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Motorola Releases an Official Bootloader Unlocker
New submitter Nertskull writes "Motorola has released a tool to allow anyone to unlock the bootloader on their phone/tablet. The only supported device so far is the Photon Q 4G LTE, though three other devices are supported through their developer unlock program. Support for unlocking other devices is supposedly on its way."
Motorola leads into the unlocking process with this amusing tidbit: "WARNING: Motorola strongly recommends against unlocking the bootloader and/or modifying or altering a device's software or operating system. Doing so can have unintended, unforeseen, and dangerous consequences, such as rendering the device unusable, violating applicable laws, or causing property damage and/or bodily injury, including death." Careful, folks; unlocking that bootloader might kill you.
I see how you might overheat your phone cpu or battery, but I thought all that ever came from that was a burned crotch! Apple... >_>
Unlocking your bootloader *can* kill you. Mind you, it also requires that after unlocking, you also root your device and send the CPU into overdrive, causing the Li-Ion battery to melt/explode. So it's not a proximate cause, but the potential is still there.
We've seen companies opening up in the past and often they started closing down again after time. Let us hope they stay open and even more, let us hope it works for them from a business perspective, so that other companies may follow.
As long as the guys in the suits think they make more money by closing down, we still have a problem.
WARNING: Motorola strongly recommends against unlocking the bootloader and/or modifying or altering a device's software or operating system. Doing so can have unintended, unforeseen, and dangerous consequences, such as rendering the device unusable, violating applicable laws, or causing property damage and/or bodily injury, including death.
It almost sounds as though they're not entirely enthusiastic about the idea.
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I don't usually reply to gweihir (88907) either. So there.
When is Apple following suit?
It is crazy how they say their phones have a "fully optimized" version of Android. Yes, with CityID and Blur running. Optimized my ass. With (on some phones) over 20 apps installed by Moto and Verizon that you can't remove and don't want. (reference: http://gildude.blogspot.com/2011/08/call-to-action-for-verizon-and-motorola.html) When you get updates for those installed apps - so that it not only has the old copy that came with the ROM, but now has another copy in the update. (reference: http://gildude.blogspot.com/2012/04/apparently-its-bloat-week-for-verizon.html). Optimized? Not even close. There is a reason that those of us that like to tinker with our devices want to unlock them and put on something better. We also want updates. Not phones frozen at an old "optimized" version. Idiots.
Turn Left! Or so the Nav system of my unlocked phone said, even though I was in the middle of the bridge...
You know what else would be nice, Motorola? With your unlocking tool, how about updated drivers for the latest version of Android for at least 3 years into the life of each phone. Having an unlocked boot loader is great but actually being able to install Android version++ and having everything work would be even better.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
They of course have to cover all their legal bases. Some dolt could theoretically get their battery to catch fire and burn their house down.
Rooted custom OS leads to installing from "Uknown Sources." Installing apps from unknown sources leads to installing pirated apps. Installing pirated apps leads to installing pirated media. Pirating media leads to terrorism. Terrorism leads to death. QED.
Thank you Motorola.
----- obSig
http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/
ssdd.
Wake me up when its something, oh, I don't know, worthwhile to read.
If they hadn't put that in the disclaimer, how long would it take someone to sue them because they used the Motorola unlocker on their Motorola phone to put some alternate ROM in place, and then had a heart attack and 9-1-1 couldn't locate them because of a software bug?
Keep the ignorant ignorant and stop the stupid killing themselves. Sensible really. When Fast Food restaurants have to warn people that coffee might be a tad hot, I'm not suprised to see Google/Motorola do something like this to stop the ignorant from breaking their phones and suing them for it. Although in my opinion, a disclaimer similar to the MIT license would have been better than a warning akin to that on high voltage cabling. Ah well, that's the way the world is heading...
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
... or something mucks with the power controls and overheats the battery
...violating applicable laws...
That I can violate some law by altering a product I bought always interests me. I suppose if I sharpen one end of my android phone and plunge it into some one's chest I'd be violating a law, much as if I had welded a cow catcher to the front of my car and mowed people down with it. If I add an after market clutch system to it however that seems perfectly fine. There's a whole market for that infact. Rooting MY phone? Some kind of law is broken? What is that??
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I'm writing this post from my new Virgin HTC Evo V. I spent the past two years locked in to a contract with verizon , stuck with a Motorola droid 2 global.
I have over 10 hours logged on the phone wih Motorolaand Verizon customer vervice, yelling, screaming, and crying because of the lockedbootloader. I told them if they could not unlock thebootloader or keep up with its kernel releases then they would earn a permanent spot on my shitlist and would lose me as a customer for life. I would encourage everyone I knew to join me in boycotting their products. They didn't do either so fuck both of them and they horse they road in on. I spent the better half of the past two years stuck with Froyo and my d2g is still 2.3.3. Verizon's data charges were obscene and the bucket plan looks like a bucket full of two years of rape.
I for one do not welcome our obstinate corporate overlords and prefer space / deep ocean Richard Branson any day of the week.
You can do that without an unlocked bootloader. These events are not related. Such an event would require additional action. If I shoot someone, do you blame the employer of the grandfather of the guy who invented that gun?
Turn Left! Or so the Nav system of my unlocked phone said, even though I was in the middle of the bridge...
My LOCKED nav system did just about that to me last year.
I was driving east into Hawthorne NV on an old desert road. Coming through the last pass it told me to turn left midway through the last pass.. Taking the turn would have sent me down about a hundred feet of cliff.
It looks like there was once a wagon road there, which had washed out long ago. Of course the USGS still had the track on their maps, the map vendor had included it, and the nav system picked it because it was slightly shorter than going down the hill to the highway into town.
Some of our friends in a Prius were directed onto the 4x4 trail into Bodie. (Fortunately it was midsummer, and they were JUST able to make it - much to the astonishment of a couple of offroaders they encountered along the way.)
Trusting nav systems, especially in rural areas, is a great way to get killed (typically by getting stuck far from cellphone service), unlocked phone or not.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
What if a hacker added a hidden denial-of-service attack function to a ROM that was widely downloaded?
How can you be sure that no one has?
As I read their entry in wikipedia:
- There was pressure from the Android community.
-- Motorola promised an unlocking tool "by the second half of 2011".
- When it didn't appear, complaints were mad to the FCC about violation of a Part C rule that appears to REQUIRE a way for ordinary users to unlock the bootloader and load anything they want.
So this may be Motorola's response, 14 1/2 months late.
I wouldn't be surprised if Motorola held off, or limited the models unlocked, to avoid violating contract provisions with carriers that resell their phones with their service plans at greatly discounted prices.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
A standard cover-your-ass clause, probably. What if there's some local legislation forbidding unlocking bootloaders on Mondays or some sort of overblown DMCA-like protection?
It's nothing compared to iTunes EULA forbidding use in manufacturing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
"Use the source Luke.."
15TW = 15,000 Nuclear Reactors. (Approx. one accident a month.)
Can someone explain what exactly is done at a technical level to lock or unlock a bootloader?
Why is it that usually it's only the manufacturer can provide an unlock solution?
How do some hackers manage to unlock it regardless?
Thanks.
Android has a real Achilles heel allowing the phone networks to control OS updates. Putting out unlocking tools so at least the geeks can upgrade is a small first step. The only real solution is wrestling the updates away from the networks, but they despise they can not mess up iOS with paid placements, and will fight tooth and nail to keep installing bloatware on Android phones.
Moto probably gave up and took the high road before Kexec based ROM's took over.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804665
where they send you for being a terrorist for unlocking a phone. Or maybe Corporate goon squads find you and pulverize you.
The sad part is that, yes, the above is absurd, but 15 years ago it would have been instantly absurd. Now there is a small time delay when you read such stuff and then in a second or so, realize that a corporation really wouldn't send people kit squads out.
Maybe?
About fucking time.
Clearly you have never heard of "I Can Walk Blindfolded Using The Force", a slick new app that hums when danger is near. Of course, if some bozo roots their phone and disables the danger sensors, you really can't expect ICWBUTF to work properly, can you? And boom, another user is dead. Long live Clu.
If you stupidly put HOT BEVERAGES between your legs in a car and burn your crotch whey YOU spill it. Then you are an idiot. I want MY fucking coffee Hot dipshit. Not lukewarm because you are too stupid to operate a cup!
There are everywhere on the world bodies regulating radio emission (FCC in the USA for example. A little bit more complicated in the EU).
All these bodies have one official goal: Make sure all the devices play nicely with each other.
Unlocked device means: user can install god knows what on the device.
Including flashing hacked radio firmware to give better/stronger signal, at the cost of going out of official specs and recommendation.
Which brings the risk of b0rking nearby sensitive and vital electronic equipment.
A smartphone with an "overboosted signal" radio firmware walking around a hospital might be a little bit frightening.
And all these (exploding battery, GPS leading to false directions, radio-interferences) are just a few of the situation where a phone can be problematic.
In some Suing-happy countries full of trigger happy lawyers, it might be useful to put a sticker on the unlocked saying "it's your fault if you cause death".
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]