Jesse Wilson:
Each time somebody buys my Android app, [Google] tell me their name, email address and postal code. They don’t know that they’re giving me this information, and I don’t want to have it.
This is a situation that worries me greatly.
As a developer, I agree 100% with Jesse: I never asked for this information, I have no need for it, and I simply do not want to be a custodian of such information.
As a consumer, this is distressing on many levels:
- There is no fair warning that this information will be transferred to a merchant with each transaction.
- Trusting my personal information to Google, Inc. is one thing. But with this system, users are unknowingly having to trust their information to a third party. There’s no way to know what security measures that third party might have in place. As an example, if the email address used by that person/company to receive such transactional receipts has a weak password and is hacked, the hacker would potentially have access to the personal information of everyone who has purchased that item.
- In the case of Android applications, the proprietor has gained my personal information without requesting the appropriate permissions via the app.
There would (rightly) be a massive outcry if credit card companies provided such information to a corner store each time a customer bought a loaf of bread. What makes buying items from Google Play any different?
Frankly, this situation makes me think twice about what items I purchase on the Play Store, and as both a consumer and developer I implore Google to rectify this situation immediately.
We discovered a bug in the Android 4.2 update, which makes it impossible to enter December events in optional fields of the People app (this bug did not affect Calendar). Rest assured, this will be fixed soon so that those of you with December birthdays and anniversaries won’t be forgotten by your friends and family.
So that’s one. What about all the others?
Lisa Dembiczak:
Motorola had sought up to $4 billion a year for its wireless and video patents, while Microsoft argues its rival deserves just over $1 million a year.
Sounds like a compromise is imminent.
This news is as welcome is it is overdue.
Also, the average price of an Android smartphone in China is $223, compared to $726 for an iOS device.
It’s not all roses for Google though, as the company’s difficulties with Chinese authorities are still far from resolved.
In other news, TechGrate’s chief is supremely confident RIM will continue on its current path of decline until it is gobbled up by a patent hungry collective.
In the meantime, emails such as these will continue to arrive in the inboxes of the ever-smaller number of Blackberry users:
Jason Schreier:
According to Rockstar, Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos is bigger than Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto IV combined.
As a gamer, this does not excite me in the least. I played all three of those games through to completion, and I can honestly say I wouldn’t want any of them to be any bigger or longer.
Personally speaking, this increased size makes the thought of playing GTA V even more daunting for me, because I can’t see myself being able to find the time to enjoy the game as is intended. I appreciate many will disagree with me here.
Furthermore, if I were a Take 2 shareholder, I would be screaming blue murder at this news. Spending five years developing a single game is madness. Given Take 2 remain largely a one-trick pony, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect a new entry in the franchise every two to three years.
One must wonder how he would describe every PC version of Windows to this point?
If Nokia were to beat Google to the punch, it would be unlikely to have any noticeable effect on the long-term success of a Google Maps iOS app. But it would be embarrassing nonetheless.
Of course, there’s nothing to say Apple will play fair and approve both applications in an equally timely manner.
