Comments | brad: Android Developer Phones

brad

Android Developer Phones

Dec 08, 2008 11:47

Get an SIM-unlocked, bootloader-unlocked, kernel-unlocked, fully flashable Android phone for $399, with free shipping in the US ( Read more... )

android

Comments 30

teferi December 8 2008, 19:54:22 UTC

The only catch is that since it only has support for the 2100MHz band for 3G, so if you're in the US, you still basically have to be using T-Mobile (AT&T is 1900).

brad December 8 2008, 21:12:39 UTC

Oh, bummer.

brad December 8 2008, 21:16:48 UTC

Yeah, specs say:

* 3G WCDMA (1700/2100 MHz)
* Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

Looks like out of luck for non-T-Mobile:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deployed_UMTS_networks#North_America

robbat2 December 8 2008, 21:22:36 UTC

Crap. Good thing I looked this thread, since none of the CDN providers have that frequency bands.

Thread 8

waider December 8 2008, 22:23:13 UTC

Curses, I don't see Ireland on that list. Of course, someone could be conflating the UK and Ireland again...

brad December 8 2008, 22:30:43 UTC

Well, have it shipped to Northern Ireland? :P

http://qntm.org/?uk

(sorry, just had to find an excuse to post that link.... I love it.)

waider December 8 2008, 23:46:43 UTC

Heh. Actually, he left out the wackiest bit of it; citizens of Northern Ireland can opt to be citizens of the Republic (modulo certain basic requirements, identical to those that apply in the Republic). Let's see that on a Venn an Euler Diagram.

mart December 9 2008, 05:33:59 UTC

It's a shame that they punted on the crown dependencies. That would have really screwed up their diagram. (They're in Great Britain but not part of the United Kingdom, so Great Britain would have needed to bulge out of the side of United Kingdom, and in some cases even bulge out of British Isles I think.)

Who'd have thought that such a small bunch of land could be so complicated?

obra December 8 2008, 22:32:43 UTC

On the upside, the G1's 3G bands have Japan covered. (Verified in person with production hardware)

brad December 9 2008, 01:01:42 UTC

Be careful. There's reportedly a T-Mobile "MyFaves" background app on the G1 that runs all the time sending "free" service SMSes to T-Mobile for whatever MyFaves is. They're free in the US, but not abroad.... some dude reportedly wracked up a huge bill while traveling overseas with his G1.

dan_lane December 8 2008, 23:15:07 UTC

Cunningly announced late enough that anyone who was really enthusiastic about Android development has tied themselves down to a T-Mobile contract and the locked-down T-Mobile version of the G1.

I really hope Google release the development version of the bootloader that I can put on my T-Mobile G1 to get the same openness as the Dev one, even if I have to pay the $25 and agree to it voiding my warranty if I brick it.

brad December 8 2008, 23:22:53 UTC

The conspiracy theories are certainly more fun.

dan_lane December 8 2008, 23:35:03 UTC

To be fair, it does make perfect business sense when signing a deal with T-Mobile to give them exclusivity for a short period of time.

brad December 9 2008, 01:00:05 UTC

I have no inside knowledge on this one way or another, but I'd personally just guess the team was busy as hell up until launch and only after launch even started working on this program, just for lack of cycles to work on it prior.

ibneko December 9 2008, 04:47:35 UTC

Am so tempted. Could I query for your list of Android complaints, so I can decide if I want to spend $425 for a toy to hack on?

brad December 9 2008, 05:28:42 UTC

It just keeps getting better, and any complaints are fixable with a bit of code. It's worth $425. Great hacking project.