“Google has let through a pair of fake Siri apps. Both Siri for Android (Android Market) and Speerit (Android Market) both steal Apple’s icon and, in the case of Speerit, try to clone Siri’s interface,” Electronista reports.
“The currently Korean-only app claims to have ‘real’ Siri, although the differing results on the weather widget suggest it’s not actually asking Apple’s servers,” Electronista reports. “Siri for Android, meanwhile, is blunt in the description and reveals that it’s just a shortcut for Google’s Voice Actions.”
Electronista reports, “Both emphasize a mounting problem with Google’s attitude towards app approvals. Its policy has usually been to apply very few if any checks to apps before they go live, allowing apps that clearly copy someone else’s work. Android Market has recently been home to scam game developers and occasional malware apps that stayed active for days before Google took them down, possibly leading to thousands of frauds and infections.”
Read more in the full article here.
Matt Brian reports for TNW, “‘Siri for Android’ by app publisher ‘Official App’ hit the Android Market, launching on the Google marketplace to deliver what many are going to believe is an official port of Apple’s Siri software to Android smartphones. In reality, it’s a shortcut that launches Google’s built-in Voice Actions — and it’s already been installed on more than 1000 devices.”
“The problem here is that hundreds, if not thousands, of Android device owners have already been sucked in by the app and downloaded it onto their device — smartphone users new to the platform may know no different and download it also,” Brian reports. “Given that Google employs little-to-no checks on its marketplace, developers such as ‘Official App’ do not have contend with application approvals and can launch copyright/trademark infringing applications in minutes. There is also nothing to say that a developer could have sideloaded malware into the app, using the brand name to ensure thousands of installs.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: By definition, Android settlers “know no different” or they would have bought the real thing in the first place and avoided all of this crap to which they’ve consigned themselves for at least two years (being, of course, too cheap to exit a ill-considered contract before the term expires).
What kind of idiot buys a knockoff and expects it to exceed the original? This is Windows all over again. You’re not saving anything, you cheap bastages. You’re costing yourselves time, money (TCO), and enjoyment. Obviously, you should have bought a Mac, as many millions have finally come to realize recently. (You drag ’em to the Mac kicking and screaming and a week later they look to you for forgiveness, asking, “Why the hell did I wait so long?!”)
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for; you wanted an iPhone, you should have gotten yourself an iPhone. Have fun pretending you have Siri, just like you pretend you have iPhones, suckers.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]