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Re: [LUG] Android Marketplace (was Penzance school spends £300,000 on an iPad for every pupil)

 

 On 06/11/2011 10:43, Grant Sewell wrote:
On Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:55:27 +0000
Julian Hall wrote:

   On 04/11/2011 09:19, Gordon Henderson wrote:
On Fri, 4 Nov 2011, Anthony Williams wrote:

And then there is the issue that it is an *iPad*. This is just as
bad as buying Windows kit, if not worse. Apple keeps a very tight
control over what is and isn't allowed to run on an iPad. If they
wanted tablets (and I'm not sure that is a good idea, for the
reasons above) then Android tablets would surely have been cheaper
and a better prospect; at least Android is linux-based, and you
are in full control over the device, rather than being held
hostage to Apple.
I'm currently prevented from using the google marketplace (and thus
downloading or updating apps) because I don't have a gmail account
and no way of re-creating one and telling the phone I have a new
one either. (I can add a 2nd google account to the phone, but it's
locked to the very first one you use with no way to change without
a factory reset)
Don't get me started on the Android Marketplace.  I legitimately
bought a Viewsonic VPAD10 from Amazon UK (not a reseller, Amazon
themselves), and it came with a third party marketplace that doesn't
have half the apps the official one has.  Looking online it appears
you can't access it without an Android *PHONE* which is pathetic.  I
created a GMail account (although I already have several)
specifically for the Pad but it still won't accept me connecting to
the Android Marketplace.  The forums are full of people complaining
about the same thing - how do they expect developers to make money
when they bar access to the Marketplace in such a stupid fashion?
Having written to a computer magazine I got the reply that my device
isn't 'authorised by Google'.  What a load of *very naughty words but
this is a public mailing list*..

Julian
Oh, it gets better.

I bought a cheap 10" SuperPad (rebadged Gome Flytouch II).  It had the
official Android Marketplace app installed, and it worked brilliantly.
I downloaded a load of apps, games and tools, even some paid-for apps.

6 months later, I find that the Marketplace app stops working.  So I
logged on to market.android.com to find that access had been revoked.
An email to the Android people returned what you found above.

So it would appear that Google are quite happy to revoke access
retrospectively as well as outright denying access.

Grant.
Great! If I was one of their developers I'd kick up because they are stifling access to apps to a huge number of people. I know I could probably find a hacked version somewhere but I want to do it legitimately and it is idiotic that Google/Android won't let me. As for revoking access as you've had, that's well out of order!

Julian

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