News Analysis: Google’s Android platform is a relatively secure operating system. It has a number of features that make it a fine alternative to the iPhone. But it’s important for users to understand just how Google built security into the mobile operating system.

The debate over which mobile platform—iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile or BlackBerry—is best might rage for hours. Everything is subjective. But it’s security that may matter most when considering a mobile phone.

Will the phone provide the kind of security required when important data is transmitted from the desktop to the mobile device? That’s a question that can’t be so easily answered with a yes or no.

That’s why it’s so important to consider each mobile platform’s security on a case-by-case basis. The iPhone has received the most accolades. But Google’s Android platform is circling in the background. Slowly but surely, Google’s software is gaining steam. It’s becoming a much bigger player in the mobile market. And all the while, it has maintained a relatively high level of security.

Let’s take a look at why it’s so secure.

1. Open source

Open-source software tends to be more secure than closed software. That’s mainly due to the nature of open source: The community works together to improve software. It’s a great concept. And unlike Microsoft and Apple, it’s a concept that Google and its partners have embraced. Open source is a key to security victory.

2. Multiprocess software

Rather than running each application in one process, Google’s Android platform is multiprocess software, so that each application runs within its own process. Thanks to that, Google can ensure that no application gains access to critical components of system software.

3. Say hello to Linux

Linux is an extremely secure operating system. And it just so happens that Google’s Android platform is based on Linux. The operating system has several features such as user and group IDs that help keep application data away from core software processes. Linux is a major reason why Google’s Android platform has enjoyed relative security to this point.

4. Access restrictions

Access restrictions are central to the security of any operating system. In Android, no application has permission to perform operations that could harm the operating system. The same architecture keeps those applications from running harmful scripts that affect other applications or the user. Thanks to that feature, users know that their sensitive data won’t be touched by unauthorized applications.

5. Sign this, please

If trouble breaks out, knowing who wrote a particular application not only helps users identify the culprit, but also ensures that in the future that source won’t be trusted. All Android applications require a signature unique to the application’s developer. The result is twofold: it assigns a level of culpability to poorly designed software and it helps determine access to signature-based permissions. That combines to make attackers think twice about specifically targeting Android.

6. The Google element

Google has shown time and again that it is focused on user security. Its history is marked by an understanding of Web users and what they want from a service. That model has made its way to Android. Google’s mobile platform reflects the company’s understanding of how users will interact with the software. It adapts to that, which, in the end, makes for a more secure operating system.

7. It enlists users’ help

Too often, software developers wait until they find holes in their operating systems to patch them. Google doesn’t. The company makes its Android security e-mail address readily available on its site. If users have found a potential security flaw, they can e-mail the Android Security team. Whether or not the team actually investigates the issues is unknown. But soliciting information from users could help Google find issues sooner.

8. Asking for permission

A key component in any software security strategy starts with permission. When malicious programs are running, they rarely want to ask for permission to start. Android requires all applications without proper signatures to ask the user for permission to run. That feature alone cuts down on the number of security instances affecting the platform. If a user doesn’t want a particular program to run, he or she can stop it before it has a chance to wreak havoc on the device.

9. Media holes

One of the most common ways attackers gain entry to a mobile phone is through audio and video running in a Web browser. To limit the impact those files might have, Google forces them to run on an outside media server. Therefore, malicious files cannot gain access to cookies or user credentials. Considering that some folks use their browsers to check bank accounts or view information from the workplace, that’s a welcome feature.

10. Google gets the Web

If Google is good at anything, it’s scouring the Web to help users find what they’re looking for. That also helps the company identify potential threats coming from the Web and, in the process, limit their effect on its mobile operating system. That’s a key component in Android’s security. By knowing the threats that exist on the Web, Google is one step ahead of its counterparts. And, in the end, that could mean all the difference to the security of its platform.

By: Don Reisinger

[via eWEEK]

Jack Wallen has jumped on the Android bandwagon in a big way. Find out which features won him over.

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I recently switched from my AT&T iPhone to Sprint’s HTC Hero. Now although the Hero is not a pure Android phone (it’s the HTC Sense, which is a modified form of Android), it gives the same experience that Android gives (only with an HTC “bent” to the package). Through this phone, I have come to once again enjoy my mobile experience. There are so many differences between the iPhone and the Hero, so many aspects of the Hero to really help you get your mobile geek on. But for the purposes of this article, I had to pick just 10. So I have narrowed it down to those aspects that really make the experience different from that of the iPhone.

We all know the iPhone, know how it works (or doesn’t work, in many instances). We know there is an app for just about every possible task on the planet. But an Android phone? You don’t really know an Android phone until you’ve worked with one. That’s when you’ll find how far you can push your mobile experience.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Browsing

Let me first say I do like the Safari browser on the iPhone. It’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s stable. But flexible? Flash? Monopolistic? Yes Safari is the only browser for the iPhone, and that browser still does not do Flash. However, the Android browser is one of the best browsers on the mobile market. On my HTC Hero, I have Opera Mini, Dolphin, and the default Browser. I haven’t used Opera Mini since I used it a couple of times upon installation. Dolphin is outstanding, with its use of Tabs and Gestures. But the default Android browser just can’t be beat. It usually loads pages faster than Safari, has Flash support, and simply does everything a browser should do.

2: Desktop

Instead of just having icons littering your phone’s desktop (like the iPhone), the Android phone adds widgets to the desktop. These widgets tend to have an actual purpose. For example:

• The Twitter Widget allows you to update your Twitter status from your mobile desktop.
• The People Widget allows you to enable different actions for different contacts right from your desktop (say you want to call your wife with a single click and text your child from a single click).
• The Messages Widget allows you to instantly see your email from the desktop.

The Android desktop is on a completely different level from the iPhone desktop. To compare them is actually unfair. Apples to Éclairs as it were.

3: Connectivity

On one of the “pages” of my Hero desktop, I have four buttons:

• Turn on/off bluetooth
• Turn on/off Wifi
• Turn on/off Mobile Network
• Turn on/off GPS

These buttons let you instantly switch on or off the various connectivity options, which will go a long way toward conserving battery life. There is also an app in the Market called Y5, which will turn off Wi-Fi automatically when no known wireless network is available. To do any of this on the iPhone, you have to go into the Settings screen and navigate your way around the various options.

4: PC connection

Unlike the iPhone, you don’t need to have iTunes to manage your phone. Now, I say this with a bit of a chewed-up tongue because Android can’t sync with the Linux desktop yet. That’s okay for now. But Android can mount the SD card so that it is usable (via drag and drop) by any operating system. On this you can add music and files, which will then be usable on the phone. Simple.

5: Multi-notification

One of the issues I’ve always had with the iPhone is its notification system. Basically, it depends upon a single system that not all applications have access too. For instance, if you are a Twitterer, you can find out if you have updates only by opening the Twitter app on the iPhone. With Android, the apps have access to the notification system and can all report. The notification bar on the Android phone can alert you to new voice messages, email messages, Facebook notifications, new Gmail, new text messages, and much more. If an app has a notification, it can let you know quickly, and in the background.

6: Endless personalization

I hesitate to place this on the list because so many readers seem to think user-configuration is worthless. It’s not. The Android phone allows users to configure their mobile to look and behave exactly how they want it. If you’re a social network power user, you can have a screen for Facebook, one for Twitter, one for texting, and one for Flickr. Or if you are a business user, you can have a screen for contacts, for your calendar, for gmail, for email, for RSS, and more. Not only can you configure the desktop the way you want, you can configure the behavior of your phone. Set up default actions for different contacts — even add an entirely different desktop, should you want. The possibilities are endless with the Android phone. With the iPhone, you’re pretty much limited to what Apple says.

7: Market

Yes, Apple has an app for that. But so does Android. And chances are, the Android app is free and works as well (or better) than the iPhone app. And, believe it or not, there are thousands of apps in the Android Market. Apple does not (at least yet) have a patent on an application for just about everything. Give it time though. And installing applications on your Android phone is actually easier than it is on the iPhone. For free applications, you don’t have to worry about entering a password every time you try to install anything. And you do not have to link to Apple’s iTunes store to purchase applications from the Android Market. For those apps that have a price, you enter your information on the Google Market one time and you’re done.

8: Google integration

This one is almost not fair, since Android was built with the intention of integrating with Google. But wow does it integrate well. Want to search Google? Simply click the search button, enter your search string, and you’re off and running. Did I mention Google Voice? Yes, the Android has an app for that.

9: Open Source

Why does being open make Android better than iPhone? For the same reason that being open helps Linux: a planet full of developers with the ability to aid Android’s developers. Anyone can get access to the source of Android to better the system. This is also a double-edged sword, in that it allows those will less-than-ideal intentions to discover any weakness of the phone. But that can be seen as an indirect plus because when weaknesses are found in the open source community, they are quickly fixed. I assume that this tradition will extend to the Android phone. iPhone open? You’re kidding right?

10: Open to carriers

This is yet another reason why Android is superior. If you want an iPhone (at least for the time being), you better be open to AT&T. If you don’t like AT&T and you still want an iPhone, you better be open to doing a little jail breaking or move to another country. If you want an Android phone, you can join any number of carriers and have your choice of any number of outstanding phones using Android. No lock down.

Your take

What do you think: Are these reasons enough to get you to move from your iPhone to an Android phone? If not, tell us why you prefer the iPhone. And if you aren’t sure, just grab an Android phone and play around with it. You might quickly change your mind.

[via TechRepublic]

 

Google’s Android operating system, native to T-Mobile’s G1 and myTouch smartphones and due out soon in a number of new phones and even netbooks, is an impressively open and versatile platform. As with rival smartphone platforms — Apple’s iPhone OS, RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Palm’s new WebOS — the out-of-the-box features offered by Android are just a starting point.

Android phones can be easily customized with new software and functionality from the built-in Android Market, which features thousands of free and commercial applications that do everything from exposing hidden system preferences to allowing you to edit documents.

With more than 10,000 apps to choose from, the Android Market can be daunting — though nowhere close to the dizzying 70,000 apps available from Apple’s iPhone App Store. And unlike the App Store, the Android Market is difficult to search — rather ironic, given Google’s core business. So I’ve cut out the fat.

Here are ten apps that I think should come standard on every Android phone — and every single one of them is free.

[ Don't have an Android phone? Check out 10 must-have free BlackBerry apps or Five fab apps for iPhone OS 3.0 and the new 3GS. ]

GDocs

Since Android is a Google product, the absence of an app for viewing and editing documents and spreadsheets from Google Docs would just be wrong. That’s where Art Wild’s GDocs comes in, allowing users to view spreadsheets and to create, edit and view word processor documents from their Google Docs account.

When you’re viewing a document or spreadsheet, a reasonable approximation of the original formatting is preserved (considering the small screen); editing is strictly text-only, though.

While you probably won’t want to write your life story on your phone’s tiny thumb-board, you can probably touch up that report for work or write up some notes for that short story you’ve been mulling over.

Imeem Mobile

You can play music off your phone’s SD card or stream music over the Internet with Imeem’s mobile player.

Imeem offers several ways to listen once you’ve created a free user account: Upload tracks from your computer and listen to them under the “My Music” tab, create on-the-fly radio stations from music similar to your favorite artists using the “Search” function, or listen to featured stations put together by Imeem’s staff and other users.

The best part? Imeem will continue to play in the background while you use other applications.

Locale

Much more than a simple location-based app, Locale from Two Forty Four A.M. LLC is a scriptable, location-aware settings manager. This may not sound all that exciting, but don’t let its simplicity fool you.

With Locale, you can set up conditions that trigger user-defined actions — for example, automatically dimming the screen when the battery gets below 20%, or texting your friends when you get to a specific location, or turning off the ringer at specific times of day.

A wide range of triggering events are available — battery level, dates, times, GPS coordinates and calls from specific people can all be used. Settings or events that can be triggered include pop-up notifications, turning Wi-Fi or Bluetooth off or on, sounding a chosen ringtone, sending a text message or tweet, lowering or raising the volume, or even changing the home screen’s wallpaper.

Some third-party programs even integrate with Locale, increasing the available options — for example, a to-do list program could make your shopping list available whenever you go by the store.

Palringo

Android includes an app to access the Google Talk instant messaging network, but these days, one IM network is hardly enough — especially if it’s Google’s. You can access Yahoo Messenger, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook and other IM networks with Palringo.

The interface is fairly straightforward, with a tab for all your contacts across your various IM networks and another for “groups” — chats with several participants. You can create groups at will, but only other Palringo members can take part. And if you don’t have any friends, you can always chat with “Samantha,” the built-in chatbot.

PicSay

This fun little app from Shinycore Software lets you edit and modify photos on your phone. Though technically a “lite” version of the company’s PicSay Pro, the feature set is pretty thorough — the only real drawback is that larger photos will be resized to fit the G1’s screen.

You can add speech balloons, any of a range of text styles, and images like hearts and stars to your photos. Or if you’re feeling less whimsical, you can modify the picture’s contrast, tint, hue and saturation levels; flip and rotate your image; and do other basic editing tasks.

When your masterpiece is complete, you can send the picture via e-mail or MMS, upload it to Picasa, set it as an icon or as wallpaper, or hand it to another app to upload to a blog, send to Twitter and more, depending on what compatible applications you have installed.

Ringdroid

This app lets you create free ringtones from your favorite songs. (According to copyright attorney Nilay Patel, it’s legal as long as you own the music and you’re creating the ringtone for your own personal use.)

Just load a song onto your SD card, select start and end points, and save it as a ringtone, alert or notification. You can even record your own ringtones with Ringdroid.

ShopSavvy

With Big in Japan’s ShopSavvy app on your phone, you’ll never get a bum deal again. Enter a product name or barcode (using the keypad or the camera), and ShopSavvy identifies the product, searches the Web and local chain stores for the best prices, and collects reviews of the item.

You can click through to Web sites for more information or to order the item, add items to a wish list, or even set price alerts to be notified whenever the price of an item drops below a certain amount.

Hit the Menu key and a list of related products comes up, which is handy if the reviews of the item you’re looking at convince you that another choice would be smarter.

TuneWiki

TuneWiki is a replacement for Android’s built-in media player, offering a number of nice features. Most notable is the lyric scroll, which pulls lyrics off the Internet and scrolls them along with the song.

Other features include integrated Last.fm and Shoutcast radio streaming, YouTube video search, and community features like popular song lists and “music maps” that let you see where people are listening to the same song you are.

Twidroid

It seems like every platform has a half-dozen Twitter clients these days, but on Android, Twidroid from Ralph Zimmerman and Thomas Marban is the reigning king.

In addition to the usual ability to send tweets, view replies and direct messages, and follow or unfollow people, Twidroid integrates with Android’s browser so you can tweet links to pages you find interesting; captures GPS information to tweet your location or to geotag tweeted photos; and offers a selection of URL shortening and photo hosting services.

It’s all wrapped up in a clean and stylish interface that’s easy and fun to use.

Video Player

The creatively named Video Player app from Android Tapp does exactly what it says: It plays videos, a function that Google mysteriously chose to leave out of Android.

Video Player isn’t fancy; you can play, pause, move backward and forward through the video, and that’s it. It plays only H.264 and MPEG-4 videos, and only from an SD card. But it is the only free video player available for Android right now, and it works well despite the meager feature set.

Conclusion

Google is well known for releasing products with few features and then adding new ones later, apparently at random — which means we can assume that several of these apps will either be acquired by Google and integrated into future versions of Android, or will be superseded by Google’s own updates.

For the immediate future, though, the Android Market is your ticket to a full-featured smartphone that gives you no reason at all to feel ashamed in the company of snarky iPhone-bearing friends and colleagues — and, in many cases, reason enough to feel a little bit superior yourself (well, let’s not push it).

Got your own Android app to recommend? Let us know in the article comments.

by Logan Kugler

[via Computer World]