It’s not unusual to see Verizon sticking their nose out where it doesn’t belong but, to do it in good spirit is perhaps another thing. When covering Android news, we’re often hit with new apps and games, reports off apps running with our battery life and in some cases, using more of that precious data allowance then we’d like them to do. It’s always been like this and bugs do happen, app developers can’t possibly hope to equate for all the Android device variables that are out there, and sometimes apps take more liberties than we want them to. Verizon feel like we need a little help with this and have put together a list of some of the top apps in the Play Store and given them a rating on how good they are on battery life and how much of our data allowances they could be sucking up. We’re not quite sure what to make of this so we’ll just let Verizon tell you how they work it all out:
A low rating means the app might negatively affect your overall experience with your device. If you see a low rating on an app you currently use or intend to download, you should review the potential areas of concern to decide if it’s an app you want to have on your device.
You can take a look at their “leaderboard” here and the apps are selected from the Play Store as being the top paid or free apps over a 30-day period. The apps are listed – alphabetically, to avoid bias, of course – and they’re given a rating out of five concerning how “friendly” they might be to your device. We’re not going to throw the whole list at you because, let’s face it, most of you aren’t going to pay any attention to the list now are you? So, here are a few of the apps that Verizon have awarded a 5-star rating, there are no surprises here:
- Angry Birds Star Wars
- Cut the Rope
- Temple Run
- Netflix
Now, where it gets a little interesting, is the highlighted apps that are given poorer ratings by the carrier, here are a few that standout:
- GTA III
- Wreck it Ralph
- Fruit Ninja Free (the paid version has a much better rating)
- Draw Something
It strikes me as a little odd that a carrier should feel the need to do something like this, after all they should be focusing on perhaps keeping their devices up-to-date and delivering a quality service, maybe? What you have to remember though is that this list is put together by Verizon so, there’s no telling how much research – if any – they’ve gone through to come to these conclusions.
Do any of you agree with this list? Which apps cause problems on your smartphone?
[Source: Verizon]