AT&T is blocking all non-Market apps on their Android Phones...

[vshah]

Both T and T-moblie try and electronically "lock" sim to phone so that you can't switch SIM cards to an el cheapo sim while abroad so they can ream your ass with roaming charges.

t mobile will give you a sim unlock code the day after you open an account if you want. You just call them up and they email you within a few days. I've been doing this for the past 10 years with several phones for international travel.

 

[shortylickens]

to be fair all the stuff 90% of people would want is available in the market.

Android is about freedom and openness. AT&T either doesnt get that or doesnt like it. Thats why they latched on to Apple like a tick.

 

[slightlyhuman]

If you're stupid enough to sign with AT&T with their data caps and second rate Androids you also deserve to be charged out the ass for apps.

and what makes you think other carriers won't follow the same path like they do in the majority of decisions like this?

 

[AMDZen]

Android is about freedom and openness. AT&T either doesnt get that or doesnt like it. Thats why they latched on to Apple like a tick.

The reason why Apple chose AT&T in the first place was because AT&T was the only ISP that would give Apple all the freedom they wanted, AT&T lets Apple do whatever they want - and they probably asked that Android deviced get gimped so that people will go iPhone instead.

I still don't see how this is a problem. You can load unofficial apps on any iPhone that is currently out on the market today, and we will be able to jailbreak the new phone within a couple weeks, if not a couple days of release - so I don't see why Android geeks can't get this minor irretibility worked out.

Seems to me the hackers working on iPhone are simply better, or have more time on their hands. I can load Android on my iPhone no problem and dual boot, and yet Android hackers haven't figured out this minor inconvenience? Wow.

 

[AstroManLuca]

The reason why Apple chose AT&T in the first place was because AT&T was the only ISP that would give Apple all the freedom they wanted, AT&T lets Apple do whatever they want - and they probably asked that Android deviced get gimped so that people will go iPhone instead.

I still don't see how this is a problem. You can load unofficial apps on any iPhone that is currently out on the market today, and we will be able to jailbreak the new phone within a couple weeks, if not a couple days of release - so I don't see why Android geeks can't get this minor irretibility worked out.

Seems to me the hackers working on iPhone are simply better, or have more time on their hands. I can load Android on my iPhone no problem and dual boot, and yet Android hackers haven't figured out this minor inconvenience? Wow.

Obviously you have no idea what you're talking about.

What do you mean Android hackers haven't figured it out? Of course they have. You can root just about any Android phone thanks to the active Android hacking community. And once rooted, you can do whatever you want, including installing non-market apps.

It's a restriction put in place only by AT&T and it only applies if you don't do any hacking at all. It's not hard to root an Android phone and then do whatever you want. And with any other carrier, you can install non-market apps easily without even rooting.

 

[AMDZen]

Obviously you have no idea what you're talking about.

What do you mean Android hackers haven't figured it out? Of course they have. You can root just about any Android phone thanks to the active Android hacking community. And once rooted, you can do whatever you want, including installing non-market apps.

It's a restriction put in place only by AT&T and it only applies if you don't do any hacking at all. It's not hard to root an Android phone and then do whatever you want. And with any other carrier, you can install non-market apps easily without even rooting.

OK so whats the problem then? Why is this even a big deal if you can just fix it really quick to be able to install non-market apps? This is basically non-news then is what you are telling me.

I don't know the droid dev scene as well, no - however I know some people who regularly hack their droid, however they have either "sense" or whatever the HTC version is and say they will not be able to update to 2.2 right away because of it, where as Nexus 1 users can since it runs the native OS. Why not just install the native 2.2 then? That seems to me as another non issue if it was so easy to get around but apparently its complicated according to some.

See my first post, 2nd in the thread - I assumed it was this easy as it should be this easy - but Basically everyone is saying "OH AT&T WTF!!!" when what you are telling me is that this should take litterally 2 seconds to fix - so again, what is the problem?

EDIT: Yep, guess it was

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=643866

Took me 2 seconds to google and yet everyone in the thread is bitching like this is somehow an actual problem. Sorry, I guess I thought I was on a tech forum for some reason

 

[AstroManLuca]

I do understand your point. Like I said earlier, anyone who actually misses that feature ought to know enough to fix it, and anyone who doesn't will not care.

It also brings up the whole openness debate with iPhone vs. Android. Android users say the iPhone is too closed-off, then they bring up rooting, and then the iPhone users can hit back with jailbreaking. Perhaps Android is slightly more "open" (whatever that means) in its stock form, but a few minutes of tinkering will allow you to do basically whatever you want on either platform.

Took me 2 seconds to google and yet everyone in the thread is bitching like this is somehow an actual problem. Sorry, I guess I thought I was on a tech forum for some reason

LOL, bitching on a tech forum? Who would have thought? D:

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

@AMDZen: Well the problem with Android is you have a lot of fragmentation. It's easy to figure out a JB solution for the iPhone and easily deploy it across to older iPhones, the iPad and even the iPod Touch. I thought 3 devices with multi generations would make it tricky but the Spirit JB did everything like BAM.

Android is a lot harder. You can talk about all the different devices. I'm a Milestone user and the root didn't come easily... we're still combating a locked bootloader. So while the Droid and N1 are easy to circumvent, there are dozens of other devices that aren't bootloader unlocked yet...

 

[hanoverphist]

OK so whats the problem then? Why is this even a big deal if you can just fix it really quick to be able to install non-market apps? This is basically non-news then is what you are telling me.

I don't know the droid dev scene as well, no - however I know some people who regularly hack their droid, however they have either "sense" or whatever the HTC version is and say they will not be able to update to 2.2 right away because of it, where as Nexus 1 users can since it runs the native OS. Why not just install the native 2.2 then? That seems to me as another non issue if it was so easy to get around but apparently its complicated according to some.

See my first post, 2nd in the thread - I assumed it was this easy as it should be this easy - but Basically everyone is saying "OH AT&T WTF!!!" when what you are telling me is that this should take litterally 2 seconds to fix - so again, what is the problem?

EDIT: Yep, guess it was

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=643866

Took me 2 seconds to google and yet everyone in the thread is bitching like this is somehow an actual problem. Sorry, I guess I thought I was on a tech forum for some reason

being able to fix it in a couple seconds is irrelevant. the fact that ATT decided they needed to MAKE their customers root to install apps they dont get money for is the point. its bullshit. youre either missing the whole point or youre being intentionally obtuse

 

[JD50]

being able to fix it in a couple seconds is irrelevant. the fact that ATT decided they needed to MAKE their customers root to install apps they dont get money for is the point. its bullshit. youre either missing the whole point or youre being intentionally obtuse

:thumbsup:

 

[AMDZen]

being able to fix it in a couple seconds is irrelevant. the fact that ATT decided they needed to MAKE their customers root to install apps they dont get money for is the point. its bullshit. youre either missing the whole point or youre being intentionally obtuse

I'm just arguing the issue from a tech-minded perspective - I couldn't care less what a carrier does or doesn't do as long as I can get around it. I've always been a tinkerer and a hacker and if I can get more functionality, I will. For years you couldn't put a single custom ringtone on any normal cell phone without circumventing the phone in some manner.

This is just more of the same as far as I'm concerned, as long as the fix is easy then I don't see why this would put off anyone from buying it - as has been said, anyone who actually misses that feature ought to know enough to fix it, and anyone who doesn't will not care.

 

[gsaldivar]

I'm just arguing the issue from a tech-minded perspective...

No, it's more of a "I don't care and it doesn't affect me and I know how to get around it anyway" attitude. This works great until you find yourself stuck in a situation that nobody else cares about...

 

[hanoverphist]

I'm just arguing the issue from a tech-minded perspective - I couldn't care less what a carrier does or doesn't do as long as I can get around it. I've always been a tinkerer and a hacker and if I can get more functionality, I will. For years you couldn't put a single custom ringtone on any normal cell phone without circumventing the phone in some manner.

This is just more of the same as far as I'm concerned, as long as the fix is easy then I don't see why this would put off anyone from buying it - as has been said, anyone who actually misses that feature ought to know enough to fix it, and anyone who doesn't will not care.

my knowledge of how to put winmo 6.5 custom ROMs on my phone has nothing to do with how i feel about verizons policies. as it is, ive flashed my phone weekly at some points over the last year, tried all kinds of interface hacks and all kinds of stuff. funny part is, the one ive gotten the most usefulness out of is the stock winmo 6.1 with samsungs today 2 interface. it has pretty much everything i really end up using. ive tweaked it a bit for sure, but if they forced me to use a cooked ROM to add new apps and such id look for a different carrier just on principle. ease of bypassing doesnt really matter.