Yes?

They examine the shadows of the ones and zeros that make up the email. In some cases, you can notice discrepancies in the shadows that can only be explained if the bits were forged.

The thing is that AT&T hasn't restricted adb install. If they had, then google would revoke their license to redistribute the google apps, and (hopefully) no-one would use the phone because it didn't have android market.

It's pretty simple - if you want Google's blessing, you can't restrict/lock down the adb protocol - which means you must allow installing applications via adb.

Now, the real problem would be if they did decide to remove all the Google apps and the Android branding, and went off and completely did their own thing. If that happened, I'm hoping the market would react and sales of the device would be poor. But then again, take a look at all the people who buy the locked down iPhones.... my optimism might be unwarranted in this case, unfortunately.

You can't use adb install to install applications on the atrix?

If it's like the phones others have mentioned, it's just a matter of the signed drivers not being readily available for that device. But to be honest, that's only an issue because of the windows stupidity of not letting you (easily) use unsigned drivers.

I hardly think you can consider "adb install" rogue knowledge

That's rather interesting. If anything, I would expect it to be the other way around.

I see no reason why it wouldn't. I don't know offhand if there is an artificially imposed size limit when using adb install, other than the available space on the device of course. Apps with lots of assets (like big games) will typically have a reasonably sized apk, and then download tons of data to your sdcard. I bought one game that required ~1GB of data to be downloaded to the sdcard - but I knew this was the case before purchasing.

I switched from Windows a few years ago. I've found replacements for all the applications I need. I rarely use wine - mostly just for games. Although I do still have a win xp partition for those stubborn games that don't want to work with wine.

As far as Windows goes, I prefer XP. Granted, the 3/4gb memory limit is getting a bit constraining these days. You can, of course, take your pick :)

I seem to recall that USB 1.1 support is included in the open source VirtualBox code. Doesn't VMWare also allow you to attach usb devices also?

Also - I wasn't aware that modifying the inf for a driver would invalidate the signature. But then again, I haven't really looked into how drivers are signed in much detail either.

There are a couple of other solutions - still far from perfect, but workable. The best, of course, is to stop using windows, or at least stop using a version of windows that requires signed drivers. Failing that, you should still be able to install Linux onto a virtualbox VM and attach the phone to the VM.

Granted, the parent post I originally replied to was talking about third party markets - which I believe hiding the "Unknown sources" setting would prevent from working.

No clue about downloading them from AT&T's website. But adb is an open protocol, with freely available drivers.

And adb install will still work, even if that's true.

Name one Android phone that doesn't let you sideload applications.

Oh wait, you can't. Because phones *must* allow you to sideload applications. Otherwise, they won't pass the Android compatibility test suite, and can no longer be called an Android phone - and, more critically, can't bundle any of Google's applications like the market, gmail, maps, etc.

But yes, you could have a non-Android phone/device that is *based* on Android that doesn't allow sideloading of apps (like the B&N nook for example).

You mean like this? http://improveverywhere.com/missions/the-no-pants-subway-ride/

Sounds like fun!

Sorry for the self-reply - I didn't fully read the summary the first time, and didn't notice the part about the thumb. The datahand does in fact have a number of keys for the right thumb to use - but you could use a custom firmware that has a different keymap that doesn't use those keys. I would be happy to help modify DHFirm for this case.

If you have the money and don't mind a bit of a learning curve, datahand is definitely the way to go. Although, I wouldn't buy a new one myself at the current price. But you can find used ones on ebay occasionally, that go for about half of what a new one costs. Which is admittedly still a pretty big chunk of change for a keyboard. But they are much, much, much easier on your hands.

Also, if you want to geek out on it, you can check out my alternative firmware - http://github.com/JesusFreke/DHFirm