Samsung Working on Smartphone Installment Plan Like Apple’s

On the heels of Apple’s new installment program to acquire phones directly, without the deal going through the carriers, Samsung is cooking up a similar deal for Galaxy smartphones. Forbes.com says Samsung will offer a 1-2 year monthly installment plan in the next several months. Apple’s deal starts at $32 a month for an unlocked phone, and it’s expected that Samsung will roll out something competitive. Of course, you still have to pay the carrier you go with their monthly charges in addition.

Up to now, only 5 cases of malware have made it through Apple’s tough process and gotten into the App Store. Some clever black hat folks convinced a number of developers to download Apple’s Xcode from a server in China that contained malware, though, and now Apple has had to pull 344 malware infected apps, including WeChat, the largest standalone messaging app in China. According to geek.com, the malware had very limited functionality, but anti-malware advocates say this may have been a proof of concept, to try to penetrate Apple’s walled garden by way of developers, and it obviously worked.