Bionic crawls out of the grave!!!

[kodiak799]

I think returns from people "bricking" their device are small potatoes. The main and only logical reason they are locking bootloaders is to prevent people from extending EOL by flashing roms. Although even that is somewhat dubious as I'm sure people like myself would just scale back overtaxing their phone.

There's also a little different dynamic in play here with VZW putting everyone on 2-yr contracts (yet another change blamed on the IPhone that was probably already in the works and inevitable). So in this case it makes sense to let people try to get as much out of the 2-yrs since they will probably upgrade at that point. I can see how Moto doesn't like that with people on 1-yr contracts and potentially upgrading, but that's gone now.

Really the OEM's should embrace the romming community (and maybe they are starting to). It would help support devices and let people maximize their experience (meaning they are more likely to purchase your next device). I'm not sure all that many people are willing to jump on marginal upgrades, anyway, so it's debateable what they'd even lose.

 

[freezyfreaky]

I think returns from people "bricking" their device are small potatoes. The main and only logical reason they are locking bootloaders is to prevent people from extending EOL by flashing roms. Although even that is somewhat dubious as I'm sure people like myself would just scale back overtaxing their phone.

There's also a little different dynamic in play here with VZW putting everyone on 2-yr contracts (yet another change blamed on the IPhone that was probably already in the works and inevitable). So in this case it makes sense to let people try to get as much out of the 2-yrs since they will probably upgrade at that point. I can see how Moto doesn't like that with people on 1-yr contracts and potentially upgrading, but that's gone now.

Really the OEM's should embrace the romming community (and maybe they are starting to). It would help support devices and let people maximize their experience (meaning they are more likely to purchase your next device). I'm not sure all that many people are willing to jump on marginal upgrades, anyway, so it's debateable what they'd even lose.

Verizon doesn't care if you keep the same phone forever as long as you keep their service. They make more money that way because they don't have to subsidize part of the cost of your new phone. The reason why they nudge you to getting a new phone is because they can lock you into a new 2 year contract instead of risking you leaving to another carrier if you are paying month to month.

Correct me if I am wrong butI believe that Verizon is the last carrier to get rid of the one year contracts. Really it didn't make sense for them to subsidize part of your phone on a short contract when nobody else is offering that.

Personally, I believe boot loaders are locked because it is nothing but an expense to them. Returns from bricked phones, illegal tethering, all cost Verizon money and manpower that eat into profits without any meaningful tangible benefit or return.

Tethering is getting to be a bigger issue for them especially with their 4G network. There is more incentive for the masses to illegal tether when their 4G speeds are approaching home broadband. Before most people only tether, legally our illegally, only when they had to because of the crappy experience of surfing on 3G speeds. With 4G, I think people will be more willing to ditch their home broadband if they find tethering at 4G speeds acceptable.

Now, if you were Big Red, how would you stop this? If we are able to flash our own kernel and ROMs, there is no way they can prevent us from gaining root to tether short of monitoring our usage and cutting off service. I know there are apps that exists today that allow tethering without root. You can be sure after our devices are locked down, they will try to break those apps. Look at the leaked Gingerbread that came out for the Droid X. They already started pouting in code to make tethering more difficult.

Unfortunately this modding community is small. We are just a tiny portion of their user base. There is no monetary incentive currently for them to keep us happy.

 

[dfuser312553]

^... not illegal.

 

[dfuser312553]

Wonder what people said at "the show"?
I hope it was *"Why have an open OS with a closed phone? Can it read fingerprints?"

 

[freezyfreaky]

^... not illegal.

Well since you said it's not illegal then I guess we can ignore everything I said about tethering them. Don't worry everybody, poontab said it's legal.

 

[dfuser312553]

^... not illegal.

...I guess we can ignore everything I said about tethering them.....

Wow we agree!

Want to know how legal it is? Go ask June Fabrics Technology & Polyclef Software.

 

[freezyfreaky]

^... not illegal.

...I guess we can ignore everything I said about tethering them.....

Wow we agree!

Want to know how legal it is? Go ask June Fabrics Technology & Polyclef Software.

Hey, you got me convinced. Good luck convincing Verizon.

 

[ktech11]

to me, if the "Bionic" releases with an OMAP dual core, 12 mp camera, and 750-1gb ram, then it's really the Targa with a different name...

Agreed. I guess we'll see eventually.

Interestingly enough, I wasn't interested in the Bionic until the talk of this delay and "enhancements" picked up. If the bootloader is encrypted (which I assume it will), it may be a deal-breaker, but I'm at least interested until we can find out.

Brandon

It will be a deal breaker for me too. I went to VZW yesterday and played with the Thunderbolt, man that 4g was hard to walk away from. It is a pretty sweet phone, but I wanted dual-core. If I can't get unlimited 4g and an unencrypted bootloader, thunderbolt here I come.

 

[ktech11]

...I guess we can ignore everything I said about tethering them.....

Wow we agree!

Want to know how legal it is? Go ask June Fabrics Technology & Polyclef Software.

Hey, you got me convinced. Good luck convincing Verizon.

I don't believe tethering breaks any laws, but it does violate the terms of service so VZW can cancel service if they want. Or they can just charge us for it.

 

[nerdslogic]

I wanna know what these "experience enhancements" are. Probably a rouse to buy more time to fix the 4g/tegra issues, and for our troubles we'll get an extra 512 of ram and maybe a little more internal storage.

My guess.....more fabulous BLOATWARE!!!!dancedroid

 

[Preach2k]

Motorola Droid Bionic Release Date Delay: Verizon Problems (Update)

Motorola Droid Bionic Release Date Delay: Verizon Problems (Update) » Phone Reviews

 

[creaky]

From the Moto email:

"Motorola’s DROID BIONIC LTE smartphone...will launch this summer with Verizon Wireless.... [W]e are incorporating several enhancements to make this an even better consumer experience. This includes expanded features, functionality and an improved form factor."

For expanded functionality, I hope that means a faster processor and more RAM. Expanded features is probably the webdock. For improved form factor, perhaps the device will look more like the leaked Targa image than what is on the currently on Moto's site. Anyway, those are my guesses....

 

[ktech11]

I am hoping it means an OMAP processor. I keep seeing devices with Tegra 2's having issues.

 

[freezyfreaky]

Wow we agree!

Want to know how legal it is? Go ask June Fabrics Technology & Polyclef Software.

Hey, you got me convinced. Good luck convincing Verizon.

I don't believe tethering breaks any laws, but it does violate the terms of service so VZW can cancel service if they want. Or they can just charge us for it.

Whether or not deliberately circumventing a system to obtain a paid service for free is considered illegal or not, it is utterly disappointing that it's this same old tired argument is what is being commented upon when the gist of my post addresses completely different topics. I don't know why people are so hung up on the term "illegal tethering". Maybe it insinuates criminal activity? I should write "unauthorized tethering" so the topic of my post won't be disregarded.

 

[ktech11]

Hey, you got me convinced. Good luck convincing Verizon.

I don't believe tethering breaks any laws, but it does violate the terms of service so VZW can cancel service if they want. Or they can just charge us for it.

Whether or not deliberately circumventing a system to obtain a paid service for free is considered illegal or not, it is utterly disappointing that it's this same old tired argument is what is being commented upon when the gist of my post addresses completely different topics. I don't know why people are so hung up on the term "illegal tethering". Maybe it insinuates criminal activity? I should write "unauthorized tethering" so the topic of my post won't be disregarded.

Sorry for the rabbit trail, my comment was meant to support your point. VZW will do what it can to maintain margins. They want to make money on their network, so they will do what they deem necessary to do that.