Free is all the rage in mobile these days, whether it be because of ads or in-app purchases. The latest to jump on the bandwagon is, surprisingly, Kaspersky. The company has announced that its mobile security apps for Android smartphones and tablets are now available free of charge in the Google Play Store, bellowing the “you shouldn’t have to pay to feel secure” line about as loudly as anyone can these days.
There’s a catch, of course. There’s a “premium” version you can buy to get more features than the base experience. Free users will be able to do things like track their phone via GPS, lock and wipe their phones remotely, sound an alarm remotely, and take pictures with the front-facing camera to see if a thief has your phone in-hand.
Pay $14.95 for phones or $19.95 for tablets, and you’ll get the added ability to automatically schedule system scans for malicious apps (free users can still scan, but they must initiate it on their own), a connection to a cloud database of threats so you won’t have to wait for periodic definitions updates, and automatic scanning and filtering of smartphone text messages. All sounds good to me, though I’ll always contend that caution and preventative measures are more valuable than plopping down cash for anti-virus suites.
No comments:
Post a Comment