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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.
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.
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.
Customization doesn't seem to be a terribly high priority for Apple software. Besides which, the unlocked bootloader allows one to easily violate the FCC terms, one of which forbids changing the "intended method of using the product (e.g., how the product is held or used in proximity to the body). A change to any of these factors will invalidate the FCC grant." So perhaps CM7 enabling a 270 degree screen rotation (upside-down landscape) is a gross federal violation.
The RAZR MAXX is actually a really nice popular phone with phenomenal battery life. I'd hardly call it's manufacturer irrelevant. Not only that but Motorola is owned by the developer of Android the smartphone OS with by far the largest install base. I'm not sure what you're mad about but your post comes off as sour grapes sounding.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Adding a few words to a disclaimer and accepting a little mockery is a hell of a lot cheaper than the lawsuit when someone, somehow manages to kill themselves with a software change...
A disclaimer like this also gives a good deal of publicity to the announcement, almost begging an article like this to be posted.
The world's smartest bug zapper www.zapstats.com/kickstarter
yup, last time I saw someone do an 'rm -rf' he lost one of his fingers. and once, a friend of a friend tried running fdisk and to this day, he still can't talk right.
it can happen, folks! believe it.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Customization will be popular with iOS users when they are allowed to do it.
You're welcome to provide well-researched counterexamples.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
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.
actually this is real possibility, because of pressure for battery capacity and size manufacturers of most smartphones have to use some very unstable materials for battery ones that DID have exploding problems before.
in order to stop batteries from overheating or exploding there are pretty sophisticated chips /controllers built-in controlling their allowed charge rate/charge current/allowed discharge percentage/discharge speed, if by unlocking boot-loader you are able to access/reprogram battery controller you could because of software error cause battery to overheat or explode so this disclaimer is more than valid as in
"we put some mechanisms to protect you in this phone, should you remove it and hurt yourself somehow its your fault we are not paying a million bucks for damages to you or your family"
Yeah, the Yakuza take system administration very seriously.
Why so complicated and technical?
Unlocking the bootloader can cause death, because the one doing the unlocking probably proceeds by rooting his device and putting god knows what on the device.
Next thing you know, the guy is on the road exploiting the GPS functionality of said and unlocked/rooted device. But the GPS is now a bit flaky (just buggy software or intentionally misleading)
and instead directing the guy to the real highway gives him a parallel side-road but displaying to correct one. The guy - feeling really good about everything and listening to the pathetic music
coming off the car-radio - does not notice a thing.
Next thing you know some guerilla guys stop his car, help him get rid of his earthly possessions and one the way to the heavenly roads. Nice and quick.
So, unlocking your bootloader can kill you. And no explosion in your face needed for that to happen.
The problem with that argument is that one might legitimately argue that if there's a safety issue that's mitigated through software, the need for modified firmware to do the same needs to be communicated. 99.9% of damage and hard-bricking is caused by either booby traps left by the manufacturer to trap the unwary, or important details like "always monitor the battery temperature, and back off if it exceeds N degrtees Celsuis" that aren't disclosed.
I'm happy to see that Moto is finally starting to become non-Evil under the ownership of Google. I'm disappointed as hell by the fact that the Photon Q was totally gimped by Sprint and/or Motorola. This would be a great phone if it were in a blister pack at Wal Mart being sold for use with some value-priced prepay network. It's not, however, a top-tier best of breed flagship Android phone:
* 540x960 qHD. WTF?!? 540x960? And not even OLED? The Q's display is a decisive step down from the Photon 4G. Note to Sprint & Moto: the next generation of any phone is supposed to AT LEAST as good as what it replaced, especially now that we're going to be stuck with the damn phone for almost two painfully long years thanks to last year's abolition of 12-month upgrades.
* tiny battery that can't even be swapped when it dies halfway through Friday night. If they'd put a huge battery inside like the one in the Razr Max, it might have been tolerable. But 1785mAH? You can't be fucking serious. I'd literally burn through that in 3 hours.
* Half the flash of its predecessor. WTF. Read the note above about how successor phones are supposed to be a step up, not down.
* Nonremovable SIM. Yay, it can roam on GSM in other countries... except at $2.50/minute, nobody is going to actually DO it knowingly and voluntarily once they find out how badly Sprint is going to rape them for doing it. Overall, this is just kind of like Sprint turning around and giving us a final kick in the balls, just for good measure.
It's been years since I've actually left the US, but the sealed-SIM anti-feature ALONE is enough to make me want to leave Sprint, because it demonstrates total and complete contempt towards us. I mean, really... once you factor in the administrative cost of roaming, and fighting with livid customers who just got a bill for $900 in roaming charges after spending 3 days in Montreal, how much extra is Sprint *really* going to make compared to what they would have not made by just giving it a normal SIM slot and charging a $35-50 one-time admin fee to unlock the SIM lock during the first year of a contract? Sprint could even offer an olive branch to deflect criticism and waive the fee if the customer puts down a $400 deposit that gets returned after the contract's 12th month (knowing that 99.9% of customers would just say 'fuck it' and pay the $35-50).
It's a shame, because I love Motorola's build quality and superior radios. But the harsh fact is, I'm going to be stuck with my next phone for 20 long, painful months now that Sprint has taken away our annual upgrades, so my next phone has to be damn near flawless & one I'm sure I'll be able to live with. The Photon Q is not that phone. I can only pray to the flying spaghetti monster that 18 months from now, Sprint + Moto will be unleashing an unlocked Nexus device with specs to die for.
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
This disclaimer is not nearly as silly or crazy as one might think. CyanogenMod, for example, has well-documented problems with E911 functionality on various phone models. In fact they completely dropped support for the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant because dialing 911 didn't work!
I don't know about you, but I can sure see the inability to call 911 to be a "dangerous consequence" that could absolutely lead to "property damage and/or bodily injury, including death" even if it's not the phone itself that's literally the thing killing you.
> When is Apple following suit?
You didn't get the memo? iPhone 5w. "w", as in "Woz Edition".
Rumored features include
* Zigbee wireless mesh networking
* multiplexed pins on the headphone jack that can be repurposed for I2C, SPI, or GPIO (not at the same time, obviously). Oh, and legacy UART (3.3v logic) that also supports Atmel-friendly baudrates (125kbit, 250kbit, 1mbit), 9-bit word length (9/N/1, to be exact), and can use pin #3 for GPIO, RTS, CTS, or synchronous clocking in or out.
* fixed 4800mAH lithium cell
* gamepad wings that slide out from the underside (to the left and right when held in landscape orientation). One side has an analog stick & digital stick, the other side has an analog stick & 4 buttons.
* Volume button pair that also serves as the "left trigger button" in "gamepad" orientation, and 2-stage camera button that serves as the "right trigger button" in gamepad orientation. All of which can be intercepted, redefined, and repurposed by end users as they see fit.
The iPhone 5w's flagship applications will be a logic analyzer/DSO, which demonstrates the use of the bundled iProbe (4 clip-on leads, terminating at a 1/8" TRRRS headphone jack). Additional accessories will allow connectivity to most car ECUs, CANbus, and JTAG.
Oh, and the phone will also include a fully-unlocked bootloader. Of course, not even Woz will likely be able to get the Powers that Be at Apple to release the source to their crown jewel, but it won't matter. People will buy one, and reflash it to Android. Even Larry & Sergey will be spotted in public with it (running Android, of course).
Would that be when Apple decides that they it invented it?
After endless research, I have to say the RAZR MAXX is not just a good phone... but probably the best phone on the market. A solid well built phone that works great, looks fine and most importantly: It is practical! This is a smartphone that is really worth its money. In combination with the openness of Android this phone is the absolute Iphone killer. Sadly most people don't bother to get the best phone... they either get the fanciest phone (Apple hell) or the phone with the highest specs (the great plastic device called the S3). Just like the most popular president isn't going to be the best president, the most popular phone(s) are always the best ones. Sadly the phone buying market is victim to the same problem that our political systems are, the majority of those involved are idiots.