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I'm not looking for a time frame or anything since I know those are hard to make, but I'm just wondering if anyone has a good idea on whether or not it is looking strong for the Atrix to get the bootloader bypassed(or whatever is needed for custom ROMs).
I'm asking because my contract ends next week and I'm looking to get a new phone and I'm liking the Atrix a lot since it has a dual core processor and everything, but the lack of custom ROMs is making me think again about getting it and pushing me towards looking for other phones.
I know there is currently work being done on it, but does anyone think it's highly probable that the boot loader will get cracked and allow us to install custom ROMs? Or is the result still sketchy and should I keep looking at other phones to get instead?
Honestly, the Atrix is a beast of a phone anyway. And an Android phone without a custom ROM is still the best phone on the market, especially if it's got a dual core bad boy under the hood.
On one hand, many previous Motorola phones with locked bootloaders remain locked and unbypassed to this day...HOWEVER, some have been bypassed or something similar. And considering the nature of this phone being one of Moto's flagship devices, there might be incentive to possibly unlock it themselves (doubtful, however...)
Honestly, I don't really think anyone can for certain what might happen. But if your contract up in a week, developments could happen in that time frame. There's a small chance GingerBread might come sooner than expected, which, locked bootloader or not, that'd be awesome. The sad thing is, it doesn't seem there are many more nice ATT phones on the horizon anyway, even with open bootloaders. Most of the good ones would probably be out by your next upgrade anyway!
I know I didn't have any solid answers, but I hope it helps in your decision making process! Sorry if it got you no where though!
thebeardedchild said:
Honestly, the Atrix is a beast of a phone anyway. And an Android phone without a custom ROM is still the best phone on the market, especially if it's got a dual core bad boy under the hood.
On one hand, many previous Motorola phones with locked bootloaders remain locked and unbypassed to this day...HOWEVER, some have been bypassed or something similar. And considering the nature of this phone being one of Moto's flagship devices, there might be incentive to possibly unlock it themselves (doubtful, however...)
Honestly, I don't really think anyone can for certain what might happen. But if your contract up in a week, developments could happen in that time frame. There's a small chance GingerBread might come sooner than expected, which, locked bootloader or not, that'd be awesome. The sad thing is, it doesn't seem there are many more nice ATT phones on the horizon anyway, even with open bootloaders. Most of the good ones would probably be out by your next upgrade anyway!
I know I didn't have any solid answers, but I hope it helps in your decision making process! Sorry if it got you no where though!
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Thanks for your input! I'm currently trying to decide between the Atrix and the Infuse 4G. I would definitely get the Galaxy S 2 if that came out in time, but I'm impatient and just can't wait any longer than I have to, so I have to pick something that's already out.
I really want the Atrix because of it's dual core, but it's locked bootloader scares me. On the other hand I really want the Infuse because it doesn't have a locked bootloader and seems like it's the next best phone, but it only has a single core processor.
What exactly would I be missing out on if I can't use any locked bootloaders? All I know about them really is that they are supposed to make phones faster as well as give you Android upgrades faster than officially. Is there anything else?
I'm pretty sure 2.3 is supposed to be coming out to the Atrix officially anyways, so I'm not TOO worried about that, but would the roms that are already available that do things like remove Motoblur and whatnot increase it's speed enough to make up for the loss of increased speed from ROMs?
The atrix is like the PS3 when it first came out. Way ahead of its time in terms of technology and power. Ive stated this before somewhere on this forum, but IMO this beast of a phone is ahead of itself, The current operating system doesn't even fully harness the power under the hood. I'm excited to see how far this phone can be pushed! Unlocked bootloader or not. Ya its fun to play with roms and all and tweak the phone, but even then those phones still look up to the atrix.
You can still Dress up user interface just not the interface itself. Which is most cases, most users of roms, flash them primarily for the look and feel of interaction with the device. Don't get me wrong, a lot of users flash these roms because of the android version and the upgrades it brings with it before the official release for their phone if at all. In the end I believe the atrix will be sticking around for a while and continue to make techy geeks like me genuinely say wow this thing is bad a**.
You don't have to worry about speed with the atrix. Its fast already. Ya stock motoblur is garbage, but thanks to some awesome DEVs we have Pseudo-Roms that make the atrix Fluid as well as fast. The main Gripe about this phone is the fact that it doesn't have GingerBread yet. I think the wait will be well worth it in the end.
Honestly and seriously ...I've been with the nexus one for almost 2 years and looking into an upgrade.
I don't want the Galaxy nexus or the sg2.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
I was initially looking to get the galaxy nexus, after all the delays and needing a new phone as the old one died, went for the galaxy note and am loving it even though it's still on gingerbread. Rooted it, loaded a lite rom, speedier kernel, got rid of most of the Samsung crap and just sitting and waiting for an ics build to pop up.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Hmm....great input..
Not really impressed by the development progress of the razr ..not sure if its a good idea?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
The phone has only been out for a month. It takes a bit to get some momentum, but honestly, I'm loving the RAZR with a simple root, and some small tweeks.
I'm looking forward to ICS, but am more than happy with the phone as is, and could be pleased for a few months while the development catches up.
The lack of perceived development is due to two things IMO...
1. Locked boot-loader
2. Another great phone (SGN) being released at the same time.
Motorola really messed up by locking this boot-loader while another very "open" phone was being released around the same time and by looking at the forums it's quite obvious. Considering the above though, the development here has been pretty decent thanks to a bunch of dedicated pro's.
opensourcefan said:
The lack of perceived development is due to two things IMO...
1. Locked boot-loader
2. Another great phone (SGN) being released at the same time.
Motorola really messed up by locking this boot-loader while another very "open" phone was being released around the same time and by looking at the forums it's quite obvious. Considering the above though, the development here has been pretty decent thanks to a bunch of dedicated pro's.
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According to what I've read, the Nexus, while on Verizon, the contract is actually under Google's control. Hence, the unlocked bootloader. It was Google's requirement that the phone come to the market open.
Motorola, on the other hand, is restricted like HTC & other Samsung devices on Verizon's network. HTC originally stated they would release a tool, but then Verizon forbade it, and the Rezound was fully locked as well.
Samsung's phones are almost always locked down, it just so happens they're easier to hack, but they don't support development very well, so even with it unlocked, you end up with very poor support.
HTC never releases their source code (at least from what I've read) so it's hard to get a working custom rom that's 100% on their phone.
I've owned 3 Motorola Droid phones, and the last two have been great for development. My mom also owns another one in the Droid X, and it too was easy to flash, and had plenty of support from the community due to the source codes being available.
If I can teach my mom how to flash a custom ROM on her phone, it can't be THAT hard to do, and the support I get when she has an issue, is better than Verizon offers in store.
As for Motorola messing up, maybe it's on timing, but really it's not their fault the phone came locked down. They actually were pushing for open devices first, by offering the OG Droid, and then offering the Xoom with an unlocked bootloader, and announcing it wanted to unlock bootloaders in late 2011.....it's just Verizon shoved it back in their face.
So if anything blame Verizon for this.
hmm, my problem is that i really don't want a Samsung phone. The SG2 is will become outdated and most ppl have that (i want to be different).
I've thought of the Note, i like big, but found it unpractical.
What else? Lenovo?
Any new phones around the corner? What's after the Razr?
ultra99 said:
hmm, my problem is that i really don't want a Samsung phone. The SG2 is will become outdated and most ppl have that (i want to be different).
I've thought of the Note, i like big, but found it unpractical.
What else? Lenovo?
Any new phones around the corner? What's after the Razr?
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I'm a keyboard guy myself, so I'm getting ready for the Droid 4 which should be coming out any day now, and am probably going to give my RAZR to my wife, as she likes the screen, and her OG droid is getting really long in the tooth.
After that, there's a new HTC "Zeta" was rumored recently as well as the "ville".
Really, you kind of have to wait till CES for more phones after Christmas. CES is Jan 10-14th, and there will be quite a few new phones that are announced there.
I am also coming from a N1, been using it for 2 years. No big problems except the lack of internal memory (even thought I'm using S2E, but still...) and couldn't play much games on the phone...
The Razr looks very nice! The CPU is the same one as the GN, but with much better designs and build. So I also seriously consider this phone too. But as a top of the line phone the graphic seems a little weak, even compare to SGS2(which is out almost half year now). So I'm a llittle worry about this....Maybe we will have to keep using our trusty N1 at least till the end of CES in Jan.
I agree with garlick2. The first thing I did was to root this phone. However, this is the first Android phone that I have had that I have been happy with right out of the box. I have made a few minor customizations, but nothing major.
Do you guys think a large group of people complaining about FaceUnlock not being on tablets will convince the Android people to add it to tablets?
To be honest i dont really care for it. I had it on my nexus and its a pain in the backside for me personally. When the boot loader is unlocked it WILL be added i can imagine. But for the time being try whatever you can to get ASUS to add the feature you want..
Once one company does it the rest will soon come flocking..
My name is Optimus Prime and I send this message..
It is in the options/settings, you just can't select it. I'm sure they will unlock the feature when they thing it's ready or working right. This is the first tablet to get ICS, ICS has only been out on this tablet for a little more than a week. Asus is really good about releasing updates. So - my guess is it will be unlocked by Asus eventually
I understand that unlocking your boot loader voids the warranty but what exactly does the warranty cover? And you can not relock the boot loader right?
They're using software as leverage for any hardware flaws that may occur.
Really cuts down costs considering the complaints with wifi, gps, GPS dongle etc.
Asus = Jerks
So it just covers software not hardware?
No, it covers everything and you lose any kind of support or warranty.
well that sucks thanks asus...
Against asus there bec07? At least they gave us the unlock option. Its a trade off. Either get an extended warranty or wait your year before unlock. Asus doesnt want to have to recover or replace hardware that was intentionally modified and this mod is what broke it. We were lucky enough to get the unlock tool so quickly...
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
So would you suggest unlocking?
ThatFool said:
So would you suggest unlocking?
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its your call. you base it on how your device is performing. if everything seems to be working great and you're not pressed about warranty, then unlock. But there is no rush to unlock though. take your time in making the decision. I haven't unlocked yet just in case i ever want to send my prime in to them. But seeing these great roms out there like AOKP and WSG makes it very tempting. Along with Motley & Shaky custom kernels. There are other custom, more solid stock based roms out there also like Virtuous Prime Rom and Primalicious(just recently pulled out of xda unfortunately). we also have Cornerstone builds, EOS builds, CM9 builds & Ubuntu. Add Gummy Rom & Code Name Android(CNA) to the list also as its now available to prime. There's alot of great reasons to unlock. Just make sure you understand all the risks involved and do research on how to unlock/flash roms.
The risk does make it more fun and tempting though. If you really into modding your device. Go for it once you feel comfortable enough to do so.
demandarin said:
its your call. you base it on how your device is performing. if everything seems to be working great and you're not pressed about warranty, then unlock. But there is no rush to unlock though. take your time in making the decision. I haven't unlocked yet just in case i ever want to send my prime in to them. But seeing these great roms out there like AOKP and WSG makes it very tempting. Along with Motley & Shaky custom kernels. There are other custom, more solid stock based roms out there also like Virtuous Prime Rom and Primalicious(just recently pulled out of xda unfortunately). we also have Cornerstone builds, EOS builds, CM9 builds & Ubuntu. Add Gummy Rom & Code Name Android(CNA) to the list also as its now available to prime. There's alot of great reasons to unlock. Just make sure you understand all the risks involved and do research on how to unlock/flash roms.
The risk does make it more fun and tempting though. If you really into modding your device. Go for it once you feel comfortable enough to do so.
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+1
I am still locked, but it's been almost 6 months now, and I haven't had a bad hardware issue yet. I will be unlocking pretty quickly here now, though. From the information I've gathered, if your Prime is good for 3 months or more, the odds of a hardware issue gets smaller with each passing week (except the camera issue... which is about the last thing that scares me)
NVFlash is really going to be nice for people in this situation...
Well Thenrz, I'm from Europe and my warranty was 2 years aka 24 months. Not only did they have no business locking the bootloader in the first place but the device has plenty of flaws on its own.
Bec07 said:
Well Thenrz, I'm from Europe and my warranty was 2 years aka 24 months. Not only did they have no business locking the bootloader in the first place but the device has plenty of flaws on its own.
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It wasn't entirely up to them (Tegra 3 and NVidia). I certainly understand your point, though. These flaws are the reason many including myself have said to wait some period of time if you didn't get a 3rd party warranty. I gave myself a 6 month windows to decide. If after I've had the tab 6 months and it's still going strong, then I am probably good to go. I have been lucky in that I've had any Wifi or S/N issues and my BT works well enough for me alongside WiFi. (Not perfect, but as I said, good enough)
It's really down to how much one wants to put a custom ROM on. I'm glad I waited until it really started to get interesting with Cornerstone. I don't think I'll make it another two weeks without opening this puppy up.
Also, if there really is hope for NVFlash, that will be a nice net to catch you if you mess up a flash or try a stock .blob. All it takes is some time and all these great devs will do what ASUS couldn't...
Nvidia has nothing to do with this, there are other tegra and tegra 3 devices out there with no such locks.
Nvidia has however, somehow managed to push tegra2 out there (everywhere) and make a very bad impression, with the performance of their SoCs.
What bothers me most is the resale value, I can sell a device with 12mo warranty care free & did that with all my previous devices...
In conclusion I dislike both Asus and nVidia but the awesome design of the transformer really limits my options...
As for custom roms I would advise against, no cornerstone build is "there" yet, I've tried them all.
Its weird my friend has the rezound but the top Roms on here seems like the devs just stop developing is there a reason for that? Just kind of sucks she has this awesome phone ..and no Roms ...I feel like I should revert her to stock..my galaxy nexus on the other hand the developers are spitting Roms out their anus..lol..just sucks I guess.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
There's a bunch of devs still actively making roms for this phone, what are you talking about?
The ones that have left either have gotten frustrated with the users or moved on to newer/different phones.
The GNex is going to have a crapload cause it's an open phone running pure Android, this phone has the added challenge of being a Sense based phone.
don't expect daily rom updates here. won't happen until nightlies are started.
mjones73 said:
There's a bunch of devs still actively making roms for this phone, what are you talking about?
The ones that have left either have gotten frustrated with the users or moved on to newer/different phones.
The GNex is going to have a crapload cause it's an open phone running pure Android, this phone has the added challenge of being a Sense based phone.
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Phone has the added challenge of being an HTC phone with both a locked bootloader shipped *and* a Security On / Off flag to protect the rest of memory, and hardly any decent support from HTC on getting ICS let alone JellyBean in a timely fashion.
Different issues deterred developers in each part of the phone's life cycle thus far:
Early life: Bootloader remained locked for a good while leading up to the Nexus launch. Everybody that looked at the phone for most of the pre-Nexus window saw there wasn't anything that could be done. That deterred the majority of devs back then.
Mid-life:Security off is what devs usually achieve first on any HTC device... but HTC made it hard for developers to find an S-off method for that whole 2011 generation of phones. HTC got a bunch of outcries before they said "fine, here is HTCDev.com, now you can Unlock the bootloader and tinker around with ROMs, just stay away from the radios and all that, mmmkay?" It was a half-won battle.
Then, we didn't have S-off for months. Traditionally, S-off is what the "common" dude on the street understands as the key to developing on an HTC phone. That gives access to flash anything anywhere, unlike the Unlocked bootloader. A handful of devs just looked at that and thought "oh, S-on still, can't do *anything* for the phone." And moved on.
Current stage of life:The devs that are still on-board realize all this, but there are few other devs who came here in the first place to help out. Oh, and of course the serious delay of ICS. Second half of the year, 3rd Quarter release date rather than 1st Quarter as HTC said at launch. Without timely manufacturer source code, it is hard to work on an new OS.
I was referring to current state but that is a great summary of the history of development on this phone.
Now we are unlocked and s-off, the latest hurdle now is the delay of the ICS kernel source (due to the delay with the ICS updates) and of course a non Sense RIL.
Still there's some nice roms being put out for this phone in the mean time.
I am making ROMs. Don't hate.
Lol not hating I love the work and don't expect daily updates just found it weird some Roms haven't had updates in months . I see the few that do pure ICS which is nice but I was looking to keep sense 4 its pretty nice . I might want to try to dive into ROM developing myself but I was just wondering if there was a reason for the sense Roms stopping Dev work well the most popular ones I see .
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
PhantasmRezound said:
Phone has the added challenge of being an HTC phone with both a locked bootloader shipped *and* a Security On / Off flag to protect the rest of memory, and hardly any decent support from HTC on getting ICS let alone JellyBean in a timely fashion.
Different issues deterred developers in each part of the phone's life cycle thus far:
Early life: Bootloader remained locked for a good while leading up to the Nexus launch. Everybody that looked at the phone for most of the pre-Nexus window saw there wasn't anything that could be done. That deterred the majority of devs back then.
Mid-life:Security off is what devs usually achieve first on any HTC device... but HTC made it hard for developers to find an S-off method for that whole 2011 generation of phones. HTC got a bunch of outcries before they said "fine, here is HTCDev.com, now you can Unlock the bootloader and tinker around with ROMs, just stay away from the radios and all that, mmmkay?" It was a half-won battle.
Then, we didn't have S-off for months. Traditionally, S-off is what the "common" dude on the street understands as the key to developing on an HTC phone. That gives access to flash anything anywhere, unlike the Unlocked bootloader. A handful of devs just looked at that and thought "oh, S-on still, can't do *anything* for the phone." And moved on.
Current stage of life:The devs that are still on-board realize all this, but there are few other devs who came here in the first place to help out. Oh, and of course the serious delay of ICS. Second half of the year, 3rd Quarter release date rather than 1st Quarter as HTC said at launch. Without timely manufacturer source code, it is hard to work on an new OS.
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Click to collapse
I actually figured this myself but didn't really know how tough it was till I did a little research I've been dealing with that s on vs off and the boot loader thing for a while and until now never really saw for myself how difficult it was. I understand why they are getting mad at HTC and at&t foe not releasing he stuff for the one x
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
One thing I will say HTC may be late with updates ..but they update more than anyone else I've dealt with lol I don't really fudge with Motorola or Samsung anymore *despite having a galaxy nexus* I was convinced to get this because of Google if this was just another galaxy device managed by Samsung I would have never got it ...I wish the one x was the nexus device they had lol!!!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
GrayTheWolf said:
I am making ROMs. Don't hate.
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I saw I like it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
I've been working on a secret surprise too. It's not ready yet, but you'll know when it is cause it will magically appear in goo-manager one day.
a.mcdear said:
I've been working on a secret surprise too. It's not ready yet, but you'll know when it is cause it will magically appear in goo-manager one day.
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Click to collapse
Now I need to know! :b, any hints???
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA
Developers tend to move on to the newest phone/gadget to obviously have a better device themselves but also to make money. The newest and greatest phones have the most users therefore the most to be gained from developing for them both for the user and the developer.
i am currently learning about Rom Creation along with a couple more people which include cslingerland. i am in the basics right now but i am proof of a (hopefully) future developer for the Rezound.
I'm interested lol
Sent from the Galaxy: Nexus bow down before your leader
That's true I don't know why I didn't think of that
Sent from the Galaxy: Nexus bow down before your leader
Budderz said:
Developers tend to move on to the newest phone/gadget to obviously have a better device themselves but also to make money. The newest and greatest phones have the most users therefore the most to be gained from developing for them both for the user and the developer.
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I've made well under $100 for the hundreds of hours I have put in porting recoveries, helping out, and rom making. So money is not the reason honestly.
PhantasmRezound said:
Phone has the added challenge of being an HTC phone with both a locked bootloader shipped *and* a Security On / Off flag to protect the rest of memory, and hardly any decent support from HTC on getting ICS let alone JellyBean in a timely fashion.
Different issues deterred developers in each part of the phone's life cycle thus far:
Early life: Bootloader remained locked for a good while leading up to the Nexus launch. Everybody that looked at the phone for most of the pre-Nexus window saw there wasn't anything that could be done. That deterred the majority of devs back then.
Mid-life:Security off is what devs usually achieve first on any HTC device... but HTC made it hard for developers to find an S-off method for that whole 2011 generation of phones. HTC got a bunch of outcries before they said "fine, here is HTCDev.com, now you can Unlock the bootloader and tinker around with ROMs, just stay away from the radios and all that, mmmkay?" It was a half-won battle.
Then, we didn't have S-off for months. Traditionally, S-off is what the "common" dude on the street understands as the key to developing on an HTC phone. That gives access to flash anything anywhere, unlike the Unlocked bootloader. A handful of devs just looked at that and thought "oh, S-on still, can't do *anything* for the phone." And moved on.
Current stage of life:The devs that are still on-board realize all this, but there are few other devs who came here in the first place to help out. Oh, and of course the serious delay of ICS. Second half of the year, 3rd Quarter release date rather than 1st Quarter as HTC said at launch. Without timely manufacturer source code, it is hard to work on an new OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what ^^he^^ said