Hey, everyone. It is a lovely morning here at the green retreat and I have been busy. As I pause to check my stats on blog and books I thought I might tell you a cautionary tale.
As you may know, one of the most wonderful things about choosing the I-Pad as a tablet is its app store. Apple does a nice job of running it and this is not an Apple-bashing post. There are some people that are abusing their apps and the opportunities that they have. Let me be specific.
The other day I was playing one of my favorite games called Iron Man 3. There have been some problems with this game. For instance, they went back and put in ads with an update, failed to give me back my in-apps when I re-downloaded the game and other things. The most recent deal was interesting. I was playing the game and it switched me to a video ad about retirement planning. About the same time there appeared a warning on my screen that stated "Iron Man 3 is requesting permission to access your calendar". I gather that the I-pad itself is programmed to warn you when apps do this. I have had other instances when I was warned that an app was wanting permission to access my contacts. Still others want you to agree to a license agreement before you play, which is on another site. (A game I had already paid for, of course.)
My wife had one the other day on a game called Dumb Ways To Die. I found this one to be particularly spooky in that it stated that Dumb Ways To Die has asked for permission to access your microphone. I know of other people who have had experiences. It is also common for apps to ask for permission to access your notifications. Then, when you refuse, they do it anyway and you have to take them off.
I feel like Apple needs to have a line of code that makes it impossible for games to access anything of that nature and any developer that pulls this stuff should be banned from the app store. If people lose confidence in the app store is that going to be good for store business, developers, I-Pad sales, or Apple? I don't think so.
I figure that it is possible for an outside party to hack in and utilize an app for their own purposes and I cannot prove that the folks who put out an app that helps itself to your settings page actually does the deeds mentioned. What I am saying is that I believe that the majority of I-Pad owners don't want anyone listening in to their living room conversations, accessing their calendars, or browsing through their contacts.
Let me also say that a lot of people are putting a sticker over their rear-facing camera lens. I know of a man who went to his PC one morning and found a picture of himself, in his recliner, that was taken while he was playing I-Pad games. It was then put on his PC as the home screen picture. Obviously, this was done by someone much higher on the food chain than a developer of games, but it is alarming to think of the power that is in the hands of unscrupulous folks.
It would seem that the new rule of decorum is anything is okay until someone screams about it. From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
P.S. I wonder if Steve Jobs would have put up with this?
As you may know, one of the most wonderful things about choosing the I-Pad as a tablet is its app store. Apple does a nice job of running it and this is not an Apple-bashing post. There are some people that are abusing their apps and the opportunities that they have. Let me be specific.
The other day I was playing one of my favorite games called Iron Man 3. There have been some problems with this game. For instance, they went back and put in ads with an update, failed to give me back my in-apps when I re-downloaded the game and other things. The most recent deal was interesting. I was playing the game and it switched me to a video ad about retirement planning. About the same time there appeared a warning on my screen that stated "Iron Man 3 is requesting permission to access your calendar". I gather that the I-pad itself is programmed to warn you when apps do this. I have had other instances when I was warned that an app was wanting permission to access my contacts. Still others want you to agree to a license agreement before you play, which is on another site. (A game I had already paid for, of course.)
My wife had one the other day on a game called Dumb Ways To Die. I found this one to be particularly spooky in that it stated that Dumb Ways To Die has asked for permission to access your microphone. I know of other people who have had experiences. It is also common for apps to ask for permission to access your notifications. Then, when you refuse, they do it anyway and you have to take them off.
I feel like Apple needs to have a line of code that makes it impossible for games to access anything of that nature and any developer that pulls this stuff should be banned from the app store. If people lose confidence in the app store is that going to be good for store business, developers, I-Pad sales, or Apple? I don't think so.
I figure that it is possible for an outside party to hack in and utilize an app for their own purposes and I cannot prove that the folks who put out an app that helps itself to your settings page actually does the deeds mentioned. What I am saying is that I believe that the majority of I-Pad owners don't want anyone listening in to their living room conversations, accessing their calendars, or browsing through their contacts.
Let me also say that a lot of people are putting a sticker over their rear-facing camera lens. I know of a man who went to his PC one morning and found a picture of himself, in his recliner, that was taken while he was playing I-Pad games. It was then put on his PC as the home screen picture. Obviously, this was done by someone much higher on the food chain than a developer of games, but it is alarming to think of the power that is in the hands of unscrupulous folks.
It would seem that the new rule of decorum is anything is okay until someone screams about it. From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
P.S. I wonder if Steve Jobs would have put up with this?
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