HTC to Open Own App Store

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HTC is reportedly working on its own app store, according to The Financial Times. HTC has been in contact with content providers in order to begin generating content to fill in its app store. HTC's apparent goal is to create an experience with their smartphones that is much more than the typical experience. They want to create an environment in which HTC is thoroughly integrated into the whole smartphone experience.

There is no timetable for when HTC plans to launch their app store as of yet, but as soon as it is announced it will be available here!

Amazon App Store Near Certain

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In just a span of a few days (in which I did not cover the original story as i took a couple days off from blogging), an Amazon app store as gone from just another rumor to nearly confirmed.

Slashgear has obtained a copy of the initial terms and conditions for the Amazon App Store in which Amazon has asked developers to read and sign. A few things that stand out in the agreement include that developers will have to pay a $99 developer fee, as well as allow Amazon the rights to modify the code and add DRM protection.

The Amazon App Store is expected to be a boost to the Android platform, but not all critics are convinced. Some believe that another storefront will just add to Android's fragmentation problems and confuse the average user. However, the benefits could be substantial, and if anything, the Amazon App Store will at least push Google's App Market to keep improving.

2/3 of Android Apps Leak Private Data

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According to a study of 30 of the most popular applications in Google's App Market, as much as 2/3 of apps access personal information in a way not desirable for users. The study stated that of the 30 apps studied, 15 reported a user's location to remote advertising servers and 7 broadcast the device number or phone number to outside servers. Nearly 100 percent of the time, the data was being collected without the users knowledge.

The study shows a large flaw in security on the Android platform, as Android users do not have much of a way to discover what information is actually being used when they install an app from the App Market. This study was made possible because the Android operating system is open source, so it is unclear how the Apple App Store would fare in a similar experiment. For the time being, however, one must be cautious when downloading applications until improvements are made.