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Microsoft To Work With Windows Phone 7 Jailbreakers

Posted by timothy on from the working-against-expectations dept.

markass530 writes "Microsoft had a sit down with the first people to jailbreak their Windows Phone 7. Seems like good progress was made. This seems like a good approach to me. It would be great if Sony, Apple, Microsoft, and several Android phone makers would implement a simple development switch in their phones — these would obviously void the warranty, but it would give hackers the opportunity to actually own their devices without fear of having to jailbreak all over again whenever an update arrives."

4 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Nokia by devxo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe Nokia has its hand on this? They've never been against locking the platform, you've always had a simple option to enable installing unsigned apps.

    1. Re:Nokia by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've been following this story from day 1, and to me it looks like the greatest PR attack Microsoft has ever pulled. Back in November, when the 'hackers' first came out with a semi-jailbreak, Microsoft invited them to a party, told them how great they were, said they wanted to work with the homebrew community, and convinced them to remove the tool. What did Microsoft actually do? Nothing other than being really friendly, and they got what they wanted.

      Now in January they invited the guys over again, gave them some t-shirts, and talked some more; saying how much they want to work with homebrewers.

      But what has Microsoft done? Nothing other than keep their system locked down, prevent people from writing native code, encrypt communication layers so it can't be sniffed, etc. etc. They have done nothing for the homebrew community except token PR statements. It's garbage. Let's see them open the native API, or allow you to use the 'LOADUNSIGNEDNATIVEDLLCAP' when writing your own apps. That's how you could support the homebrew community.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Voiding the warranty by the_other_chewey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It would be great if Sony, Apple, Microsoft, and several Android phone makers would implement a simple development switch in their phones — these would obviously void the warranty [...]

    Why?

  3. Re:Some hack, some don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its not the phones, its the ringtones, apps, media and other features they make money from.