HTC Locking Phones Now Like Motorola

[WenWM]

Originally I did not care about Motorola locking their phones, and truthfully it did not effect, but now HTC is doing it as well and my new G2 is unrootable. That's right, that thing we have all been mad at Motorola for doing, HTC is doing it as well. In a recent article by AC, they brought to our attention what T-mobile's response to HTC locking the device and how people are reacting to it.

Bellevue, Wash. — Oct. 7, 2010 As pioneers in Android-powered mobile devices, T-Mobile and HTC strive to support innovation. The T-Mobile G2 is a powerful and highly customizable Android-powered smartphone, which customers can personalize and make their own, from the look of their home screen to adding their favorite applications and more.

The HTC software implementation on the G2 stores some components in read-only memory as a security measure to prevent key operating system software from becoming corrupted and rendering the device inoperable. There is a small subset of highly technical users who may want to modify and re-engineer their devices at the code level, known as “rooting,” but a side effect of HTC’s security measure is that these modifications are temporary and cannot be saved to permanent memory. As a result the original code is restored.

If that does not get you mad, think how I feel after spending $500 on this new phone, to find out that I cannot do anything or get the new Sense on it. I mean why do they care what I do with my phone, after I mod it, I can't return it, so why go through all this extra things to make my life hard.

What do you think about this? Are you supporting this choice HTC is starting to do?

 

[AngDroid]

Well you could return the phone. For real, if you root and then reboot you no longer have root? That is nuts. I was thinking of getting the Verizon model but now I will just stick with my D2. At least I can root it and run my Super Clean ROM on it which is almost plain android besides the blur dialer and contacts

 

[zinethar]

Well Droid lovers - welcome to the world of Apple where the manufacturer makes all your decisions for you... It appears my Droid will live much longer than I planned. I sure hope someone makes a modifiable one once 4g, or whatever you want to call it, comes out. Just give us one with all the bells and whistles that we can mod. Give the rest to the masses...

 

[jroc]

Wow non rootable, for now anyway....we will have to see what happens once the folks with the knowledge have time and resources to chip at it.

Hmmm Moto's bootloader + the G2's current non root security....I would hate to see a combo of the two..

 

[joeybarclay]

One of the news articles i read said that HTC didn't know about this unrooting thing and blamed the carrier or google.

 

[AngDroid]

One of the news articles i read said that HTC didn't know about this unrooting thing and blamed the carrier or google.

Thanks for the good laugh...sure need it since I am fighting with my car company and dealer now. Why must all companies treat us like crap? I guess we are just all droids to them...

 

[its.mike]

Come on wheres all the "no more HTC products for me" posts? I may not be able to change kernals on my X but I don't lose changes when I reboot.

 

[Dusty]

The Android manufacturers had better ease up. Every time Apple releases an iOS update it's jailbroken within days. That keeps the portion of their users who like to experiment and personalize the phones happy. The X has been out for months with no true root, and quite frankly, I think if a bootloader hack doesn't happen by the end of the month it probably won't happen. Now enter HTC with this. I REALLY like what you can do with Android after you root it. Making it more difficult is a SERIOUS drawback.

I have to be honest. If the next version of iPhone comes to Verizon I might be out, especially if they get ridiculous with lockdowns on Android phones. After you make the networks equal, there is no truly compelling reason to remain loyal to one platform or another.

 

[Darkseider]

Motorola has screwed up and now HTC is following suit. They do realize that once the dev/mod scene gives up on them their products will die off. On a better note this isn't quite as bad as Motorola which is hardware encryption. Once the kernel source is released this can be killed off pretty quickly.

 

[Dave12308]

If it weren't for the "Oh noes, I messed up my device screwing with custom ROMs and now it doesn't work. How can I lie to my carrier to get them to replace my device for free?" mentality; we wouldn't be facing problems like this.

I honestly think these things are being locked down because of rampant warranty fraud.

 

[Dave12308]

The X has been out for months with no true root, and quite frankly, I think if a bootloader hack doesn't happen by the end of the month it probably won't happen.

And how did you arrive at this arbitrary cutoff date? The problem is, we don't KNOW if/when it will be hacked. It could be hacked 2 years from yesterday. Or it could be hacked tomorrow. Or never at all. That's the thing about hacking, it's an unknown.

 

[johnomaz]

The Android manufacturers had better ease up. Every time Apple releases an iOS update it's jailbroken within days. That keeps the portion of their users who like to experiment and personalize the phones happy. The X has been out for months with no true root, and quite frankly, I think if a bootloader hack doesn't happen by the end of the month it probably won't happen. Now enter HTC with this. I REALLY like what you can do with Android after you root it. Making it more difficult is a SERIOUS drawback.

I have to be honest. If the next version of iPhone comes to Verizon I might be out, especially if they get ridiculous with lockdowns on Android phones. After you make the networks equal, there is no truly compelling reason to remain loyal to one platform or another.

WTF do you mean the X has no true root? either you don't know to read the forums or are speeking out your @$$. My X is rooted and I'm running the Rubix ROM. I rooted my X when it first game out...a week after launch on 2.1, and I rooted 2.2 the day 2.2 came out.

 

[Dusty]

@Dave12308 I don't know, it's just my opinion. I'm just making a guess based on things I've experienced in life. I'm not saying they won't do it, I just think that the chances for success in the near term (2-3 months) are highly unlikely if they can't replace the mbmloader in few weeks. What does that mean to me on Nov 1st? Not much. But if a new round of Android phones come out next spring and they keep implementing these protocols, forcing months and months of blocked customization choices, I have to ask myself, "Do I LOVE Google integration more than I HATE iTunes?". I'm just saying.

@johnmaz... Is the bootloader unlocked yet? If so then I am obviously talking out of my a$$.

So... is it?

I'm not hating on the X. I'm just stating my opinion.

 

[Dusty]

...I just think that the chances for success in the near term (2-3 months) are highly unlikely if they can't replace the mbmloader in few weeks.

Let me take my foot out of my mouth and rephrase that...

Like most things in life, the longer you take, your chances of success get lower.

 

[Dusty]

...I just think that the chances for success in the near term (2-3 months) are highly unlikely if they can't replace the mbmloader in few weeks.

Let me take my foot out of my mouth and rephrase that...

Like most things in life, the longer you take, your chances of success (and most certainly "timely" success) get lower.