Our full review of the Motorola Backflip should be up in a few days, but a few words of wisdom in the mean time: Don’t buy it. Between its crazy form-factor and the hidden trackpad tucked on the back of the display, everything we took as merits at face value have devolved into novelties.
Worst of all, it seems AT&T has taken a page from their time with the iPhone that no one wanted them to take. Like the iPhone — but unlike any other Android handset we’ve seen — the Motorola Backflip can’t install applications from any sources beyond the official, on-handset application store.
By default, all Android handsets are soft-limited to installing applications solely from Google’s Android Market. If a user tries to install an app through the browser with a brand new handset, they’ll get an error message telling them that they’ll need to flip a switch in the configuration screen before they can download from “Unknown Sources”. Alas, this switch is no where to be found on the Backflip.
While it can be said that Android’s less-restrictive market should make this a non-issue, it doesn’t. Certain applications, like the paid-version of Junefabric’s PDANet tethering application, can only be installed through the browser. Other times, developers will want to release their applications in beta form to a limited number of users outside of the market — something which, as it stands, Backflip owners will be unable to partake in.
What do you think? Knowing that AT&T is trying their damnedest to play gatekeeper on Android, would you still buy a Backflip?
[Thanks John R.!]
What a joke. AT&T IS Apple at this point….why even sell any other phones on your network?
Close the doors, change the labels.
We are now using the Apple iPhone on the Apple Network with Apple 3G.
GET A FRIGGIN CLUE AT&T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, it looks…well…cool. I actually thought that backward folding was a stupid idea…but Motorola’s design team is killer.
On the other hand, it’ll be wise to sleep over it before buying this one.
More: http://bit.ly/moto-backflip-viewed-again
AT&T having problems? Uh, haven’t we heard about that, gazillion times before?
looks good to me. haven’t tried that trackpad on the back situation but…is it really a novelty or you’re just not used to it yet?
the app store sit is annoying..but avg consumer still gets a rlly open Android market place (which is WAY WAY WAY more open than apple’s).
all in all looks pretty good. but I’ll have to try it.
I am happy to see an Android phone on AT&T.
Yet another suspicious article from TC… My opinion is that all these amateur bloggers publish only what they are paid for.
Update:
Greg!!! Cmon…
THIS DEVICE DESIGN IS COOL or at least innovative. that camera design can easily be made to do Skype video calls over wifi…doesnt seem lame at all!
See for yourself! Greg I usually trust ur judgement but cmon? include a video next time…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrmw7H-jzA
I downloaded PDAnet from the Android market on my Droid. Why is it not available from the market on the Backflip? Is there an OS version issue?
I agree though- an open platform is either open or it isn’t. I’m curious to see if Google has something to say about this…
I believe the free edition is available on the market still, but the pay version (that will load any site) is only available straight through JuneFabrics.
They must want android to fail on their network. They want to be able to say something like “See, Android can’t compete directly with the iPhone, so come get your iPhone here and only here!”
Still I can’t see why anyone would get an android handset from ATT, when they could get a better one from a MUCH better network, Verizon and for approximately for the same monthly cost.
As much I want to believe the conspiracy theory, it’s probably just an internal company precedent. Allowing any app on AT&T might provide leverage to the same people who want that same freedom on the iPhone.
In reality it’s just another thing we really want to avoid: fragmentation of the Android OS.
I don’t really think the use of the term “conspiracy theory” is appropriate here. This is a decision that was absolutely made by AT&T. They chose to do this. That isn’t a theory, it is what happened. The option was not turned off by accident.
Now, whether that has anything to do with the iPhone or not is speculation, but it is hardly a “conspiracy theory” to think that how sales of an open Android device might affect perceptions of AT&T’s flagship exclusive phone, might figure into their decision.
I get really sick of people throwing out the phrase “conspiracy theory” every time they want to discredit speculation, without any real argument. AT&T would be both insane and incompetent if they didn’t take the one device that differentiates their network into account when choosing which new phones and features to offer.
@Matt
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about when you use the word ‘Fragmentation”.
If you did, you would know that the Backflip is running 1.5, whilst HTC’s new devices are all going to run 2.1 at release. They’re keeping up with the OS as it changes and evolves, whereas the Motorola devices are all being released with outdated software, with the exception of the Droid/Milestone.
They’re one of the reason’s behind fragmentation, and AT&T worsened it by making this a closed handset, so another market has to made and supported.
I believe the future is in unlocked phones like the Nexus One. Why do they drag their feet on fully embracing Android.
What will they do to us next? I think I’m going to switch from my iPhone to the Nexus One
Do that. Sooner than later.
Totally agree, if I had the $600 I would buy the nexus right now, as I don’t have the funds though it seems I will need to wait until google decides its SPRING and release the nexus in the UK.
It’s not $600 it’s $529. And if you compare the price of a non-contract unlimited data plan to that of the required iPhone specific plans, you’ll save somewhere between $10-30 every month.
You’ll recover your investment quickly. Put it on a credit card and use your savings to pay it off.
For example, on T-Mobile you can get a no strings attached plan with 400 minutes and unlimited data and texts for $60/month.
As soon as Google Voice is allowed to operate over IP, or Skype is released for Android you won’t even need the minutes.
*laughs* I totally know what you’re talking about. I’m waiting for ‘spring’ as well – so I can get my Verizon N1
Hey Mark, your right but when you add on the shipping to the UK and the UK charger it is more like $600 hence my pricing -_-…
It is coming to Vodafone in the UK on contract, your half right that the plan will probably be 2years at atleast £35 so I will end up paying £840 where if I purchased the phone straight up it would only work out about £400 ($600) but to be honest after 6 months I can drop that £35 tariff down by £5 a month until I get to £15. which actually works out around the £500 which I think works out fairly good value.
Simply put, no.
More complexly put, I am glad I don’t live in the US when it comes to things like this, this is unbelievably stupid trying to limit android when people like HTC are adding extra features like flash support etc.
What does the US have t o do with it? People can get an Android phone from T-Mobile, Sprint, or even Verizon that does not have that limitation. This is a problem with AT&T, and if people don’t like it they can choose to go to a different carrier.
I was simply saying that we don’t have AT&T in the UK so I wouldn’t have to make the choice.
o2 did have the exclusivity on the iPhone here and they lost it so here in the UK we can have that on any network… Wasn’t anything specifically against the US just a generalization.
Android is going down the same road as windows mobile. There is too much fragmentation in the OS and hardware specifications.
It’s no longer an issue of upgrading your phones OS when a new version is available, it’s now I sure hope my hardware manufacturer/provider decide to make a version of Android OS 2.0 for my handset. Which limits the ability of developers to create apps for everyone.
Everyone complains about apple having too much control, but you can go out and write an app, toss it on the app store and it works for 99% of the people.
With android and winmo you have to write specific apps for specific versions and specific handsets.
Not true, Apple is starting to place moronic bans on its app store, the latest being that if your app doesn’t appeal to a wide audience, it may be pulled. Also, for those using cookie cutter apps Apple has said that if they dont add more functionality to the apps they too might be pulled.
Bullshit, obviously you are not an Android developer. A properly written application will work on 1.5-2.1 without any problems.
It’s no different from when the PC vs Mac work too place in the mid 80′s. Let’s see who won…
You actually do not write native code when creating an android app. Android provides a stable set of API’s and a virtual machine for running apps, which almost guarantees the apps will work from device to device, and from version to version as well. From time to time developers may have issues with screen resolution if they do not do not properly use layouts. If the developer is using an advanced hardware feature such as GPS or a camera and a users phone does not support that, then the user is automatically warned and that feature of the app will not work, but this behavior is to be expected because the user did not buy a phone with the advanced feature. Android is designed to support a diverse ecosystem of devices, and thus far has done a wonderful job at that.
This FUD is getting tiresome. Guess what, if you use the compass, your app will only work on the iPhone 3Gs. If you use GPS, your app won’t work on the iPod Touch. If your app requires 3G/phone connection, your app will work on some iPads, and not others, and won’t work on the iPod Touch. If you design an app for the iPad screen resolution, it won’t work on any of the iPhones or iPod Touch. OH NO, FRAGMENTATION!!!!!
Fragmentation is a natural part of handheld devices, and even the mighty iPhone OS is not immune to it. This “Android will fail because it is fragmented” garbage is nothing but thinly veiled Apple press trolling.
As an Android developer, I can categorically say that you are inaccurate in your likening the ‘fragmentation’ around missing hardware on iPhone models and the fragmentation found in Android.
Each Android SDK revision has added functionality, but some of them have also changed the way you do things, or even removed the ability to do them.
For instance, when 1.5 came out, Google took away the ability to access the brightness of the screen from an app. There were a bunch of apps that used the functionality that suddenly didn’t work for people on 1.5. People upgraded, and then left negative comments on the app because it didn’t work. Then, later, someone figured out a new way to access the brightness, but that only worked on 1.5. That meant that there were now two classes of brightness adjusters, only one of which worked on any given phone.
That wasn’t that huge of a deal, but it was over a year ago. To put that into perspective, there are still phones that haven’t been updated to 1.5, let alone 1.6, 2.0 or 2.1. Those poor Canadians on Rogers, for instance. SO that means all the 1.5 versions are still floating around the Market.
If you do a search for ‘cupcake,’ you’ll find a whole slew of apps that either work only for cupcake or that do not work on cupcake.
These are just simplistic examples, but I’ve gotten a number of complaints from people using the 1.5 on Hero, the 1.5 on Cliq and the 1.5 on Droid Eris that things aren’t working as expected.
Because I don’t have any of those phones, I literally have no idea why they aren’t working. THe logs people send me have been identical to the logs on my 1.5, where the app works just fine.
There is indeed fragmentation in Android that is a major hassle for developers. It is not the same thing as one iPhone having a compass and another not having a compass.
Oh wait, this gave me a whole new perspective on this ‘problem.’ So when you say “Android has a real problem with fragmentation,” what you actually mean is that hobby programmers with no software testing background or QA budget, have a hard time supporting a heterogeneous hardware environment, thus impeding their ability to strike it rich on their $1 beta app that they threw up on the market without any proper testing. Yeah, well when you put it that way, it is certainly true.
I’m sorry, back when I did software development (and it wasn’t even that complicated of software) we tested everything on 15 different PCs with 15 different configurations, booting into multiple OSs. Back in my youth, when I did game testing, we tested on hundreds of PCs, with a staggering number of different configurations. Even doing web development, we tested on multiple machines, with multiple browsers, in multiple OSs.
You are complaining because you are supposedly a developer, and you can’t even be bothered to go out and get the three phones your customers have problems with, and attempt to reproduce the problem? Sorry, that’s how the cookie crumbles. To make money, you have to spend money, and part of development costs are QA costs and testing. In theory, that is why people pay you for your app.
Yes, in light of that, Android really does have a huge problem. They will never fill their store with hundreds of thousands of questionable apps of questionable utility from questionable developers at this rate. There is an undeniable barrier to entry in terms of both programming know-how, and QA budgets, on any heterogeneous hardware platform. That isn’t a “fragmentation problem” that is the nature of programming. In fact, it isn’t any kind of problem at all. Android makes it far easier to get your software on 20 different phones from 20 different manufacturers than it has ever been in the history of the phone industry. If you want to be a ‘developer’ without worrying about any of the headaches of development, then I suggest you check out some of the web build-an-app templates for iPhone, and stick to begging Apple to let you compete in their minimal functionality app lottery. Good luck, by the way, with your crusade to get every single person in the world to carry the same phone. I hope that works out for you.
I have been waiting for an Android phone from AT&T. I have to stay on AT&T due to the large number of friends and family that have AT&T. The limited functionality, lack of Google Search (why pick Yahoo search of the big three anyways!), and outdated OS are unacceptable. I will wait and see what they do with the other 4 Android phones they are claiming to be rolling out. If they do the same thing to those, I will be leaving for Verizon IMMEDIATELY and telling ALL of my friends and family to leave. I will blog, Facebook, Tweet, etc. all day until everyone leaves Apple…I mean AT&T (great call Ed.)
Actually I may not have to even blog or anything as I think AT&T will not be successful with the Android at all if they continue down this path.
Why do your friends and family having AT&T prevent you from switching? I’m assuming you get free calls to them? Other providers like Sprint offer free calls to any mobile phone, regardless of carrier.
But the person he is calling will be counting up their minutes.
ATT owns Yahoo…that’s why.
Why must companies insist on doing things like this in order to prevent any change to their current business model?
These things always seem to piss off far more people than the few pennies they may save.
Stupid ATT i have a feeling they are crippling this device to force people into syaing “why would i go to android when i can get an iphone with 150k apps”
So sick and tired of apple and att.
ADB PUSH XXXX.APK /system/app/
When the time comes.. WHEN THE TIME COMES!!!
More like
ADB PULL ATT ~/.local/share/Trash$
Because of the blatant contradiction of AT&T’s move here to the concept of openess Android supporters thrive on, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if there was a ROM built for this within a week made simply out of spite. It will just be the people who aren’t familiar with Android and rooting who will suffer from this.
shhhhh dump is in place. working on it :)
FUCK YOU ATT…
Wifi tethering with no qadditional charges for every one coming soon…
What a tortured gadget…
someone needs to tell at&t android is open,
Google is not a control freak, and we love the right to use whatever apps we want!
A little clarification..I think the app lock-down is on the OS level and not ATT level. I have a Moto Droid (Verizon) and experienced the same issue (apps from Unknown Sources issue).
Regardless, it’s time for everyone to start opening up app distribution (including Android OS by default). It’s inevitable.
Did you have the option?
menu >application > Unknown sources [ x ]
Yes..the option was (and is) present..
I’m confused. You say you didn’t have the ability to enable Unknown sources, but that you do have the ability to enable unknown sources?
FYI: you didn’t have the same problem :)
You had a an entirely different problem. Your problem was a minor inconvenience having to enable it. This problem has no solution.
You press to change the setting on the warning that pops up, it pops up a menu allowing you to change the setting, you press that and you’re done. You can now install anything from anywhere. It’s not exactly rocket science and it only needs to be done once.
That is how it works on every other Android phone.
On Backflip, however, it does not pop up the menu to allow you to change the setting. And when you go into Settings yourself, there is NO setting to enable it, in Apps, Dev, or anywhere.
So, yeah, it’s not rocket science. And you’re no rocket scientist :)
It seems that many folks are blaming AT&T, yet it’s clearly Google who left the door “open” for such a modification. (Pun completely, totally, intended.)
Sure, Android is open…it’s open for carriers to make modification’s they deem necessary and to frak-up the whole precious nirvana that so many people were expecting.
Thanks, but despite being stuck on AT&T’s network for now, I’ll stick with my “closed,” but infinitely more stable, consistent, and usable iPhone platform, thankyouverymuch.
It’s getting depressing. Looks like everyone is looking at Apple’s control over the app store with envy (i.e., locked in to whatever they want; no competition for features the company wants to sell directly). The arbitrary manner Apple keeps apps it doesn’t like off of the app store is being duplicated by AT&T with the first Android phone. I’m guessing Microsoft is going to do the same (i.e., how open is the xBox Live market place or the Zune’s). It’s now all about DRM and non-consumer friendly control of everything.
ATT: why should allow this device on our network?
MOT: it’s open backwards
ATT: that’s what we want
from ATT reviews.
“The Motorola Backflip is the best Android device on the market today. With it’s rock solid hardware and speed, this device is truly meant for the standards of the High Speed AT&T 3G network.”
“This phone is the best thing that happened since sliced bread.”
“i luv this fone. i luved it so much that i bought myself one and my son one also!!!”
“picked this phone up today and so far it rocks, so many features, and the design is very unique, the screen is bright, the keyboars is very easy to use, apps so far are awesome, im glad i bought this phone”
somebody do investigative reporting PLEASE!!! sounds like ATT is playing foul..
How does at&t even begin to think this is a good idea. They are NOT apple and haven’t the brand loyalty for this kind of ridiculousness.
On every Android handset I’ve used, the “unknown sources” option is under development. So, probably you guys are mistaken? I don’t think the option is placed where the image says it is..
I do not know what Android devices you have used. The Motorola DROID, the Nexus One, the HTC Hero, the T-Mobile G1, the HTC Tattoo, and the Motorola CLIQ all have the “Unknown source” preference on the Settings > Application page — the page shown in the screenshot in the article.
Now, it is entirely possible that Motorola moved it elsewhere on the BACKFLIP (e.g., under Development), but AFAIK that’s not the norm.
I just played with one. There is no option to enabled it anywhere in the settings. Also, when you try to install an app anyway, it tells you you simply cannot do it. All the other Android handsets I’ve used have prompted you to enable it.
@Jer – no, I was always able to enable the option. Point is that you have to enable it.
I just ran to AT&T store. There is no option to enable 3rd-party apps in the Apps or Dev section of settings.
And, when you TRY to install a non-Market app, the popup that shows says you can’t do it for ‘your security.’
I’ve used every other Android phone, and they’ve always prompted you to enabled it. Backflip just says screw you.
the backflip is garbage any way. this just adds to it… Yahoo search???? ha thats terrible, who uses yahoo search anymore?
At&T’s CEO said he wanted android to open up more before it would release handsets running the OS, all so they could make the yahoo the search provider and block out side loading apps.. yea thats a good way to open
But anyone know if you can install apps through adb like you can also do on any other android… hook your phone up to your computer and make sure you ADB installed and then go to the tool folder of the android SDk and open a command prompt and type ADB install and it will install it
Though not exactly a with Google product, my factory unlocked (brazilian) Milestone wasn’t “soft-limited” to the Android Market…
Which phone do you think the salesperson at At&T would be pushing to sell?
anyone dumb enough to buy this phone won’t even notice…
Idjits.
Just download the Android Dev tools, and install .apk’s through ADB. Easy as that. I’m starting to not see what all the damn fuss is over.
um…no
I had a phone on their network once. I threw it at a rock. Others I have known have thrown theirs out of office buildings and moving cars.
Translation….phones on AT&T are paper-weights.
No PdaNet? Guess I’ll just have to stick to verizon where PdaNet is allowed and I never have dropped calls, ever.
The biggest issue for the non-rooting, common consumer would be the backing up of apps. When my Droid’s screen became possessed, it was great swapping SD cards with the new ones and having my phone be 90% like the old one on the first boot, AND all of my apps on the SD card that were more than a week old. But, installing apps backed up on the SD card requires you to let the phone install apps from “Unknown Sources”…which the Backflip won’t let you do.
That. Sucks. Good thing I have a Droid on Verizon! And I thought Verizon was full of jerks locking down phones…