Hasta La Gadget!

They thought it would be easy, but they were wrong — AndIRC developers reportedly spent the last 72 hours readying the new HTC Thunderbolt for custom ROMs. Today, they emerge victorious, but that victory is bittersweet, because it may signify the end of a generally hacker-friendly era from the folks at HTC. While devices from the Taiwanese manufacturer have traditionally been easy to modify, the hacker community found Verizon’s LTE flagship fully locked down, with a signed kernel, signed recovery image and a signed bootloader. FOF. Of course, if you’re just looking for a way to overclock your Thunderbolt, you probably don’t care about all that. You’ll find all the (exceptionally lengthy) instructions you need at Android Police. Just be careful out there!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC Thunderbolt rooted for real, locked files nearly soured the deal

HTC Thunderbolt rooted for real, locked files nearly soured the deal originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s been playing it really cool with the nascent Windows Phone 7 hacker community so far, which is winning them friends in all sorts of important places — not the least of which is the ChevronWP7 team itself. The first guys to split the platform open for homebrew apps were recently invited up to Redmond for a powwow with the guys in charge, and it seems the meetings were fruitful to say the least; though much of what they saw was under NDA, they say they’re “genuinely excited” by what Microsoft has in the works. Furthermore, Microsoft was kind enough to give the team a heads-up that an upcoming platform update would break the existing ChevronWP7 tool, though they say they’re “collaborating with Microsoft on an interim solution that will continue to support homebrew developments after the update.” Considering that they’ve already reached out to jailbreaker extraordinaire Geohot as well, it’s clear that Microsoft doesn’t believe this is a black-and-white situation — the ChevronWP7 guys seem to think homebrew has a place somewhere in the platform’s future, it just remains to be seen how that’s going to play out.

Windows Phone 7 jailbreak devs ‘genuinely excited’ by Microsoft’s roadmap originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To be a jailbreaker means different things depending on the device that you’re busy hacking preinstalled walls from. If you’re fiddling with consoles, a legal team would come highly recommended, but if you’re tweaking mobile code, at least Windows Phone mobile code, you’re in for a much sweeter ride. The ChevronWP7 guys that brought us the first jailbreak of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 are currently in Redmond having a sitdown and a frank exchange of views with WP7 dev experience director Brandon Watson, and the amicable nature of their discourse has been evidenced by the image above. Microsoft is clearly taking a light-hearted and community-friendly approach to handling the (now inevitable) efforts at disabling limitations to its software and we can only congratulate its mobile team for doing so.

[Thanks, Tasos]

Update: Looks like Microsoft’s softie approach really is working. Shortly after the jolly news, notorious hacker Geohot announced on Twitter that he’s going to treat himself to a WP7 device; but before long, Redmond’s already reached out to offer him a free handset. Any bets on MuscleNerd hitting the tweet button next? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Visualized: the glamorous lifestyles of WP7 jailbreakers (update: Geohot crashes the party) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just saw how you can now add an Install Package Files option to the PS3 using some custom firmware, but that darn hacker George “Geohot” Hotz has taken it a step further by demonstrating homebrew in a quick, Mr. Blurrycam-approved video. It’s a barebones app that only says “sup dawg, it’s geohot,” but in reality it’s a pretty huge step. Geohot’s provided the file on his website along with a copy of the METLDR root key that enables the homebrew. Sony, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying it’ll “fix the issues through network updates, but because this is a security issue, we are not able to provide you with any more details.” This runs counter to what pytey from fail0verflow (the famed group that kickstarted this new round of hacking) just told the BBC, “the only way to fix this is to issue new hardware… Sony will have to accept this.” Hey, at least you’ll be in good company, eh Sony? Check out geohot’s proof of concept video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Geohot demos homebrew on ‘jailbroken’ PS3, Sony vows to ‘fix’ via software update (video)

Geohot demos homebrew on ‘jailbroken’ PS3, Sony vows to ‘fix’ via software update (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ChevronWP7 unlocking tool pulled in hopes Microsoft decides to play along originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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