Microsoft To Disable Windows Phone 7 Unlocking

Alex writes "In the first update to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is planning to block ChevronWP7, which allowed users to unlock any retail Windows Phone 7 device for application side-loading without having to pay $99 per year for a WP7 marketplace account. The update, which is slated for release this month, will also introduce copy and paste functionality, among other improvements. ChevronWP7 was discontinued less than a week after its release about two months ago. ChevronWP7's three developers, Long Zheng, Rafael Rivera, and Chris Walsh were approached by Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7, and decided to kill their app."

Comments

Re:So how much did they get for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unbroken kneecaps, unslashed tires, and a partially unburned-down house.

Re:RTA

[MightyMartian]

Translation: They were bought off.

Idiot phone

[syousef]

Fundamental question: What makes a smart phone smart? Answer: Ability to run applications you want that actually improve your life in some small way. Taking away the ability and deciding for me what apps I can run and at what cost is a dealbreaker. Same reason I won't touch an iPhone no matter how many lame fart apps appear for it. DRM lockdown turns a smart phone into an idiot phone -a dumb piece of shit. Certainly not worth hundreds of dollars to me. Microsoft, keep it, and shove it!

Re:Idiot phone

[Microlith]

It's a phone not a computer.

Negatory, it's a computer. It just happens to be small, fit in your pocket, and take phonecalls as well. This "it's not computer, it's a phone therefore it's special and NEEDS DRM" is a load of bull being fed to everyone by vendors and carriers as an excuse for locking them down.

1. Total and utter freedom to install anything on your phone.

Yes. I should have to explicitly activate it, but yes. It's my property, it's my decision.

But miss a very important phone call due to a badly programmed application running down the battery or locking up the phone. Just think, that call could be a job offer, an ex-girlfriend wanting some fun or the news that someone is in trouble.

Not like that hasn't happened before, with dumb phones. I've had older pieces of crap that would the same shit.

2. Less freedoms but a better experience, higher quality software, less chance of battery rundown or lock ups?

You mean no freedoms, but not necessarily any of the other benefits are guaranteed. The core purpose for lock down with no opt-out is explicitly to route you into their services and their store.

If restrictions and licence fees weed out all the bad coders then it's a good thing.

I can assure you this will not weed out bad coders. It will weed out more than a few good coders, however.

Re:haha, what?

[cpu6502]

>>>You really don't want that kind of power on limited bandwidth cell networks

Yes I do.
I should not be prevented from loading VLC Player or Opera or any other 'free' program on my Phone (or PC or Mac), just because most users are idiots. Let's not downgrade our phone, laptop, and desktop computers to Lowest Common Denominator uselessness. Otherwise we might as well not have computers, if we can't run the programs we want to run. We might as well wrap chains around the computers instead, and bow down to kiss Microsoft's smelly feet : "Oh please sir, please let me run jEdit on my phone. Please master, please."
Bullshit.
If that's how "smart"... correction: dumb phones will be, then count me out. I'll stick with my open, not blocked computer rather than waste money on a phone that won't let me run the programs I desire to run.