Yes, when you buy a carrier locked phone you have to expect that it will take some work to root it. That's what Google is for... sometimes it takes a few months for people to figure it out. Once you have it rooted, though, you can update it with generic Android and not worry about a carrier recapturing your phone.
I bought the Nexus One which is not locked because I didn't want to wait for hacks. If you buy a cheap carrier subsidized phone, you have to work a little harder (but then I assume that the reason you bought a cheap carrier subsidized phone is that you have more time than money).
Yes, it does take some work. If you have a phone subsidized by a carrier they will usually have taken some steps to lock it down in some way. However, since they are all based on Android, they can all be hacked and rooted and forever freed from carrier locks. Sometimes it takes a few months for the methods to be discovered and published but they all can and will be rooted. Once you have freed it from the carrier locked version of Android and have installed the generic version (such as Cyanogenmod), you don't have to fear that the carrier will "update" it and lock it again.
You can root any Android phone (it's open source software) so they can't lock you out of anything for long. If you are stupid enough to buy a locked down phone at a real cheap "sucker's rate" from a carrier then you will have to invest some time in rooting the phone and installing software that doesn't have the locks. With Android, you can do this... other phones... not so much. I bought the Nexus One so I don't have to hassle with evil carrier locks and also get a cheaper rate. I figure I'll save about $1000 over two years on carrier charges alone. My wife will save even more since she can go on a cheaper data plan.
I can tell that you are a "newbie" at this "Internet" thing. I will let you in on a little secret. There is this thing called "Google" (same people who make Android).
Type google.com
Type "htc incredible root"
(Here is the hard part...) Use your MOUSE to CLICK on any of the links on the page. Thery all link to instructions on how to root your HTC Incredible including a few detailed YouTube videos. I know you will find this "INCREDIBLE". You can thank me later.
I think Apple distinguishes mobile platforms from everything else, and view mobile platforms as requiring a certain amount of closed-ness to manage resources carefully and prevent malware. Their desktop stuff is open, but their mobile stuff is a bit closed off.
Steve knows what's best for Apple to keep Apple revenue flowing (ATT lock-in kickback fees, developer fees and app store fees now...and just wait until Apple cranks up its ad "service"... coming soon to iPhone). If you want to believe that this is "necessary", go ahead and delude yourself. Android phones don't have these limitations.
Note that this is not strange. I have an Android phone, which is supposed to be the open platform, but I can't simply go around installing whatever I want.
I don't know what is wrong with your Android phone but on mine (Nexus One), I can install anything I want. Easy to get root and when you have root, you can install anything, even a completely new version of the OS without the evil bits (cyanogenmod.com). Perhaps your evil mobile carrier has locked your phone but with Android, it is easy to get around. On the iPhone, I hear that people can get root but it's difficult and Apple keeps trying to shut them off.
I guess it might be useful in some situations to allow the user to override the permissions that the developer has requested at the cost of crippling the application. However, I doubt many people would use this option. The Endomondo application might technically still run without access to GPS but it wouldn't do anything useful since it wouldn't know where I was and wouldn't be able to track my route (which is the entire point of the application). I already have the option to not upload my tracks to my account on the web (but again, this is a significant decrease in the functionality if I can't view my tracks and stats online).
It really does come down to trusting the application. If you don't trust the application to do what it says, then don't install it.
Google controls the Marketplace. If you download an application from Google's Market, they have a responsibility to ensure that the application follows the rules. These applications didn't follow the rules and were deleted.
If you install your own application from somewhere else, Google has no responsibility and can't delete it so you have control in that case. You own the phone and control it.
The permission system is very fine grained and includes the ability to control access to various resources individually. These permissions are selected by the application developer. For instance, I have an application called "Endomondo" (which uses the GPS to track my location, pace, etc while jogging). In order to use this application, it needs access to my location (GPS), network communication (for uploading tracks if I wish), and bluetooth (for heart rate monitor).
When I install the application, it asks me if I want to give the application access to these resources. I can choose to give access to these resources and install the application or not. It wouldn't make sense to selectively disable some of these requested resources since the application wouldn't work this access. I think that the Windows UAC model of continually bugging the user with Allow, Deny, Abort, etc. has been shown to be useless as well as extremely irritating.
You give each application access to the resources it needs. If you don't trust the application to use these resources properly, then you don't trust the application developer and you shouldn't install the application.
There is no reason that we need to reduce our use of energy as long as the energy is generated from renewable, non-CO2, non-other toxin producing methods (such as solar).
The problem is not energy use, it is the unintended consequences of producing energy from carbon and other toxic sources. As an example, we could use as much energy as we wanted from solar since that is only transferring energy from on site to another. Solar energy is captured in one place and released in another (usually within a very short time). Net extra energy and CO2 and toxins is zero.
For the past few years I haven't had any problem with Ubuntu on laptops (Dell, IBM, Toshiba) and everything "just works" including WiFi, sound, video, suspend and hibernate. Desktop hardware has never been much of a problem. I don't have any really old computers but, for instance, this Dell laptop that I'm using now is 5 years old (I guess that is really old for a laptop but I keep it because I like it) is working great. I've added RAM (to 1.5 G) and a larger disk and the performance is great for normal web, office, and occasional video work. According to System Monitor this has a 1.7 GHz Pentium M processor. The reality of hardware today is that it is all very capable (even "netbooks") of executing most routine office functions. You only need state of the art hardware if you are running some graphics or video intensive work and since I don't need any of that, we can get by just fine with the computers we have. I guess Win7 has more bloat than Linux so it may require beefier hardware but I wouldn't know since I've never tried it.
I create all of my presentations in OpenOffice.org and display them in either OpenOffice.org (no problem) or in whatever random version of MS Office is installed on the presentation machine where I happen to be. Sometimes there are graphics that are misaligned depending on the version of MS Office (easily fixed) but I have had the same problems moving from one version of MS Office to another. I've found that if I want to absolutely ensure people view my presentation as intended, I just click the pdf button and this makes a version of the presentation that will display exactly the same everywhere (as well as preventing inadvertent modifications of the presentation by the viewer).
Re:XP is productive
on
Time To Dump XP?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Holes found and fixed. Mac and Linux are not impervious to malware, they just have a much higher level of resistance due to the Unix security model... and a much more vigilant community to fix problems promptly. I don't have the illusion that I am completely secure against malware but I do have a high level of confidence that I have a secure system. This is the opposite of Windows where I assume that the systems are compromised and insecure.
Re:XP is productive
on
Time To Dump XP?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I migrated my business and home use from XP several years ago. We now use Mac and Ubuntu Linux everywhere. Benefits:
- freedom from worry about malware (80% of XP malware runs on Win7, no malware in the wild for Mac and Linux)
- runs on my existing computers (except Mac OSX, of course)... no need for expensive computer upgrades
- Office software compatibility... we standardize on OpenOffice.org and have been pleasantly surprised that it is more compatible with MS Office than all of the various MS Office versions are with each other.
- other software... we have been pleasantly surprised that we have been able to find good quality software for everything we need. We were worried about the FUD about open source software but haven't had any problems. We have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and availability of Office, Web, eMail, graphics, video, audio, utility, etc. software. We have found everything we need. We don't have any legacy applications tied to XP or IE6.
- powerful unix utilities... we have also been pleasantly surprised to discover a wealth of powerful genuinely useful unix utilities such as rsync, dd, grep, etc. which have made our lives much easier.
- training has been a minor expense... this is just not a problem... most people can transfer their Windows skills without problems or a simple introduction.
- support is easy... upgrades from repositories have been a joy...
If all you want to do is stare at the phone, then it would be difficult with only one camera. I would think it would be more useful to show people what is going on around you, not your fat nose. However, if you want two cameras, there are lots of different phones with two cameras and video conference capability that have been available for years from Nokia and others. However, it is good to see that Apple if finally catching up to the rest of the market... now all they need is a memory card, OLED screen, tethering, flash, and a bigger display. It could also lose a little weight to get into the top class.
(Please spare everyone the rant on how you don't really need or want these extra features or try to explain that Apple really has tethering except that it doesn't have tethering. We don't live in the reality distortion field.)
My Android Nexus One phone already does mobile video conferencing... except that it is not limited to WiFi only... works with Fring and Skype to do mobile video anywhere... using whatever connectivity is available...
... or something like the BarCode Scanner application for Android which uses the camera to read 1d and 2d barcodes and takes you to the web page/ download/ web search/etc. This is really easy to use. Just point it at the barcode and it figures out what to do.
Not only did the developed world get where they are by burning their own resources, they have also burned through many of the resources of the developing world through various forms of colonialism (including our current "oil wars" in the middle east).
The developing world has a right to use their (remaining) resources as they see fit. If the developed world is concerned about damage from use of these resources or wants access to them, they should be ready to pay fairly for the privilege. There are appropriate development paths which include education, health, renewable energy, etc. that could lead to sustainable development but these are not favored because it would cost the rich world in direct development aid and also loss of power to exploit the developing world. An educated, healthy, economically sustainable "third world" is a great threat to the current rich world corporate and military powers so it will not happen.
All of my friends in Switzerland who have iPhones complain that it is "not a very good phone" so I don't think that connectivity problems are confined to one network. Constant connectivity problems... but they love the fart apps.
So if you bought a PC with Windows OEM, wiped it and installed Linux... couldn't you then run the OEM Windows that you bought with the machine on that machine as a virtual machine?... or is this prohibited also?
Many of us have laptops that came with Windows XP and paid the Windows tax but have installed Linux... We should be able to use the Windows that we paid for on that hardware.
(a) this is an unprecidented engineering failure, (b) there were multiple safeguards, (c) it's an economic necessity that we drill for oil, and (d) Murphy's law -- no matter how hard you try, eventually mistakes will be made.
a) biggest screwup ever, yes. Due to willful and flagrant disregard for industry standard safety procedures.
b) Willful and flagrant disregard for safety procedures (more evidence accumulating daily)
c) it's an economic necessity for OIL COMPANIES to drill for oil. I personally would be happy never to have to buy another gallon of oil ever myself if that were possible. It would be possible if I could buy an electric car, ride an electric bus or train, generate electricity with wind, solar, etc. but the OIL COMPANIES don't want that and are blocking progress on this front right now.
d) "mistakes will be made" evades responsibility. This is not an "accident" or an act of god. BP MADE MISTAKES
This is why I bought the Nexus One without a contract. No telecoms company in the middle. I also get the latest updates. This is why the Nexus One was a "failure"... the telecoms companies didn't want a phone that was too open. Google lets telecoms companies tweak Android (but you can always install the generic Android OS to get around this).
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I bought the Nexus One which is not locked because I didn't want to wait for hacks. If you buy a cheap carrier subsidized phone, you have to work a little harder (but then I assume that the reason you bought a cheap carrier subsidized phone is that you have more time than money).
Yes, it does take some work. If you have a phone subsidized by a carrier they will usually have taken some steps to lock it down in some way. However, since they are all based on Android, they can all be hacked and rooted and forever freed from carrier locks. Sometimes it takes a few months for the methods to be discovered and published but they all can and will be rooted. Once you have freed it from the carrier locked version of Android and have installed the generic version (such as Cyanogenmod), you don't have to fear that the carrier will "update" it and lock it again.
You can root any Android phone (it's open source software) so they can't lock you out of anything for long. If you are stupid enough to buy a locked down phone at a real cheap "sucker's rate" from a carrier then you will have to invest some time in rooting the phone and installing software that doesn't have the locks. With Android, you can do this... other phones... not so much. I bought the Nexus One so I don't have to hassle with evil carrier locks and also get a cheaper rate. I figure I'll save about $1000 over two years on carrier charges alone. My wife will save even more since she can go on a cheaper data plan.
Type google.com
Type "htc incredible root"
(Here is the hard part...) Use your MOUSE to CLICK on any of the links on the page. Thery all link to instructions on how to root your HTC Incredible including a few detailed YouTube videos. I know you will find this "INCREDIBLE". You can thank me later.
Steve knows what's best for Apple to keep Apple revenue flowing (ATT lock-in kickback fees, developer fees and app store fees now...and just wait until Apple cranks up its ad "service"... coming soon to iPhone). If you want to believe that this is "necessary", go ahead and delude yourself. Android phones don't have these limitations.
I don't know what is wrong with your Android phone but on mine (Nexus One), I can install anything I want. Easy to get root and when you have root, you can install anything, even a completely new version of the OS without the evil bits (cyanogenmod.com). Perhaps your evil mobile carrier has locked your phone but with Android, it is easy to get around. On the iPhone, I hear that people can get root but it's difficult and Apple keeps trying to shut them off.
It really does come down to trusting the application. If you don't trust the application to do what it says, then don't install it.
If you install your own application from somewhere else, Google has no responsibility and can't delete it so you have control in that case. You own the phone and control it.
When I install the application, it asks me if I want to give the application access to these resources. I can choose to give access to these resources and install the application or not. It wouldn't make sense to selectively disable some of these requested resources since the application wouldn't work this access. I think that the Windows UAC model of continually bugging the user with Allow, Deny, Abort, etc. has been shown to be useless as well as extremely irritating.
You give each application access to the resources it needs. If you don't trust the application to use these resources properly, then you don't trust the application developer and you shouldn't install the application.
The problem is not energy use, it is the unintended consequences of producing energy from carbon and other toxic sources. As an example, we could use as much energy as we wanted from solar since that is only transferring energy from on site to another. Solar energy is captured in one place and released in another (usually within a very short time). Net extra energy and CO2 and toxins is zero.
For the past few years I haven't had any problem with Ubuntu on laptops (Dell, IBM, Toshiba) and everything "just works" including WiFi, sound, video, suspend and hibernate. Desktop hardware has never been much of a problem. I don't have any really old computers but, for instance, this Dell laptop that I'm using now is 5 years old (I guess that is really old for a laptop but I keep it because I like it) is working great. I've added RAM (to 1.5 G) and a larger disk and the performance is great for normal web, office, and occasional video work. According to System Monitor this has a 1.7 GHz Pentium M processor. The reality of hardware today is that it is all very capable (even "netbooks") of executing most routine office functions. You only need state of the art hardware if you are running some graphics or video intensive work and since I don't need any of that, we can get by just fine with the computers we have. I guess Win7 has more bloat than Linux so it may require beefier hardware but I wouldn't know since I've never tried it.
I create all of my presentations in OpenOffice.org and display them in either OpenOffice.org (no problem) or in whatever random version of MS Office is installed on the presentation machine where I happen to be. Sometimes there are graphics that are misaligned depending on the version of MS Office (easily fixed) but I have had the same problems moving from one version of MS Office to another. I've found that if I want to absolutely ensure people view my presentation as intended, I just click the pdf button and this makes a version of the presentation that will display exactly the same everywhere (as well as preventing inadvertent modifications of the presentation by the viewer).
Holes found and fixed. Mac and Linux are not impervious to malware, they just have a much higher level of resistance due to the Unix security model... and a much more vigilant community to fix problems promptly. I don't have the illusion that I am completely secure against malware but I do have a high level of confidence that I have a secure system. This is the opposite of Windows where I assume that the systems are compromised and insecure.
- freedom from worry about malware (80% of XP malware runs on Win7, no malware in the wild for Mac and Linux)
- runs on my existing computers (except Mac OSX, of course)... no need for expensive computer upgrades
- Office software compatibility... we standardize on OpenOffice.org and have been pleasantly surprised that it is more compatible with MS Office than all of the various MS Office versions are with each other.
- other software... we have been pleasantly surprised that we have been able to find good quality software for everything we need. We were worried about the FUD about open source software but haven't had any problems. We have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and availability of Office, Web, eMail, graphics, video, audio, utility, etc. software. We have found everything we need. We don't have any legacy applications tied to XP or IE6.
- powerful unix utilities... we have also been pleasantly surprised to discover a wealth of powerful genuinely useful unix utilities such as rsync, dd, grep, etc. which have made our lives much easier. - training has been a minor expense... this is just not a problem... most people can transfer their Windows skills without problems or a simple introduction.
- support is easy... upgrades from repositories have been a joy...
- Peace of Mind... priceless
However, this didn't work out because the shoulder wasn't strong enough. They had to close the shoulder lanes, going from three lanes to two.
The good news is that this was a reduction in capacity of only 33% so compared to the original 50% increase, you still have extra capacity...
Bonus points... where is the extra capacity?
I didn't think that steel drum bands required a conductor... also, where do they put all of those drums?
(Please spare everyone the rant on how you don't really need or want these extra features or try to explain that Apple really has tethering except that it doesn't have tethering. We don't live in the reality distortion field.)
My Android Nexus One phone already does mobile video conferencing... except that it is not limited to WiFi only... works with Fring and Skype to do mobile video anywhere... using whatever connectivity is available...
... or something like the BarCode Scanner application for Android which uses the camera to read 1d and 2d barcodes and takes you to the web page/ download/ web search/etc. This is really easy to use. Just point it at the barcode and it figures out what to do.
The developing world has a right to use their (remaining) resources as they see fit. If the developed world is concerned about damage from use of these resources or wants access to them, they should be ready to pay fairly for the privilege. There are appropriate development paths which include education, health, renewable energy, etc. that could lead to sustainable development but these are not favored because it would cost the rich world in direct development aid and also loss of power to exploit the developing world. An educated, healthy, economically sustainable "third world" is a great threat to the current rich world corporate and military powers so it will not happen.
All of my friends in Switzerland who have iPhones complain that it is "not a very good phone" so I don't think that connectivity problems are confined to one network. Constant connectivity problems... but they love the fart apps.
... so you think that substituting buggy Microsoft software for buggy Nokia software will a big win for Nokia?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/19/tech/main1727208.shtml
Many of us have laptops that came with Windows XP and paid the Windows tax but have installed Linux... We should be able to use the Windows that we paid for on that hardware.
a) biggest screwup ever, yes. Due to willful and flagrant disregard for industry standard safety procedures.
b) Willful and flagrant disregard for safety procedures (more evidence accumulating daily)
c) it's an economic necessity for OIL COMPANIES to drill for oil. I personally would be happy never to have to buy another gallon of oil ever myself if that were possible. It would be possible if I could buy an electric car, ride an electric bus or train, generate electricity with wind, solar, etc. but the OIL COMPANIES don't want that and are blocking progress on this front right now.
d) "mistakes will be made" evades responsibility. This is not an "accident" or an act of god. BP MADE MISTAKES
This is why I bought the Nexus One without a contract. No telecoms company in the middle. I also get the latest updates. This is why the Nexus One was a "failure"... the telecoms companies didn't want a phone that was too open. Google lets telecoms companies tweak Android (but you can always install the generic Android OS to get around this).