Android allows apps to see your photos, like every computer does [FUD]

Gallery is for spiez

Let's file this under "anything for a story about Android". The New York Times has decided that Android is also "vulnerable" to apps being able to see your pictures, just like it was designed to do. It all stems from some press recently where iOS had a loophole that allowed apps without permissions to access photos stored on a user's mobile device. There is a big difference here though, and it's in the design. 

iOS was designed so that nothing but the gallery on your device, or iTunes had access to your pictures. Developers that had to access GPS data could get in the Camera Roll, because a lot of pictures have and use GPS data. Rene does a really good job at explaining this over at iMore, and you should read it. Personally, I didn't think it was a severe security hole on iOS, but it was a loophole that Apple decided to fix. That's good -- if you're going to have a permissions policy on a certain part of the file system, you should enforce it. Even a silly permissions policy.

Android, on the other hand, was not designed this way. It's like a Windows computer. Or a Mac computer. Or a Linux computer. Or a digital camera. Even the computer used to write the story at the NYT allows complete access to photos -- they all do. It's standard file input/output, and just because Apple decided not to use it makes no difference. It doesn't stop there, either. Documents, videos, music, all media is able to be shared in a modern operating system. I can use Microsoft Office and see the pictures folder on every computer here at my house, because it was designed that way. It makes things easy to use and share, because we like to use and share digital media.

Unfortunately, all the fuss over "private" data lately has even Google second guessing themselves:

We originally designed the Android photos file system similar to those of other computing platforms like Windows and Mac OS. At the time, images were stored on a SD card, making it easy for someone to remove the SD card from a phone and put it in a computer to view or transfer those images.

 

As phones and tablets have evolved to rely more on built-in, non-removable memory, we're taking another look at this and considering adding a permission for apps to access images. We've always had policies in place to remove any apps on Android Market that improperly access your data.

This could just be PR spin, or Google really may have to make things harder for us all because of silliness. I don't want this, I'm assuming that most of you guys don't want this either. Do yourself a favor, and don't fall into this trap.

Source: New York Times

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/3HNoBQknFLU/story01.htm

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DM1: Drum Machines May Have No Soul, but This One Has Brains

"Drum machine." For some musicians and music lovers, the words alone can cause utter and complete revulsion. Why, they say, should such an abomination be allowed to exist? These glorified metronomes sound tinny, require no coordination, cheapen the art of percussion and in general have no soul or humanity about them -- so the argument goes.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/74514.html

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Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5

torus
As far as Tetris goes, most variations look quite similar. You're usually looking at a "wall" of bricks directly from the front. Torus takes that notion and throws it away; as you might have guessed from the name (or screenshot), this Tetris clone is played on a ring-like 3D surface.

You rotate the ring itself with the arrow keys, while a Tetris-like piece slowly (excruciatingly slowly, in fact) descends from the top. As soon as you make a solid line, it disappears.

Not all pieces are Tetris-like; some of them wouldn't really work with a regular Tetris game but are a good fit for Torus' 3D format.

Torus is ideal for playing at the office, because it has absolutely no soundtrack. The game is dead-quiet. It's also very very slow (slow enough for me to mention it twice in one post) so you can safely look away for a moment and then keep playing. Also, as soon as the game loses focus, it automatically pauses.

Bottom line: It's an impressive demo of the power of HTML5; if it were a bit faster, it would have some serious addictive potential.

Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/17/torus-is-an-impressive-3d-tetris-game-powered-by-html5/

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Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5

torus
As far as Tetris goes, most variations look quite similar. You're usually looking at a "wall" of bricks directly from the front. Torus takes that notion and throws it away; as you might have guessed from the name (or screenshot), this Tetris clone is played on a ring-like 3D surface.

You rotate the ring itself with the arrow keys, while a Tetris-like piece slowly (excruciatingly slowly, in fact) descends from the top. As soon as you make a solid line, it disappears.

Not all pieces are Tetris-like; some of them wouldn't really work with a regular Tetris game but are a good fit for Torus' 3D format.

Torus is ideal for playing at the office, because it has absolutely no soundtrack. The game is dead-quiet. It's also very very slow (slow enough for me to mention it twice in one post) so you can safely look away for a moment and then keep playing. Also, as soon as the game loses focus, it automatically pauses.

Bottom line: It's an impressive demo of the power of HTML5; if it were a bit faster, it would have some serious addictive potential.

Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/17/torus-is-an-impressive-3d-tetris-game-powered-by-html5/

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Google Has Trouble Snagging Eyeballs, Report Claims

New figures from comScore echo what many Google+ critics have been saying for the past few months. Google+ seems to be good at signing up users for its network, in large part due to its strategy of integrating its other products to the network. However, these users, which now number 90 million, don't stick around to actually use the network, according to the data.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/74528.html

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EU: Google's new privacy policy breaches European law

EU: Google's new privacy policy breaches European law
Remember how proud Google was when it unified all of its services under a single privacy policy? Well, Big G's excitement was tempered when the EU asked it to hold off on the policy's implementation while it investigated the changes. And its enthusiasm is likely all but extinguished now that EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has declared the policy to be in breach of European law. She found fault with the fact that the EU wasn't consulted in the policy's formation, the policy doesn't meet transparency requirements, and it allows Google to give people's private data to third parties. No word on what Europa's governing body will do with such findings in hand, but it seems certain that the crew in Mountain View's got some policy revisions to make. Guess simplifying those privacy policies wasn't so simple, was it?

EU: Google's new privacy policy breaches European law originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/eu-googles-new-privacy-policy-breaches-european-law/

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Sprint's Kyocera DuraPlus coming March 11th for $70, hopes you like it tough

Exactly one month after unveiling this Military 810G-approved ruggedized handset, Sprint's stamping an official release date and price on it. Those of you who don't appreciate delicate swiping-and-tapping will be able to grab Kyocera's new DuraPlus for a mere $70 -- after a $50 mail-in rebate and with the standard two-year signing -- on March 11th. The device is the newest addition to the rugged Dura family, joining the likes of the DuraMax and DuraCore. To give you a quick brain-refresh, the DuraPlus can take a dive down to three feet underwater and stay submerged for about half an hour. It can withstand dust, shock and "extreme temperatures" while also giving you access to those Now Network bits you're so fond of: Direct and Group Connect. Now, be sure to send us those drop test vids if you buy one -- we have all day for that stuff.

Continue reading Sprint's Kyocera DuraPlus coming March 11th for $70, hopes you like it tough

Sprint's Kyocera DuraPlus coming March 11th for $70, hopes you like it tough originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nH2-tjxqhKE/

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview hits one million downloads in a day

How pumped are consumers about the release of a Windows 8 preview that they can call their own? Quite, according the million downloads the build has marked in just a day. That number comes from Microsoft's Building Windows Twitter account -- of course, it's important to note that the number doesn't necessarily mean one million individuals downloaded Consumer Preview. Still, not bad for a day's work.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview hits one million downloads in a day originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/iZAmtQ5STJQ/

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Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google Blogger Mosaic Dynamic View
Google, as part of its ongoing and much-needed overhaul of its popular Blogger platform, has just enabled five dynamic, HTML5ish, AJAXy 'Dynamic Views'. There's a video introducing the new layouts after the break.

The five new views provide fresh and interesting ways to explore your favorite Blogger blogs. The Mosaic view, for example, creates a wall of thumbnails -- click one, and it zooms to fill the screen; click it again and it minimizes. Flipcard is similar to Mosaic, but not quite as eclectic. Sidebar, Timeslide and Snapshot round off the new views, with each one obviously targeted at different types of content, from photo blogs, to text-only philosophy blogs, and everything in between.

For now, you have to visit a Blogger blog and add /view to the URL to enable the new Dynamic Views. If you own a Blogger blog, you can disable the new views -- and really, why weren't they disabled by default?

If feedback is positive -- which we're sure it will be -- these Dynamic Views will soon be enabled by default. You'll also be able to edit the views in much the same way as current Blogger templates.

Continue reading Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-blogger-platform-introduces-five-new-html5-dynamic-views/

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The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET!

While the rest of the staff toils away in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, Tim and Brian will be holding things down in the New York City studio. Michael Gorman will be joining us via Skype -- and you can join along too in the chat after the break.

Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET!

The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/01/the-engadget-podcast-live-at-5-00pm-et/

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