- Calculator. Whenever I press a number, it takes a second to be actually reflected in the user interface. If I try to press anything in rapid succession, the entire view zooms in. After this the entire size and scale of the user interface keeps shifting randomly. Completely broken.
- Wikihow. This is just a wrapper on their mobile site with an ugly search bar on top. Long pressing a link shows a context menu that lets me "open in a new tab" but there's no tab switcher to be found. I can select text by tapping and holding but can't figure out how to copy.
- Wikipedia. Pretty much the same. Scrolling performance is strangely atrocious considering that it works fine in Firefox for Android. Pressing the back button on the device boots me out of the app instantly instead of, you know, going back.
And all in all, they are all just slow and clunky. It feels like browsing a web page or using a web app in a mobile browser that just isn't up to the task.
In between this aim on building a more open platform for apps, there doesn't seem to be any focus in building apps or user interfaces that people would actually want to use.
...that app will then act just like any other app. It's pretty neat
I guess its just young.
"We share your frustration with the tradeoffs we have to make on Android regarding security versus openness, as I’m sure Amazon does as well. For example, it would be cool if we could ask people to trust apps they install from marketplace.firefox.com rather than from all sources. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have that option.
We, along with third-party native android app stores like Amazon, chosen to ask users to enable the third-party application setting because we think the benefits to users of our ecosystem outweigh the risks of doing so. We believe our security model and strict control over permissions for web apps means that the Firefox Marketplace apps that users install on their Android devices will be safe."
"it would be cool if we could ask people to trust apps they install from marketplace.firefox.com rather than from all sources."
This would be so handy for me, but it probably doesn't matter as my next phone is probably going to be an iPhone.
However, "We believe our security model and strict control over permissions for web apps means that the Firefox Marketplace apps that users install on their Android devices will be safe" basically misses the problem.
The problem is not that the Mozilla or Amazon marketplaces are unsafe, I would rate them at the same as Google Play itself, but that the phone now allows APK's from everywhere. While it would turn more users away from using them, it would almost be better to actually tell people to re-enable the restrictions, or have an install app that will turn it on, install from their marketplace and then turn it off again.
I understand why they are doing it but I think in the end it is really bad for end-user security on Android.
People are advised everywhere to not enable 'Install from untrusted sources' for very good reasons: Android is plagued by an insane amount of malware. And now we confuse them by saying that "our security model" is great and that it is all ok.
But it is not ok. It is half the story. Even if our apps are safe, we make it a little easier for that malware to get on a device.
And nobody will just temporarily enable 'install from untrusted sources'. Once allowed, people are most likely never looking at it again.
I am not saying that the Google Play store is free of Malware. It is not. But I do think that malicious apps are then at least contained and controlled. With the option for untrusted sources enabled, apps can come from any place. Email, web, other apps, etc.
It puts users at risk.
It is a step backward in Android security.
I'm pretty sure they added this option as an enforcement to use only Play. I would be surprised to see Google adding trusted sources. I do not believe that it's OK to kill competition in the name of so-called security.
On the other hand my mum doesnt know that option yet got Play malware pretty quickly. Go figure.
Think of the Children! :)
I've been to websites that automatically trigger the download of an apk to your phone. Without that setting it is only one or two wrong clicks and you've got all sorts of malware on your device.
It's not about competition, running a phone with that option switched off is dangerous.
It isn't dangerous at all, you can't 'accidently' install an apk. It is a very intentional, multi-step, action.
Much easier and safer to have third party stuff disabled entirely.
I think there should be a way to install third party certificates for things like the amazon store, don't get me wrong, but it's a decent security feature for the uninformed masses.
So chances are, on the spectrum you are more hacker than uninformed user.
Firefox Marketplace is a known source. It's just not something Google will whitelist.
What the community need to include in their AOSP-derived distros is a UI user-specifying trusted repositories.
If the user then wants to add the marketplace or, say, f-droid then they could mark these as 'trusted'. Which would then still prevent downloading an .apk from a dodgy site.
But yes, extending that to something deeper is probably needed, but you almost end up needing to alter the signing model of apks slightly. In the case of Amazon distributed builds I believe Amazon re-sign the apk completely, which is a bit of a workaround, whereas Google distribute the apks with the developer signatures. Really what you want is a chain of trust to sources of apps that the user trusts.