Is Google pulling tethering apps from the Android Market?
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted March 31st 2009 9:55AM
posted March 31st 2009 9:55AM
Google enters into distribution agreements with device manufacturers and Authorized Carriers to place the Market software client application for the Market on Devices. These distribution agreements may require the involuntary removal of Products in violation of the Device manufacturer's or Authorized Carrier's terms of service" Google Developer Distribution AgreementOf course, this should come as quite a surprise, given statements T-Mobile's Cole Brodman made to us during the G1 launch last year, and Google's seemingly rampant interest in being the de facto open source mobile OS. It's not clear at this point if this is an isolated incident (possibly related to the root nature of the app), or just the beginning of a more widespread move. Google (and T-Mobile to some extent) -- we await your response.
[Thanks, Chris]
wow this is a stupid move. So what if a person has got root on their phone. And this is not going to stop the tethering apps anyway. You can still download apps off market and install them. This is just going to hurt t mobile and google.
Google has to be seen as trying to do something, even if it doesnt work,
or else T-Mobile would'nt want to work with them and..... ohh..... no G1....
This goes to show that no matter how "open" your smartphone may be, it's at the mercy of service providers.
kccboy2004
First, learn to search Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethering
Second, this is not newspaper, it's a blog. You write according to the audience.
Third, do you need the definition of WiFi as well? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi
Ok, lets keep this simple: http://www.junefabrics.com/android/index.php
Go there, get PdaNet, run it on your PC, install it on your Android... and you have a tethered phone, that doesn't even require ROOT access.
Who cares if it is pulled from Market, that isn't the only way to install an app on an Android phone.
So this open source OS... you know where you can install any app...... yea not so much. So far windows mobile is the most "open" in these terms.
You can install stuff NOT from the market you know.
Plus, "open source" doesn't have anything to do with installing new applications really.
I know. I just find it funny how people hail android as a savior of sorts to the mobile. People can install apps on the iphone not from the app store either. Thats not the point though. Apple and Android app stores were created as the sole or close to only venue to get apps. With windows mobile, install what the hell you want from anywhere was and still is the main way to install your apps.
Don't be so proud. Let's see how long that lasts when microsoft opens their app store. The whole reasons for app stores is to prevent malware which windows mobile is currently incapable of doing.
@ emiliano
With the iPhone, you there is no official allowance of installing other apps and I believe that it actually voids your warranty to jailbreak your phone. Also, the only difference right now between Android and WMo in terms of installing apps is that Android gives you the option of going to a single source rather than scouring the internet. You can install all you want on your own. So in reality, all this is about is that Google is removing a few apps from their ease of installation and location service that WiMo doesn't even provide. However, you can spend 5 minutes on a google search and find/install them yourself.
I've been using WiMo for several years now, but I'm looking forward to a change. I won't buy an iPhone because of their practices and capability, but I want better usability. My next phone will probably be the Touch Pro2 (on sprint) with an expectation that good Android builds roms won't be far away from the XDA-Developer community.
In the end, Android still wins.
WMWifiRouter for the Win...dows Mobile :)
@ emiliano -- you don't know what you are talking about. Android has no one official market which you are restricted to using, like the iPhone does. In fact, there are something like 5 competing stores (SlideME, AndAppStore, Handigo, Android Market...), plus many developers just sell/give their softeware directly from their websites, no store needed.
@JAmerican: Agreed. And USB2PC and unlimited data plan from xda-devs = another FTW
or...
xda-developers > everything else mobile
You guys seemed to have missed my point. Apple's only official way to install apps is through the app store. In Android you can do it both ways, but is pushing you do it through the app store. App store on android is the 1st choice with the 2nd choice being through other means, but it's not ideal and not as easy as windows mobile. Windows mobile apps were meant to be freely and easily installed from the beginning. It's the difference in philosophies between the three OSs.
@emiliano: Umm if by not as easy you mean that you have to *gasp* go to settings and press one button to let you install apps from anywhere else forever. Also, if you do it that way you never have to worry abut apps having to be signed, etc. Having used both, I can safely say it was no easier to install apps from other sources on windows mobile and might actually have been harder.
Beep
The carriers can delete apps or wipe your entire phone whenever they want. What ever happened to you bought something and could do what ever you wanted with it?
[citation needed]
Hey now Beaner, it could be worse. Replace the word 'Carrier' with 'Goverment' in your statement. Big brother is watching, your cellphone's app list. Anarchist handbook app? No no no, we'll have to delete that one.
Well when you get a phone on contract you don't own it until the contract ends so you can't really bitch.
dopefish, you just won, sir.
@Major4Play
That's not true, at least not in the US. I have heard that some foreign carriers will charge you a little extra per month to pay off the remainder of the phone's price over the duration of your contract, but in the US your plan costs exactly the same whether you get a subsidized phone or not.
Since you're not making payments on your phone throughout your contract, there's no reason to say that you don't own it until your contract is over. On the day that you activate your service, you've paid every penny that you will ever pay towards the purchase of your phone, and that means that it belongs to you.
Thank god I got mine a couple of days ago....
Its not really that much of an issue considering you can just download it off your PC instead....
This just in: Google is a business.
I'm sure someone will find a way around it... they always do.
They already have. Installing apps from the market isn't the only way to install an app!!
I guess the T-Mobile G2 is going to be crap eh... psh... that's why I like unlocked phones.
This has nothing to do with locked or unlocked.
I just wish the carriers would give it up and allow tethering. Cap the bandwidth (with a clear limit) if needed, but just allow it. People are going to do it anyway, just deal with reality. And with the way phones are going, tethering or not, people are going to be using a lot of bandwidth
Can someone explain how this affects say.. me.. and the use of the g1 - i was literally about to get one on contract tomorrow!
I dont really understand this tethering business but the graphic shows big X's against youtube and gmail etc - are those going to be affected?
Tethering is where you use your mobile (cell) phone to allow your PC (laptop) to connect to the internet using your 'all you can eat' data plan that you got with the phone. If you have no intention of doing this it will not affect you. The crossed out you tube icons etc are just a bad decision by whoever did it (or the did it deliberately to try and stir things up). You will still be able to use all the sites you did before from your G1 - they just don;t want you using it so your pc or laptop can download lots of stuff.
cheers for that!
need to see if this is gonna blow over or not - Google cant be responsible for enforcing the rules of one carrier - especially when this "open os" is set to be released on other phones unlocked and on other carriers to come.
It's "open" to a degree. There's tons of proprietary chips and such that run the phone, in which drivers are not available for us dev's to look at.
Google has to enforce the service providers rules (which state they have to pay for tethering to get tethering typically), because they're the one which have control over the app market. Also, there's a bandwidth cap, there always is. The difference is they'll throttle you down instead of cut you off.
This isn't a huge deal at all to me, the fact that people discovered a hole and rooted their device just to get tethering shows that someone was truly desperate to have the ability to tether. Guess what, the ability to tether was never suppose to be a possibility. It actually hurts the network when people are tethering, and hence why they usually charge you for that ability.
Anyway, there's my rant on it. Don't let it have an effect on your purchasing decision -- it's a good phone and 90% of the population doesn't know what tethering is, or how to root their phone via cmd line anyway.
Google had no reason to sign any such contractual rules in the first place.
This reminds me of those CEO bonuses and companies saying 'well, we HAVE to it's in the contract', yeah cute but it's you who freaking agreed and signed that contract knowing full well what you did bastards - is what anybody with a grain of sense then thinks.
I wonder if mafia hitmen ever use that to get out of jail 'I had a contractual duty to kill that guy, my hands were tied, can I go now?'
Actually, even if you do plan on using that you won't be affected. This only stops you from getting the wifi tether apps from the marketplace, you can still point the browser on the phone over to xda-developers and download it there(first just press menu, go to settings->Applications and select "Unknown sources" and it'll let you install apps from outside the market)
Tethering refers to using your phone as a 3g modem for your computer, which can be darned handy and a major selling point for the phone if they allowed it. Tethering is only important if you need internet access for your computer. I use tetherbot and it's ok, but sometimes it won't work for reasons I can't figure out. Many phones do this as a feature - T-Mob probably just wants to sell 3g dongles on contract or they're afraid of their network getting swamped. Their 3g network isn't as extensive as AT&T.
The G1 is a nice phone, but it has it's limits. It has NO standard headphone jack so you either use the bundled crap headphones or you get an adapter. The camera is limited - it needs a lot of light and takes a long time to focus and snap but the pics are nice when they turn out. It does have a micro sd slot which is nice. GPS features are handy and I like the keyboard. The upcoming "cupcake" update looks to have a bunch of nice new features.
@aurispector: Actually, the new G1's come with an adapter. The adapter is actually better than having a normal 3.5mm jack in the phone IMO since it adds a mic to any normal pair of headphones you want to use.
And so it begins. Farewell, Android. I knew you were too good to be true.
Began and ended it all as soon as someone found out about the kill switch.
So install the app directly from the webpage, problem solved. **yawn**
Yeah and you can jailbreak iphones, and emigrate, and hide in caves, and embrace religion and think everything is wonderful.
Yawn indeed.
I think you don't get the part where downloading apps from another website/service is BUILT IN TO THE PHONE. Unlike jailbreaking an iphone, it's an actual service that was put in the phone on purpose. Now, please go back under your bridge.
Sounds like open source, no longer the best way to go.overhyped os.
Allmost April 1st... ;)
Is this T-Mobile's fault? Or is this pressure from European carriers like Vodafone in preperation for their Android device launch later this year?
Thats a really good question. Why would t-mobile have waited until now to ask to get them taken off?
You could very well be right with that one...
fortunately, iPhone 3.0 will have tethering and Vivo (the Telefónica-Portugal Telecom joint venture that's Brazil's biggest mobile network) doesn't charge extra for that.
iPhone 3.0 has tethering in the software, yes. It is not at all clear that the carriers will let Apple enable it.
What, are you serious? Vivo isn't gonna charge extra for tethering? Can you link to any stuff on that, in Portuguese or English, I would love to know about it! Thanks
It's worth noting that because Google doesn't have gestapo like control over what you do with your G1, you can just plug your phone into your computer as usual and install it without using the Android market. No jailbreaking or any such nonsense needed.
Google pulled it from the Market to comply with carrier contracts but that doesn't mean you still can't use the app.