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“We decided to take our question to Google and ask them if Augen was allowed to install the Android Market and other core Google apps and a spokesperson responded that ‘Augen included proprietary Google software in their product via an unauthorized vendor. Google only licenses its software to partners and OHA [Open Handset Alliance] members directly,'” Piltch reports. “Why is this a big deal if Android is open source, anyway? As we’ve talked about before, the Google Android OS is open-source, but core Google apps, including the Android Market, are closed source and must be licensed.”
Piltch reports, “We also have to wonder how something with unlicensed and potentially illegal software on it could end up on the shelf at K-Mart. We doubt that any national chain store would stock PCs with a pirated or hacked version of Windows. Google didn’t give us any indication of how they intend to proceed regarding the GenTouch78, but I wouldn’t count on the Market working fully any time soon. And perhaps the tablet will disappear from shelves completely.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t waste your time and money, just get a real iPad. You’ll be very glad you did.
Google should have no problem with this, as they want freedom and “openess,” right?
Oops. Meant to type “openness.”
Hmmm. Is a company called “Psystar” involved in any way?
Open is good. We can’t let one man own the cell phone industry. K-Mart needs to wrest this control from evil clutches!
I thought Android was “open”, oh well.
“Open is as open does”
“core Google apps, including the Android Market, are closed source and must be licensed.”
So there are a few holes in the Good Ship Openness?
Google should be an expert in dealing with thieves considering they perfected the art while sitting on the board of Apple.
I got a blew ‘lite’ special behind the K-Mart once.
I only had 5 bucks…
Why am I not surprised at the sMac talk? While yes, the back-handed work of Augen should be questioned, that doesn’t mean we should discount this type of hardware and jump for the over-hyped, over-priced iPad.
@TowerTone
Oh man was that you?!?! I thought you were a girl! Oh well, I took my 5 bucks and bought a can of Copenhagen with it.
Recently Google Schmidt proudly announced 200,000 Android devices activations a day and it was wildly reported that Apple was being ‘overtaken’ by Android.
What they don’t tell you is that Android is being loaded onto all kinds of cheap phones (‘music phones’ etc) and tablets in Asia. (especially China world’s biggest cell market where Apple is only on one of the smaller carriers). Cheap tablets which one analysts called ‘glorified Digital Picture Frames’ running Android 1.6. Schmidt doesn’t tell you or investors either that many of these Android ‘picture frames’ and ‘music phones’ don’t even run Google search or apps.
Another thing is that analysts like to down Apple by comparing iPhone sales with the 200,000 Android DEVICES number and not just Android phones. They should compare iOS vs Android.
Also comparing iPad to glorified digital picture frames is like comparing iPods to those MP3 players sold as keychains in Asian road side stalls.
TowerTone,
Did “she” have a rather prominent adam’s apple?
Android an open source operating system.
Mostly.
Sort of.
For a Price.
If you join the club.
I too think the Google schemes are sneaky and confusing, but the analogy here is flawed. It is more like someone is selling a PC with a free Linux OS but preinstalled a proprietary and commercial software on it like Adobe Studio or something without license. But that’s the problem with people calling everything open isn’t it? When you do that people expect everything on it to be free.
Cubert
Yes, then no, then yes, then no….
MooseKnuckles
Whatever it takes for you to get the taste out I guess?
I’m waiting for the 79.
. . . or a used 77.
Oh, Hahahahaha! This is hilarious!
Augen: “But you said it was ‘open’ ! “
Google: “Well, it is. But, it isn’t. But …”
Also, I agree with acid’s analogy, but this story still makes me think of the kijiji ads that offer a computer, with “downloaded” proprietary software included.
What a mess.
Since no one else has fed your holy-trollness yet . . . .
Clearly, you either cannot AFFORD an iPad or simply are incapable of UNDERSTANDING its unique position in the consumer electronics market. Not having an iPad most certainly does not give you the credentials to evaluate its “over-hyped” and/or “overpriced” attributes. Sounds to me as if you’re a “Kindling” kind of guy/gal who values CHEAP above all else, right? Your diminutive $189 black & white one-trick, Amazonian pony probably does everything you need and more, methinks, hence your tech-envy of the all-in-one iPad. And, after all, who cares (really) if a K-Mart/iPad knock-off is felonious to its very core? It’s still CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. . . . right?
It’s time for you to get back under your bridge now, little troll. You’ve spewed enough for one day.
@ acid Its nothing like that acid. All the software in question here is free with android (if you license it) none of it is sold and all the functionality is free on the web. Its more like a linux distribution with acrobat reader, adobe air and flash pre installed.( I don’t think Abobe would complain)(much)
The software in question is Google’s carrot and stick. It’s a carrot to get people to buy an android phone because it accesses all the google assets they already use. And its a stick to smack down and control hardware makers to force them into the open handset alliance and to be bound by google terms and regulations.
Another psystar, let’s just take and use software that doesn’t belong to us and sell it on our own product!
Good reason NOT TO BUY THIS PRODUCT!
What’s the story with the Papermaster dude? Isn’t he the one from IBM?
A PC using friend of mine recently decided she wanted a netbook/tabletPC to travel with. The result was interesting as we went from Best Buy, to Costco, etc, only to be begrudgingly informed by the staff that the only truly usable tablet/netbook for web surfing was the Apple iPad or a full fledged Windows laptop. The entire netbook landscape was so feature limited so as to be essentially useless, most rendering webpages so small that reading them became impossible.
I’ve never been a fan of the iPad, particularly in comparison to a laptop, but had to admit it is vastly superior to anything the PC netbook/tablet makers offer today. The price is the only sticking point because, as we discovered, you can buy a full 15″ Windows7 laptop with way more features than the iPad … for the same price.
Wonder if this is why its had not arrive locally here.
K-Mart found out why the app store does not function and is stopping shipment until resolved…
Yeah, but the bozos had no problem letting the Bill Gates one person dominate the PC for decades of hell.
Morons
papermaster leaked apple secrets. was spy for pc industry