Anyone with an AT&T phone will tell you that the network speed since the newest update has made their network one of the fastest in the industry if not the fasted. The only drawback that most people have relayed is that AT&T phones don’t allow side loading or installation of non-market apps. Once of the largest issues is with the Amazon App Store which gives away free paid apps every day. AT&T users have been left out of this unless rooted until now.
Today AT&T has announced that they will be enabling sideloading on select devices.
The select devices that will include the update are the HTC Inspire 4G or Aria, or a Samsung Captivate, keep an eye out for the updateon these Froyo devices. Also the new Samsung Infuse 4G already has sideloading enabled.
We hope that they will push this update to all of their android devices but currently only the ones mentioned will receive the update right now. Wel will keep you informed about the future phones that will be added to the list.
Ma Bell has officially informed their developers to no longer lock out sideloading on future phones.
UPDATE: All AT&T Phones how have sideloading enabled and will no longer lock them. There is an option that is in your settings called “Unknown Sources” where you can easily allow installation of applications from either other websites or markets like the Amazon App Store. I would recommend that after installing apps from third party locations that you re-enable the lock for increased security. This being said apps like Lookout mobile security will keep your device safe even if the device allows external installations.
If you have a device that seems to not allow sideloading or the installation of Android apps from locations other than Google Play we would like to hear about it so that we can make others aware of the restrictions. Even with their seemingly slow start we think AT&T is one of the best carriers for Android devices second only to maybe Veizon when it comes to signal and service.