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AT&T Looks To Sell Cyanogen-Powered ZTE Phone To Snub Google (droid-life.com)
An anonymous reader writes: According to a report out of The Information, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier, ATT, is looking into partnering with Cyanogen because it thinks it could make a compelling Android-alternative smartphone for its customers. In other words, ATT wants to use Cyanogen to help it load more bloatware on phones to help sell their other services, like DirecTV. The Information's report suggests that ATT is "snubbing" Google by partnering with Cyanogen, because if the phone were to sell, it could put a damper on Google's continued attempts at making an Apple-like "consistent experience across all Android." Apparently, ATT is looking to partner with ZTE to manufacture the phone, though the U.S. government issued trade sanctions on them just this month, with allegations that they had tried to "illicitly re-export controlled items to Iran in violation of US export control laws."
...because that's how you give your customers to Verizon.
I've always marveled at the ability of marketing people to complete shove their heads completely up their asses like that.
Seriously - who came up with the thought "OMG the world needs more of our custom and half-baked bloatware!" I ask because I want to burn that individual's house down, then force him to eat the ashes.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I remember when older devices like my Galaxy S4 would get updates. It has been a long time since there were any. I do like the additional privacy controls I have now but who's to say they don't (or haven't already) gotten rid of the privacy features they touted as a compelling difference in the beginning.
How are we to conclude that an AT&T phone of this sort will be anything but horrible?
If you want a straight up Android, buy a Nexus. If you want a straight up IOS, buy an iPhone.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
We all saw how well this alternative to Google Android experience worked the last time.
Fuck Verizon! That overpriced trash will rape you with a quickness.
T-mobile for the win!!!
Doesn't "Snubbing" Google mean that people will actually have to buy that trash?
I made a pass at your girlfriend ... to help you. My advances are a test of whether she truly is in love with you.
AT&T will give Google the opportunity to prove their generic phones outperform in sales and market share and customer satisfaction compared to AT&T's bloatware phones. Thanks, AT&T, you're really looking out for Google's long-term best interests, whether you intended to or not.
Is this how we will receive system updates to patch say... Stagefright? Cyanogen has their own updating system.
Apple and WP seems to be able to handle updates without having to buy a new device.
There's nothing to prevent AT&T from partnering with ZTE to make a true stock Android phone and load it up with all the bloatware they want. Sure, if they want Google Play, they may need to include some other Google stuff, but presumably they're gonna put Google Play on this Cyanogen phone too. I don't think there's a viable rival app store they can use at this point. So what good does using Cyanogen do them - except maybe to get Cyanogen to handle the updates for them. Those updates will probably come much slower than stock Android updates on a Nexus device, but at least they might come...
I wonder whether Cyanogen is still dreaming of building (or helping Microsoft build) a true alternative Android ecosystem. That's not such a great idea either. But maybe they've hit on a viable business model in providing timely updates to phones that the manufacturers can't be bothered to support for any reasonable length of time. That could be a good thing. Timely bugfixes and eventual long-term OS upgrades on any phone would be a good competitive feature these days. And if ATT wants to become a known hardware brand, this could be a reasonable way to outsource the OS. Hope it's just that...
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
I thought "Cyanogen" was a new chemical for the battery supply....
With their utter failure to have any meaningful presence in the mobile phone world, Microsoft is using Cyanogen to infiltrate:
http://www.businessinsider.com...
http://www.techtimes.com/artic...
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/20...
http://www.engadget.com/2015/0...
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
As an AT&T customer let me say this, I totally and completely hate the utter garbage that is AT&T bloatware and that they shove down their customers' throats. And to make the offense even more egregious, they make it very difficult to remove the said junk. I buy Nexus devices now so that I do have to deal with this shit. What a clueless company. Please don't tell me to go to Verizon, they do the same thing. And so does Sprint. T-mobile might not, but they don't have the coverage I need.
A large reason that android ROMs such as Cyranogenmod became so popular was because they enabled users to dump bloatware. Now it's going to be used to add bloatware. That's a kick in the nuts.
Can somebody explain to me why and how this is bad?
Remember, bros -- Android is OPEN! Quoth the Rubin:
If Android is Open, shouldn't Google (and all of the Google Fandroids) be cheering this further demonstration of the strength of open platforms? Why would you want Google to lock down your options and choices, and limit you from being able to buy any flavor and style of Android that the market produces?!
It's almost as if you like to crow about how "open" is a good thing, until and unless somebody actually does something that might not directly benefit Google, in which case open is bad and stupid and invariably terrible for everybody. I'm confused guys! Can somebody explain how two legs can be both good AND bad at the same time?!
while true
do
echo "Cyanogen != Cyanogenmod"
done
As an AC said earlier, up above: "CyanogenMod creates the base OS, what Cyanogen and ATT do with it beyond that is out of CyanogenMod's hands."
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
T-Mobile's coverage has changed dramatically in the past year. Hit their website for a current map of your area. Check out the hexagons - that is where a handset of theirs has recently confirmed the mathematical theoretical coverage map. Adjust for your indoor status (are your walls straw, wood, or brick?) Note that non-T-Mobile branded handsets likely don't have support for 700Mhz/Band 12/Extended LTE using VOLTE turned on - and that can make a big difference.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I haven't touched a carrier based phone since 2010. BLOATED, LOCKED DOWN, FEATURE STRIPPED. At&t, might sell these to the people not smart enough to figure out you DON'T have to buy a phone from a carrier, but considering most of their business is "iPhones" anyway (have you seen the inside of an At&t store lately?), I doubt google is shaking in their boots.
On one hand, CyanogenMod is definitely a useful ROM. Next to having a Nexus phone, having a ROM that has a consistent UI (especially if used with Nova Launcher), well maintained, and constantly updated far beyond the 1-2 year life of most Android devices, is quite useful.
CyanogenOS... different story. Not familiar with it, but if it can't use Android/GApps, I wouldn't bother. I remember the application stores (not apps) on another telco's devices with regards to Windows Mobile, and the limited, costly, locked down selection they had. If it can't support Gapps, other stores (F-Droid), and sideloading, I'll not even bother.
Google has squandered their market momentum by try to develop too many things at once and not finish much of anything. Even Gmail, by today's standards, is outdated and the nonstandard hotkeys and such are just dumb.
As a Oneplus One owner who specifically purchased because of all of the hype surrounding its inclusion of Cyanogen as the the default OS let me tell you that it's crap and filled with more bloat by default than anything with the stock AOSP. I'm a longtime CyanogenMod user and a hobbyist developer on XDA, who thought that Oneplus was on to something with it, but man have I been disappointed! Updates are few and far between and when they do arrive they are extremely buggy. Furthermore, every incarnation has included more 3rd party apps that replace the stock Android, with each one mining your usage for more personal data. So instead of having one company, Google with this info, now a 1/2 dozen do, including Microsoft, which I was trying to escape from when I made the jump to Android years ago when I first installed it on my old HTC HD2 that came with Windows-6.5 mobile. My advice to anyone desiring to purchase a handset with CyanogenOS installed on it is to stay away, and if you really like the device wait until the sources are released, so that you can immediately root it and install a truly open source OS like CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android, or OmniROM.
Documents Pertaining to the Addition of ZTE Corporation and Related Entities to the Entity List
BIS has added ZTE Corporation and three affiliated entities to the Entity List. The Entity List (Supplement No. 4 to Part 744) includes foreign entities that are subject to specific license requirements for the export, reexport, or transfer of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
Click here to view the rule.
The principal bases for the addition of these entities were two ZTE corporate documents entitled “Report Regarding Comprehensive Reorganization and the Standardization of the Company Export Control Related Matters” and “Proposal for Import and Export Control Risk Avoidance.” These documents outline a ZTE-developed scheme to violate U.S. export control laws by establishing, controlling, and using a series of “detached” (e.g., shell or front) companies to illicitly reexport controlled items to sanctioned countries without authorization.
These documents, in original language and English translation, are:
1. “Report Regarding Comprehensive Reorganization and the Standardization of the Company Export Control Related Matters”
Mandarin
English
2. “Proposal for Import and Export Control Risk Avoidance”
Mandarin
English
"It's one thing to talk about the poetry of machines. Quite another to listen to it for yourself."
Today's language lesson.trade sanctions on them further muddifies the matter.
All the companies we really hate, bundled up into one convenient easy-to-loathe marketing partnership. Truly we live in the future.
ATT Bloatware is why I move to an unlocked Moto G and StaightTalk. No bloatware. I wouldn't mind paying for a 5.0 update, but the phone works good and doesn't have all the crap ATT installed on my previous phone.
ATT fu*koff. You are not getting another dollar from me.
I want someone to market a Openmoko/OsmocomBB mobile phone just to see what sort of market penetration is possible without American patents restricting supply; particularly to people in Africa and the middle-east. Although then, they will be easy prey for FaceBook, Grindr, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Pinterest; so it's not all good news.
These sound like good things lol. I'm glad sanctions have ended against Iran. The US threats were unnerving, and now we can be somewhat reassured that the US won't attack.
Why aren't there ever sanctions against the US, instead?
Note that among countried under sanction mentioned in one of the ZTE pdf above, there's Syria, which the US attacked that same year (2011) with CIA-supported terrorists. So not only "sanctions" are just a prelude or substitute to military action, the US acted as a "State sponsor of terrorism" against countries it accuses of doing just that. So, fuck you lol.
Buy ZTE : they were one of the handful brands with Firefox OS (although they cancelled their version 2.x phone) and the hardware seems decent. Wasn't that a free OS? (almost nothing installed, no online account required to install applications, etc.)
What, there's no Free OS available anymore, Android doesn't have updates etc., you can't remove the spyware? Then why are you buying a fucking smartphone anyway?. Don't. Two benefits : your country won't become a totalitarian dictatorship (or will do, a tiny bit slower) and you won't fall in a fucking river, manhole or get hit by a bus because you looked at dancing animated pigs or whatever useless crap is the fad now.