The
Dev Phone 1 is good for many things that the stock
G1 is not -- hardcore geek street cred, developing Android apps, exercising your 1337est hacking skills -- but one thing it's
not good for is buying and enjoying paid apps out of the Android Market. It seems Google has disabled access to paid apps from Dev Phone 1s, likely in response to the almost-immediate discovery by users that rooted devices had access to the hidden folders where the apps were stored, effectively making pirating them trivially easy. In all likelihood, the move doesn't actually have anything to do with whether your phone is radio unlocked -- it's the rooting that's the concern, and frankly, we're a bit shocked at Google's naivete at thinking these things were going to stay protected without at least a glancing effort at real DRM. You'd think that developers willing to shell out $400 for the device aren't going to take too kindly to being locked out of the goods -- which, ironically, could be their own -- so let's hope Google's planning on cleaning up the shop and opening back up sooner rather than later.
Update: Get a load of this -- we have an unlocked, rooted G1 on hand, and it still has access to paid apps. Same problem, essentially the same phone, but Google's glossing it right over. If we had an ADP1, we'd be fuming right about now.
posted February 25th 2009 8:45PM
Rooting a standard G1 isn't hard, and people primarily do it for things that should be built into the phone anyway:
1) The ability to store and run apps from the SD card.
2) The ability to use user-generated themes.
3) Tethering.
4) The ability to close resource hog programs when you're done using them. (Hello, even WinMo's got that.)
5) More freedom of programs. (i.e., command line apps.)
So, more or less the same reasons people jailbreak iPhones.
Well that's stupid... they're litterally forcing dev phone users to pirate the paid apps... Nicely done Google...
Will a donation-based app store work?
you can download software for free, and if you feel rich or feel pity for the developer, just wire a couple of bucks to him.
Sigh -- there's a problem with laws that are designed, knowing full well that people are going to have to break them.
Might have something to do with the fact that the developers are supposed to get a 70% cut, and the other 30% goes to merchant settlement and the network carriers... not sure how on a Dev G1 they're supposed to give the carrier the cut they are supposed to get.
I bet its just an accounting/financial/legal thing.
Not sure what this is about... I have an ADP1 and have had paid apps since they went live.