Swiss Codemonkey: Avoid Them
Last week I installed a goofy app “Arnold Soundboard for Android” from Swiss Codemonkeys. I shouldn’t have, because the app requested network access.
Today, I received what appeared to be an SMS message. It had a little “thumbs-up” icon, and it said something like “A friend recommended an app!”. Clicking on the link brought me to the Android Market link for the Horoscope Widget, also from Swiss Codemonkeys.
Malicious
I strongly suspect this message came from the Arnold Soundboard app, but I can’t really prove that. I did report it as a possible malicious app, and I recommend people avoid apps from Swiss Codemonkey. (or any other apps that request network access even when they don’t do anything network related).
If you are an application author, feel free to advertise your other apps. But don’t send messages pretending to be “recommendations” from alleged “friends”.
Wow, that takes balls to Spam your own customers. This software company just doesn’t get it. Wonder if this “feature” was some developer’s great idea, or requested by some soulless marketing department? Dilbert would be proud….
I had this same recommendation. While I’ve never downloaded the soundboard, I do have at least one Swiss Codemonkey app.
As a more positive note, I wish that recommending apps to friends were a standard Android feature. My sister just got her G1 and I’d love to send her recommendations direct to her phone.
I don’t often install the soundboards (as they tend to use lots of space) and quickly get bored and remove the ones I do try.
The phrase ‘A friend recommended …’ sets off all sorts of warnings for me – a valid recommendation would almost certainly have the friends name & if it was being recommended for me would likely have a message saying *why* it was relevant
Their blog claims it uses the internet to check for updates but this should be unnecessary if updated through the market (I suppose they could be trying to provide updates to non-market users, which would seem to be a valid reason)
I have their ‘Deskbell’ app and haven’t received any such messages
sorry for the rambling
– imma
I believe this is from aTrackDog. If you open it up, you can long press on an app’s name and you can share it with a friend.