steve Jobs is actually the second coming of Jesus and can fix an iphone 4's reception with just a touch of his hand...

Yeah, well....

....if you're not clever enough to play out in the real world, the walled garden is probably the best place for you.

GJC

RE: Steve Jobs [...] can fix an iphone 4's reception with just a touch of his hand..

I'm pretty sure touching it with your hand is what fucks it up it the first place...

As most users aren't.

Assuming, by 'clever', you mean have an awareness of software security.

Don't forget, most users aren't technically gifted, something that people in technical roles (particularly developers in their ivory towers) often forget.

Malicious?

I would agree to 'untrustworthy'. But the behaviour is the sort of thing I'd expect from the Chinese State, and given what looks - to me anyway - like the largely successful indoctrination of its subjects, and particularly, perhaps, of those allowed to conduct business legally, I wouldn't necessarily ascribe malicious intent to this. More the distorted ethics of a brainwashed region.

@Cameron

Yes, it does - every app install tells the user in quite plain language which permissions the application requires, and needs a positive confirmation before proceeding.

Never overestimate the reach and power of human stupidity, however.

GJC

To Spacca and Admin......

...Interesting and common sense. I appreciate your postings.

Arctic Fox

Usual 'dig at apple' response....*yawn*

So you read every little EULA, disclaimer and small print that passes in front of you. Gee, what an exciting life you must lead.

Personally, I like to get on with my life, therefore, I like certain devices and platforms to just work. Generally, Apple achieves this (new OS issues and design flaw on the 4G accepted), at the cost of certain freedoms. For my needs from a phone, this is a fair trade. On a desktop, it is not, ergo, I use a PC, not a Mac.

Calling people 'stupid' because they don't have a technical understanding (or even a need to be such), or choose a platform that you don't like for whatever reason is the sort of thing I'd expect from the narrow minded. Surely, you aren't that, you appear to be very well read (at least with regards to security disclaimers, EULA etc etc).....

Erm... no.

Roints off for the farcical comparison, by the way. A EULA is a legal form with all the length and relevance to daily life implicit in such a thing. A permissions list should be easily readable and take one screen. If they have any resemblance to each other, the coders need to be spoken to sharply.

As Snow Crash put it, guns have come to paradise, But people are not making the mental switch yet that anytime you have something that you can put things into, some of it may be shoddy, malicious, or just utter crap. ... Wait, when did I start talking about internet postings? >_> <_< >_>

It's perfectly possible to make a much better phish, a social networking aggregator app, for example. Pick one: 1) Walled garden. Relatively little worrying about security with the occasional slipthrough. 2) Wide open. Think about security or get burned worse than if you are. 3) Take away the ability to add functionality to a phone.

Wallpapers

Android aupports active wallpapers, where the pictures move. Utterly pointless IMHO, but some people seem to like them.

GJC

Utterly pointless, but some people seem to like them

Into that category, I will happily put Androids, iPhones, Twitter accounts, Fleabay customer services staff, personalised number plates, skinny lattes, lads mags, and most of the paraphernalia of modern 'life'.