{"id":405588,"date":"2010-03-08T14:01:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T19:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mobilecrunch.com\/?p=27601"},"modified":"2010-03-08T14:01:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T19:01:09","slug":"stuck-in-the-iphone-mindset-att-locks-down-apps-on-their-first-android-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/405588","title":{"rendered":"Stuck in the iPhone mindset, AT&amp;T locks down apps on their first Android phone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mobilecrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/shawshank-630x323.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"shawshank\" width=\"630\" height=\"323\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-27602\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our full review of the <a href=\"http:\/\/search.techcrunch.com\/query.php?y=\/tc_eng_id\/search\/v1\/query\/motorola%2520backflip%3Fcategory_id%3DMobileCrunch%26client%3Dtechcrunch\">Motorola Backflip<\/a> should be up in a few days, but a few words of wisdom in the mean time: Don&#8217;t buy it. Between its crazy form-factor and the hidden trackpad tucked on the <em>back<\/em> of the display, everything we took as merits at face value have devolved into novelties.<\/p>\n<p>Worst of all, it seems AT&#038;T has taken a page from their time with the iPhone that <em>no one<\/em> wanted them to take. Like the iPhone &#8212; but unlike any other Android handset we&#8217;ve seen &#8212; the Motorola Backflip can&#8217;t install applications from any sources beyond the official, on-handset application store.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-27601\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By default, all Android handsets are soft-limited to installing applications solely from Google&#8217;s Android Market. If a user tries to install an app through the browser with a brand new handset, they&#8217;ll get an error message telling them that they&#8217;ll need to flip a switch in the configuration screen before they can download from &#8220;Unknown Sources&#8221;. Alas, this switch is no where to be found on the Backflip.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mobilecrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/device1-200x300.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"device\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-27606\" \/><br \/>\nWhile it can be said that Android&#8217;s less-restrictive market should make this a non-issue, it doesn&#8217;t. Certain  applications, like the paid-version of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.junefabrics.com\/android\/faq.php\">Junefabric&#8217;s PDANet <\/a> tethering application, can only be installed through the browser. Other times, developers will want to release their applications in beta form to a limited number of users outside of the market &#8212; something which, as it stands, Backflip owners will be unable to partake in.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Knowing that AT&#038;T is trying their damnedest to play gatekeeper on Android, would you still buy a Backflip?<\/p>\n<p>[Thanks John R.!]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/-XpW9YgtOqaxdYl_W-204EjzKng\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/-XpW9YgtOqaxdYl_W-204EjzKng\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/-XpW9YgtOqaxdYl_W-204EjzKng\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/-XpW9YgtOqaxdYl_W-204EjzKng\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Mobilecrunch?a=mSqXaVJspZc:zrF3Y1Hxd7k:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Mobilecrunch?i=mSqXaVJspZc:zrF3Y1Hxd7k:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Mobilecrunch?a=mSqXaVJspZc:zrF3Y1Hxd7k:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Mobilecrunch?i=mSqXaVJspZc:zrF3Y1Hxd7k:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Mobilecrunch?a=mSqXaVJspZc:zrF3Y1Hxd7k:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Mobilecrunch?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our full review of the Motorola Backflip should be up in a few days, but a few words of wisdom in the mean time: Don&#8217;t buy it. Between its crazy form-factor and the hidden trackpad tucked on the back of the display, everything we took as merits at face value have devolved into novelties. Worst [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":682,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/682"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}