By 
If you are eager to get your hands on AT&T’s second attempt at an Android phone, the HTC Aria (arguably better than the Motorola Backflip but still equally gimped), you may not have to wait until its Sunday release date as some happy customers are leaving their local retailers with the phone in hand. Engadget has gotten a hold of some shots of one owner’s new Aria. It is also being reported that the phone is in stock for purchase at some Best Buy Mobile locations. For the price of $129.99 on contract the it too can be yours.
[via Engadget]
Why gimp the phones like this when adb lets you install the apps anyway?
It would make sense if they could actually cripple them as much as the iPhone, but when adb solves the issue, why bother?
NO thanks. I’m still waiting for the Desire. which I highly doubt it be here.
Probably because most people that buy the phone won’t know what the heck you are talking about when you say “adb.” Not everyone is like us ;-)
Steve, why bother? It keeps your customer service guys from getting bogged down with people who are running into problems from unstable or experimental apps.
I don’t agree with it, but I understand.
Because not everyone knows how to use ADB like us geeks!
Well I dont now what the big deal is, except for getting app from torrent sites (and then you can adb), most dev’s are going to want their app on the market anyway, although if they cant do paid apps in their country yes they have to distribute it some other way and the Aria wont be compatible with that.
-Brad
@Jeff Android is an open system. It is designed this way from the start and Google purposely allows the installation of untrusted apps. Does AT&T lock down the netbooks they sell with 3G access? You can install anything you damned well please on those so why not Android phones? This is just a blatant attempt to restrict Android and make it look less appealing than the iPhone. There is no doubt that this is what is going on especially after the whole Samsung Captivate page on AT&T’s site. It is a Galaxy S WITHOUT the front facing camera. Gee wonder why that ONE component got omitted from the handset? I’ll give you a hint. His name is Steve and he smells like rotten Apples.
@Brad lots of opensource apps are not in the market, many of these apps are one man operations done just for the heck of it.
Personally, I don’t mind the ‘allow untrusted apps’ lock so much, simply because it’s so easy to get around. The thing I really hate is the uninstallable crapware that AT&T adds. Why do we need 3-4 separate map programs on a single phone, and two different navigation programs? Why even load it up with shitty demos permanently?
That and the lack of wallpapers (yeah I know this is trivial, but I was looking forward to it, and I guess I can kind of understand why they are omitted considering the 600mhz cpu) and lack of AMOLED screen that is found on the legend. It just doesn’t really seem worth the 129 they’re asking for.
Speaking of live wallpapers, anybody have this phone and attempted to download a live wallpaper from the market? How did it go, did the option to set it reappear or is the android install simply crippled in a different way, where it won’t accept any live wallpapers?
sorry, ‘lack of wallpapers’ = ‘lack of live wallpapers’
Wonder when we are gonna hear about who the number 7 and 8 winners are..
so how much is it off contract???
why doesn’t the captivate come out early to stores?
…
please?
thanks, but ill wait for the Desire to come out! :D
its 379 off contract with att and 329 off contract at Frys Electronics.
Went to 2 ATT stores today. A sales rep at the first one told me they don’t have it and that “it isn’t coming out for a couple of months.” A sales rep at the second store told me they don’t have it and that ATT “doesn’t carry HTC phones”. So much for seeing it early.. also makes me wonder how much training their employees actually receive.
Went to ATT store and idiot there had no idea what we were talking about. called today and they said they had them but you didn’t get $100 rebate if you bought today. Way to go ATT.
@brad
sounds similar to my experience.. looks like ATT aren’t just ruining the android os, they’re also ruining the joy and experience of purchasing an android os.
I went to AT&T store Friday evening (before Father’s day). Sales droid knew very little about Android. I knew more than he did about what phones AT&T was getting.
.
I went back Fathers Day and talked to someone much more clueful. He personally had a jailbroken iPhone and was way more clueful. He knew about the Captivate but didn’t have any more info to share. He did suggest that AT&T was getting more Android phones in the next few months. He was also surprised that they didn’t have the Dell Aero yet.
.
Of course, none of this addresses AT&T’s problems with Android. Besides not having any Androids, the pre-installed non-removable crapplications, default search isn’t Google, no non-market apps.
I’m a beginner’s 101 backflip owner, who isn’t able to tether to my Mac home computer. (Pdanet app was removed from the market.) where do I find the instructions of how to get this app anyways? PS-I’m the guy who doesn’t understand what “adb” means and only uses my computer to surf the web, Email, etc.. Thanks everybody.
What is adb
AT&T is just a lil bitch. they think that if they can control what many people download that they can control us :P adb install ftw