“In an attempt to woo its Android developer base, Samsung recently shipped a number of its smartphones to members of a highly popular phone modification group. On Monday, four members of the CyanogenMod software team received Galaxy S II smartphones in the mail, direct from the company at no charge.” Step by step, hardware makers are getting the message.
I’m not sure I understand the message? The only one I can see is “give us free stuff and we’ll develop for you and give you good reviews” which has significant inherent dangers attached.
What am I missing?
“Keep the brains on the platform” rather than “keep the brains in court”.
the message is work with hackers, not against them.
That so many people believe these yet my original view got voted down is a very scary prospect for the future of our world IMHO. These hackers are every bit the bully that the likes of Microsoft and Apple are, as are Google, but if I’m reading this correctly it’s ok to be a bully, in fact it’s something that should be rewarded, as long as you’re on the popular side?
This mentality also
As I said and got voted down for, I just don’t understand that mentality, and certainly can’t see how any long term good can come from it, but thank you for clarifying, at least now I understand what was meant in the article.
How are these hackers bullies?
Who are they bullying?
They legally buy their hardware and hack that. They don’t harm anyone. They just post instructions online on how other consumers can install open source software on their legally bought hardware as well.
The whole thing is completely legal and completely harmless. So much so that the absolute worst case scenario is a hacker bricks his own phone so end up buying a new one – which in turn is more money for the phone manufacturers. However that shouldn’t ever happen.
Some people seem to have this delusion that all hackers are evil – but the reality is a hacker is simply just someone who likes to get their hands dirty with system internals. So clearly these guys do not deserve distrust just because of a populous label
However if you must prejudge anyone for their social pigeon-hole, then I suggest you reserve your anger for black-hat crackers and script-kiddies instead
ourcomputerbloke,
What is wrong with supporting the hacking/modding community?
Can you explain your dislike for them?
I’ve hacked/moded many of the devices I own and I don’t really see the problem.
As for the “dangers” of giving away free stuff in return for positive reviews, it’s possible but hardly unique to them. Technology reporters get free stuff all the time.
It’s totally plausible that they simply want to encourage homebrew development.
Except for the gatekeepers at a walled garden, having a vibrant homebrew community is a win for everybody.
The OP has a point though:
Get free stuff, stop criticizing. Not exactly the “hacker ethos” on display there.
not exactly. he is referring to badmouthing about their bad developer support. clearly they are improving their developer support.
HTC commits to unlocked bootloaders and now Samsung embraces my favorite modding group (HTC Inspire 4G/Ace – CM 7.0.3). Hey Motorola, where are you?
No kidding. Motorola!!! I own a Droid 2 Global, from a hardware perspective probably the best QWERTY Android phone available. But locked bootloader = no custom kernels and hardly any ROMS. Shame on Motorola.
Samsung learned an important lesson from Sony. And yes, Samsung is smart enough that they can’t make quality software. So after all, Samsung is only a great hardware maker.