Earlier this week a company called Lookout showed how several Android wallpaper apps were accessing user information, including phone number, subscriber identification, voicemail password, browsing history, text messages & the phone's SIM card number.

The claims were made during a presentation at this week's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

In a number of interviews since then the developer, Jackeey Wu, has released a statement denying most of these claims and Lookout has since agreed that only the phone number, subscriber identification & voicemail password (when stored on the phone) were accessed and sent to Wu's server in China.

Wu stated, "I collected the screen size to return more suitable wallpaper for the phone. More and More users emailed me telling that they love my wallpaper apps so much, because that even "Background" can't well suited the phone's screen. I also collected device id,phone number and subscriber id, it has no relationship with user data. There are few apps in Android market has the favorites feature. Many users suggest that I should provide the feature so I use the these to identify the device, so they can favorite the wallpapers more conveniently, and resume his favorites after system resetting or changing the phone."

He also included a screenshot from installing one of the apps, showing the permissions used. You can read the entire statement below.

Lookout's clarification on their website says, "While the data this app is accessing is certainly suspicious coming from a wallpaper app, we want to be clear that there is no evidence of malicious behavior. There have been cases in the past where applications are simply a little overzealous in their data gathering practices, but not because of any ill intent."

Regardless of the developer's intentions, the real lesson here is the importance of paying attention to what permissions an app has before installing it. If you don't think it should need a particular permission you should contact the developer before installing or just avoid it entirely.

Jackeey Response

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Samsung has said it will introduce a tablet this quarter running Google's Android operating system, joining the stables of tech firms releasing tablets by the end of the year.

Nokia, LG, HP and RIM have confirmed, or unconfirmed tablets set for release by the end of the year, running either Android, WebOS or BlackBerry operating systems.

The market leader, the Apple iPad, sold an astonishing 3 million units in its first 90 days.

Samsung's tablet will have a smaller 7-inch screen, but there are no other details available, not even what version of Android the device will ship with.

LG will launch its Android tablet in the Q4, RIM will release its BlackBerry tablet in the Q4, and Microsoft has said it hopes to release Windows 7 tablets in the Q4, as well.

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A web based alternative to the iPhone app store called OpenAppMkt opened today. Instead of native iOS apps, it offers a selection of HTML apps.

To use it you need to install their client, which you can do directly from the OpenAppMkt website.

Once the client is installed you will have an icon on the iPhone's home screen which launches the app store. From there you can choose from a list of free and paid apps.


In some ways OpenAppMkt is a throwback to the early days of the iPhone.

Steve Jobs' original vision of the device didn't include any sort of native apps. Instead the plan was for all third party apps to be web based.

Since all the apps on OpenAppMkt are HTML based, there isn't as much variety as you find in the app stores for jailbroken iPhones. On the other hand, since you don't need to jailbreak your phone to install them there's a larger potential market.

Although non-iOS mobile devices aren't supported right now, there are plans to add support for more platforms in the future.

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According to BusinessWeek, RIM is preparing to release its still unconfirmed BlackPad tablet in November.

Earlier in the week, the smartphone company registered BlackPad.com, with the domain being purchased by CSC, a company that specializes in corporate branding, on behalf of RIM.

The two sources claim the BlackPad will have a 9.7-inch screen, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth tech that will allow users to connect to the Web via their BlackBerry smartphones.

"They can't wait for a second generation of devices from Apple or they'll fall too far behind," says Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar.

Pricing will be "in line" with that of the iPad, which begins at $500 USD.

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During his company's latest quarterly earnings conference call, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about the company's plans for tablets in the near future, but remained very scant on the details.

The company posted its best quarter ever last week, but has been openly criticized for its lack of strategy in the tablet market, as well as in other consumer businesses.

When asked specifically about tablets, Ballmer said Windows has been available on tablets and slates for years, with constant sales. However, none of Microsoft's devices have ever come close to the buzz created by Apple's iPad.

"Apple has done an interesting job of putting together a product," Ballmer said, admitting that "they've certainly sold more than I'd like them to sell."

"For us, the job is to say we have a lot of [intellectual property] and software and we've done a lot of work on ink and touch," he continued, via PCW. "We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we have to with Windows 7 on slates. We're in the process of doing that as we speak."

Without giving more details, he concluded: "We've got to push right now with our hardware partners. People will say, 'When?' I'll say, 'As soon as they are ready, and it is job-one urgency.' Nobody is sleeping at the switch."

Any timetable for a new tablet release? They "will be out in not a heck of a long time."

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Earlier this week, Yahoo Japan, the biggest portal in the nation, said it would being using Google's search engine to power its search instead of following Yahoo Inc.'s decision to use Microsoft's Bing for search.

Microsoft is clearly not happy with the decision.

The software giant has said today it plans to argue before Japan's Fair Trade Commission that the deal is anti-competitive, as it would give Google almost 100 percent of the search market in the region.

Japan is the world's third-largest market for search queries.

The FTC has already said the deal does not violate anti-monopoly laws in the nation.

Yahoo Japan has 57 percent search market share in the country while Google has 37. Microsoft has 2.8 percent.

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