'Rouge' applications
They'll be the ones trying to get past the security mechanisms with a coy glance..
The first jailbreaking app is out for Windows Phone 7, enabling the installation of unsigned applications, which can now be developed in Visual Basic too. The VB addition is from Microsoft, and means developers can create Silverlight apps using Visual Basic, get them signed and run them on a phone. But developers can also now …
The first person to develop a 'translator' so I can run all of my (purchased!) WinMo v6.* apps on a WP7 handset gets a gold-plated cookie from me, and perhaps even a donation. I'm fed up with MS dumping an entire decade of platform back-compatibility just because it didn't suit them.
I'd wager they could've brought WP7 to market with an XP Mode-style compatibility layer, which is why I found it odd they aren't offering legacy support like they do with all of their other OSes. I won't buy a WP7 handset, irrespective of how pretty they are, until I can properly run WM6 apps on one.
...Or someone does a decent community port of WM6.5 to a WP7 device... (here's lookin' at you, XDA-Devs)
Mine's the one with a battered but perfectly functional Touch HD and HTC Hermes in the pocket
...you are still locked to that operating system.
Its why I don't like buying phone apps. Two years after you get the phone and pondering an upgrade you feel a little locked in to that one type of phone to keep everything working.
6 months and its bye bye Nokia for me.
I unlocked my WP7 phone the other day so I can play in Visual Studio 2010 and get something running as a proof of concept. If it all works then I'll pay the appstore fee, even though it's corporate internal stuff I'm looking at.
There should be a free unlock for MSDN subscribers considering what we pay each year!
"trusting users with their own security has comprehensively failed to work on the desktop"
I'd say a large problem is that most desktops and applications are (or have been) opt-out of security by default or by design. Many applications do something beyond their basic premise which invites rogue usage; browsers and email clients which auto-run applications and provide inviting back-doors. Security settings are also far less granular than they should be; allowing all or nothing, sand-boxing is either on or off, if it exists at all.
The biggest problem I find is that desktop security gets in the way so much that users are driven to turn it off. It's the way it's implemented, not the users, which are mainly to fault.
You said <<Android tries to sidestep the problem by providing a tick box to switch off the security mechanisms that prevent rogue applications being installed, but what proportion of users have ticked it we don't know.>>
At least on my HTC Desire, you have to find the check box and select before you can install non signed apps. The default is to not allow it.
As the title says.
Also while I'm here: "Apple's iPhone, the most famously-locked-down of the platforms, has no viruses or Trojans to worry about..."
No viruses or trojans that we know about, you mean? How long did it take Apple to find and remove that sneaky flashlight app from their store that was allowing people to press a secret button combo and get tethering on their phones? Did Apple's infamous close scrutiny spot that, or is Apple's infamous close scrutiny a whole crock of shit that's more focussed on whether you mention a competitor's platform in your app?
You really think Apple would be able to find a competently-made trojan before the developer pressed the detonate button? And so what if they hit the kill switch? The amount of money gleaned from getting a hundred thousand (let alone a few million) phones to dial a premium rate number would probably pay for development of the next sneaky trojan.
Thanks, but I'd rather be able to look at a list of permissions. "This fart app requires: Location (Coarse, network based. Fine, GPS). Services that cost you money (make and receive calls, send and receive SMS messages). Full Internet access. Change contents of SD card. Adjust system settings. Prevent phone from going into standby."
It's not 100%, but then what is? Apple's curated iStore? You're having a giraffe, surely?
So if you jailbreak it you can install software that has not been through microsofts stringent quality checks, having suffered enough from software that has been through MS's quality checks windows Me, Vista, etc etc you'd have to be a brave man to throw them away