Android Dev 1 smartphone

As you may remember, last month we revealed how the Android Dev Phone did not have access to the paid applications from the Android market place. This was primarily because of the fact that this version of the HTC Dream provided complete root access to the device, and therefore offered read, write and copy access to every file on the device. This would be no good for developers looking to sell their applications because those that had purchased a Dev Phone would be able to redistribute their applications for free.

However, help is now at hand in the form of a Factory System Image. If you own a Dev Phone, all you need to do is flash the device with a factory Android platform system image and associated radio image. Full instructions are available at HTCs website, where you can download the actual image binaries, as well as relevant tools to help you flash the images to your device. The system image files will allow you to keep your Dev Phone up to date with the latest Android system images, test your application on multiple Android platform versions to ensure compatibility, and restore a corrupted device to a factory state.

It took a few weeks, but at least a solution has now been found. I would still be pretty annoyed as a developer though, nonetheless!