Database Info

Android could be killed off by suppliers

Found this interesting Article on Fudzilla regarding how Android could be killed off by the suppliers of the phones. Figured I would share
http://www.fudzilla.com/mobiles/item/21611-android-could-be-killed-off-by-suppliers

Nice read but those publishers are idiots. The only way android will be killed of is if apple takes over the world and burns down google
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

I pretty much summed up the article that if, Google doesn't take tighter control of how the suppliers are updating the phones, and if Google themselves do not ease up on releasing updates, then it might drive people away from Android phones due to the lack of support.

Twoddle.
At last report (that I know of), 300,000 people a day were activating new Android phones. I'm gonna guess here, but I reckon about 90% of those people don't give a monkeys about updated ROMs and new features. They don't understand enough about their phones to care. (Not an insult - just a statement.)
They'll keep their phone for the next 12/18/24 months and then get a nice new shiny one with the same OS cos it'll remember their contacts and they can download the same apps again.
Anyone that's in the other 10% know exactly how to modify the phone to suit their needs, and will only buy another phone because of the hardware. They know full well they can put whatever OS and apps on there they want.
For every bunch of people that leave Android to go iPhone, there'll be an equally sized bunch of people that leave iPhone to go Android. Change the OS names in that last sentence for other OSs to complete the story.
Analysts don't know squat. They're paid to make predictions that are less founded in reality than astrology. Besides, you can't be an analyst without anal.

Well said and very true
johncmolyneux said:
Twoddle.
At last report (that I know of), 300,000 people a day were activating new Android phones. I'm gonna guess here, but I reckon about 90% of those people don't give a monkeys about updated ROMs and new features. They don't understand enough about their phones to care. (Not an insult - just a statement.)
They'll keep their phone for the next 12/18/24 months and then get a nice new shiny one with the same OS cos it'll remember their contacts and they can download the same apps again.
Anyone that's in the other 10% know exactly how to modify the phone to suit their needs, and will only buy another phone because of the hardware. They know full well they can put whatever OS and apps on there they want.
For every bunch of people that leave Android to go iPhone, there'll be an equally sized bunch of people that leave iPhone to go Android. Change the OS names in that last sentence for other OSs to complete the story.
Analysts don't know squat. They're paid to make predictions that are less founded in reality than astrology. Besides, you can't be an analyst without anal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

A majority of customers don't care about updating the firmware of the phone. If it works, they won't complain. If it doesn't work, they'll bring it back for a warranty repair or simply get a new phone.

johncmolyneux said:
Twoddle.
At last report (that I know of), 300,000 people a day were activating new Android phones. I'm gonna guess here, but I reckon about 90% of those people don't give a monkeys about updated ROMs and new features. They don't understand enough about their phones to care. (Not an insult - just a statement.)
They'll keep their phone for the next 12/18/24 months and then get a nice new shiny one with the same OS cos it'll remember their contacts and they can download the same apps again.
Anyone that's in the other 10% know exactly how to modify the phone to suit their needs, and will only buy another phone because of the hardware. They know full well they can put whatever OS and apps on there they want.
For every bunch of people that leave Android to go iPhone, there'll be an equally sized bunch of people that leave iPhone to go Android. Change the OS names in that last sentence for other OSs to complete the story.
Analysts don't know squat. They're paid to make predictions that are less founded in reality than astrology. Besides, you can't be an analyst without anal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely right.
On the other hand, i'm right outside that 10% bunch, but i'm just 17 and if i **** up my phone it won't be so good for me. I rooted, but i guess i am dumb enough not to know terminals and flashing and pushing stuff here and there
Anyhow- Android won't be killed. That's like when they said Linux was to be killed off in the early 2000's because Windows machines were supplied with an X amount of memory (about a 100mb extra than those running a distro)

Won't happen I mean come on what you think is the alternative? They want to pay the license? What happens if upgrade comes? who you think will pick up RIM? lol they are dead who else iOS? Sorry thats for iPanzy and who use that come on now, only other alternative is WM.
Also who wants to fight big Google? You think they will let it go easy? They can buy the ****ing company out and change the decision if they cared to just to send single message. Also then you have the user who can and is doing what they want hence you are on XDA? F the carrier support thats like saying you are bound to software hence your PC?
But the biggest problem with mobile world is the hardware which is not actually openly shared as opposed to computing world, where one can actually code the driver for support. BTW voddles your last sentence didn't make sense what so ever take it from someone who been using Slackware since it was created.

I for myself isn't that impressed of Android anymore.
Having used an X10 Mini since May 2010 (now 2.1 and some extra updates)
Wanted the Mini for the Android Hype, Spotify music streaming and smallness.
Love the phone still but getting more and more angered of lack of decent software/apps
Hate all the Android keyboards(not because of it's tiny on a 2.6" screen) but the lack of arrow keys and stupidity behavior (like unable to mark text and enter new).
Search function is limited too (In Market and others) It's impossible to editing an old search, you have to enter everything again.
Also getting more and more irritated on the Google in general.
Wanna have a new non Win, IOS, Bada, Android or Nokia stuff. Phone OS. Now.
Will not follow your guys inte 2.2 or 2.3

Journalism just seems to go down the toilet in the highly competitive virtual world of the internet.
"While HTC appears to be ahead of the game at getting new updates to uses, some outfits, particularly Motorola are developing a jolly bad name for themselves. You could upgrade yourself but he problem is getting your paws on unlocked boot loaders. Motorola's upcoming phones have locked bootloaders."
Locked bootloaders have nothing to do with official updates.
"However it looks to us like Google is going to need to put its foot down fast before the suppliers start killing off its operating system. The last thing people want is to get an Android phone and find it can't do something that has been advertised because some phone maker could not be bothered upgrading."
Put its foot down on a free OS? Ads go out advertising that all Android phones support roms? That all Android phone are upgradeable to the latest, greatest Android OS?
The whole article looks to be written by someone attempting to be sensational but really has no clue.
I remember when Android was new and you had all these manufacturers "skinning" Android. I was worried that a user may confuse a skin with the primary OS and incorrectly give credit or blame to that skin. People seem to love Sense UI and hate Motoblur. You impression of Android could vary depending on if you used an HTC vs a Motorola. That clearly did not happen.

Blåburk said:
I for myself isn't that impressed of Android anymore.
Having used an X10 Mini since May 2010 (now 2.1 and some extra updates)
Wanted the Mini for the Android Hype, Spotify music streaming and smallness.
Love the phone still but getting more and more angered of lack of decent software/apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'Lack of decent apps'?
Know why there seems to be a lack here?
You live in Sweden.
Last.fm doesn't work, Goggles doesn't work, Quickoffice doesn't work, trillian is probably locked out too...
Why didn't you get a netbook anyway?
Mine cost the same as the x10 mini did in May 2010.
Hate all the Android keyboards(not because of it's tiny on a 2.6" screen) but the lack of arrow keys and stupidity behavior (like unable to mark text and enter new).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's what you wanted when you got the phone, why didn't you turn it in right away?
Yeah, they have arrow keys - on the ones with a sliding keyboard. Idiot.
Also getting more and more irritated on the Google in general.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'The Google'? What does Google have to do with your Sony Ericsson phone?

Never gonna happen.
ksizzle9 said:
Nice read but those publishers are idiots. The only way android will be killed of is if apple takes over the world and burns down google
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Everything said here is somewhat true and somewhat false. We all have our opinions, we all have different expectations from our phones...
What i don't understand is, and i say this from a developer perspective, why would any mobile device manufacturer, like Sony, lock out their devices? Same goes for Apple etc etc
I mean, i think far more ppl would actually buy their products if they know that they have a open device and that it can run on all carriers. I mean, i actually bought my 1st iPhone just because of the fact that someone made an unlock tool so u could use it outside of AT&T networks...
As for the OS side, Android wont die ofc, and i believe its a good thing that Google publishes updates to it so fast. This means they are really dedicated to the project and that they really care for developers so they can make much better apps, with more features and capabilities.

voddles said:
'Lack of decent apps'?
Know why there seems to be a lack here?
You live in Sweden.
Last.fm doesn't work, Goggles doesn't work, Quickoffice doesn't work, trillian is probably locked out too...
Why didn't you get a netbook anyway?
Mine cost the same as the x10 mini did in May 2010.
If that's what you wanted when you got the phone, why didn't you turn it in right away?
Yeah, they have arrow keys - on the ones with a sliding keyboard. Idiot.
'The Google'? What does Google have to do with your Sony Ericsson phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing your IQ level with the world, hopes you will be able to eat with a spoon sometimes in the future.
Just one remark a phone made by SE but using the Google Android do have a somethings with the Google to do, doesn't it.
The rest of what you wrote is not worth comments.
Sorry for upsetting you

When do you think an android OS for desktops will be created?

Blåburk said:
Thanks for sharing your IQ level with the world, hopes you will be able to eat with a spoon sometimes in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL now thats comedy.
I have to somewhat agree with you about the virtual keyboard. Now coming from HD2 which has the best stock keyboard I have ever seen. The arrow key and able to select via drag is best when you typing but on AOSP the whole idea is retarded. I can still type every fast but not fast as I once was on HD2 then again where is that whole 4.3" out there.

Nice read but those publishers are idiots.

I personally am always going to be sticking with HTC. They usually update most of there phones and even if they dont someone will have rooted it and just made a <insert android version here> rom. Plus even if no one can root it i still love Htc Sense and it looks 100x better than Motoblur or whatever Sony uses.

Blåburk said:
Thanks for sharing your IQ level with the world, hopes you will be able to eat with a spoon sometimes in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now now children... please lighten up, much more important things in this world to be getting upset or to "fight" over... honestly...
a subs0nic G2 bass cann0n blast0id via andr0id

so true.....only 10% of peopel like us know what we really want to do with our phones....

HTC Opens Up To Developers

Check it out, launching soon. - http://www.htcdev.com/
First they say they will keep future phones bootloaders unlocked, and now this. HTC is truly listening to their customers

Looks very promising

I think they just realized the benefits of having a volunteer labor force aggressively developing custom Sense ROMs for their machines. If they follow through, their sales will get a big boost.
DInc with CyanogenMod 6.1 & Invisiblek #28 kernel.

Holy cow. Very impressive. Good on htc
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Definitely two thumbs up for HTC! Maybe they see how knowledgeable the people of the community are and seem to solve our own problems before they do. They are definitely going to the best route to the top though!
-Dubsky
Sent from my secret shoe phone.

Awesome
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Thumbs up!
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Sweet deal HTC!

Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

kinda like to hear what the devs have say on the subject,have any of them checked it out,are they gonna have free hand,i would say they will guidelines to follow,maybe in the future we get a certified bamf rom that screams and htc gets a whole lotta new customers
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

It seems like everyone's excitement stems from the assumption that this means HTC is somehow making it easier to modify and/or remove the Sense overlay from their android releases.
Perhaps I'm interpreting incorrectly, but to me it instead reads like HTC is "opening up sense" to try and capture developers into coding something that would only run on their own devices.
IE, the net result being that sense will still be inextricably intertwined into their android forks AND will seep it's way into some apps programmed by independent devs, thus further fragmenting the android ecosystem.
What's everyone so happy about?
Edit: In other words, everyone seems to believe that HTC is inviting talented outside developers to help debug their official rom when what they're really doing is keeping that development to themselves and instead trying to get sense's bloated look & feel incorporated into third-party apps as well.

ehr1 said:
It seems like everyone's excitement stems from the assumption that this means HTC is somehow making it easier to modify and/or remove the Sense overlay from their android releases.
Perhaps I'm interpreting incorrectly, but to me it instead reads like HTC is "opening up sense" to try and capture developers into coding something that would only run on their own devices.
IE, the net result being that sense will still be inextricably intertwined into their android forks AND will seep it's way into some apps programmed by independent devs, thus further fragmenting the android ecosystem.
What's everyone so happy about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that could be the case as well. But I really don't think it will be the case.
HTC has no intentions of dumping sense and any development they encourage wont be directly towards AOSP development, just sense. Though perhaps some good will come out of it *if* they are nice enough to cough up the source to the sense modifications they made and to the android libraries they modified (since they currently give neither). Our luck, they'll just release some sort of development kit/api and keep things closed still. It's pretty clear though that after realizing how popular CM and Miui are (there was a big front page article on wired just the other week about it) they want to try to "catch the wave" as well. Whether they do it right or screw it up by listening to their corporate MBAs/marketing types instead of their in-house engineers (no dis on those that happen to be in those fields, but when i want advice on how to run a business, I'll ask [just stay away from telling me how to code ]). Tech companies that are successful are founded by and listen to their engineers (Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook).
However, those that like sense, were most likely sense developers/hackers/modders to begin with. The divisions between those that like the third party frameworks/launchers on phones and thsoe that like vanilla are pretty clear lines. I don't foresee any significant brain drain happening from other non-sense projects really.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/03/...-and-htcdev-offers-paradise-inside-i/?m=false
Htc will never open source sense. They are, in fact, going the opposite direction.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Hmmm... At first I was happy, but after thinking about it. I'm not sure if it means that they are giving devs access to their sense code. Now that I read the article it just seems they are providing an SDK so devs can develop for sense. IMO it's kinda redundant... Can't they use the market somehow? I think it could be interesting, but a HTC Sense market and an Amazon market (even though I like their free apps lol) isn't really doing much to make the Android Market any better.

JonKyu said:
Hmmm... At first I was happy, but after thinking about it. I'm not sure if it means that they are giving devs access to their sense code. Now that I read the article it just seems they are providing an SDK so devs can develop for sense. IMO it's kinda redundant... Can't they use the market somehow? I think it could be interesting, but a HTC Sense market and an Amazon market (even though I like their free apps lol) isn't really doing much to make the Android Market any better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sdk would just replace most of the needed hacking people do for themes and other non kernel related modding on sense that you see in the forums (or at least provide an alternative).

Wow! This is pretty awesome. I just hope there isn't too much red tape and restrictions.

Why develop just for HTC phones when you can target all of android? I guess the access to 3D APIs etc could be nice but I see nothing good that can come from making HTC Sense 3.0 apps instead of Android apps.

Braggo said:
Why develop just for HTC phones when you can target all of android? I guess the access to 3D APIs etc could be nice but I see nothing good that can come from making HTC Sense 3.0 apps instead of Android apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because HTC is doing it, and Sense is their product, they want to further push their products. If they make it for all android devices then Motorola, Samsung, & others could use it too. Which means HTC would be putting money into developing apps and the such for competiting companies, not a smart business move.

g00s3y said:
Because HTC is doing it, and Sense is their product, they want to further push their products. If they make it for all android devices then Motorola, Samsung, & others could use it too. Which means HTC would be putting money into developing apps and the such for competiting companies, not a smart business move.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely understand why HTC is doing it. I'm just not sure why developers would want to restrict their applications to HTC phones.

Well I say whatever comes out of this is still fine. If it seems HTC is plotting something evil or their is too much red tape than developers can choose whether they're into that or not. Worse case scenario is that it is unproductive. Then we keep coming to xda for our fixes, updates, and leaks. I say good job HTC and I hope other manufacturers follow suit.

{DEV} Remember the CIQ Apps Found In HTC Devices?There Is More And It Isn’t Pretty!!

Taken From XDA Portal
For the last few weeks, we have been intensely covering security and privacy issues that involve quite a few of the latest HTC devices (Sensation, EVO 3D, etc). It was discovered by XDA Recognized Developer TrevE that there are multiple apps and services that basically collect all sorts of information about our devices, their usage, and everything that is done on them to later on be sent to some Amazon cloud drive. HTC has come back a couple of times with official statements saying that the apps are indeed harmless and that the information collected is to basically help HTC and the carriers to improve their products and services to us. Moreover, they claimed that, at least, the HTC services can be opted out and they would stop collecting said information. Well, TrevE has been doing a lot of research as of lately and further proved that not only can these services not be turned off by regular means, but also has shown, by doing an experiment in a controlled environment, that the apps are inherently dangerous as they can be easily exploited by virtually any app that has android.permission.INTERNET enabled, which a ton of apps in the market currently do.
The kind of information that can be pulled from the device could be enough, potentially, to clone a device completely if the person receiving this knows how to do it. The app seems to allow the dump of virtually all stats and values by the device. Regardless of HTC’s motives to collect this information, the important part about this, and really the core of the issue, is that the information from these apps can be easily intercepted and sent anywhere to anyone. For the skeptics in the room, TrevE has put together a small demo app (proof of concept) that shows what could potentially happen when this is intercepted. He also has put together a Youtube video that shows exactly what is going on. It seems that the only real way to get rid of these services is by rooting the device and manually removing them, but there is no known way to remove them from an unrooted device.
HTC has been notified about the issue approximately 5 days ago and we are still waiting for a response, which they said they are working on. You will have to keep in mind that this is only the first app that TrevE is working on, and if you remember from previous articles, there are 5 of them. Long story short, you can expect one of these articles on XDA at least once a week for the next month or so.
Well, HTC, as you may see it, this is no longer about us wondering why you are getting our information, but it was discovered that whatever you are using to get it is simply not secure. For the sake of your customer’s privacy, we request that you take the proper measures and release any and all necessary patches to fix this for any and all devices being affected. This is about people’s data falling in the wrong hands, so please we ask that you take action on this soon.
HTCLogger allows any app that has access to android.permission.INTERNET on devices such as the evo3d to obtain full access to query sensitive info such as network/appusagestats/meid/esn/phone#/past 10 location broadcasts and last known locations/and more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoTUkQ7SlNU&feature=player_embedded
You can find the original thread here. Also, you can check if you are vulnerable by using the app found in this thread.
Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.
Thanks TrevE for the tip!

More links regaurding new findings!!..
http://infectedrom.com/showthread.php/559-Vunerability-1-Android-Security-Elevation
and heres an app to check if you are vulnerable...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17612559&postcount=110

Does this help anyone?! LOL....Im sure NOBODY like BIG BROTHER WATCHING YOU!

lightninbug said:
Does this help anyone?! LOL....Im sure NOBODY like BIG BROTHER WATCHING YOU!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you kind of threw that out the door when you decided to buy an ANDROID device.. didn't ya ? LOL

so if you run something like cyanogen or miui am i right in thinking you would prob not be vulnerable, but custom sense based roms prob would be?

meegs said:
so if you run something like cyanogen or miui am i right in thinking you would prob not be vulnerable, but custom sense based roms prob would be?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats basically what Im thinking.. But who knows...For all we know the STOCK sms app is sending HTC all our texts...think of how many drug dealers/ or other illegal things people do that is uploaded to htc....I For-see a NEW AGE IN CRIME STOPPING upon us...and the general public doesnt even know it.

About the big brother watching you.
Why do you think Android is free? Companies like HTC and Google want you to spend as much time as possible on the internet so you can see the ads that pay their bills. That's the whole idea behind Android, cheap access to the internet so you can use Google products and see their ads. HTC is probably doing something similar here. HTC has access to lots of user data via the phones that they sell. This is valuable data to data miners who can sell their products using this information.
Personally I don't have a problem with this. But if you do it makes sense to stop using the internet

Call me crazy but I quite frankly don't care much about them knowing what apps I run or where my wifi network is located or where my phone has been. I voluntarily share that kind of information with Google in return for making my life easier by allowing my to use services like Google Maps and Google Search. Now if I were a terrorist or someone running from law enforcement I could see how this would bother me a lot more.
Moreover, if this information actually helps HTC improve the user experience on my next device (similar to how it has helped Google improve their services), I'll personally send it to them in a .zip file. It is troubling though that they kind of just take these kinds of stats regardless of your consent.
Anyway, let me know when they start listening in on my phone calls and reading my text messages. Maybe then I'll care more. -_-
EDIT: I still really do appreciate TrevE taking time out of his day to do this research and share his findings with the community.

Guys I think there trying to say that HTC or google is not gathering our info securely,and anyone with the knowledge can intercept our info from google or HTC. Say the president uses a HTC sensation,and a terrorist intercepts the presidents info that is suppose to go to google or HTC. Now that terrorist knows where the president is,etc. See how that's a problem? I sure don't want no crazed lunatic knowing were I'm at,worst,cloning my phone!
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using xda premium

brd912 said:
Guys I think there trying to say that HTC or google is not gathering our info securely,and anyone with the knowledge can intercept our info from google or HTC. Say the president uses a HTC sensation,and a terrorist intercepts the presidents info that is suppose to go to google or HTC. Now that terrorist knows where the president is,etc. See how that's a problem? I sure don't want no crazed lunatic knowing were I'm at,worst,cloning my phone!
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just in case we wondered why the president still uses a crackberry

Another reason to use Cyanogenmod. Yipee!
Sent from my Sensation using Cyanogenmod

I'm running a stock T-Mobile version of sense, rooted and when I installed the app, it says connecton refused, I looked for the app htclog.apk in /system/app and it's not there...

Is there anything illegal about custom ROMs?

People are constantly modifying stock ROMs, taking drivers from leaked builds, putting apps in their ROMs, ect... And it makes me wonder, is any of this technically illegal? Maybe not "directly" illegal, I'm thinking "indirectly" illegal. For example, the way installing OS X on a hackintosh is illegal cuz you violate some of Apple's rules or whatever. Get what I mean? Are we breaking the rules and violating a ton of companies' work?
Is there anything wrong with all the ROMing and rooting that goes on with Android?
Edit: Oops, this thread is probably in the wrong place. Sorry. It might belong in "General" or something

Well,I think that flashing roms by itself isn't illegal,as Android is open-source.Messing with locked bootloaders could be considered illegal,and as punishment we are deprived of our warranties.I also think that porting close-source stuff(UIs etc like Sense) that are the property of companies is also illegal,but they do have a way to protect that stuff well enough...

tolis626 said:
Well,I think that flashing roms by itself isn't illegal,as Android is open-source.Messing with locked bootloaders could be considered illegal,and as punishment we are deprived of our warranties.I also think that porting close-source stuff(UIs etc like Sense) that are the property of companies is also illegal,but they do have a way to protect that stuff well enough...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. That sucks. Basically every ROM out there is probably using something illegally taken out of some stock or leaked ROM or whatever. Doesn't it seem that way?

Yumunum said:
Hmm. That sucks. Basically every ROM out there is probably using something illegally taken out of some stock or leaked ROM or whatever. Doesn't it seem that way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, not really. I think that the whole android system is based on open source (AOSP), including "stock" roms.
There are tons of roms developed directly from google's aosp source, taking nothing illegally- on the opposite- contributing to the project...
You can google or look in wikipedia for more info about android open source project.
Why, do you see any problem?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

Im calling the Police!!!! Your Going Down Town to Google Jail!

mattfox27 said:
Im calling the Police!!!! Your Going Down Town to Google Jail!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, my concern isn't anything like that. I'm not afraid of getting "caught" or whatever. It's morals. And that's a whole different discussion, I'm not going to get into it ;P

Stuff that is used in custom roms that comes from paid work is ILLEGAL in any way.
Drivers as sample:
- a lot of guys working in company's where the code is done by paid work - used in custom roms is illegal because the small letters from the law
- how to get these cooks by the law. It is hard but the evidence is sampled every day, believe me.
- every cook who is using leaked or stock stuff without the permission from the owner is illegal. Oh s**t XDA has to close a lot of threads very fast, because it is illegal .
Sense is the next sample:
ok HTC is doing nothing at the moment, because they have a profit on that. But in nature it is illegal in any way
Also the Samsung leaked stuff:
Samsung has a lot of profit in that way, but wait for the day when they are bigger or equal as Apple, they will go against that.
Apple:
is the best sample. Ok Apple's politics is s**t in my eyes, but they have the right on his site. Every jail break as sample is illegal in any way.
At the end, i had asked my lawyer about all this leaked and stock stuff, modding and cookking (not a local small one, a big player in our world company). He shows me some facts and normally we all use illegal stuff in the eys of the law. And a normaly good froum, so as XDA, can't change anything on that.

mike2nl said:
Stuff that is used in custom roms that comes from paid work is ILLEGAL in any way.
Apple:
is the best sample. Ok Apple's politics is s**t in my eyes, but they have the right on his site. Every jail break as sample is illegal in any way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not in usa jailbreaking is legal,downloading paid apps for free,that's another story

Illegal or not once you buy the phone its up to you how you use it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

If you buy a phone, it is now yours and you can do everything with it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

Jay794 said:
Illegal or not once you buy the phone its up to you how you use it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dennisalex said:
If you buy a phone, it is now yours and you can do everything with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you buy a phone then you are right, but what is with the millions of people who has a contract with her provider and a locked phone, or a phone gift or a phone with the quarter of the price....
Then it is illegal, because you don't are the owner of that phone. You have to pay for it with the contract. At the end of that contract the phone is yours not earlier.
The same thing is when you buy a second hand phone with all this stuff, it is illegal and you have to format it (in simple word *lol).
@xxmarkosxx:
that was new for me that amercia has given it free and that by the power of Apple. I will ask the american lawyer of our company and will come back for that. In two weeks i am there and then i will ask.

The most active illegal activity in custom roms is people porting closed-source vendor apparently like Sony Walkman or HTC Keyboard to other brands. Any kind of reverse engineering on these closed source files is a breach of license.
Sent from Xperia Play (R800a) with Tapatalk

Sorry to say, not all the time. Because i know what i have written and what is payed and what not. But in some cases you are right Dan.
In some images i have added special code to see back my work. So some things can be illegal

mike2nl said:
Sorry to say, not all the time. Because i know what i have written and what is payed and what not. But in some cases you are right Dan.
In some images i have added special code to see back my work. So some things can be illegal
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There's no such thing as owning software unless you created it yourself from scratch. Even if it's free/free (libre, as in free beer) open source, you don't own the software. You still have to follow the laws of the license. And even if you did create the software yourself, you are still bound my the license agreement of whatever IDE('s)/SDK('s) you used to write it. (E.g. it is illegal to sell software, or use software in a commercial environment, if it was created in Microsoft Visual Studio Express).
This goes the same for apps that are not open source, e.g. Xperia S Launcher or HTC Keyboard, and many apps on the Play Store. When you bought the app/device, you do not own the software, but you are legally permitted to use the software as defined in the license agreement. 95% of closed-source license agreements deny the permission to reverse engineer these files, so as soon as you use APKTool on an APK that is not open-source, you've breached copyright law.
With that said, most OEM's don't seem to care too much about XDA and various other website developments about porting proprietary vendor packages to other devices. They just don't have time or resources to chase these people down and try to sue them (I mean, they're not Apple heh) - it'd cost more money than they'd feasibly get. OTOH, some developers, such as Xiaomi (MIUI ROM creators from China), actually congratulate and share public releases of their closed-source packages being ported to non-MIUI devices and ROM's.
If you do your research, there is no argument to stand against it being illegal - it's a fact. But that's not to say it's wrong, and not to say the OEM's are too bothered about it. After all, they get a bit of publicity about it (some time ago, I switched from a HTC to a Sony device because I was much more impressed with Xperia's UI and stock apps which I used on a hacked HTC device).
Regarding bootloader/unlocking/rooting, not all manufacturers demonize it. Sony provide an official means to do it - as long as the provider has not blocked bootloader unlocking (which then requires specialized service - as said, this is usually in the case of a plan because you don't actually own the phone yet).
With that said, I will answer the original question -
It is not illegal to install a custom ROM on your phone if you own the phone. However, there are two points to consider - firstly, do you actually own the phone or does your carrier? Secondly, if it includes Google Apps, it is illegal. CyanogenMod project had to remove Google Apps from their ROM's some time ago because of a license breach (the OEM's have to pay Google to release a phone with Google Apps preinstalled).
So the only 100% legal ROM is Cyanogenmod without Google Apps, or your own AOSP compilation without Google Apps. So obviously, Google and the OEM's don't care too much about custom ROM's - because techically, 90% of them have actually broken the law somewhere. It's just not worth their time to enforce these laws, especially since these devices we buy usually have Google Apps pre-loaded already (so it's a legal grey area really, they can't prove anything in the end).

Short info..i don't write any software for XDA. I am from a company who pays for work.

Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out

Do you think anyone can develope a program to prevent google from capturing this information about their users? Maybe at least on a android based platform even. This really chaps my a$$
Code:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b

Whats the big deal? Google cuts down on paperwork and the policies haven't changed, they are just merged/ It eliminated redundancies and wasted effort.
what difference does it make if you are giving your personal information to Gmail or to youtube? If google has it, Google has it, period. It is still a Google based service, combining the private policies of all of the services into one makes perfect sense.
Google has stated they still have no plans to change how they handle the data.

The big deal is I NEVER CLICK YES for gooble to collect anything on me, which means I "opt-out" now I have a contract on a phone I dont want to touch. great, a 700$ paperweight , not including the service. screw you google.

I will not tap "yes" for google
Are you sure that they are 700 $?

Rage! An ad/marketing company makes my OS and wants to show me ads relevant to me rather than random ads. A company wants to make money off of a product they've created and are heavily vested in? Who'd have thunk it?
Don't like it? There's other choices out there. WP7 is pretty hot ;-)

z33dev33l said:
Rage! An ad/marketing company makes my OS and wants to show me ads relevant to me rather than random ads. A company wants to make money off of a product they've created and are heavily vested in? Who'd have thunk it?
Don't like it? There's other choices out there. WP7 is pretty hot ;-)
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Wait til wp7 phones get ads lol
Have to say though to op its not like google are pushing ads to your device. If you browse net you get same problem. I think they have messed up somewhere cos on my laptop I always get ads for things I already have. But I don't get ads on my phone unless on a webpage or using an ad funded app so no different to a pc or any internet device.
Dave
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk

mistermentality said:
Wait til wp7 phones get ads lol
Have to say though to op its not like google are pushing ads to your device. If you browse net you get same problem. I think they have messed up somewhere cos on my laptop I always get ads for things I already have. But I don't get ads on my phone unless on a webpage or using an ad funded app so no different to a pc or any internet device.
Dave
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk
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Microsoft is a software company, Google is a marketing company.

z33dev33l said:
Microsoft is a software company, Google is a marketing company.
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Click to collapse
Hence the lol
But the point is google aren't sending ads any different than on a pc. Whatever phone pc or tablet people use makes no difference, google and others can and do still collect data when you browse.
And some collect other data even when you opt out such as wp7 collecting user data that caused them to get sued last year. Its impossible to have a smartphone and not have someone collect data of some sort.
Dave
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk

mistermentality said:
Hence the lol
But the point is google aren't sending ads any different than on a pc. Whatever phone pc or tablet people use makes no difference, google and others can and do still collect data when you browse.
Dave
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk
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I am not fond of google. I use Bing and have visited YouTube maybe 3 times this year. That said, Bing does the same thing to me.

Well **** that.. i am going back to Symbian s60v3... At least i wont have the damn adds
~§~

Xxul said:
Well **** that.. i am going back to Symbian s60v3... At least i wont have the damn adds
~§~
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Lmao.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

z33dev33l said:
I use Bing...Bing does the same thing to me.
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Bing probably does other things that would scare the hell out of you if you were aware of them. Google is nosy. M$ is evil.
Sent from HTC G2

Crashdamage said:
Bing probably does other things that would scare the hell out of you if you were aware of them. Google is nosy. M$ is evil.
Sent from HTC G2
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Color me intrigued, what makes Microsoft more evil than google?

What would be the best way to avoid this?
a problem I could see is if like, I have my son over on a weekend and he jumps on...idk, nickelodeon. com or something, will it show ads for all the porn sites I visit?
I sure as hell wouldn't want him reporting that to his mother and even possibly the appropriate authorities...

just curious but in what way is this different, if not dramatically worse, than everything CarrierIQ was accused of a few months back.

I wonder if this will affect things like StartPage which bills itself as being completely private but is "enhanced by Google"

This is why I have dead email addresses. I've got one for Gmail just for my phone. Never use it for anything else. Just the phone.
Don't Be Evil, just make lots and lots of money.

The real problem is the internet. There are always the spammers that get a kick out of just breaking someone else's things, and that's why almost all websites log things. It also creates privacy concerns for those trying to follow the rules. So if it bothers you so much that Google knows you search for a laptop, and it suggests that there is a better, cheaper one, next time you use gmail, then you have problems. I personally love this, now when I go between Google services, I don't have to log in again. Google provides you with great services for free, why not give them the ability to advertise to you? The world is dangerous, get over it.
Or you could do the most practical thing, ad block. Its on Firefox and chrome, so that should cover almost everybody. If your stuck with ie, well, god help you.
Sent from my Bad-Ass Acer Iconia Tab a100

dead78 said:
just curious but in what way is this different, if not dramatically worse, than everything CarrierIQ was accused of a few months back.
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Carrier IQ records keystrokes, text messages and other private stuff Google does not. And without even telling anyone it was there.
Sent from HTC G2

nazsa said:
The big deal is I NEVER CLICK YES
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You agreed to their terms of service. As has been pointed out, the information is used so they can show ads that pertain to you specifically. I view this as a good thing.
If you don't want a company to know your browsing and purchasing habits, you should buy a cabin in the woods and live off the grid, no electronics, no grocery stores, completely self sufficient.
Good luck!