Instead of retro-rules that *seem* well-intentioned for the users
How about giving us VAULTS to keep voice apps from raiding our contact lists? If we only want a voice app so we can try to compensate for no longer having a phone plan, then, why the hell does a phone app need one-time approval to plunder our contact list? Sometimes, those names in the contact list are not people we talk to but people about whom we make flags/tags/personal notes, and we DAMNED SURE do NOT want 3rd party types being privvy to that stuff.
How about giving us the ability to install and tweak firewalls without having to be root or without having to deal with restrictions imposed by the carrier?
How about making carrier-locked phones become non-carrier-locked when our contracts formally expire? If we do not remain with the carrier, WHY the HELL should their custom ROM impositions remain in force on our phones? For instance, I am no longer with my carrier, but when I installed Google Talk, Google told me it was installing a version customized just for my phone by my carrier, which has not been my carrier for over 11 months. I have not had a phone account in all that time, and yet, Android does not know how to unenslave itself.
I a phone contract expires, and the user does not reactivate it before the number is recycled, and if a Google phone number verification fails, then obviously, the phone contract lapsed and the carrier should no long impose upon the phone, especially if the phone has been month-to-month for a 6 months or a year prior to any other reason the phone is not part of the carrier any more.
Gods, google. You guys and girls need to be more creative and more user-considerate.