Slashdot Mirror
CyanogenMod Installer Removed From Google Play Store
sfcrazy writes "[Wednesday] Google asked the CM team to voluntarily remove the [CyanogenMod installer] app from the store or they would be forced to remove it administratively. CM team chose to remove the app voluntarily. According to the CyanogenMod team, Google initially said that the app was in violation of Google's Play's developer terms. When the CM team reached out to the Play team, they found that 'though application itself is harmless, and not actually in violation of their Terms of Service, since it 'encourages users to void their warranty', it would not be allowed to remain in the store.'" You can still install manually, though.
Perhaps making Google look bad isn't their #1 goal. Righteous indignation is cool and all but they're a business.
If by 'encourage(s) users to void their warranty'" you mean "use the thing you paid for however you see fit in concordance with a thousand year history of English, Formal and natural law, then yeah, I guess you could say it voids your warranty.
It's just amazing seeing, first Apple, and now Google, transform themselves into the modern IBM with their ever encroaching and desperate "lock in" policies. I guess it shouldn't be surprising. Seeing as the user is the product being sold, Google can't have their products (users vis a vie control of the user experience) just walking off the plantation, now can they?
If you want to gain traction, 'distribute in other ways' won't fly because it's far simpler to install an app from Google Play than to download from a site into sd card, tick a box in some settings, get a file manager to navigate to app and tap click to install it.
Your argument hinges on the belief that the users who want CM are unable or unwilling to perform those actions. That assertion is unproven at best. You also don't need a full file manager; you can simply use an APK installer. Some of them are truly teensy tiny. Also, web browsers will sometimes install APKs directly. I don't use Chrome, because it sucks, but Fennec will do it. And you can also open downloads directly from the downloads manager if you download them with the included crap browser.
Now, personally, I do use ES File Explorer for this purpose, both for downloading and for opening the APK, but there's no actual need.
I am running CM nightlies on Franco's kernel. I flashed recovery manually, though.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The only known threats on iOS devices have come to jailbroken phones and the jailbreaks themselves.
Apparently you utterly fucking fail at understanding security. Those jailbreaks exploit holes in the walled garden to install tools that do other things, like allowing users to install their own software. Malware authors can exploit those same holes to install their crap.
Even if the garden wall was perfect and didn't have holes, you still have to trust the guard who doesn't work for you, but for the gardener.
When Android doesn't require essentially every app you install to get access to private data BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN FUCKING INSTALL IT, then you MIGHT be able to start talking differently here. Until then you just make it obvious you're nothing more than a fanboy.
Well that time is now because Android doesn't require this. There are so many problems with every security model but by defending iOS in such a half-assed way, you have proven that you are nothing more than a fanboy as well.