I got my son an Android phone (Pantech Crossover), because it's dirt cheap from amazon ($80) and is pay-as-you-go and doesn't require a data contract (no way am I paying for a data contract for him. So anyway, I have some Android questions and I know there are some fans of Android here who can probably answer them. First of all, if I add a credit card to Google Wallet so that we can buy him apps/games, does Android require entry of the Google Wallet account password to use it, just as iOS does? It's not at all clear because unlike iOS, free apps can be installed without typing in a password. That's not a bad thing, but not requiring a password for purchases would be a pretty bad thing indeed. I'll have to keep deleting the credit card from the account and I hope that's not the case. There's nothing in the help to clear this up and I don't want to try buying something in order to find out. Actually, I did buy him something and it didn't require me to enter a password, but I had just put the credit card in and maybe then it didn't require it, but later it will? I hope so. If anyone knows it would save me a lot of trouble. EDIT: for now I deleted the credit card from the account. Such a pain, though, so hopefully it does make you enter the password to buy anything. Everything I've been able to find, though, seems to imply that there is no requirement of password entry from the phone. All they say is to set a lock on the phone itself, but that's no good in this case because obviously he needs to be able to unlock the phone!
The Google Play store doesn't require you to put in the password for every purchase; if you go into the store from the store, go to the settings, you can create a pin # that you would have to enter anytime, so that would work.
Not sure myself I'm pretty new to Android and have been mostly using the Samsung and Three App Stores on my own phone, Have to admit I probably won't be using Google Wallet unless they introduce gift cards or paypal it's one area iTunes definitely has an advantage. There are a lot of free Apps on Google play though I managed to replace most of my iPod apps quite quickly, plus you have the ability to sideload APK's from anywhere although obviously you want to be careful with that.
Gift cards would sort of solve the problem, but not exactly. He doesn't have $20 he wants to put into apps on his phone. He wants to buy a single app every once in a while. He doesn't have a big allowance. So he'll give me the money for it, then I buy it for him. If they'd just require a password for purchases, at least have an option for that (lockable), that would completely solve the problem. It seems so simple. Oh well.
You would probably have much more luck on an android forum but I'm sure someone who knows is bound to eventually view this thread. I'm very happy with my phone but I knew going in to it about google wallet and how limiting it was. Hopefully it's just a matter of time before there are other payment options but there do seem to be plenty of alternative app stores as well although I've yet to really look into them myself.
