Your Tech Update
ANY Android Market Paid App For Free!! A Glitch?
I was doing some routine backup and restore of my apps in between flashing my HTC Hero rom using the awesome Titanium Backup app and came to realize something substantial. If you follow my Twitter feed, you would have noticed the other night I posted that I found a way to get market apps for free. A lot of people asked me how. This is how the other night went.
I thought to myself with my overly analytic brain, that surely if I follow these steps:
- Buy an app from the Android Market
- Install it
- Use Titanium Backup to back it up
- Uninstall & Refund it through the market
- Restore the app with Titanium Backups restore function
I surely would have a paid app for free. ANY paid app I want. This got me thinking more and realized that it would only work if I used the restore “App Only” function and not replace the market entry.
A little further thought made me realize that this means you won’t get any of the apps updates and you can only do it once per app.
I am too afraid to try this as I don’t want to annoy Google or any developers as I firmly believe they deserve the usually small asking price for their hard work. So, I shot an email over to Joel, the Titanium Backup developer and asked him his opinion.
Here is what he said:
“while it indeed works perfectly, I do not encourage this practice – for obvious reasons. With great power comes great responsibility.”
My biggest concern here is that if you abuse this power then you are really hurting yourself long term. Developers will run and not come back. And I believe Google have the power and right to stop you buying from the market again.
Still, I think its fascinating and a serious oversight on Google’s part.
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About the author
Owner of an IT company called Data Defence IT Solutions. Living in the West of Ireland and married with a kid... I clearly love technology and gadgets. At the minute I have a Tranquil Windows Home Server to manage my websites, files and entertainment. I use an Android handset, the Hero as my personal phone and a Nokia n86 as my business phone.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Konrad Walsh-(admin) on February 20, 2010 at 22:30, and is filed under Hardware & Software, Operating Systems, Phones, google. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
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about 5 months ago
I personally think if google want to make it with Android like Apple have with Iphone, they need to sort this out big time, i think the reason big games developers will not come over to this platform is for that reason, its too easy to get refunded and then restore the app. Unlike iphones you buy you keep no refund available.
Now i like probably any other want to see android succeed as i love the platform, but i think until this is sorted developers do no want to waste there time with it.
Sad but very true
about 5 months ago
thats understandable.. especially hearing that from a developer directly..
I do believe only bad can come of it.. I do like Googles open view and let us choose right from wrong but I don’t like it hurting the ones who make the android system worth it.. the app creators
about 4 months ago
If you discourage this method then please don’t post the exact steps to do so! Please take it down.
about 4 months ago
Please take out the steps you took to do this if you really support Android and its development. No need to advertise exactly how to do this for everyone to see.
about 4 months ago
Why did you make the same comment twice?..
Anyway, I do not disagree with your opinion however i spoke with a quite a few developers about it before posting it and they all agreed that it needs to be highlighted that this is a serious problem and that Google need to act. There is more than one way to a skin a cat and this is just one way. I have since found two more ways. If scum steal software my post isn’t stopping or helping them.. we’ve all heard the same argument over and over. (PirateBay, anyone?). Either way, I chose to use the opportunity to highlight something i feel needs fixing not hide and hope no else mentions it. By detailing the steps it shows how unbelievably simple it all is.
about 4 months ago
You can also just download apk files through the internet (i.e. BitTorrent) and transfer those over to your SD card and allow installation of 3rd Party Apps…
I only realized this when looking for Monopoly, wouldn’t mind purchasing it, for Android and not finding it in the Market then finding the APK and trying that and it worked flawlessly. Needless to say, it wasn’t worth it because EA totally flopped on that build. Same thing applies as well, no updates because it won’t be listed under downloads in Market.
Note: I still purchase all my apps, developer’s deserve it.
about 4 months ago
This is not due to Titanium Backup, but due to root. Please, by all means do not pirate apps. The Android ecosystem is very delicate, and giving developers the impression that piracy is rampant means that Google and phone makers will make it as hard as possible to root the phone, much less root the phone. Already, this has happened with Motorola phones where on the Cliq, Motorola patched out the root exploit (RAMDLD) in a few weeks, and if one didn’t have the right radio ROM, they would have a unusable phone until reflashed.
Google can become very brutal in keeping people away from root. It can be easily done for phones to check if they have been rooted, and the account used to be permanently banned from the Google app store. Cellular carriers can track phones, and permanently boot rooted phones from getting onto their networks.
So, please don’t give the impression how easy it is to pirate on Android. Android isn’t the iPhone. Piracy will make devs switch to iPhone only, or force Google to put in antipiracy measures that nobody will like.
about 4 months ago
Yes I know its due to root and anyone could easily create another Titanium. However, it is important that people- Devs – know this and work ways to counteract it.
The best examples I have seen is where you must keep a licence file on the root of your SD showing you paid for it.
I do agree with your arguments though.
about 4 months ago
i dont know why google didnt do what iphone did and create there own xynxing software like itunes, as that will backup all your games and apps n everything preventing piracy as its registered to your device only and if google did this they would not of had people creating there own apps with hidden agendas where you can pirate software.