I feel like I am yelling in an echo chamber. Google set the Android customer base on its ear by blocking its own movie rental service on rooted phones. I yelled in the chamber at that, as I saw it as only the first round of Google tightening the screws to its customers. Now comes round two of Google vs. Android phone owners with word that the Blockbuster app on the Droid Charge sniffs out rooted phones and blocks video streaming on them.
I see a grim Android world coming where lots of activities are barred from those cheeky enough to root their phones. I fall into that crowd, as do millions of Android smartphone owners. The nasty excuse of DRM is so often the reason things are taken away from consumers, and it is doubly bad when it is Google itself that sticks it to us. Oh you blame Blockbuster for this latest restriction? It turns out the DRM system that is shutting down rooted phones for Blockbuster is Widevine. Google owns Widevine. Consider yourself thoroughly thrown under the bus.
Image credit: Droid Life
