More Apps Hit With Malware

For us Android fans, I guess malware is going to a face of life until Google figures out just how it wants to deal with the situation. This time, a new malicious version called "DroidDreamLight" has infected about two dozen apps.

The saving grace is that they don't seem like the types of apps most users will download.

Here's the thing. I make it a rule not to use pirated apps or download apps from the smallish developers unless it's one that I have thoroughly vetted.

Perhaps Amazon's semi-walled app store is the way to go for the most of us. It's bad for the small developers but as an Android user, I'm not too broken up about it.

Anyway, just be careful. Exercise caution. Use some common sense. A lot of time, that's all it takes to avoid these kinds of security and privacy issues.

More at MSNBC.

G1 Use Update - Music

Let's get right into it.   Amazon MP3 store.  The app is easy to use.  I have to say, it works just as advertised.  By that, I mean it does what you we want it to do.

I was able to buy an album I was going to buy on iTunes but hey, since this is DRM-free, why would I get it from iTunes?  It uses your standard Amazon account.  I logged in and asked if I wanted to set up One-Click for easy access (clicked no).

Then it took me to a screen where it shows progress logging in, access the library, charging the credit card, and done.  Nothing exciting happened.  Worked as it should.

It proceeded to download it to the memory card.  One thing to note.  If the G1 is hooked up to a computer (my Mac), the default setting makes the memory card a part of the desktop as a disk, as it would with any USB flash sticks.

When that happened, I was not able to download from Amazon.  Apparently what happened was that when you're using the memory in the phone as a storage on your computer, the G1 cannot gain access to it.

So, you have to disable the "USB storage" feature through Settings.

I didn't bother trying to see if download works over 3G since we're told it won't work.  So, that's Amazon MP3 store.  It's a coup for Google to involve Amazon.

Playing the music was easy enough.  Not iPod UI polished but I'm willing to guess some enterprising developers will solve that issue.  Again, the music player, like the Amazon app, won't will any beauty pageant but it gets the job done.

G1 came with some music already.  A couple of them are actually quite good.  But I'll be getting a bigger memory card for my own library from iTunes that don't have DRM.  It won't be my main music player.  I'll be stick with my iPod Nano but for occasional music here and there, the G1 is adequate.