The Silly End Result Of DRM: Google Android Developers Barred From Running Paid Apps

from the over-protecting dept

It's really amazing how the use of DRM makes companies do stupid things. They get so focused on "protecting" they don't realize how all that protection hurts them. It happens over and over again. The latest such example is that developers for Google's Android mobile OS are discovering they can't access paid apps in the Android Market. Why? Because Google is afraid that developers, with greater levels of access, will be able to "break" the DRM and create unauthorized copies. Of course, people will figure out how to break the DRM and make unauthorized copies anyway. So all Google has really done is (a) piss off a lot of developers (b) shrink the market for paid apps (c) make it that much more difficult for developers to get, create and test such paid apps. In all this focus on protecting, Google seems to have missed out on the fact that it's more important to be creating and building than protecting.

Filed Under: android, developers, drm
Companies: google

New Innovations Show How Mobile Devices Can Be Helpful To Learning... Just Not In Pennsylvania

from the no-progress-in-the-keystone-state dept

While some politicians in Pennsylvania are trying to push a law that would put an outright ban on most portable devices, such as mobile phones, in schools, not too far away, in Washington, DC, this week, there was an entire conference on how such mobile devices were increasingly useful in the classroom to help in the education process. Apparently, some politicians in Pennsylvania would rather block out that opportunity, just because the devices might also be occasionally misused.

Filed Under: education, mobile devices