Yeah, I'm not entering my name anywhere. Thanks anyway, HTC. Besides, AlphaRev and Unrevoked already did your job for you.
Since our last update, many of you have asked how the bootloader unlocking process will actually work, and in particular why HTC's most recently released devices still have a locked bootloader. Rest assured we're making progress toward our goal to roll out the first software updates in August to support unlocking for the global HTC Sensation, followed soon by the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile and the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint. Because unlocking the bootloader provides extensive control over the device and modifications may cause operation, security and experience issues, new devices will continue to ship locked but will support user-initiated unlocking using a new Web-based tool.
So how will this work? The Web tool, which will launch this month, requires that you register an account with a valid e-mail address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty. Then plug in your phone to a computer with the Android SDK loaded to retrieve a device identifier token, which you can then enter into the Web tool to receive a unique unlock key via e-mail. Finally, apply the key to your device and unlocking will be initiated on your phone.
We're excited to bring bootloader unlocking to developers and enthusiasts, and we feel this new Web tool will meet your needs and continue to provide customers with the best experience. Thanks to the community for supporting these efforts!
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Click to collapse
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=10150305151453084&id=101063233083
I figured they would want a way to know exactly which phones were unlocked. i'll stick with alpha revs method.
From my mikmikoptimized shooter!
blackroseMD1 said:
Yeah, I'm not entering my name anywhere. Thanks anyway, HTC. Besides, AlphaRev and Unrevoked already did your job for you.
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=10150305151453084&id=101063233083
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Click to collapse
wow. some actual clarity on what they plan to do.
nice to see an update !
but for the evo3d is a bit late
Lmao,actually according to their explanation,their method sounds just like AlpharevX.It would be hilarious if alpharevX sold their method to HTC.
That blows. They couldn't just ship the damn thing unlocked.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
ktulu909 said:
Lmao,actually according to their explanation,their method sounds just like AlpharevX.It would be hilarious if alpharevX sold their method to HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if he did I hope he didn't sell them the serial numbers of the ones already unlocked jk
I guess it all makes sense (har har).
If it makes the carriers happy, who cares if this is how they do it? I'm sure whenever they release a bootloader unlocker someone on XDA will take it and make it so you can do it without the email/key. We're gonna come out ahead either way.
Well i guess now they will know when we unlock our bootloader and warranty I don't care since I don't use the warranty anyways
If you don't have an Evo3d well you don't have an Evo3d
I'd be curious to know from Google, Sprint and Samsung how many problems they have from the NexusS4G being very easily unlockable...I doubt it's very many...and HTC should suck on that.
I don't know if that's as much of a fair comparison - with the Nexus being near stock I wouldn't expect them to be flashed/bricked nearly as much as with the Evo4G.
The OG Evo gained so much from flashing - features, kernels, whole new versions of sense. And it had so many updates over the life of the phone, making for different rooting methods and having people flash their phones many many times, making it one of if not the most developed phone we have seen.
I'm quite certain the brick count on those were some of the highest anyone's ever seen as well. That's after all the returns from dead pixels, bad charging ports, and what have you. You can understand a carrier/manufacturer's wishing to prevent all that.
By the same token, it feels like HTC benefits greatly from the development community, perhaps using a lot of what they see here in their own updates (maybe even waiting for people to fix their bugs). They definitely see value in unlocking phones, which I guess we should be happy about.
As long as HTC keeps their unlocked policy I will remain a loyal customer.
nhutpham said:
I don't know if that's as much of a fair comparison - with the Nexus being near stock I wouldn't expect them to be flashed/bricked nearly as much as with the Evo4G.
The OG Evo gained so much from flashing - features, kernels, whole new versions of sense. And it had so many updates over the life of the phone, making for different rooting methods and having people flash their phones many many times, making it one of if not the most developed phone we have seen.
I'm quite certain the brick count on those were some of the highest anyone's ever seen as well. That's after all the returns from dead pixels, bad charging ports, and what have you. You can understand a carrier/manufacturer's wishing to prevent all that.
By the same token, it feels like HTC benefits greatly from the development community, perhaps using a lot of what they see here in their own updates (maybe even waiting for people to fix their bugs). They definitely see value in unlocking phones, which I guess we should be happy about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were there that many bricked E4G's? I don't recall hearing about that many of them in my tenure on the forum...admittedly I barely spent any time in General that year as Development was bustling from before day 1.
...but, per capita I doubt the brick-count was that far off the average for any other popular phone worth rooting. God knows I did horrible things to mine and never even had to fix it via adb/fastboot.... it was a very popular phone even among the average joe.
I know that HTC benefits greatly from the dev community. Where do you think they got the FPS-unlock from? Among other things. That's how open source works and is designed to work. That's also why myself and others were so shocked with the whole 'locking' fiasco.
...now, aside from our own speculation about how high the brick rate may or may not have been why not speculate about something more productive: How LOW the brick rate could be if they utilized eMMC's secure-write technology to make a 'mega-recovery' partition that would be locked and even WE wouldn't want to unlock it....that could be used in a worst case scenario to fully restore a phone to stock...to enable the unlocking that WE want and reduce the (understandable) liability of allowing full control that they want. We get unlock, they get insulation from liability of allowing such a feature (that most people STILL wouldn't know about or care about)....why don't they do that? eMMC makes that trivial to implement (as we found out the hard way)...neglecting the fact that they could have utilized any number of simpler technologies to accomplish the same thing even before eMMC...why not?
That's a topic for further speculation (get your tinfoil hats ready), but, why don't they do that? Play both sides of the field. No voided warranties, no brick returns, no pissed off modders....win win win, right? The carrier doesn't want that? Cool, let us know, we'll flock to the carrier that allows it...something tells me Sprint would be that underdog...
ktulu909 said:
Lmao,actually according to their explanation,their method sounds just like AlpharevX.It would be hilarious if alpharevX sold their method to HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at all like what AlphaRevX did. The only reason they had the serial number check was because it was in Beta so they could shut down their serial generator and stop people using their unlock if they found a problem with it.
This HTC method makes sense, and I think it's fair. Their tool only needs to hook up to your phone to get the device identifier token, the unlock actually happens on the phone itself. This way HTC gets a list of unlocked phones so when people go for support you can't lie to them that your phone was unlocked, but people can have day one unlocks on any phone from HTC going forward.
So now HTC wants to know who exactly is unlocking there phones??
Nice try you sneaky basterds
What's wrong with them knowing if you're unlocked? They have to do that... Otherwise insurance companies would get upset. This is legit and it if people screw their phones up due to user error while unlocked then they shouldn't be able to file a claim.
This also let's them see just how many people want to be unlocked so they don't try and take it away from us again
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
Rippley05 said:
What's wrong with them knowing if you're unlocked? They have to do that... Otherwise insurance companies would get upset. This is legit and it if people screw their phones up due to user error while unlocked then they shouldn't be able to file a claim.
This also let's them see just how many people want to be unlocked so they don't try and take it away from us again
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah....I dunno. They could (relatively) easily make the phones nearly brick-proof (see my above post) yet they do not. Why? I'm almost irritated by all of the altruistic sentiment for 'doing the right thing'....not because of the altruism, I actually find that refreshing and endearing. It's more because they could take steps to nearly eliminate the potential for bricking (and in doing so insulate the insurance company from liability...making that a moot point), but that people are defending a position that needn't exist.
nhutpham said:
i guess it all makes sense (har har).
If it makes the carriers happy, who cares if this is how they do it? I'm sure whenever they release a bootloader unlocker someone on xda will take it and make it so you can do it without the email/key. We're gonna come out ahead either way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1000000000
Haha, sounds exactly how alpharev did it...hmm, maybe they tore it out of alpharevs hands, i dont know, sounds fishy.
daneurysm said:
yeah....I dunno. They could (relatively) easily make the phones nearly brick-proof (see my above post) yet they do not. Why? I'm almost irritated by all of the altruistic sentiment for 'doing the right thing'....not because of the altruism, I actually find that refreshing and endearing. It's more because they could take steps to nearly eliminate the potential for bricking (and in doing so insulate the insurance company from liability...making that a moot point), but that people are defending a position that needn't exist.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't know why they're doing it. Maybe they wanna track the people that abuse the crap out of wireless tether... Maybe it's for other reasons. Who cares, they are unlocking it for us and that's all that matters. I have nothing to hide when I root so I care less. If you're upset about it then there are other options.
People are getting exactly what they wanted and they still find a reason to cry... Get over it already
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
Related
Here is a thought. Is it possible that HTC is trying to engineer a solution that gives them the ultimate out? Is it possible that they will be engineering an unlock that sprint then has full control over? I.E. Sprint would then be able to go in and relock at will? This way HTC gets to say they are releasing their products unlocked but the carriers are controlling it?
I would imagine they would have just as many pissed off customers, but perhaps they are willing to take that risk? It is just a theory... so I don't even know if that is possible.
But I just can't think of why this could possibly take them this long. It would take half of a work day to prep the unlock and put it up on their website for download.
Anyone else have thoughts on that theory? Or perhaps you have other conspiracy theories to offer?
Possibly because it's not their number 1 priority? I'm sure they'll keep their promise, I just doubt it's at the very top of their list of things to do.
Jye75 said:
Possibly because it's not their number 1 priority? I'm sure they'll keep their promise, I just doubt it's at the very top of their list of things to do.
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Click to collapse
Exactly. In less than a week 2 updates have been pushed OTA to fix various bugs. Their priorities are obviously making sure the phone is working properly before allowing users to unlock them and rightfully so. This has all been so dramatic and if you look at their FB page its quite ridiculous how people are responding. HTC will get this done but there are more important issues to address first.
Perhaps they are waiting to see if the angry masses are bluffing.
Mine was returned. Simple reason is this... Better devices are a few months away that wont have locked bootloaders.
So bye bye EVO3d, me and my money will go elsewhere (nexus prime)
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
We all know that when unlocking and rooting there is a risk that you may get bricked, I'm pretty sure their biggest objective is to make sure anything they give us doesn't result in a bunch of paperweights that need to be replaced for free... That's not good business for them
Bussin Caps from my 3D shooter
Another thing, they are probably looking to find a universal way to unlock all of the phones that have just released too... Just a thought..prolly not the case though
Bussin Caps from my 3D shooter
I'd rather them fix the bugs first (like the new text message notification bug) and then unlock the device for us.
captblaze said:
Perhaps they are waiting to see if the angry masses are bluffing.
Mine was returned. Simple reason is this... Better devices are a few months away that wont have locked bootloaders.
So bye bye EVO3d, me and my money will go elsewhere (nexus prime)
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting that you even purchased the device in the first place... It was widely known that the bootloader was locked when the phone was released.
mlin said:
Exactly. In less than a week 2 updates have been pushed OTA to fix various bugs. Their priorities are obviously making sure the phone is working properly before allowing users to unlock them and rightfully so. This has all been so dramatic and if you look at their FB page its quite ridiculous how people are responding. HTC will get this done but there are more important issues to address first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This makes no sense at all. They could easily kill two birds with one stone and unlock during one of the OTAs to fix a bug. We don't need bugs fixed before the unlock. The reality is that once it is unlocked, our devs will take care of bugs in much shorter order than they (HTC) will. And in reality, once rooted, I will probably eliminate half of the bloatware that contains the bugs. So there will be nothing for me (and many others) to fix at that point.
The reality is that this is a simple task. They merely need to hand over the key. They fact that they are stalling leads me to believe they have sinister plans.
I think they are waiting to release enough bug fixes to get a pulse on their new hardware. They don't want rooting to complicate the picture: they'll never know whether the problems are caused by rooting or legit bugs. So I think they'll do one of two things:
(1) Unlock the phone in the next OTA in the next few days. They may have the unlock ready but they are tidying up some final bug fixes in the SAME OTA.
(2) They want to release one more OTA before they unlock... so it may not be in the next one but will likely be in the following.
That's my guess.
Mike
edufur said:
This makes no sense at all. They could easily kill two birds with one stone and unlock during one of the OTAs to fix a bug. We don't need bugs fixed before the unlock. The reality is that once it is unlocked, our devs will take care of bugs in much shorter order than they (HTC) will. And in reality, once rooted, I will probably eliminate half of the bloatware that contains the bugs. So there will be nothing for me (and many others) to fix at that point.
The reality is that this is a simple task. They merely need to hand over the key. They fact that they are stalling leads me to believe they have sinister plans.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes our devs could squash bugs quicker, but our devs also arent liable.. if HTC releases an update that unlocks all of our phones, and the next day they all brick, due to a rush, then we all get free phones.. our devs rush a release of something and it bricks, oops, your bad for flashing it.. so it makes sense that they would want this tested, as well as they should make sure the phone is working properly before they unlock it.. it will be unlocked, just give it time.. if they unlock it today, and something screws up, we will all jump on the "HTC sucks for screwing up my device train"..
I think people are just being way too paranoid. I mean, it's not even been a week since the phone's been released!
Sometimes, it's best to use separate stones to kill two birds. XDA developer bug fixes may not be in alignment with future HTC updates. Granted, you'd be rooted, but if it means having to completely redo bug fixes that should have been fixed already, when updating any new roms from HTC, you're doing twice the work.
edufur said:
This makes no sense at all. They could easily kill two birds with one stone and unlock during one of the OTAs to fix a bug. We don't need bugs fixed before the unlock. The reality is that once it is unlocked, our devs will take care of bugs in much shorter order than they (HTC) will. And in reality, once rooted, I will probably eliminate half of the bloatware that contains the bugs. So there will be nothing for me (and many others) to fix at that point.
The reality is that this is a simple task. They merely need to hand over the key. They fact that they are stalling leads me to believe they have sinister plans.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? No sense, huh? This unlock is more than the snap of a finger, it takes time. That said, push bug fix updates AQAP and don't delay them by trying to bundle in the bootloader unlock. More people want a phone that works than the number that care about the bootloader. Of course they don't want to release their private key, they want to just release and OTA unlock that does not reveal their key at all. If this still doesn't make sense to you then I won't even bother responding to you next time because we obviously think in very different ways and there is no more I can say to try to explain this.
mlin said:
Really? No sense, huh? This unlock is more than the snap of a finger, it takes time. That said, push bug fix updates AQAP and don't delay them by trying to bundle in the bootloader unlock. More people want a phone that works than the number that care about the bootloader. Of course they don't want to release their private key, they want to just release and OTA unlock that does not reveal their key at all. If this still doesn't make sense to you then I won't even bother responding to you next time because we obviously think in very different ways and there is no more I can say to try to explain this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, if you think about it, what is the point of guarding the key? If it is going to be unlocked, it is unlocked. The key to lock it isn't important anymore. If they want to lock future devices (which they said they don't), they could just create a new key.
In fact, the least risky thing for them to do would be to publish the key and tell people they get no warranty if they unlock it themselves... and that it would only be warrantied if they had a sprint rep do it.
There are so many ways they could do it fast and do it right. There is no excuse for the delay.
edufur said:
Actually, if you think about it, what is the point of guarding the key? If it is going to be unlocked, it is unlocked. The key to lock it isn't important anymore. If they want to lock future devices (which they said they don't), they could just create a new key.
In fact, the least risky thing for them to do would be to publish the key and tell people they get no warranty if they unlock it themselves... and that it would only be warrantied if they had a sprint rep do it.
There are so many ways they could do it fast and do it right. There is no excuse for the delay.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% Agreed.
Releasing 'just the key' would also keep the barrier to entry relatively high. There are now thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands?) of people who have learned about 'root and bootloader thing' who are going to want in, even though they will not understand it...too easy of a solution and there will be bricks left and right even though it is not just easy to avoid a brick it is damn hard to achieve one...don't flash the wrong phone's radio, gotcha....(why not crypto-sign those, but I digress)
Not to mention that every single day that ticks past that we do not have root we are losing developers. The evo4g had this utterly amazing community behind it because the phone had buzz, it was delivered on time, it has awesome hardware and IT WAS ROOTED A WEEK OR TWO BEFORE RELEASE....I rooted mine in the radio shack parking lot on release day at 5:30am....we had mods later that day, roms later that week....this smart-phone business is fast-paced...sure, a lot of people are saying 'Just be patient', but, our community (that is currently just a rampaging mob) hasn't even formed yet and the time is ticking, more compelling devices are weeks away--WITHOUT LOCKS....if we get unlocked in 2 months, well, it won't be anything like the evo4g scene.
I will return my phone on the 23rd of July....Why did I buy it knowing full well it would be locked? They said it would be unlocked, and if done in a reasonable amount of time (which I believe 29 days to be) it is a device I would want and that would be a community I would want to be a part of...but that window is closing, constantly. I love the phone, but, I'm following the developers...screw the companies. They are supposed to work towards OUR satisfaction.
I'd bet its delayed because they are building in some kind of mind control function.
yep, that's my guess HTC is trying to turn us into zombies.
that or maybe it just takes time for the EVO 3D time to code it and all the bug fixes as well.
but I'm pretty sure its the zombie thing.
Alanmw86 said:
I'd bet its delayed because they are building in some kind of mind control function.
yep, that's my guess HTC is trying to turn us into zombies.
that or maybe it just takes time for the EVO 3D time to code it and all the bug fixes as well.
but I'm pretty sure its the zombie thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 zombies makes total sense
Now available in 3D
Alanmw86 said:
that or maybe it just takes time for the EVO 3D time to code it and all the bug fixes as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only time it take to release the key is the time it takes for them to post it. 1 hour max. Well worth it to stop the bad PR spam they are getting on their FB wall.
Ok i am not trying to be ignorant but is it really that important to have root so fast? I always wanted to root my phone but never did because I was under the assumption that most roms did not fully work completely. Like some couldn't record video or the 4g wasn't working or some other key features didn't work. Like I said I am just assuming and could totally be wrong.
Would people be willing to start a bounty for a true unlock/relock without voiding warranty and would this even be possible since I hear the bootloader is encrypted or whaterver?
A way for my evo 3d was posted where you have to hard brick the device and restore to get total unlock. Are you willing to risk something like that on your tablet?
Sent from my tablet thing with XDA Premium.
jdeoxys said:
A way for my evo 3d was posted where you have to hard brick the device and restore to get total unlock. Are you willing to risk something like that on your tablet?
Sent from my tablet thing with XDA Premium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I would have to see the success the people had.
I unlocked my used to be Evo 3D w/ out bricking it without bricking it?
Papichulo06 said:
Would people be willing to start a bounty for a true unlock/relock without voiding warranty and would this even be possible since I hear the bootloader is encrypted or whaterver?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its AES128 bit encription so would be hard work to brute force it and theres always the risk of bricking the tablet...
I think if it was possible people would work on it not sure if a bounty thread would help
Hawke84 said:
its AES128 bit encription so would be hard work to brute force it and theres always the risk of bricking the tablet...
I think if it was possible people would work on it not sure if a bounty thread would help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same was said about our Senny, and what did we get? Revolutionary. Everything is possible, its just a matter of time and effort.
The way Asus does unlock is crying for an proper s-off like unofficial way, to make thing more open and more safe.
After watching the pressure on AlphaRev with HTC unlock, it wouldn't surprise me if they are actually working on it but keeping it quiet.
Sent through the wormhole from my CoinInserted Sensation OG.
Encryption is a funny joke.
I want to start by saying I don't have all the answers to encryption. However, if you were to looks at encryption from a simplistic mathematical equation (as do programmers)
(X + Y) = Z
X = a unknown variable of infinite possibilities
Y = a mathematical collaborative equation with X, crating a consistency in the encryption equation
Z= Equals the unknown/infinite result, or, the unlock encryption or paraphrase to the same.
Bare in mind, often, there are more variables then X and Y which equal Z - This example is simplistic.
The key is identifying the consistencies and inconsistencies in the equation by reviewing coding. Again, not always an easy task, you have to study the coding (which has many languages depending on platform, security, etc.) and/or the way the OS reacts to coding input.
If one cannot achieve the above due to the infinite possibilities of unknown variables in the environment.... One must change the programming environment by introducing a new environment ex) Using Linux root to unlock file partitions in Windows to bypass security perimeters, or even walking around WEP or WPA encryptions not mentioned on this site. Encryption: Think of it like someone closing a door and locking it. Your can break through the door by kicking it in, or drilling the lock...or by going through the window left open, changing your entry method.
Just sharing some thoughts based off of my experience on multiple platforms.
Wave.
Sure it's possible. It's been done with other devices it's just extremely hard and doesn't have the need that some of the other devices had before they were cracked. If you're worried about the warranty so much I would be the accidental damage warranty on it.
This was brought up many many times in December and it's just not worth the time.
tinky1 said:
Same was said about our Senny, and what did we get? Revolutionary. Everything is possible, its just a matter of time and effort.
The way Asus does unlock is crying for an proper s-off like unofficial way, to make thing more open and more safe.
After watching the pressure on AlphaRev with HTC unlock, it wouldn't surprise me if they are actually working on it but keeping it quiet.
Sent through the wormhole from my CoinInserted Sensation OG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i hope it is being worked on in secret that would be perfect. im getting worried with all the rumblings of TF201 being end of life already in some of the other threads..
Hawke84 said:
i hope it is being worked on in secret that would be perfect. im getting worried with all the rumblings of TF201 being end of life already in some of the other threads..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I keep a very close eye on the things here, very close.
Sent through the wormhole from my CoinInserted Sensation OG.
Hawke84 said:
i hope it is being worked on in secret that would be perfect. im getting worried with all the rumblings of TF201 being end of life already in some of the other threads..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All i will say is this, i have a Samsung Vibrant it was thought the vibrant would be EOL last year, well it happened samsung stopped support for the device stopping at froyo 2.2 (didnt even bother with the 2.2.1 update) since then development for the vibrant has sprouted. As of right now the device is running 4.0.3 that said im sure many TF101 owners were scared by the release of the TF201 given that they felt device support from developers would drop.
This is a great device by every possible measure and i have a feeling the Dev community will support it for some time, that said i wouldnt worry too much about whether or not ASUS continues support, it will only be a matter of time before the device is decrypted, or our warranties will run out and there will be no problem unlocking the device given the asus utility.
Fret not my friend
- Cheers
I know I was able to unlock my sensation 4g for free using this method..surely the sim unlock code has to be stored on the device itself because it cannot ping ATT servers if service is unavailable because a different sim has been inserted.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1232107
anyone smart able to chime in on this?
Interesting... That does make sense, but, unfortunately, requires the phone to be rooted first, which is an inherently dangerous task for people who are just looking to unlock and not root their phone. An unlock code costs only $8 online anyway.
Still, very interesting. Thanks for posting this!
poopymt3g said:
I know I was able to unlock my sensation 4g for free using this method..surely the sim unlock code has to be stored on the device itself because it cannot ping ATT servers if service is unavailable because a different sim has been inserted.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1232107
anyone smart able to chime in on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Though I can't really comment on if an unlock trick like would work, I do recall a while back there was a statement made by AT&T saying that if you've had your account in good standing for 3 months, they'll issue an unlock code to you no questions asked.
might be a route to try.
Theoriginalgiga said:
Though I can't really comment on if an unlock trick like would work, I do recall a while back there was a statement made by AT&T saying that if you've had your account in good standing for 3 months, they'll issue an unlock code to you no questions asked.
might be a route to try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for the Note, ATT will release unlock code for good standing account in August. 6 months for the Note. Call almost 8 CSs and they all said that
Yeah I am a tmobile customer and bought a note from a friend on ATT they wouldnt give him the unlock code until 3 months after purchase..I saw some pretty bad reviews on the $8 dollar site..i should have my note soon so ill tinker around with it for a bit and if i fail ill pay the 25 bucks to unlock it..
I used a similar unlock trick to unlock a cheap Samsung Dart (Mini) I got. It used the /dev/block and I forget the rest of it. Then using a Hex editor I just searched for the 8 digit unlock code. I bet something similar would work for the Note.
I have heard 6 months as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717
Don57 said:
Interesting... That does make sense, but, unfortunately, requires the phone to be rooted first, which is an inherently dangerous task for people who are just looking to unlock and not root their phone. An unlock code costs only $8 online anyway.
Still, very interesting. Thanks for posting this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting is not inherently dangerous. It's these types of posts that scare off people from the rooting community. This seems like it would work pretty good for some people.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
SkizzMcNizz said:
Rooting is not inherently dangerous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMO, any simple action which could instantly turn one's phone into a very expensive paperweight through no fault of one's own is pretty dangerous. Add on top of that all the foreknowledge that must go into rooting a phone without error and things get even more dangerous.
I suppose we can agree to disagree, but until the tools to root phones become foolproof, I would never ever consider recommending someone who is not somewhat tech savvy to root their phone.
SkizzMcNizz said:
It's these types of posts that scare off people from the rooting community.
Click to expand...
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Again, IMO (and this is not directed at you) it's the attitude of many people on this site that scares people away from the rooting community. It's disheartening to see how often people are insulted on this forum just because they are trying to learn something. Again, not directed at you; just an observation of someone who is new to the forums and has read many threads...
Don57 said:
IMO, any simple action which could instantly turn one's phone into a very expensive paperweight through no fault of one's own is pretty dangerous. Add on top of that all the foreknowledge that must go into rooting a phone without error and things get even more dangerous.
I suppose we can agree to disagree, but until the tools to root phones become foolproof, I would never ever consider recommending someone who is not somewhat tech savvy to root their phone.
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Rooting is not inherently dangerous, as already stated above, and it is nearly impossible to hard brick your phone. If one does manage to hard brick their phone, it can't be said that it was achieved through no fault of their own, because it would take a concerted effort, or blatant disregard for safety, to achieve this. Even soft bricks are exceedingly rare if you simply follow directions.
Of course, it goes without saying that people who don't know what they are doing should not be messing with their devices. There are warnings on the top of every ROM/kernel/root/recovery thread telling you that you WILL brick if you do something wrong. But it's not like rooting or flashing custom ROMs is rocket science. All the hard work has already been done. All that is required from the end user is carefully read the instructions.
I know the one way to get htc to get back to profit, i said it here first, HTC-if you want to hire me as a futuristic trends consultant, ill take a look at your offer....Ok here it is folks... HTC, you must stop altering bootloaders and concealing source codes, which hamper development. Your bootloader must be made to be rooted and s off easily, without hurting the customer by saying, oh upgrade but your new bootlaoder wont be unlockable, thus alot of people breaking their new phones and bricking them because of this intrusive policy....Time if running out, before we all abandon you,, we are a big community here and can turn your sales around, if you treat us like almost human, say monkeys, yeah a monkey is a big step for you, but we can live with being monkeys if you stop your crap against us... but the goal is to treat us like HUMANS
Sadly, from a business perspective... modders are a small niche of the overall user base that often contribute towards large amounts of financial risk due to warranty claims. We always think we're a great big community who make significant differences in the ecosystem, but we don't. Another perfect example is the turboed manual transmission segment of Subaru. NASIOC and all the other Subaru enthusiast forums will think they make up the majority of the sales, but they really don't. And now, you barely see any turboed manual transmission Subarus outside of the WRX and the STI.
With the One family of phones, you can really tell that HTC is trying hard to create a global competitor to the Galaxy family and the iPhones, which sell to mostly non-modding end users.
i believe we are a big community, and ive been rooting for 3 years since samsung vibrant and the only way to ruin your device is to keep changing roms, kernels, etc.. i only use mean rom and trust his rom at this point, because im a veteran at this and play it safe these days. But if more people were happy, more positive feedback, and the word would get around quick that they care about us... hence, raising sales.. im sure theres a tiny loss from rooting, where someone trys to hide they did the damage and returns it, but that shouldnt stop the gains this would make for them...
Like the OP said, all good thoughts but we, meaning devs, end users who root and tweakers, represent a small, almost insignificant group. From a financial view, we aren't even a fraction of the incoming revenue.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda app-developers app
waterbound said:
Like the OP said, all good thoughts but we, meaning devs, end users who root and tweakers, represent a small, almost insignificant group. From a financial view, we aren't even a fraction of the incoming revenue.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda app-developers app
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Yes, we are small in numbers but we are very large in influence. Everyone I know comes to me before they think of purchasing a device. I'm sure there are many others on xda that are the same way. People know we are the ones that know what the best devices are at all times and which ones to purchase and not to purchase.
HTC need to stop ignoring their best marketing tool and use us to their advantage. If they are ignoring us because they think we are a small group and we don't impact their bottom line they are sorely mistaken.
I have grown rather tired of this same exact discussion, every week or two. Most notably the gripes of locked bootloaders. Htc has provided a way for you to unlock your bootloader, which allows you to flash a custom recovery, custom roms, and custom kernels.
The only limitation that I'm aware of, is updating firmware, which can be worked around by flashing the ruu via a relocked bootloader, then unlock again.
Is s-off more convenient? Yes, but it opens the phone to the ability to flash modified firmware that can brick your phone, that you'll somehow blame someone else for, and expect sprint/HTC to replace it.
With providing the unlocked bootloader (via htcdev), the chances of you actually bricking your device are extremely slim...almost the worst you can do is get caught in a bootloop.
From a business stance, HTC cares about making money. They don't care about your feelings, financial troubles, or how high your benchmarks are. You bought the phone, and that's how they'd like it to end. They don't want to have to replace it (via sprint or asurian) because you can't read and flashed a radio from the evo 4g.
I had to lol when a read that a small group of modders could turn around a company that lost almost a half billion dollars.
You don't say?
In all seriousness we're a very small part of HTC's profit margin the only way we could put a dent in their profit margins is mainstream media, but lets be honest it'd have to be a REALLY slow news day to get any coverage or a REALLY big law suit.
We also are the most enthusiastic android sales people who influence many of the people we know to buy phones because we know more about them than the people who actually sell them. If htc kept devs and the rooted community happy they would definitely see an increase in sales.
Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my EVO 4g LTE
sianaka said:
We also are the most enthusiastic android sales people who influence many of the people we know to buy phones because we know more about them than the people who actually sell them. If htc kept devs and the rooted community happy they would definitely see an increase in sales.
Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my EVO 4g LTE
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You've also got to realize the increase in warranty work they'll get with a larger dev community. No it's not going to negate the sales increase but these are all things they take into account when they [HTC] decide what their next move is.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
I received the below e-mail today. I did not appreciate being contacted out of the blue via e-mail; if you feel the need to contact me, use XDA's tagging feature. With that said, I thought I'd reply in public with my thoughts on the matter, hoping to drive a constructive conversation about Verizon Wireless' restrictions for devices on their network. My initial response is in post 2.
Please, think through your responses before posting. Make sure they ADD to the conversation.
What do you think of having everyone from XDA and the CM community using the DINC 4G LTE file Better Business Bureau complaints against verizon? It made a business decision not to give us updates, and has deliberately removed the DINC 4g from the HTC Unlock program. They shouldn't be allowed to abandon the platform and to remove unlocking ability that was there.
BBB asks them to respond within 14 days. [edit: link removed]
or have you already tried this route?
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I will leave it up to the writer of the e-mail if he/she would like to make himself/herself known here.
Can you point to a single advertisement by either HTC or Verizon that the Droid Incredible 4G LTE would ever be included in HTCDev's unlocked bootloader program? Even HTC's generic advertisements include disclaimers that some devices may not be included due to various restrictions (the most obvious being carrier refusal). HTC can justify the ability to unlock the bootloader pre-public availability as a means to let developers directly related to software development and quality assurance alter the ROM before release. To a handful of end users who get the device in the early days of release, they get to sneak in and use the unlocker under the "Other devices" category of the program. I suspect we owe HTC a thank you for dragging their feet for a week before disabling the unlock ability for this (and several other) device(s). There is no legitimate complaint that can be filed towards Verizon concerning this matter since they never advertised this as an available feature.
On the topic of abandoning the platform, software-wise, the last available software update for the Incredible 4G still works with reasonable stability and all advertised features are enabled. It is natural for technology devices to age and need replacement; a balance has to be struck between user content or disdain and extent of support. Verizon has apparently deemed there will be very little blowback by prematurely ending software updates. Considering the number of users I see in the XDA forum section for this phone, I'd guess they're right. About the only sticking point that could be leveraged to force a software update out of Verizon is if there are security vulnerabilities that are either being actively exploited or pose a real threat of being exploited in the near future.
Succinctly, we are at the mercy of Verizon's "generosity" concerning extended functionality of, and software updates for, the phones on their network. With these thoughts, I believe we can only ask them to help us out... with reason, anger, begging, or whatever tactic you find most influential. I don't think we can force their hand.
Your thoughts XDAers?
I agree with mdmower. Having come from the OG Droid, I had zero expectation for HTC or Verizon to let me unlock the phone. While I did not expect this phone to be the left-handed, red-haired step-child twice removed orphan of Verizon, it is a great phone with a 4" screen. The size is good (still prefer OG Droid) and the processor and internet speeds are great. I personally am quite content with this phone. We have been blessed with some extremely talented developers and supporters who have
Developed a method to unlock despite HTC/Verizon
Developed two methods for s-off:
DirtyRacun - IMHO, unlimited.io did a great job
FacePalm - Haven't tried, but looks great
Two great recoveries:
Official CWM Recovery, Plus PhilZ
TWRP Recovery
Developed an Incredible Rock Solid Sense ROM in ViperLTE
Developed a solid, official CyanogenMod ROM .
There are probably more, but those are just off of the top of my head. I am also still seeing great ongoing development work for ROMs for this phone. Sure, this phone doesn't have the plethora of ROMs that the OG Droid, Dinc2, Rezound, or [insert model here], but what we do have is solid.
I'm not exactly sure what Verizon owes us. We have a great phone with a great 4GLTE network (at least in my area). It should also be noted that Verizon actually put out an OTA for the OG Dinc around 2+ years after its release with "Improvements and fixes". I would expect the same for this phone as well. I too believe that threats, anger, etc. will not do anything more than generate ill will.
Just my $0.03.
P.S. Why do we still care if there is an "official" bootloader unlock? As mentioned above, we have a proved method to unlock bootloader and/or gain s-off. Even HTC's site says that unlocking bootloader through their "official" site may void your warranty.
HTC Dev said:
Please understand that you will not be able to return your device to the original state and going forward your device may not be held covered under the warranty for all claims resulting from the unlocking of the bootloader. HTC bears no responsibility if your device is no longer usable afterwards.
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The only thing to take away from this is to avoid Verizon and HTC. They may not owe us anything more than we received, but they are clearly sub-par companies compared to others. Unfortunately, I can't ditch Verizon just now because I'm on a shared plan, but I will never buy an HTC phone again.
junkmail9 said:
I agree with mdmower. Having come from the OG Droid, I had zero expectation for HTC or Verizon to let me unlock the phone....
P.S. Why do we still care if there is an "official" bootloader unlock?
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Just to clarify, I'm not content with the support Verizon has offered for this phone, I just realize that we cannot expect them to continue support. I am still not sure about the best avenues of communication with Verizon Wireless, so in a feeble attempt to get their attention, I write a short #openletter on G+.
A far as the official bootloader unlock, it is a little important. An example is the recently advertised CM installer (by the way, I do not have any insider knowledge about CM Inc.). The installer will almost surely be available only to devices with legitimate unlock ability. While the fireball is pretty much "a bit"-out-of-luck even if it did get official unlock, due to the inability to flash the boot partition while in recovery, at some point users need to convince Verizon Wireless to allow unlocked bootloaders for phones on their network. This is especially relevant to the many, many users who are wise enough to not tinker with their phones because of lack of knowledge. They deserve the opportunity to safely replace the legacy operating system on their phone, and this will only be possible if the carrier and manufacturer allow it.
The open letter seems pointless, besides maybe allowing other people to see and take note that Verizon ignores certain customers. As far as our phone though, no point really. Anyone you reach through G+, Facebook, Twitter, Verizon's customer service contacts, etc. will have no real power to do anything. They just give the typical "sorry, we're doing our best" garbage. The message never reaches anyone important enough to actually do anything. The only way a message may get to them is if the user base is very large, but even if we all wrote to them everyday it wouldn't help. Not enough people for them to care. As you said, we're at their mercy. Just have to wait.
mdmower said:
A far as the official bootloader unlock, it is a little important. An example is the recently advertised CM installer (by the way, I do not have any insider knowledge about CM Inc.). The installer will almost surely be available only to devices with legitimate unlock ability. While the fireball is pretty much "a bit"-out-of-luck even if it did get official unlock, due to the inability to flash the boot partition while in recovery, at some point users need to convince Verizon Wireless to allow unlocked bootloaders for phones on their network. This is especially relevant to the many, many users who are wise enough to not tinker with their phones because of lack of knowledge. They deserve the opportunity to safely replace the legacy operating system on their phone, and this will only be possible if the carrier and manufacturer allow it.
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This is an excellent point I had not considered. I was not thinking about the larger issue, (nor am I savvy with the upcoming CM installer). Unfortunately, I have run into a few companies that have seriously dummied down their products because, as one tech support person told me, "some users may have a problem with the advanced features so we removed them." While I can try and understand that point, it was really frustrating because some advanced features I had come to rely on were removed in the product upgrade. Simply because some people could not comprehend how to use it properly? Is Verizon trying to protect us from ourselves, dummy down the phones for "the uneducated masses," or simply trying to force their customers to live with Verizon-installed bloatware?
Okay I have My own say to this.!
Okay so I left AT&T network when I owned the HTC Inspire 4g and moved on to Verizon because there service was better in my area and I purchased the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE as my first phone with Verizon, I came to like the phone because it was fast, snappy, and good on battery....... But I constantly waited for update to jellybean ( Sense 4+ ) which in reality would make the device more efficient and smoother than it was on Ice Cream Sandwich... And finally I heard the news that we were going to get an update to jellybean in the beginning of 2013.. But after so much time of waiting I finally gave up hope and said ***k the device and went back to AT&T...... and bought the HTC One XL because it recieved updates to sense 5. The device is like an older sibling to the inc4g with close to the same specs. I sold the Incredible 4g because I hated the lack of support for this device... The only good thing going for it was CM10 and the amazing sense kernel. This community deserves more than what has been given to them so far... So my question is why Verizon drop support for us.???? If this community received jelly bean j defiantly would sell my XL and come back to this community......
This is my only my concern.
Sincerely,
24ky
Sent from my HTC One XL using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Here is a weird thought. let your money do the talking. leave Verizon. if enough of us leave we dont need to "change their minds". i brought this up in an HTC elevate detection not to long ago ( also how come htc bent over backwards because verizon wanted the bootload unlock for the ONE removed). instead of open letters or angry tweets and emails, just take your money to someone that appreciates you as a customer? put your money into a company that understands the development community and is willing to support you. how do you think verizon got so good? the used to listen to their customers. now that they are self sustaining they dont need to listen to us anymore. but i bet if their wallet was hit the would. they would bring back unlimited data, remove the block of google wallet, ect....
You wouldn't take your car to a mechanic that does great work but also makes you spend $$ money on things that don't need to be fixed.
my $.02
synisterwolf said:
Here is a weird thought. let your money do the talking. leave Verizon. if enough of us leave we dont need to "change their minds" i brought this up in an HTC elevate detection not to long ago. instead of open letters or angry tweets, just take your money to someone that appreciates you as a customer? put your money into a company that understands the development community and is willing to support you.
You wouldn't take your car to a mechanic that does great work but also makes you spend $$ money on things that don't need to be fixed.
my $.02
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This is my point from before. This is the only thing you can really do. I wish I could dump Verizon right now, but I can't. For now I'll just settle for never buying HTC again.
somerandomname1 said:
This is my point from before. This is the only thing you can really do. I wish I could dump Verizon right now, but I can't. For now I'll just settle for never buying HTC again.
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this too. maybe if HTC where to step in and help us it would be different.
OP not trying to troll or anything or start a war. i just wanted to get that out their. we do have an option to take our money somewhere else. or at least when this contract is over. ive said it before, i need unlimited data. i dont have wifi anywhere i work and im barely at home so if i have to give up my data plan i will give up my business too. im going to miss there unbeatable coverage but i cant stand to be hit in the balls over and over again with a smile on their face. :/
mdmower said:
I received the below e-mail today. I did not appreciate being contacted out of the blue via e-mail; if you feel the need to contact me, use XDA's tagging feature. With that said, I thought I'd reply in public with my thoughts on the matter, hoping to drive a constructive conversation about Verizon Wireless' restrictions for devices on their network. My initial response is in post 2.
Please, think through your responses before posting. Make sure they ADD to the conversation.
I will leave it up to the writer of the e-mail if he/she would like to make himself/herself known here.
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My 2 cents on this from bitter experience. You will get zilch. You will waste precious amounts of your life trying hard to convince a rigid management who can care so little they'd be happy to break your phone to pieces and hand you another from their stockpile of dinc4g's just to get rid of them ASAP. I've gone through the whole lot with BBB complaints etc. for the Droid X2 by Motorola. haha, wasted my life there. And the countless pleadings to release the ICS ROM that HTC clearly developed for the Dinc2 (Incredible S, international variant got the ICS update) only to get on the Verizon chopping block and get its head unceremoniously severed, taught me one thing and that is we as consumers have knowingly chosen this path, that will give us limited to no flexibility on customization to stay on VZW and we have to "deal" with it.
With all good intentions, I request all to keep your expectations rock bottom. You have better chances of going to the moon on a future Russian spacecraft than convincing Verizon as to why this may be a good idea.
Sincerely,
A disgruntled Droid™ user.
here has been my android experience. started on og inc oct 2010 first droid phone considered ''high-end'' at the time (8 mp camera saaaaay whaaaat??!) then dinc2 great phone but compared to the galaxy S II and the galaxy nexus at the time it was a ''mid range" phone. now with the inc4g it is very ''mid range'' compared to what is out now. the galaxy notes and s4's and the 50 different htc One(s). if you want many different roms to flash to fix your ''addiction'' go nexus or one of the mainstream phones. you will find 100 different "Unofficial CM10.X" roms with "user tweaks" and "kernel tweaks" that in all actuality are nothing more then a reposync from source. yeah they might have a few different mods but they are usually so similar that you will not/could not tell the difference. like someone mentioned earlier I would rather have a few solid roms. a good sense (viper) or if you're an aosp guy like me there's cm. I think anybody who saw the specs of this phone (incredible 4g) and thought, "hey this is going to be the next BIG THING." I'm sorry to tell you that you were mistaken. xda dev support of a phone is only as good as the devs that own the device, and in our case we have a very small amount of active devs.
So I am the a-hole that emailed mdmower. I apologize profusely. When I saw your first post, I almost slunk away in shame, never to show my face here again. I am not even being a little bit facetious. You do great work for a community of people and I abused (what obviously is) an important rule. And I'm really sorry.
In an attempt to redeem myself just a little bit, let me point out one thing that you might not know:
mdmower said:
Can you point to a single advertisement by either HTC or Verizon that the Droid Incredible 4G LTE would ever be included in HTCDev's unlocked bootloader program? Even HTC's generic advertisements include disclaimers that some devices may not be included due to various restrictions (the most obvious being carrier refusal) [SNIP] There is no legitimate complaint that can be filed towards Verizon concerning this matter since they never advertised this as an available feature.
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Actually, some states may have more favorable law here. First and foremost, many states have an unfair/deceptive business practices law that are distinct from the false advertising law. Example: New York has GBL Section 349 (trade practices), and 350 (Advertising). These are consumer-oriented statutes and so they have some bite.
On this point, while Verizon has never said they would provide us with Jelly Bean, there are some nice facts here like how many people were locked into 2 year contracts on a phone that Verizon stopped updating during their two year period. I've seen suggestions that Verizon is pulling this with older phones in order to force upgrades, and if true, that would be the basis for a claim. But here, I think the HTCDev unlock is actually pretty damning. We should be entitled to take discovery into the real reasons why Verizon forced HTC to remove the phone from the program. Given the repeated warnings about waiver of warranty, and the presence of other VZW phones in the program, it's hard to believe it's a support issue.
Finally -- of note is that the ACLU has filed an FTC complaint on this subject earlier this year. Unfortunately I cannot post the link since I just registered for this post (long time lurker) but it's the 2nd hit for "april FTC complaint android" (see pages 6-9) Their basis is the potential for security flaws which go unfixed. The relief they are requesting is pretty broad. I'm actually surprised that there haven't been follow-on civil suits already.
Anyway, I am really sorry again. I'm going to crawl back under the rock I came from now.
If it's any comfort: my punishment is that my D4INC is a flicker model.
PrimePalaver said:
If it's any comfort: my punishment is that my D4INC is a flicker model.
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Haha burn! Just kidding... it's cool.