February 4, 2010
Android G1: more surprises
When I put another operator's SIM card into G1 immediately I started to receive strange SMS (every minute!) from short number 684 with text "Service is temporarily unavailable". A little investigation shows that 684 is operator's aggregation paid short number (operator provides some paid SMS services via that number). More: any outgoing SMS to that number cost $0.16.
So, G1 usage cost $0.16 per minute.
It's of course not so bad as downloading Android updates via 3G (which ate 5$ in 3 minutes for me when I first switched G1 on). But: sending some SMS to network without my permission is not good.
Note that this is not some third-party app: I check every app when installing for permissions and I'm sure that nothing was set up with SMS sending permission.
Some threads (english translation) indicate that this is because G1 has some low-level T-mobile locks (although mine is officially unlocked one from singapore).
By the way, user has no way to officially way to rebuild and reflash its (open-source!) android OS.
So, G1 usage cost $0.16 per minute.
It's of course not so bad as downloading Android updates via 3G (which ate 5$ in 3 minutes for me when I first switched G1 on). But: sending some SMS to network without my permission is not good.
Note that this is not some third-party app: I check every app when installing for permissions and I'm sure that nothing was set up with SMS sending permission.
Some threads (english translation) indicate that this is because G1 has some low-level T-mobile locks (although mine is officially unlocked one from singapore).
By the way, user has no way to officially way to rebuild and reflash its (open-source!) android OS.
