App Deals, Sideloading and Canadian App Availability

25 cent and other app deals

Google ran a daily 25 cent app promotion, with each day’s list lasting until about noon the next day. Day 3 included Amazing Alex, TuneIn Radio Pro, Temple Run Brave, HD Widgets, PicSay Pro, ezPDF Reader, Rebuild, mSecure and Mass Effect. The author recommended ezPDF for reading and annotating PDFs and HD Widgets for clock and weather. Day 4 included Madden NFL 12, Where’s My Perry, Camera ZOOM FX, Endomondo Sports Tracker, Cut the Rope (and HD), Order and Chaos Online, RealCalc Plus, Broken Sword and Cogs. Camera ZOOM was often used instead of the stock camera.

• A long weekend sale put games such as Dead Space, Monopoly and Need for Speed from EA at $0.11.
• A deals site listed 54 discounted Play Store apps and games, including Megafarkle and Kraut Attack, valid until the first of June.
• Humble Bundle 3 for Android gave nine games for about $6. The average payment was $6.18 and paying above average unlocked every game, with a choice of how much went to developers and charity. Google Wallet was accepted.
• The Cerberus anti-theft app was free for one day on its third birthday. Its features included photos and video on demand or after a wrong PIN, wiping the device or SD card, calls and SMS, logs, audio recording, GPS tracking and alert messages. Rooted users got more, such as surviving a factory reset and hiding the icon.

Subscription apps and Swype

Mobiroo was a subscription app store at $2.49 per month, rising to $4.99 after the introductory rate, with a free 14 day trial. Its selection was smaller than Google Play’s. Swype finally reached Google Play at $1.02 CAD, after previously requiring the beta programme or a phone that shipped with it. The move followed its rival SwiftKey launching on the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Side-loading and region locks

Side-loading means installing an APK file directly. A video guide covered the steps, and a shared folder of non-Canadian APK files grew to 33 files, limited to free apps that simply were not offered in Canada. A second method let you install a blocked app by other means, and it only partly worked: some apps installed but the service itself, such as Pandora, still refused to run, so the carrier was not always the blocker. Licensing and broadcaster rights usually explained these blocks.

Google Wallet and Android Pay

Google Wallet was announced as an NFC payment app to hold cards, offers, loyalty and gift cards, with tap-to-pay redeeming offers automatically. Early test cities were San Francisco and New York, and the Nexus S 4G was the first NFC phone. NFC was long established in Europe and Asia, but needed more merchants. Later, Android Pay appeared unofficially for some Canadians, then Google confirmed at I/O it would launch in Canada in the coming months, together with Brazil, Russia, Spain and Taiwan. It was live in 10 markets, and PayPal support was announced.

Canadian apps

A reader-driven list grouped apps for Canadians:

• Canadiana. Tim Hortons, WeatherEye.
• Liquor. LCBO and Beer Store finders, SAQ.
• News. CBC News, Maclean’s, National Post, Globe2Go, Radio Canada, Yellow Pages, CanPages.
• Banks. TD, CIBC, RBC, BMO, Scotiabank, Desjardins, ING Direct.
• Stores and services. Canadian Tire, Canada Post, Home Depot, Bell Media, Rogers Radio.
• Sports. NHL Game Centre, Team Canada, Leafs, Canadiens, TSN, Telus CFL, The Score, Sportsnet, Canucks, BC Lions, Roughriders, Flames.
• Entertainment and misc. National Film Board, Corus, Cineplex, income tax rates, a citizenship test and GasBuddy.

Malware and common sense

The malware post named three examples: FakeToken.A, a fake mobile banking token generator that stole logins; Boxer.H, which posed as Google Play; and RootSmart.A, which gained root and could send premium SMS. Most infections came from shady apps and downloads outside the store. The advice was to stick to Google Play, where apps get checked, and use common sense rather than installing an antivirus that drains battery.