Google dings carriers, phone makers over Android lockdowns

"A Google Android engineer publicly defended the relative ease with which Android phones can be rooted, arguing that the loopholes used by modders do not reflect flawed Android security defenses. Besides, carriers and handset makers who lock down their devices are begging for rooting exploits, writes Nick Kralevich in his blog post.

"Google's Android team has made it clear this week in a blog post that it would prefer carriers and handset makers provide unlocking mechanisms for Android smartphones. This would enable application developers to tweak the operating system without circumventing Android's security, argues Google.

"Android, which is aggressively challenging Apple's iPhone in the U.S., is by nature open source. However, wireless carriers and handset makers "lock down" the devices to prevent tech-savvy folks from accessing with the software that is hand-picked for their specific phones."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• HTC Willfully Violates the GPL in T-Mobile's New G2 Android Phone(Oct 12, 2010)
• The real cost of free(Oct 11, 2010)
• Why civil liberties matter - an open letter to the Obama administration(Oct 05, 2010)
• 10 years on: free software wins, but you have nowhere to install it(Aug 02, 2010)
• Court: breaking DRM for a "fair use" is legal(Jul 28, 2010)
• Motorola's Droid X is Popular Smartphone, Just Don't Mess With It(Jul 19, 2010)