Jan 25, 2009 11:30 AM
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There was a disturbance in the Android App Market today as an application called MemoryUp was allegedly erasing contacts and installing adware. The mystery is how it got there in the first place.
The app, created by a developer named Peter Liu to optimize the handset's memory, was also responsible for random memory wipes and email account spamming.
At the Android forums, users who had downloaded the app and suffered the consequences were, understandably, up in arms and warning others to not download the app.
User “kr33p1n” (via Geek.com) said, “Doesn’t work at all erased my phone numbers and froze my phone.” User "Mark" added, “Do not download. Destroyed my memory card/system delete. Then my email was spammed. TMobile can’t stop you from downloading this! So don’t!”
Other victims claimed their SD cards were wiped clean; others still said their email accounts were spammed and adware was installed on the handset.
What's really mind-boggling is that, as of this writing, 10,000-50,000 downloads had taken place, with around 932 ratings logged (mostly negative, one star, see pic). We really can't understand how such an app got there in the first place.
The sad thing is that, as noted by many Android forum dwellers, Java cleans up memory on its own as required, no outside help necessary.
Editor's Note: I did not link to the MemoryUp web page because it had obnoxious pop up ads. [Geek.com - Thanks, Chris!]
Send an email to Jack Loftus, the author of this post, at jloftus@gizmodo.com.
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