I sincerely hope that the next generation of android phones are not locked down. I feel like it severely undermines the open source, free atmosphere which drew me in to begin with. Flashing Rom's has become my favorite part of owning an android phone and so I really refuse to give it up. If this is the way that motorola is going to go, HTC here I come!
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Droid X Bootloader Locked, Custom ROMs Unlikely
- Thread starter wuyanks
- Start date
if true then moto might not make it!
they need to be successful and they wont be if pull this kind of s***
The mDroid is successful because the community made it so.
I beleive in our android/hacker/modder community and they will take care of us.
If there is a will, there will be a way.
What's up guys...first post here, but I've been lurking over the past few weeks doing some research on Android devices.
I've been an avid WinMo user/tweaker/hacker since the days of the Audiovox PPC 6700. IIRC that was HTC's first (or at least one of thier first) WinMo pocket PCs. Now my wife and I have a pair of HTC HD2s through T-mobile. Well Tmobs service blows here in the mountains of western NC. For example, I went backpacking with some friends a few weeks ago in the Linville Gorge Wilderness area and lost service 10 minutes off of I-40. After a 3 hour hike down into the gorge we arrive at camp and my friends (both with Verizon) had 4 bars :icon_evil:.
The flexibility of WinMo has been great...I've HardSPL'd and SIM unlocked my past 4 HTC phones. Custom ROMs really do add functionality, stability, and speed essentially turning them into completely different devices. I'm optomistic about doing the same with the new DX, but a locked bootloader will be tough to overcome.
To address a few previous posts, it's not Motorola that wants to lock down the devices. Verizon orders them that way. Even though Motorola builds and provides the units Verizon stipulates how accessible they will be. Why does V do this? To make more $$$. Just like how they can charge a ridiculous $20/month for the Wifi hotspot feature. I was doing that for free with my old AT&T Tilt years ago...once had 8 laptops tethered using my 3G service!
Accessing the GPS functionality is another popular area to lock down. Sprint used to charge $10/month for the Telenav crap and had their phones locked to disallow access to the GPS. With all my travels into the backcountry it's important for me to be able to get a GPS fix and navigate without relying on the cell towers. Anyway cell tower triangulation is hardly accurate. With my HD2 I can run TomTom, Igo8, Copilot, and many more with maps stored on my microSD.
Are y'all able to use 3rd party navigation software with the Droids in the same way? I agree these practices totally go against the idea of opensource Android development.
I've been an avid WinMo user/tweaker/hacker since the days of the Audiovox PPC 6700. IIRC that was HTC's first (or at least one of thier first) WinMo pocket PCs. Now my wife and I have a pair of HTC HD2s through T-mobile. Well Tmobs service blows here in the mountains of western NC. For example, I went backpacking with some friends a few weeks ago in the Linville Gorge Wilderness area and lost service 10 minutes off of I-40. After a 3 hour hike down into the gorge we arrive at camp and my friends (both with Verizon) had 4 bars :icon_evil:.
The flexibility of WinMo has been great...I've HardSPL'd and SIM unlocked my past 4 HTC phones. Custom ROMs really do add functionality, stability, and speed essentially turning them into completely different devices. I'm optomistic about doing the same with the new DX, but a locked bootloader will be tough to overcome.
To address a few previous posts, it's not Motorola that wants to lock down the devices. Verizon orders them that way. Even though Motorola builds and provides the units Verizon stipulates how accessible they will be. Why does V do this? To make more $$$. Just like how they can charge a ridiculous $20/month for the Wifi hotspot feature. I was doing that for free with my old AT&T Tilt years ago...once had 8 laptops tethered using my 3G service!
Accessing the GPS functionality is another popular area to lock down. Sprint used to charge $10/month for the Telenav crap and had their phones locked to disallow access to the GPS. With all my travels into the backcountry it's important for me to be able to get a GPS fix and navigate without relying on the cell towers. Anyway cell tower triangulation is hardly accurate. With my HD2 I can run TomTom, Igo8, Copilot, and many more with maps stored on my microSD.
Are y'all able to use 3rd party navigation software with the Droids in the same way? I agree these practices totally go against the idea of opensource Android development.
Wow are the people who are posting these questions paying attention or am I the one mistaken? I think these questions are answered either in this forum or the article that is attached!
From my understanding signed boot loader does NOT mean the phone can't be rooted which means yes your can probably STEAL! the wifi tethering within a month or 2 of the phone being released. Right off the batt though you can buy it legit for $20/m don't think thats fair? Ask ATT what happens when the network has to much data traffic on it and you will begin to understand why Verizon may want to charge for tethering! Remember ATT has a 2GB Hard Limit for the phone and then charges $20 for tethering and you don't even get an extra 2GB you share it with the phone. Verizon gives you unlimted on the phone and 2GB Tether for $20.
So to answer your other question... if the bootloader is signed then NO you can't have froyo early because that would be a customer unsigned rom. Unless you somehow get a signed testing version from moto which is unlikely. However froyo will probably be out SOONER than LATER!
Finally... I may add that this device has HDMI output and is not capable of displaying any protected video through the HDMI. The phone is capable of running a special blockbuster application that you can purchase and buy movies (and they will not go through the HDMI) so that said this phone has even another reason for moto and vzw to lock it down.
Also custom roms are likely to forfeit many special features of this device another reason why VZW would want the rom locked down. If you forfeit all the special features well then you are not going to pay for them are you?
Moto probably gets $$$ for all the blockbuster sales probably not VZW since it is only avail over wifi not the VZW network... sooo again a great reason to lock the phone down.
They know. It's like 5. Seriously, it's not enough for anyone to consider a loss. A helluva lot more people jailbreak their Iphones and look how many sold the first day without a clue...
The modding community doesn't do anything for the success of mass market phones...sure, they might help sell a few thousand more to those of us that read forums like this, but they also potentially cost the carrier and manufacturers a lot of headaches, from bricked phones to "stealing" services to fielding customer service calls from clueless second-owners of a modded phone.
And the thing that makes modding great for us, is BAD for the manufacturer. Why buy the latest next-gen phone when you already have a modded last-gen phone that does just about as well?
I own a Milestone. I love it. I wish I could do the things the Droid owners can do, but I still bought it knowing it had a locked bootloader, because ultimately, even without custom ROMS, it's still one hell of a flexible device, even running 2.1 (and 2.01 for that matter, which it had when the Droidboyz were already sporting 2.1 cooked ROMS)
When the GSM Droid X variant comes out, I'll seriously consider buying it too. For the same reason, it's a great phone even locked down, and Motorola doesn't skimp on hardware (I'm talking to YOU, Samsung and HTC).
And the thing that makes modding great for us, is BAD for the manufacturer. Why buy the latest next-gen phone when you already have a modded last-gen phone that does just about as well?
I own a Milestone. I love it. I wish I could do the things the Droid owners can do, but I still bought it knowing it had a locked bootloader, because ultimately, even without custom ROMS, it's still one hell of a flexible device, even running 2.1 (and 2.01 for that matter, which it had when the Droidboyz were already sporting 2.1 cooked ROMS)
When the GSM Droid X variant comes out, I'll seriously consider buying it too. For the same reason, it's a great phone even locked down, and Motorola doesn't skimp on hardware (I'm talking to YOU, Samsung and HTC).
pwrdbykyank
Active Member
what if we just get a engineering protoype version of the droid x which ive seen many people have who gave reviews about it long before droid x was near release date. Im sure signatures and software and bootloader stuff is not completely locked and different than the release. If im able to get my hands on one ill let you guys know if not if anyone else does, let us know if there is any differences. Thanks.
NeverEndingXsin
Member
*crosses DROID X off the "NEED TO BUY ASAP" list*
I can only speculate like the rest but my thoughts on the reason for licking it down are these: MONEY! haha
Moto has their newer blur with adjustable sidgets and such. They paid someone a lot of money to come up with that. The orig droid didn't have anything like this. It cost them little to put an almost vanilla android on it. Now they have money in thier custom android build, just like HTC.
The other is tethering. Did you guys really think with the inroduction of a tethering data plan they would just let you wireless tether for free? That's why ATT has locked theirs down(backflip).
I think it just comes down to they want people to pay for things, and not take the widgets and throw em on other devices. It's bad news for sure. In my conversations with bird and b16, the three of us are pretty worried about being able to get past it. But we will certainly try!
Moto has their newer blur with adjustable sidgets and such. They paid someone a lot of money to come up with that. The orig droid didn't have anything like this. It cost them little to put an almost vanilla android on it. Now they have money in thier custom android build, just like HTC.
The other is tethering. Did you guys really think with the inroduction of a tethering data plan they would just let you wireless tether for free? That's why ATT has locked theirs down(backflip).
I think it just comes down to they want people to pay for things, and not take the widgets and throw em on other devices. It's bad news for sure. In my conversations with bird and b16, the three of us are pretty worried about being able to get past it. But we will certainly try!
Interesting reactions
All I keep seeing here is mainly anger and so far one denial while droidxforums has mostly bargaining stages of this tragic news.
I for one firmly support and believe in the beta team and am convinced that the x will be owned sooner or later.
On tethering:
Considering that there is no charge for switching phones through Verizon, I can always be switching back and forth for a while until it's done.
I guess in the interim I only wish Verizon had pay as you tether or lower mb tether plans rather than this monthly crap since I find myself not tethering as much with my very capable multitasking droid, if that was the case I probably would not be concerned with tether functionality, it's just that I do not want to spend $20mo for 50-100 mb's of tether.
I am so glad I own my droid.
All I keep seeing here is mainly anger and so far one denial while droidxforums has mostly bargaining stages of this tragic news.
I for one firmly support and believe in the beta team and am convinced that the x will be owned sooner or later.
On tethering:
Considering that there is no charge for switching phones through Verizon, I can always be switching back and forth for a while until it's done.
I guess in the interim I only wish Verizon had pay as you tether or lower mb tether plans rather than this monthly crap since I find myself not tethering as much with my very capable multitasking droid, if that was the case I probably would not be concerned with tether functionality, it's just that I do not want to spend $20mo for 50-100 mb's of tether.
I am so glad I own my droid.
