In a sad little twist of fate, Google’s development-oriented variant of the T-Mobile G1 has been barred from downloading premium Android applications from the Android Market. The Google Dev Phone 1, as it is being called by the folks in Mountain View, is reportedly unable to play nice with those for-pay applications that recently started trickling into the Android Market.
The consensus seems to be that Google is trying to prevent application piracy and payment fraud by locking out Google Dev Phone 1 users from putting hands on paid apps – the very same apps that they developed with their $400 Google Dev Phone 1.
The problem lies in the Google Dev Phone 1’s unlocked file-system that gives the user full reign over the handset’s root directory – the key to hacking the bloody daylights out of the handset. Because the Google Dev Phone 1 is unlocked (a different kind of “unlocked” than the kind that lets your GSM handset play on any GSM network in the world), Google may be worried that the premium apps could be extracted and pirated. Another possible scenario would have an Android-developing malcontent downloading a paid app, copying the application to a computer, requesting a refund, and then simply transferring the application back to the Dev Phone 1.
Whatever the case, it seems the Google Dev Phone 1 is being selectively barred from premium Android Market apps. “This is a big problem for everyone who has a Dev phone,”says oscillik. “Assuming that we’re pirates is very offensive.”
Indeed.
Of course, you can unlock your T-Mobile G1’s file-system with a bit of hackery, but don’t tell Google.
[Via: Macworld]