Just to back up Steve Todd...
If my car leaned out it's fuel mixture to give me 60mpg (rather than it's normal 30 under mixed conditions) when at a MIRA test track (as determined by GPS), but nowhere else, that'd be cheating.
If it also adjusted it's fuelling map for more agressive fuelling and removed the timing retardation in first and second gear* when it detected it was at the Bedford Autodrome (to be figured for a car mag), and nowhere else, that would also be cheating.
MPG and 0-60/0-100 times mean little to the average consumer - most people don't hypermile, and most people don't dump the clutch at 4500rpm then bury the throttle to the carpet at traffic lights, either.
But they use those figures to determine the capabilities of the car, particularly against other cars in the same sector which have ostensible been tested under the same conditions. It's just that they didn't adjust their maps based on thier location...
Of course, cars don't do this. Unless they're Ferrari, who regularly provide specifically modified versions of their cars for testing, and burn journos who point it out. http://jalopnik.com/5760248/how-ferrari-spins
To get back to the point, when you have a benchmark that is (rightly or wrongly) being used to determine a devices capabilities against other devices using the same benchmarks, be that combined platform performance of an OEM mobile device, or time around a race circuit, in ways that the consumer cannot easily acheive (if at all - the average consumer, or even prosumer, isn't going to know how to set up adjustable suspension for Donnington Park, nor how to rename their APKs to take advantage of higher thermal limits) then yes, it absolutely is cheating. because most arguments about 'figurable' devices (CPUs, GPUs, cars, etc) refer to benchmarks of some kind, which are supposed to be representative of performance, as evidence.
Of course, all that will happen if tech rags like AT, et al, can't work around this (renaming the packages will only work for so long if the OEMs are serious about gaming the benches) is that benchmarks will becomes effectively meaningless.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
But it's definitely shenanigans, and pretty stupid ones at that. All they respective OEMs would have to do is put a widget on that says 'Fast and Hot' or 'Game Mode' to cause the CPU to be ramped up and thermal limits to be raised for playing games, and boom, controversy over.
Steven R
*no, it's not traction control - it has that too, useless as it is - the car retards timing in first and second gear to 'protect it's driveshafts' and makes it feel anaemic when pulling away. It also knocks a solid second from the 0-60 time, making the car slower than it needs to be. Getting it removed, however, is costly, and frankly, it saves me accidentally lighting the tyres up on wet junctions so I'll leave it be methinks...
PS: Yes, I've had a crap day and am ranting. Normal jocular service will resume at the weekend when I have a working toilet in the house.