Items tagged with Play Store
Google has removed over two dozen malicious Android apps from the Play Store that were collectively downloaded millions of times. The apps, which went to great lengths to appear legitimate, sent users pornographic content, redirected them to phishing websites, and collected photos under the guise of applying filters to them. The three most downloaded of the bunch were camera apps, and specifically Pro Camera Beauty, Cartoon Art Photo, and Emoji Camera. Each one notched over 1 million downloads. Several others were downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, such as Artistic Effect Filter, which racked up over half a million downloads. "These apps seemingly allows users to 'beautify' their pictures...
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In the lead up to last year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, Google offered Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL owners Play Store credits. Fast forward to now and it appears Google is once again gifting some Pixel 3 and Pixel XL owners a $2 credit (or more) in the Play Store that can be redeemed on any app or game that costs more than $2 (or the credit amount). It's not clear if every Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL owner is seeing this promo, or if there some set criteria to qualify. If you own one of Google's flagship phones, head over to the Play Store on your handset and select the 'For You' tab, then scroll down. "Congrats on your $2 to spend on any app for game," the message reads. "$2 credit an app or...
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Google has just announced a slew of Play Store Cyber Week 2018 deals including one smoking deal that should help you unwind after a hectic day tomorrow eating turkey and visiting family members (either by choice or by force). The big headliner is the fact that Google will only be charging 99 cents for any of its movie rentals all day during Thanksgiving. The 99-cent offer extends to all HD and 4K movie rentals, so you can sit on the couch, loosen your belt, unbutton the top button on your pants, and chill watching a movie with family. If that isn't enough, Google is also offering up Starz subscriptions for $5 per month for your first three months of service. If you prefer to...
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One way to encourage customers to make repeat purchases is by rewarding their loyalty. Most movie theaters have a points program in place, and so do many credit cards. It looks like Google will be joining the fray. There is evidence to suggest that Google is working on a Play Points loyalty program for users who make purchases at its Play Store. There is no such program that is currently in place at any of the major app stores, including Google's Play Store, Apple's App Store, or Microsoft's Windows Store. In that regard, Google could differentiate itself from the competition. Whether that would be enough to sway users into buying an Android phone over an iPhone, we can't say. Either way, it...
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Despite being a free-to-play title, Fortnite is a veritable cash cow. That's because there are in-game purchases available, and Epic Games is raking in a lot of sales from what has become the world's most popular battle royale shooter, having taken the torch from PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and run with it. Unfortunately for Google, it stands to miss out on potentially substantial Fortnite-related revenue when it launches on a wide swath of Android devices. Epic Games previously confirmed that Fortnite will not be available in the Play Store, as it wants to avoid paying a 30 percent cut to Google for any purchases made. "Avoiding the 30 per cent ‘store tax’ is a part of Epic's motivation."...
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Google is making several changes to its Play Store policies, one of which includes the ban of apps that mine cryptocurrencies on Android devices. The policy update is similar to one that exists in the iOS App Store. In both cases, apps that mine in the cloud are still permitted, but not ones that mine locally on the actual phone or tablet. "We don't allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices. We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency," Google states in its Developer Policy Center. Google's ban comes on the heels of blocking cryptocurrency mining extensions in the Chrome Web Store. The updated polices are presumably in response to the rise of sneaky mining instances,...
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It's been an unfortunately busy few weeks for Android vulnerabilities. Earlier in the month, we wrote about SonicSpy, a grandiose piece of malware that could gain an incredible amount of control over your device - including, of course, being able to record your audio. Just last week, we followed-up with another story talking about the 500 apps Google obliterated from the Play Store that bundled an exploited ad network. Today, WireX is the name of the game, a piece of malware whose sole purpose is to turn our innocent mobile devices into a DDoSing bot network. On August 17, WireX hit many content providers, as well as content delivery networks, with a surge of traffic to render them useless....
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Just last weekend, we wrote about SonicSpy, a grossly robust piece of malware that infected hundreds of apps on the Play Store. Google is always quick to remove this awful junk when it is detected, but the fact that we keep talking about the issue means it's not going away. It was security research firm Lookout that informed us of SonicSpy, and apparently, the company has been working overtime, as it now introduces us to yet another piece of Android maliciousness, an ad network called lgexin. This issue has impacted many apps on the Play Store, although it's not guaranteed that all of them unleashed their full capabilities. lgexin is an advertising SDK which had some versions equipped with a...
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Over the past handful of years, Google has really amped up its efforts to keep users safe on its Android Play Store. However, it often feels like the more protections Google puts in place, the more fierce the malware gets. Today we learn of yet another piece of malware that has managed to permeate itself throughout the Play Store, and the implications of being infected with it are downright scary. Called "SonicSpy", this piece of malware has found home in a huge number of different apps found throughout the Play Store. Most recently, it found its way into an app called Soniac, a messaging app based on another called Telegram that works as intended, but introduces some dastardly software...
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Google is trying to do it best to ensure that Android users have an enjoyable app experience. The company has ramped up efforts to irradiate spam apps and malware from the Play Store, and now it is bolstering efforts to disincentivize apps that are known to crash or cause other problems on Android devices. In this case, Google says that it has “enhanced [its] search and discovery algorithms to reflect app quality”. Google has found that the majority of users that leave 1-star reviews for apps complain about instability issues, leading to frequent crashes. As a result, Google is using a combination of artificial intelligence and human curation to analyze poorly performing apps and downrank them...
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Have you ever noticed that when a service becomes almost incomprehensibly large, it can begin to care less and less about what people think about it? Some might feel that way about Facebook, a company that time and time again has forced changes on its users that haven't been very well received. A major example of this in recent years has been with the forced transition to Facebook Messenger, something that caused thousands of users to give the app a 1-star rating for. Simply put, people were not happy. As that move happened a couple of years ago, we don't hear too much about the hate anymore, much like we don't hear much about the angst held towards Google for shutting down Reader. It could be...
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The moment all Chromebook users have been waiting for has arrived! Well, at least those sporting ASUS Flip Chromebooks, as that seems to be the first destination for added support for apps found through Google's Play Store. If you're rocking an ASUS Flip, you'll need to enable the development channel in order to gain access, so it's not quite "public" yet. We first learned of Google's Chromebook Play Store plans way back in April, which came to us in the form of a rumor. A mere month later, Google confirmed the feature at its I/O developer conference. Fast forward less than a month, and the ASUS Flip becomes the first Chromebook to enable the feature. The fact that the ASUS Flip becomes the first...
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When the first reports surfaced that Google was getting close to enabling the ability to run nearly the entire library of Android apps on Chromebooks, our interests were piqued. When Google made the announcement official, our excitement intensified. However, we hadn’t really gotten a glimpse at how the two distinct app environments would mesh — until now. Thanks to a video recently posted from Google I/O, we now are able to see just how Android apps coexist in the Chrome OS environment. And from the looks of things, Google has a real game-changer on its hands. The demo lasts just under 25 minutes and provides a good overview of not only how you load apps onto your Chromebook from the Play Store,...
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We reported on a leak last month that suggested that Google's Chrome OS would finally be gaining support for the company's Play Store, hinting that it's a feature that could be announced at the company's I/O conference. Well, as it happens, the company did confirm the feature at I/O, but surprisingly, it didn't make a big deal out of it. The fact that Google didn't raise its trumpet to announce this feature is a bit strange, as it's something most Chrome OS users would have been happy to see long ago. It could have been simply pulled from the keynote due to time, which is suggested by the fact that a session description claims that it was properly announced: Today we announced that we’re adding...
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