Links: Motorola Fails at Android Freedom, Android Comes to Tablets
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-20 07:45:37 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-20 09:09:12 UTC
Summary: Motorola takes predatory approach; the Linux-based Android expands
Android
- Droid X actually self-destructs if you try to mod it
Well, I might have recommended a Droid X for big-phone-lovin’ fandroids out there… but now that I’ve read about Motorola’s insane eFuse tampering-countermeasure system, I’m going to have to give this one a big fat DON’T BUY on principle. I won’t restate all my reasons for supporting the modding, hacking, jailbreaking, and so on of your legally-owned products here — if you’re interested in a user’s manifesto, read this — but suffice it to say that deliberately bricking a phone if the user fiddles with it does not fall under the “reasonable” category of precautions taken by manufacturers.
- Droid X sells out as Motorola defends lock-down chip
The Motorola Droid X sold out in its first day, and won't be available at Verizon Wireless until July 23, says eWEEK. Meanwhile, Motorola responded to complaints over the Droid X's eFuse ROM lock-down chip, reassuring potential buyers that it won't destroy the phone if ROM modifications are made.
- Google: Android Cost “Isn’t Material” For the Company — Android Search Up 300% In 2010
During Google’s Q2 2010 earnings call today, one of the things Google’s executives were clearly very excited about was the Android platform. They noted that there are now 70,000 apps in the Android Market — up from 30,000 in April. They also reiterated the company line about how important openness is to the platform. But during the Q&A session, an interesting question was raised: how much investment is Google putting into Android for this open platform?
- Android Poised For Dominance In China, With Global Implications
Android seems ready to leapfrog competitors to grab dominance in China, the world’s largest mobile market. A combination of drastic price drops on Android phones and custom Chinese mobile apps supported by the massive domestic market is bound to push Android past the entrenched leaders, setting the tone for how the mobile internet is built and interacted with around the world.
- Sony Ericsson Posts Profitable Q2 Thanks to Android
- Google Android gets open source PHP tools
Developers at an open source company in Spain are leading an effort to boost PHP application development for Android-based phones. Called PHP for Android (PFA), the project supports Google's Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) project, formerly called Android Scripting Environment (ASE).
-
Tablets
- HP Files For “Palmpad” Trademark
We knew that HP was going to get their money’s worth from Palm when they nixed their Android plans and downplayed their Windows 7 tablet. While reports still have them making the latter in at least some form (likely for enterprise), statements from HP and Palm indicate that webOS is going to be the focus for HP’s portable computer business.
- Hands on with an €£85 Android Tablet Computer
Today (Sunday 18th July) Techcrunch published a story about how the Android operating system, which is now spreading beyond the mobile phone, is poised to take over China and said this will have global implications. Coincidentally yesterday I took delivery of a device, made in China, that is maybe not too well known: the Eken M001 Android Tablet. This gives you a WiFi enabled Android computer with a seven inch touchscreen that has 128MB of RAM, 2GB of storage and an SD card slot. None of these specifications are particularly remarkable, but what is astonishing was the price: €£85 (about US $130) from a reseller on Amazon. Even a 7” digital photo frame would typically set you back €£30! (about US $46)
Recent Techrights' Posts
- IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
- Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
-
- Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
- Links for the day
- Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- This is What Google News Has Become
- Moments ago
- The Slopfarm WebProNews Has Turned Google News Into a Laughing Stock Full of Plagiarism by Slop
- If Google News dies of neglect, that's one thing. It's starting to seem like active neglect by Google is a form of participation.
- Do What is Moral, as What's Legal Isn't Always Moral
- Do what's objectively moral, no matter the costs and the risks
- Slopwatch: Google News Assisting Plagiarism and Anti-Linux FUD, Serial Slopper Rips Off Linux-Centric Journalists
- This makes the Web a much worse place and lessens the incentive to do journalism
- Links 30/08/2025: NVIDIA Fakes Results to Hide a Bubble Already in Implosion Phase, Data Breaches Galore, Important Win for Workers' Union in Canada
- Links for the day
- Representing and Speaking for Animals
- If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
- In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
- In Kazakhstan, Yandex Estimated to be 20 Times Bigger Than Microsoft
- Bing is measured as down this month
- Shutterstock Not Enough? The Register MS Uses Slop Images in Articles (Seemingly More and More Over Time)
- Cost-saving trajectory amid office shutdown?
- Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Games, PostmarketOS, and Slop
- Links for the day
- Links 30/08/2025: Imgur Uproar and Many Ukraine Updates (Mediazona Reports Over 200,000 Russians Died for Putin)
- Links for the day
- How Not to Build Software
- code forges that need a Web browser perhaps fill some 'niche' demand
- GAFAM and "MATA"
- The use of dark humour there hopefully helps illuminate what a lot of "modern" technology became like and how it interacts with human civilisation (to what ends and whose gain)
- Birds Are Not "Pests and Vermin", Privacy is Not a Crime, and GNU/Linux is Not 'Hacking Platform'
- I could not help but think of Free software analogies
- The Sites Should Be Very Fast Again
- That issue is now resolved
- Flying in 2025
- worse than ever before
- Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
- Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest"
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part III - Chaos is Scheduled to Happen Second Thursday of September (No Matter What the Microsofters Tell You)
- The clock is ticking
- Downplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
- we won't publish much whilst on holiday
- Government Sites Should Run Free Software
- Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
- LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
- When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
- GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
- Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
- Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025
- Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
- It's also burning the planet
- Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
- Slopfarms are a real pain
- Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
- Links for the day
- Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
- Links for the day
- Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
- Links for the day
- No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
- Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
- In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
- In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
- More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
- Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
- Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
- The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
- Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
- Links for the day