Comment by CrazedGeek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by CrazedGeek | Hacker News Reader

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Two things:

Say what you will about Apple, but they keep the crap off your phone. Carriers can't put a damn thing on there that you don't want.

True, but they do a damn fine job of keeping things off:

iPad 3G video downscaled, blocked over AT&T network: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/ipad-3g-video...

AT&T and Apple Admit Deal to Block VoIP on iPhone: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/170661/atandt_...

AT&T cracking down unofficial tethering apps like MyWi: http://www.intomobile.com/2011/03/18/att-blocking-unofficial...

(Granted, Google's complicit to the carrier's requests here too -- however, I'm still perfectly able to install anything I want on my phone.)

But it was never updated. Not once. It took just months to start seeing apps in the Android Market that only worked with newer OS versions. [...] I've also already received 2 OS updates from Apple, which is 2 more updates than I ever received with Android.

No, it isn't. The Sprint HTC Hero got an official upgrade from 1.6 to 2.1, roughly eight months after the phone came out and five months after 2.1 came out. http://www.slashgear.com/sprint-htc-hero-android-2-1-update-...

> (Granted, Google's complicit to the carrier's requests here too -- however, I'm still perfectly able to install anything I want on my phone.)

This is not a valid argument for the average Android user, since they would have to root their device first. Jailbreaking an iPhone would also allow you to install anything you like.

You don't have to root a device to install anything, you just have to enable "Unknown sources" (Android will prompt you to enable it when you try to install an APK). A non-negligible amount of people do this -- it's how the Amazon Appstore works on everything (save for the Kindle Fire): http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&ref=mas_gs...

that's a blatant lie. stop spreading it.

to install anything useful to your phone you have to root it. e.g. try installing tethering or VPN apps when your operator image denies it.

also, all processes that involve rooting/flashing will involve one step that you remove the firmware locks from the device, allowing a thief to peek at your data at will even if the phone is password protected.

*downvoters, also contribute to the discussion saying how you enable tethering on, say, a thunderbolt bought from at&t. thank you.

ClockworkMod Tether is one of many options: http://www.clockworkmod.com

exactly my point. that requires rooting AND flashing the device

No, it doesn't. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdut...

yeah... that's not really tethering.

Someone has already covered tethering, so I'll just emphasize there are plenty of other useful things you can get by enabling "Unknown sources" without rooting: other app stores (Amazon [noted upthread], GetJar, MiKandi, ...) often with their own exclusives, software under development (Swype Beta, Mozilla's Aurora and Nightly, ...) and so on.

Separately, if you managed to buy a Thunderbolt from AT&T you have much bigger problems than getting tethering working. The Thunderbolt is a Verizon-specific CDMA/LTE phone that doesn't support any of AT&T's networks (AT&T's LTE is on a different band).

yeah, the thunderbolt wasn't mine :) had no idea which operator locked it. but it was locked beyond hope.

and i wasn't saying 'non-google-store-sources-aka-unkown-sources is a bad thing. i was just saying it's not enough to 'do what you want' with your device.

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