

HTC Unlocks Bootloader For All of Its Devices - aurelianito
http://htcdev.com/bootloader/

======
mrj
Uhm, except they're only unlocking devices "launched after September 2011."
That's overlooking a massive population of users who'd like to unlock their
device because HTC has stopped supporting them.

This, so far, is BS.

~~~
51Cards
There is this line as well:

"We continue to work on models launched prior to September 2011, please check
back often for the status of older devices."

My guess is the newest devices have an updated bootloader that they CAN unlock
easily. I am betting they may even be stymied by the security they put in
place on older devices. This series of events makes sense to me:

Spring 2011 - announce we're going to allow unlocking

Summer 2011 - update bootloader to be easily unlockable

Sept 2011 - start releasing updated loader on devices

Dec 2011 - final certification that this is all going to work OK and release
to the public

2012 - figure out how to get around our own security on older devices

~~~
koenigdavidmj
> 2012 - figure out how to get around our own security via OTA update on older
> devices.

??? - Convince carriers to actually take that update

~~~
51Cards
Quite possibly.

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quanticle
This is a canny business decision by HTC. The main problem with Android device
manufacturers has been lack of continuing software support. Making an
unlockable bootloader allows HTC to free itself from an long-term support
commitment while simultaneously silencing the very critics that were pushing
for that commitment in the first place.

~~~
w1ntermute
I don't see the problem. The only people who really care about software
updates (in the absence of show-stopping bugs) are those that are willing to
install custom ROMs. We have a healthy compromise here that keeps both the
carriers and the nerds happy.

I think we need to temper our expectations with respect to the mobile device
industry. We might see smartphones as mini-computers, but the companies that
make them do not, and neither does the vast majority of their target audience.

~~~
nitrogen
Anyone installing apps on their phone will probably expect software updates.
If their phone they bought a year ago won't work with the latest versions of
their favorite Android Market games, due to requiring a newer version of
Android, they'll notice.

~~~
fpgeek
I don't know that end users would end up noticing.

I certainly haven't (with the exception of trying to use a G1 after a Froyo
device). When I got the Froyo to Gingerbread upgrade on my G2 there were many
improvements, but nothing I noticed that affected third-party apps. Even many
of my favorite apps that use Honeycomb features (e.g. Plume, Kindle, Google
Music, Firefox, etc.) seamlessly support older devices.

Google has been pretty good about putting out compatibility libraries for
major new APIs (e.g. Fragments) and there's a lot of support for checking the
presence or absence of various features / APIs / etc. These days, there's even
support in the Android Market for having different versions of the same app
for different OS versions.

Supporting a range of OS versions is certainly work, but I'm not sure how much
more work it is beyond supporting a wide variety of form factors, different
hardware features, etc. In any case, the good developers seem to be able to
handle it.

------
Terretta
> _HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction
> [but] the behavior of your device might be altered including specific
> absorption rate (SAR) values._

Translation:

 _Look, you guys asked for this, so we're giving it to you, but it's probably
going to fry your brain. Enjoy._

~~~
ConstantineXVI
They have to say that, in the event some idiot screws with their radio and
actually does fry their brain out.

~~~
wnight
What do they have to say concerning sharpening the phone to a fine point and
stabbing yourself with it? Or coating it in honey and choking while trying to
swallow it? Or lighting it on fire for warmth but having it set your clothes
on fire when you put it in your pocket?

~~~
ConstantineXVI
The FCC doesn't really care if you can stab yourself with your phone. They do
require that phones stay below a certain level of radiation output (which
given root access, it's possible to muck with), thus a disclaimer is necessary
to make it clear the user's the one screwing up the radio, not HTC's unlocker.

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jorgecastillo
I was giving up on Android, if HTC keeps this policy in the future, I'll be
giving up only on other brands. What is the point of having a smartphone
(pocket computer?), if you can't make it work like you want.

~~~
Terretta
> _What is the point of having a smartphone (pocket computer?), if you can't
> make it work like you want?_

Ask yourself the same thing about a car. Or a toaster.

The point for most people is to have it work as designed _and not have to
think about it_.

~~~
freehunter
Yet, like with cars, there exists a sizable community of people who want to
put on bigger wheels/tires, a new turbo, a new stereo system, taller
suspension, etc. A locked bootloader is the same as having a hood that can
only be opened with the dealer's key.

~~~
Terretta
I don't know a single person that wants to look under their hood any more
(though living in greater NYC area, I realize this is not representative of
most communities). When I was in high school (mid 80s), everyone did. But even
the grease monkeys aren't interested any more.

It's kind of like late 80's ricers versus today's German cars. I myself auto-
crossed a Honda CRXsi. Today I'm just as into performance, but have other
things to do with my time. I can honestly say I have not _ever_ seen the
engine of my car which Car & Driver recently named the Best Handling Car in
America. It's a Boxster, and ... _there is no hood to open_. I'm okay with
that.

That "sizable community" is dwindling fast, as computing becomes an appliance
technology. Your opinion is disproportionately represented here because HN is
much more like the late night parking lot full of ricers in San Bernardino
than it's like an arbitrary quarter mile of LA's I-10 rush hour traffic.

// Note: iphone-dev's redsn0w[1] has an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 on
everything but the iPhone 4s and iPad 2. And saurik's Cydia[2] is doing just
fine, with plenty of souped up suspensions or new stereo systems if you want
to get your hands dirty.

1\. <http://blog.iphone-dev.org/?0b08b320>

2\. <http://cydia.saurik.com/>

~~~
freehunter
Yes, in downstate New York, you might not find people with modified cars. You
might find people with no cars. Upstate NY is a much different environment
though. Outside of the largest city in the nation, you'll find modified cars
_everywhere_ , from new rims on a city-cruiser to jacked up mud bogging
trucks.

Or lets put it this way: you buy a car that can only be worked on by the
dealer and only runs on their proprietary fuel, even though your local
mechanic/Speedway could do it much cheaper and much faster _if it weren't for
the locked hood_. Brand new cars are getting notoriously harder and more
expensive to maintain because of proprietary electronics which require dealer
intervention when they break.

Your "note" is like saying "Yeah but I got around it by using a crowbar. Now I
have to buy gas from some guy in his basement because Toyota would sue me if
went to the dealership."

~~~
Terretta
> _got around it by using a crowbar_

Which, until HTC's note today, was the same crowbar needed for HTC Android
phones sold under carrier contracts. The dealership (BestBuy, Verizon store,
whatever) isn't going to unlock your phone's boot loader whether it's iOS or
Android.

But since you want to further torture this analogy:

Changing your tires and rims and paint job is like changing your case or
wallpaper. Jack up suspension, get an Otter Defender. Changing your OEM stereo
is like changing your OEM headphones. Change the exhaust, change the ringtone.
On the other hand, rooting your phone to void the warranty is like installing
an aftermarket ECU to void the warranty.

While everyone "customizes" their cars and their phones, it's almost always
superficial. Very few, even in upstate New York, want to void the warranty
with aftermarket parts in the engine control electronics or drive train.

Before Fairfield County, CT, I lived in the Smokey Mountains between North
Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. I myself had a car on blocks. :-) And before
that, for a decade, I lived in central Africa where trucks you couldn't swap
parts on like something from Mad Max didn't last long. Point being, I'm
familiar with the tradeoffs of DIY customization vs "just works" in a broad
spectrum of cultures.

So I'll assure you, the kids in Africa now enabled to communicate through
their Nokias and Ericssons and Huaweis[1] don't give a damn about "rooting"
their phones, and neither do most Sunday mechanics in the Smokies. Does it
send/receive SMS? Can it make calls? For the next generation, can it do email?
Great. From Wall St to Kinshasa, people want everyday appliances to just do
their jobs and not waste their time.

1\. [http://gizmodo.com/5634258/the-most-popular-phone-in-the-
wor...](http://gizmodo.com/5634258/the-most-popular-phone-in-the-world)

~~~
freehunter

      From Wall St to Kinshasa, people want everyday appliances to just do their jobs and not waste their time.
    

Why would those have to be mutually exclusive? I drive a Toyota 4Runner.
Stock/unmodified it's a great daily driver, a safe family car, hauls a lot of
stuff, and is great in the winter. But I like to go fishing, and where I fish
is not always easily accessible with what Toyota has given me. Luckily, there
is a healthy aftermarket that gives me the freedom to jack up the suspension,
add a locking rear differential, and install bigger tires (which are not just
for looks).

Or I can buy an HTC HD2 which comes stock with Windows Mobile 6.5 (which does
well enough on its own, all WM6 jokes aside it still works as a phone), but
thanks to HTC's unlocked bootloader and a healthy aftermarket community, I
could also install Android, MeeGo, Ubuntu, and Windows Phone 7. There's no
reason why "moddable" and "functional" have to be exclusive categories.
Actually a nice thing about WebOS devices is that they are almost completely
unbrickable. If you mess up, HP gives you directions on how to boot from USB
to reinstall everything. No reason why every other phone can't have that
ability, too, to avoid warranty claims.

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namtrac
Not "All" but the newest line-up devices.

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listening
All these devices should boot to a simple, standard, (extendable) FORTH
bootloader.

By all means, bundle some pre-packaged code to do all manner of silly things,
but also allow users to run whatever code they want on the devices. Why is
this such a difficult concept to accept?

Nothing has changed since the 1980's in this regard. Consumers still are
paying for the hardware, in this case the mobile device. They cannot
manufacture the cheap electronics and encasings themselves.

However they can replace bootloaders and firmware with free alternatives. Some
can can write this code themselves. And sometimes they want to share their
efforts with other enthusiasts in the public domain. Nothing has changed since
the 1980's - it's still their right to do so.

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StavrosK
Where's the news here? That page has existed for months now, is there
something new I don't see?

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vsviridov
Hey Motorola, get on board, damn it...

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drivebyacct2
The reaction I heard to this is that it does not bring S-OFF to these devices.
Is this true? I've never quite understood this aspect of HTC devices.

~~~
sandycheeks
I think this is where they state that in the article.

"Please note that unlocking your bootloader does not mean that you will be
able to unlock the SIM lock. Unlocking your SIM lock is at the discretion of
your operator/carrier and is not part of the bootloader unlocking scope."

Is what they call SIM lock the same as S-OFF/S-ON? I always heard it called
'Security-ON/OFF'.

With S-ON you can still get temp root access (until you reboot) but can not
run different ROMs as it prevents access to memory locations that need to be
edited to do that.

To get S-OFF on my Evo Shift(Sprint), I had to downgrade it from Android 2.3
and use an old hack specifically because it was the only publicly known way to
get S-OFF. There may be better way out now.

Unlocking the bootloader was easy. I could do that with temp root on 2.3.
Getting S-OFF was the tricky part for me.

~~~
sandycheeks
Had a little time to dig around and found Sim Lock is different from s-off/on

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock>

It appears S-OFF/ON is also set by the operator/carrier and not the
manufacturer.

I'd love to see a definitive source about S-OFF/ON and how it is implemented.
Especially, for the Sprint/HTC combination.

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dkd903
No support for HTC Wildfire yet :(

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iscrewyou
Ordered a thunderbolt yesterday and it isn't one of the unlockable devices.
Glad XDA exists.

~~~
fpgeek
Did you actually look at the supported devices list on htcdev.com? Or any of
the other recent coverage like this:

[http://lifehacker.com/5871759/htcs-official-bootloader-
tool-...](http://lifehacker.com/5871759/htcs-official-bootloader-tool-now-
unlocks-more-htc-phones-new-and-old)

Ironically, that article references an XDA report that the official unlock
tool works on the Thunderbolt (shortly before HTC announced it).

