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About that Google Account | 348 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 11:37 AM EDT
FUD. A gmail account is not required for the phone to work.
The market will not work without one but you can sideload
apps. But installing apps are not required for the phone to
work -- it comes functional.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

No It's not the same.
Authored by: Ian Al on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 11:43 AM EDT
The Windows browser, Internet Explorer, is embedded in Windows. The Commission
are content for that to continue as long as Microsoft offer customers a choice
of alternative browsers from other suppliers.

Android device makers are free, as PJ points out, to remove all the Google apps
from their devices. If they choose to add those excellent apps to their Android
device, it still doesn't matter. Just as with Windows, Android users can load as
many other choices as they like and push the Google apps to the end of the apps
list.

Google allow any Android compatible apps to be installed from any site you like.
You don't have to stick with theirs. If choice got Microsoft out of a bind, why
would not the EU be equally satisfied with Google allowing choice?

Finally, Microsoft insist that only their apps can be loaded into Windows 8.
They might consider how wise it is to draw the Commission's attention to Google,
who satisfy the Commission's choice requirements, when Microsoft are now
committing the same abuse on their mobile platform as they did on their desktop
and laptop platform.

If they were to get a dominant position in the mobile devices arena, they would
be back in European anti-trust hot water. Luckily for them, they don't stand any
chance of that happening. Even if Google agreed not to ask device manufacturers
to install apps by default, neither Microsoft nor Nokia would gain any market
share. Customers would choose Android and choose to install the Google apps for
themselves. Customer choice is the word.

---
Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Tried Win 8?
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 11:50 AM EDT
I was forced to open a gmail account in order for the phone to work.... so... you know... Microsoft might have a point.

Have no clue with Windows phone but I guess you have not gotten Windows 8 yet. As with Vista onwards, you must register your computer within days of purchase - actually one of the first things the computer tries to do when you start it. With Win 8 it wants you to use a Windows Live account as well - which is about the same as what Google does.

Like Linux to PCs, CyanogenMod is a option for Android.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Please pay attention...
Authored by: JamesK on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 11:58 AM EDT
As PJ pointed out, companies can take just what they want from Android and leave
the rest. Now compare that with MS making IE part of the OS (and causing lots
of security holes in the process) to block competition from Netscape. Or look
at how MS required computer manufactures to pay a Windows license fee on every
computer sold, whether it shipped with Windows or not. Or how in some offices,
MS requires a license even for computers that's aren't running any MS software
or...

MS has a long and well documented history of strong arm tactics to force market
share. Try taking part of Windows, without paying MS and then using it in your
own product and see how far you get.


---
The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: DannyB on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 12:03 PM EDT
You do not need a Google account. Just do not use Google's apps, including Maps
and the Play store.

If you use Google's apps, then you need a Google account. That seems fair. If
you use the Facebook app, you need a Facebook account.

Do you think you should get to use Google's apps without needing a Google
account? If so, then I hope you're willing to hold everyone else to the same
standard. I shouldn't need a Microsoft account. An Apple account. Etc, to use
various products and software. Microsoft might not like that the sword cuts
both ways.

There is one other important difference. Android does not have a monopoly. You
don't buy a Google phone. You buy a Samsung phone. An LG phone. An HTC phone.
Etc. And Microsoft offers a Windows 8 phone -- and nobody is stopping you from
buying it. Go ahead.

Android does not have a monopoly because it is open source. Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, Facebook, Archos, and others (children's tablets, etc) make Android
devices without anything from Google -- including not having Google apps like
Maps and Play. Unlike Windows, I can download the source code for Android and
taylor it to my own hardware. I just can't include Google's proprietary apps.

So how exactly is it similar to bundling IE when there are other browsers, and
Microsoft has a monopoly?

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

ROFL
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 12:50 PM EDT

That's funny:

Work issued me an Android phone
Sounds like you just want to blame Google for the behavior of others. Before you start blaming Google, perhaps you should do the research into the following 3 hurdles you face before you even get to what Google provides:
    Your Employer: control of the device, can lock it down for security purposes, can lock in specific software
    The phone provider - quite commonly this is the phone service like AT&T. They also have a Standard Operating Procedure of installing and locking their own software into the device.
    The phone manufacturer - also have a SOP of installing and locking their own software into the device.
Cut through all that, then see what you can do with your phone.

Oh - I almost forgot, it's not actually your phone. It's a work phone. You probably don't want to mess with the software. If you do, there could be security policies you could find yourself in breach of which could lead to job termination.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Translation:
Authored by: miltonw on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 01:16 PM EDT
"I wanted to use all the nice Google Play stuff that's available but had to
log into Google!!! Waaaah!"

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

You are not even wrong
Authored by: SilverWave on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 01:55 PM EDT
must try harder

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 02:28 PM EDT
If MS would have shared windows source code for everybody in
same way as Android is shared, there would not be any
antitrust case.

There would be Amazon Doors with their own browser Frame.

But this did not happen. Freedom wins eventually.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Fair...
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 03:18 PM EDT
Are M$ and their trolls now going to mangle the word "fair" to mean
just the opposite? Like they've already done with "open" and
"innovation".

Innovation is now a word that my automatic reaction is "oh, another someone
who can't..." when I hear it.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 03:34 PM EDT

You are wrong. You do not need a gmail account for the phone to work. You will
need a cell phone supplier account, or just buy PAYG without any 'account'. If
you want to use email or internet access you will need an ISP account.

If you want to download apps from Play store then you can do so without an
account if they are free. If you need to pay for them then you will need an
account for that.

"""Find apps in the Android Market. If the apps are free, you
will not need to enter any information. If the apps are not free, you will be
prompted to sign in with your Google account and verify the
purchase."""

Note that it is a Google account and it just happens to have gmail access as
part of that, you do not need to use gmail, nor any of their services.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: BJ on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 03:38 PM EDT
You're a dimwit for having accepted the Google phone
against your principle convictions.

You should have insisted on an MS product, just for you
alone.

bjd


[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

About that Google Account
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 03:52 PM EDT
I had the same reaction as the OP when I started up my first Android
device. I 've had a few more "first boots" since then, and I think
there is a little subterfuge here by Google. Sure, the phone works
fine without a Google account, and some of the Google apps also
work fine without it. But that first screen appears to me to be
designed (deliberately?) to encourage the creation of a Google
sign-on. The means of proceeding without a Google account was
not obvious on my first two devices. I am expecting a barrage of
suggestions to see an optometrist, or take some college education.
I will respectfully point out that many readers here are long time
accustomed to dealing with linux installs, and have developed
a keen linguistic analysis of the wording on screen, and senses of
looking all round the frame for alternate routes. Escapees from
iOS or WinPho who haven't yet developed those senses are far
more likely to fall down the Google rabbit hole.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: wklink on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 04:07 PM EDT
Wait, so you mean you need a google account in order to install apps from the google store? The next thing you're going to tell me is that you need an Microsoft account to buy from the Microsoft store.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like FUD to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 05:14 PM EDT
If everybody could take windows, bundle whatever software he wants and
distribute it for free then nobody would ever complain against m$ bundling IE.
So your argument is FUD. What more could google possibly do to allow freedom?

P.S. well it could actually do more for the OSS enthusiasts but what it does is
already zillion times more than microsoft (did they do anything useful wrt OSS
actually? I doubt).

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 05:42 PM EDT
Wasn't Microsoft forced to unbundle Windows and Internet Explorer?
Unbundle Windows? That would be a good starting point for the European Commission...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 06:54 PM EDT
Incorrect. Android phones do not require Google Accounts to
work. You can skip that section if you do not want to set up a
Google Account to sync with and the phone will work perfectly
well. You can even add an exchange or other system email
account using the built in Email (not Gmail) mail app.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

re; Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 08:18 PM EDT
Come on, is signing up with gmail THAT horrible? NO! Especially, since
you don't have to use it -EVER- or any other Google product for that
matter. It's just the way Google registers your device, and it sure beats the
long 25 digit alphanumeric key and Windows Activation snoop-ware.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Try Windows Phone - Bing!
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 09 2013 @ 10:35 PM EDT
No prizes guessing which search engine the search button on all Windows phones
(7.x or 8.x) launches! It is also one of the 3 Microsoft-mandated buttons.

As far as I know, you cannot reassign it (and I actually own a WP7 phone these
days). Certainly, nothing prevents you from using Google search on a Windows
phone, but it is an extra step.

Incidentally, you also need to sign up for Microsoft Live to use the phone.

So this nothing but a serious case of pot calling the kettle black. I hope the
European Commission realizes it and throws it into the trash bin where it
belongs.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 05:22 AM EDT
You need a Google account to access to Google's services,
like Play, Gmail and so on. If the phone was built with that
sort of startup wizard, it's because the producer made it so.
There are Android phones without Google Apps, and won't ask
you for a Google account.

This isn't the same thing as Windows with IE, because you
couldn't separate the latter from the former. So not the same
thing at all.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 06:53 AM EDT
As others have said, you DON'T need a Google account to use
the phone. When I got my first Android phone, the only
"account" I needed was a Motorola account (it was a Moto
phone). The phone even came (on the home screen) with a
non-google e-mail app you could use with non-Google e-mail.
However, to access the personalized Google apps (calendar,
mail, play store, etc), you need a google account. Having
said that, you could freely install other apps that did the
same (it even came with some). I side-loaded other stores,
so I didn't need Google play.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Seems like a fair complaint to me.
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 09:01 AM EDT
You don't need a Google account to use an Android phone -
period.

During setup you are given the option to skip setting up a
Google account.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

hilarious troll
Authored by: designerfx on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 10:23 AM EDT
don't people read what they see/get anymore?
New phones don't even ask for your gmail account, they simply
ask if you have one or not and then ask if you want to create
one or not.

There's no "force" and there's no "lost functionality"
without
one.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • hilarious troll - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 05:47 PM EDT
No you don't
Authored by: ArtimusClyde on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 10:45 AM EDT
Google is so embedded in it, I was forced to open a gmail account in order for the phone to work
No you don't. I know this for a fact, because I just factory reset my phone yesterday and wanted to check something before I reset it again, so I started it up and pressed the "No I don't have a google account" or "I'm not interested" or something like that. Phone is perfectly usable. You just won't have access to the Play Store.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

So.... Bing into Win8 is OK, but Google is not OK ?
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 10 2013 @ 01:51 PM EDT
Link
Bing was built into Windows 8 to make searching convenient. In this video, Derrick Connell, Vice President of Search Program Management, shows you all the tricks, from the Charms to the Bing search app to a set of Bing-powered apps that help you easily find what you need.

Double standards anyone?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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