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Comment by gizzlon | Hacker News Reader

Try using Android without a google account.. Just having the option not to be logged in to google 24 hours a day would be a big win.

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I've had more than my share of Android devices, going all the way back to the G1. It's always been trivial to bypass the Google account login, should you want to (I even did that for a while on a spare phone that I was lazy about sending back for warranty service). As another commenter notes, getting third-party apps may be more complicated, but there are several options (Amazon, AndroidPIT, GetJar and other stores, including regional/local ones.

Aaaah...good ol' G1, that was my first smartphone too, then I had to get an iPhone for coding. Nothing like typing out code on a pocket keyboard.

I think Apple is very similar with requiring an account to activate the phone's functionality. If I remember correctly, the 1st gen needed to be synced with iTunes (directly to a computer) and the latest iOS devices require an Apple ID.

I haven't had an opportunity to try a Firefox phone yet, but I'm really hoping that it doesn't require some cloud based account to function. Just having all my data in one collective resource bothers me.

I've never used a Google account with mine (Nexus One, Cyanogenmod 7), and I get along just fine. The main trouble is in getting new apps, but I only use 3 that didn't come with the OS anyway, and those were all easy enough to find the APKs for.

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