HTC Announces Web-Based Bootloader Unlock Tool

anandtech.com

15 points·sadiq··6 comments

Allowing the people to unlock the boot loader if they want is a good idea. People who aren't interested in rooting/installing custom ROMs won't have to bother.

Excellent. I was disappointed to see that the phone I recently purchased (VZW Incredible 2) came with a locked bootloader so I couldn't install a custom rom. I had resigned myself to waiting for a hacker to come up with a solution, but now HTC will do it.

Will be interesting to see how many people take advantage of this.

Can we change the title to "HTC announces details of..."? They haven't actually announced the tool.

Also, what happens to older models? Are we SOL?

This sucks. Why should I have to depend on a website to be able to use my hardware in whatever way I desire? What's next, making a request on a website to leave your house? Don't want too many people outside all at once, don't ya know...

Oh well. As long as they keep writing their bootloader and OS code in unsafe languages, official unlocks will continue to be unnecessary.

One reason would be that the cost of their warranty is based around the user having only restricted access, leading to less claims.

Once you brick your phone with a broken bootloader/firmware update, that should really be your problem, not theirs (and if the changes to their warranty specify that, them I'm fine with it)

Of course, I'd hope that there's some recourse for updating regardless of bootloader condition (JTAG, etc), but I can't imagine they're required to provide that.

The fact that they're willing to officially support this is a pretty good step when everyone seems to be going the other way into more and more lockdown.

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