Android Market Upgraded, Buy eBooks and Rent Movies 157
hypnosec writes "Search engine giant Google has quietly dished out an update for its Android Market mobile application store. The update, which bumps the Android Market version to 3.0.27, brings a new user interface and new content for Android powered Smartphones and Tablet devices. Users will now be able to purchase and download eBooks and rent movies."
Android pod touch (Score:2)
Android powered Smartphones and Tablet devices
What about Android-powered media players? Is there an Android-powered counterpart to iPod touch for sale here? There is the Archos 43, but it doesn't come with Android Market.
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The Android Marketplace has certain technical requirements that device makers need to meet to use the Marketplace which is here (PDF warning). IDK if any PMP meets those requirements, although I know as of 2.1 Google doesn't have telephony as a requirement, so they certainly could. Not sure why why the Archos doesn't have the Marketplace, but I bet not meeting the requirements is it. There are, however, alternate marketplaces you can install, many free, so I don't see it as an issue personally.
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There are, however, alternate marketplaces you can install, many free
So how do I convince my bank to add its check deposit application to one of these alternate marketplaces?
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Ah. Ummm, a strongly worded letter? Barring that, is it possible to sideload the app? I don't think any such PMP blocks that, the problem would be finding the .apk file. Also, its generally possible to get the marketplace working on such devices (this [androidapk.net] website lists instructions for Archos products, specifically). It really is a shame that Google doesn't work harder to make it work on all such devices, but I guess thats more the manufacturers problem.
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So add the market yourself.
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Legal? Yes, but it might violate some contracts. The market will still work fine.
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What about Android-powered media players? Is there an Android-powered counterpart to iPod touch for sale here? There is the Archos 43, but it doesn't come with Android Market.
I've had this Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 for a few weeks now. Seems to match your description - not a phone but does wifi and app store fine thanks. Has good codec support. Ogg packs down audio really well too. There's a 5" version also. More info at http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=238 [anythingbutipod.com]
Unfortunately the app store update to get books and films is US-only at the moment.
Expected Arrival Date: No ETA at this time (Score:2)
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Is there an Android-powered counterpart to iPod touch for sale here?
What about the galaxy player? A new one is supposed to be coming in US Spring.
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A new one is supposed to be coming in US Spring.
It's already over a month into US Summer and I haven't seen it in stores or on bestbuy.com.
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A new one is supposed to be coming in US Spring.
It's already over a month into US Summer and I haven't seen it in stores or on bestbuy.com.
Im hoping to see them released soon, i don't particularly want Android as my smartphone OS but i do like it and would like to have an android device (maybe get a tablet when it comes time to replace my ipad) so if they have Galaxy S2 hardware in a PMP that would be pretty awesome.
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And I've seen daily app market torrents giving you all new paid apps of the day
The specific application that I want to use is the application to scan paper checks with my device's camera and deposit them to Chase Bank. I haven't seen it on AppsLib, SlideME, Amazon, or direct APK download from the web. It appears to be exclusive to Android Market. Do the app torrents include the free apps as well, or is using ArcTools to pirate Android Market the only way to do that?
Re:Android pod touch (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you sure you want to use pirated software or software from a non-official source for your banking purposes?
That sounds unwise.
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I am sure that I want a person who will use non official sources for his banking apps to use them and then post the stories of how well it worked out for him so that we can all have a nice laugh and get on with the rest of our day.
I want to download the APK from Chase.com (Score:2)
Are you sure you want to use pirated software or software from a non-official source for your banking purposes?
If Chase were to offer a direct APK download from an HTTPS site whose certificate I can reliably authenticate to Chase, then yes, I would turn on "unknown sources" and install the Chase APK.
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I don't think that is what he means by "pirated software."
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LOL. No son, pirates tend to be people making money by getting you to install malware [archive.org]. If you think otherwise you are naive. Anyone who pirates banking apps of all things is going to get completely screwed.
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Leave the purchasing of apps to the iOS chumps who have to jailbreak to even get close to what Android does out of the box.
Ok, so ios users are chumps beacuse they jailbreak to do cool stuff, but ( using your example ) a nook color user is cool beacuse he had to root his device to do cool stuff..
ya, makes a lot of sense to me. Talk about hypocrisy.
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everybody that gave this a serious response just got trolled. You do realize that, right?
I'm not always aware of how troll-like my words appear before I get replies. I want to overcome my condition. How do you recommend that I do so?
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So pirate it.... Leave the purchasing of apps to the iOS chumps...
This is what makes the thought of developing for Android so enticing...
Shame you posted as AC, I think that's a very Insightful comment.
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Also, in most of the World (possibly not the US!) you can buy a PAYG Android phone complete with Market for less than the price of an iPod Touch. The extra phone components are cheap, and there's really no incentive to make a less functional device. Apple can get away with selling a 'smartphone without the phone' because of its brand recognition, nice design, iTunes infrastructure and high profile App Store. Nobody else can. Apple isn't competing at the low end of the market, which leaves a niche they can f
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It may simply be the case that the micro-niche that you occupy lacks any alternative to the iPod touch.
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It may simply be the case that the micro-niche that you occupy lacks any alternative to the iPod touch.
The market for the iPod touch is not a 'micro-niche'. On the other hand, the market for iPod touch alternatives is. It's even smaller than the market for iPad alternatives, which is already extremely small as it is.
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Micro-niche I was talking about: Android PMP+Chase App+No cellular.
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Then you replied to the wrong post.
Either way, adding "+Chase App" is redundant. "Android PMP+No cellular" is already a micro-niche. Hell, you can even remove "+No cellular" and this will hold true.
The only market where Android is not extremely small is in the phone handset market. Interestingly, this is the only potential Android market where there is a high amount of artificial influence, raising significant doubt that people are actually choosing Android specifically.
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Nah, I replied in the context of the entire thread around this post:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2352138&cid=36901372 [slashdot.org]
Basically, tepples has manufactured some scenario that applies to him (the intersection of people that care about having a Chase app but do not want a smart phone has to be tiny) and is wailing about how the companies don't support it.
If I wanted to pay for a smart phone, I would choose Android over Apple in about 0.5 seconds, but maybe I am under some sort of artificial influence.
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raising significant doubt that people are actually choosing Android specifically.
Doesn't raise much doubt in light of the fact that the best selling Android phones also happen to be among the most expensive. If all of the top selling handsets were the throwaway 50 dollar jobs, then it might make sense that people are just buying phones that "do stuff" no matter what the OS. That's obviously not the case.
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The iPod market itself is shrinking very rapidly. Apple will certainly try to reboot the whole line this fall, but this is not likely the best place to worry about Android devices. And Archos does seem to have this niche well covered, anyway.
As for "extremely small"... Android is now just over 30% of the tablet market, as of last quarter. That's hardly what I'd call "extremely small". Apple did 66% of the market... very good for Apple, but given they essentially owned the market last year (95%), a smaller p
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So if Google doesn't want this market, then what's the viable alternative to iPod touch?
Google doesn't want that market, because it doesn't make them very much money. What good are ads without an ever-present internet connection?
It does seem shortsighted to me, though. Even though an Android Touch would give Google less revenue, it's still *some* revenue. And it would help Android's market share, even if only by a little. Which might be a reason for this. If Android went head-to-head with the iPod touch, it would lose, hands down, similar to how it's losing against the iPad.
Sure, it would be t
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What good are ads without an ever-present internet connection?
They're great when cached.
and perhaps even 5% or so of the people who actively post here might even buy such a media player
My cousin bought an Archos 43 because he wants a handheld computer on which to run applications but can't afford a cellular voice and data contract. I guess I must have been overestimating this sort of niche because three people across two households fall into it (one iPod touch and two Archos 43 in two households). Consider that Apple once marketed its iPod touch as a handheld game system in an attempt to compete with the Nintendo DS and PSP. It may still; I haven't checked in the
Re:Android pod touch (Score:5, Informative)
It isn't exactly obscure information that Google is limiting the market app to devices linked to a cellular plan.
Not obscure, perhaps, but false nonetheless. My Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses the Android Market, and it's Wi-Fi only.
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It isn't exactly obscure information that Google is limiting the market app to devices linked to a cellular plan.
Not obscure, perhaps, but false nonetheless. My Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses the Android Market, and it's Wi-Fi only.
That's a feature specific to Honeycomb.
Whilst there is not as much demand for an Android powered media player as the whingers would make out, Google honestly did not anticipate any demand for one what so ever. Google thought most people would just use their phone for media purposes and for the most part they are right, however there is a small demand for them.
In any case, except that particular Honeycomb feature to make it's way to Ice Cream Sandwich.
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It isn't exactly obscure information that Google is limiting the market app to devices linked to a cellular plan.
Not obscure, perhaps, but false nonetheless. My Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses the Android Market, and it's Wi-Fi only.
That's a feature specific to Honeycomb. Whilst there is not as much demand for an Android powered media player as the whingers would make out, Google honestly did not anticipate any demand for one what so ever. Google thought most people would just use their phone for media purposes and for the most part they are right, however there is a small demand for them. In any case, except that particular Honeycomb feature to make it's way to Ice Cream Sandwich.
Yeah.... still not true: Either way, it looks like this Android 2.2 player (it's upgradable to 2.3, by the way) with full Market access will be headed stateside sometime soon. [engadget.com]
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Yeah.... still not true: Either way, it looks like this Android 2.2 player (it's upgradable to 2.3, by the way) with full Market access will be headed stateside sometime soon. [engadget.com]
Call me when it's released.
It's long since been known Samsung has planned this, lots of nice press releases but no product. I'd bet on it being released with the next version of Android.
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i bought a 7" android tablet at the end of may, which features android 2.2 and a fully working market, no 3g though.
Not bad for a 99 euro device really, even if i only use it as a large screen PMP rather then a tablet
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The Galaxy Tab 7 also comes with Android Market, Wi-fi only, and that's Android 2.2.
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It isn't exactly obscure information that Google is limiting the market app to devices linked to a cellular plan.
It's obscure to me.
I just bought an Asus EeePad Transformer [asus.com.au] which has no 3/4g option at all. Google Market is installed by default and works fine on that.
Where do you get this information from?
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I hereby apologize to the entire internet
I, the Internet, in the absence of Al Gore, accept your apology.
;)
Unknown sources on LG Thrive? (Score:2)
quietly? (Score:2)
maybe "without announcement" as it seems impossible to "quietly" upgrade something when it results in a changed UI...
but at least we have a person to blame: he [itproportal.com] wrote it.
Old. (Score:2)
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Or they can continue... (Score:2)
I'm about to play with Android myself soon..been reading up on 'hacking' a nook into a more fully functional tablet...for cheap.
I saw a friends nook running cyanogen mod7, and all the stuff he'd downloaded for it, looked pretty sweet.
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Out of curiousity, what do you dislike about the nook + cm7? I ask because I have the same. I put swype on it, and it works quite well for my purposes (browsing, pdf reading). The absence of GPS and camera is unfortunate, but I knew they'd be missing. Only problem I've noticed is that for some reason gmail doesn't sync well.
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Granted it isn't a Xoom, but it is $249. I installed it to the eMMC, OC'd to 1.3ghz, performance governor, installed launcher pro and I gotta admit it performs nearly as well as my Evo 4G did. I play games on it and they perform great. The browser performance sucks, but, that's the browser. Dolphin is a bit better, Opera is insanely smooth. I haven't done any modding or even tweaking since the weekend I got it. It really h
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The battery life out of the box, well, I didn't get very far in using it stock. The sales rep claimed 10. I browsed a lot for the better part of an hour without a single notch coming off of the battery gauge, for what that's worth. I know that when I set it to stock speed (300min 800max) I get about 4 hours of non-stop web browsing and all that entails (fla
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As for the actual reason I replied again: Hard-power off = Hold the power button down until it turns off. Locking up your device once or twice is part of the ritual of modding an android device. Just be sure to never do this while flashing. I'd rather let the battery run dry than risk having to fix things the hard way. (Which isn't t
Bloatware increasing... (Score:3, Interesting)
I noticed after a ASUS upgrade package for my transformer left me with a "Google Video" app. It can't be uninstalled, it won't play local media files, but it will let me spend money renting...
The prior upgrade left me with a useless ebook reader that I was not allowed to uninstall (google books). As time goes on, the more frustrated I will get. When it peaks, I will root my devices and uninstall all the garbage.
Hey google!!! I own the device not you... What part of "do no evil" allows you to put your crap I do not want on it??? If it is a choice and I find it useful, I'll install it and praise you. If I do not have a choice of (un)installing, I will never use it and curse you regardless of its usefulness.
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Hopefully Google will listen to your rant and not include that bloatware anymore that we did not ask for - I mean, who asked for a kernel anyways?
The next version will be kernel optional I wager.
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It is your carrier, not Google. Google generally does not install any of its own apps forcefully, except the gMail app and Android Browser which are a standard part of the OS.
I updated my Galaxy S and didn't get any forced app installs.
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While "standard" you can still remove them and have a functional Android system. The Cyanogenmod wiki has a nice list of what you can remove:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Barebones [cyanogenmod.com]
On Cyanogenmod the google apps are even a different install package (for copyright reasons, these are not open source) http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Latest_Version#Google_Apps [cyanogenmod.com] and the system will work without this package.
I rooted my HTC Legend, installed Cyanogenmod, and I'm very happy about it. Blocking app permissions is
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Where? (Score:2)
So where or how does one go about getting this new version? It didn't show up as an update when I started the market application just now. Is this something that has to go through the carrier?
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Same, my Nexus S 4G's Market is still at 2.3.6, even after clearing the Market's data, cache, and uninstalling updates(and subsequently installing them again by running it).
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http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1166152 [xda-developers.com]
Worth it yet? (Score:1)
It's an extra $20 something a month for the data plan, and right now I have a waterproof shockproof phone to mitigate the risk of shelling out a few hundred if my phone breaks.
Am I really missing out?
Re:Worth it yet? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm likely one of the few people here without a smartphone - is it worth it yet?
Depends what you want. I find it convenient to read and respond to new email on my phone, browse the Web from anywhere, pay my bills while sitting at the park, check Google Maps when I'm lost, calculate things (I have a full HP 48 emulator on mine), take the occasional photo of something wacky I see while out and about (and post it directly to Facebook), listen to music, and play the occasional game.
Then again, as much as people rave about how important "apps" are, I have apps on my phone that sounded cool at the time but I'm certain I'll never actually use. Maybe you'd use your phone even less. What you get for the $20 extra per month is that anytime you're possessed of the desire to do any of these things, you can just take out your phone and do it, then put it away again. If the added cost of one dinner per month isn't worth it to you, then don't buy a smartphone. Nobody's forcing you.
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Oh, and my phone is a Motorola Defy, [motorola.com] which is reasonably rugged. Motorola is rolling out the Titanium [motorola.com] now, which supposedly meets military specs.
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Is the bootloader locked? Does it also have that the shitfest that is blur installed?
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I don't know about the Titanium, but for the Defy the answers are yes and yes (though I don't mind Blur at all, kinda like it in fact).
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I am going to be replacing my D1 soon and unless something changes I will be forced to switch carriers since verizon seems to not have any phones with unlocked boot-loaders.
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Well, I don't know how to explain it, but believe that even though the Defy's bootloader is locked, there is a one-click root exploit and you can indeed get CyanogenMod on it. I'm not 100 percent certain about this, though, because it's not something I feel compelled to do to mine, but if you like the hardware then you should Google it.
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It means you are stuck with their kernel and are really only changing userland. Which is pretty lame.
Nor will I support Motorolas decision to do this with my money.
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If you're in the US, your choices of phone/carrier combinations pretty much makes it impossible to find anything reasonable by almost all definitions. AT&T's network is faster, when it works. Sprint's is nearly useless. Verizon at least has coverage.
If you're in a big city, hope you don't use AT&T because the their network is saturated. They need T-Mobile's towers. I feel sorry for the T-Mobile customers, they got screwed.
Which leaves Sprint, sucky coverage except cities. HTC makes decent phones tha
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Sprint roams on verizon.
I would rather go back to a non-smartphone than use my money to support a vendor who locks out the user.
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It depends. If you own other mobile devices for functions the smartphone can also perform (playing media, handheld games, etc), it's probably worth consolidating into one device, especially when one of them breaks. If you don't ever feel the need to watch video, listen to music, read ebooks or play games on the move, then not. In either case, it's probably worthwhile keeping your old rugged phone as a backup, or if your doing any activity where its ruggedness is likely to be useful. It probably also has a l
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I came to the cell phone party very late. I didn't want one until I could take decent pictures, view pictures easily, could hook it to any computer to load what ever data I wanted.
Now I use it for so much more. Hell, just the other day I used an app to deposit a check. Awesome. I ahve taght several kids about constellations with impromptu demonstrations, The navigation is pretty good for my needs, it plays my music, and so on.
IIF you won't use it for anything more then what you use your current phone, then
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You don't need a dataplan. Buy an unlocked smartphone and drop on your exiting SIM card. Connect with Wifi.
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This is probably US, where AT&T uses GSM SIMs. Nice try though. ;)
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> I'm likely one of the few people here without a smartphone - is it worth it yet?
It was 10 years ago. How many devices do you want to lug around?
> It's an extra $20 something a month for the data plan, and right now I have a waterproof shockproof phone to mitigate the risk of shelling out a few hundred if my phone breaks.
Sucks to be you then. I am paying less now I have a smartphone. Note I never ring people or text anymore so that part of the plan is low.
> Am I really missing out?
Only if such thi
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You don't need a dataplan with a smartphone. I'm using one without a dataplan (paying 7.50 per month for call/sms, got a slightly outdated android phone for 270)
So, what do I use it for:
* To call/sms
* Email when I'm near WiFi (I don't need email everywhere, and I mostly do read-only)
* Agenda, this is one of the most used features on my phone, having your schedule at hand is useful for a chaotic person like myself
* Remote control for my media center, it's easier to select a file on a touchscreen then using a
cross platform (Score:2)
iTunes, OTOH has players for iOS, Mac and PC, so that is a viable option. Not great, but Video tends to be heavily protected, so options there are limited. I presume Android market movies are for android. For renting movies, only being able to watch it on one device is not a big deal.
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Google-oply (Score:2)
Google is getting into too many areas for me liking. Maybe they aren't a monopoly but they certainly are leveraging their Android users into movie-renters, etc.
Perhaps G+ will take over social networking. Its too much power for one company.
I don't like it.
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Maybe they aren't a monopoly but they certainly are leveraging their Android users into movie-renters, etc.
Do you have to rent movies? Even if you want to do you have to rent them from Google's service?
Pretty sure the answer to both of those is 'no'.
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Great, now if only they could fix *real* problems (Score:2)
If only I could sell my app on google market [lelanthran.com]
Sigh
Not for Germans! (Score:2)
Thanks to the GEMA (German RIAA) we won't get this in Germany.
It's bad enough that we have to rent proxies to use Hulu, Netflix, Pandorra etc. but now we have to use proxies on our PHONES to reach the content we want to pay for? I'm really trying hard to pay, but I'm not sure how long I can resist the much simpler way: just pirate it. :(
Is there even a way to fake being an USA citizen on Android? How much work would that be? X(
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Poor you...
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Of course he does, I'm sure he would troll in a completely different way on Digg.
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Really? What malware is there in the official market?
Oh wait, there isnt any.
Been eating too many Apples today? I can smell your arrogant smugness from here.
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So, now I can actually pay to watch a movie on my giant 4 inch screen? Better be at least 2K video... uncompressed
Think HDMI-out and DLNA. Your phone isn't the only possible display device, even if that's where you got the content.