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Trivia Crack claims to be the most downloaded gaming app in the world

number one app

Amidst an allegation by a player surfacing over the past days that the gaming app was probably rigged now comes the news that Trivia Crack, the smartphone game that allows you to pit your wits against anyone from around the world, was the most downloaded gaming app in the world. (And if you are in the minority who’s still not heard of it, stop reading any further.)

Here’s what a report today in VentureBeat had to say: Trivia Crack is the top downloaded game on mobile in the world, according to developer Etermax and industry-tracking firm App Annie. Since its debut, this app has racked up more than 125 million downloads worldwide. It has also managed to reach the No. 1 spot on the overall app download chart in important countries like the United States and Canada.

UK’s The Guardian has just reported that over 500,000 Brits had already downloaded the popular mobile game in the 1st 2 weeks since its release in the UK.

The social trivia quiz had already picked up 100 million players in the US & Latin America, where it launched in late 2013.

Released for iOS, Android & Windows Phone devices, Trivia Crack is all about, well, trivia – its vast database of GK questions split between history, geography, science, sports, entertainment & arts. At the basic level, there’s a spinning wheel that players need to spin to select 7 of the categories named above including one called “Special”.

The game’s objective is to 1st obtain all 6 characters on the wheel. The 1st player to obtain all 6 is the winner of the match. Each match will have a maximum of 25 rounds. To obtain a character a player must correctly answer 3 questions in a row, or land on the special section on the wheel. In this case, the player will choose between challenging the opponent for 1 of their characters, or simply answer a new question for a character of choice.

The high numbers, & we mean the number of downloads, has some crying foul. A few reports are surfacing on the Net alleging that the game is rigged, though we have no independent methods of verifying these charges, and no rejoinder to these charges was yet forthcoming from the Argentinian developer, etermax.

A report in the Latin Post, for example, quotes a player alleging so.

For the reportage on this highly popular gaming app, click on the links below:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/05/trivia-crack-mobile-game-british-players

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/35776/20150204/trivia-crack-ios-android-app-cheats-hack-player-suspects-game.htm

http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/04/trivia-crack-is-the-top-downloaded-app-in-the-world/

http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/142106/think-trivia-crack-rigged/

Image Credit: Trivia Crack

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US is No: 1 source of risky or dangerous apps in the world, says security firm

An oft-held view that the risk of using mobile devices was limited to jailbroken or rooted devices in Asia, & to apps that were downloaded from fly-by-night app stores other than Apple App Store or Google Play, has been challenged by new research.

According to the California, USA-located Marble Security, a firm that specializes in mobile devices security, it had been found after analyzing over a million apps available on the North American versions of the Apple App Store or Google Play, that most never required a jailbroken or rooted device. Marble Labs has determined that more than 40% of the “dangerous apps” on these stores were developed by publishers based in the United States.

This came as a surprise to Marble’s analysts, who before examining the data would have
perhaps bet that most malicious apps originated from publishers in Eastern Europe or Asia. While China, Korea, India & Taiwan do generate a great number of malicious or risky apps, their combined total did not amount to that of the United States, claimed this report.

Marble Security said this research underscored the fact that consumers & businesses
needed to pay close attention to what apps they downloaded onto their mobile devices, & how those apps used or rather “misused” personal data.

What is a Malicious or Highly Risky App?

For this study, Marble Labs examined apps that were malicious or highly risky. These were apps that, among other things:
• Sent user’s private data without their knowledge
• Copied contact databases & sent them to untrusted locations on the Internet without the user’s knowledge
• Sent users’ browser histories over the Internet
• Installed helper apps to display unwanted advertising
• Communicated prohibited tracking information, including hardware identifiers
• Send premium rate SMS messages to defraud consumers

 

risky mobile apps

The report said it was a common belief that Chinese or Russian app developers were responsible for the majority of malicious apps. While that could be true for malware that targeted jailbroken iPhones or rooted Android mobile devices, Marble Securities said when its team had looked at apps that were available on legitimate app stores for non-tampered devices, the story was very different.

In fact, United States companies published the largest number of malicious or highly risky apps in the world, the research found. More than 42% of global dangerous apps that target non-jailbroken & non-rooted devices originated with companies or publishers purportedly located in the United States.

China was the second largest publisher of malicious and highly risky apps for standard iOS & Android devices, at almost 18% of the world’s output. India, Korea & Taiwan followed, with approximately 4.5 % of all published apps from those countries categorized as highly risky & malicious apps, said the report.

Image Credit: Marble Security

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