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The End of an Era?

http://m.engadget.com/default/artic...-the-de/&category=classic&icid=eng_latest_art
The Thunderbolt apparently was difficult to root. I'm not a root expert but according to the article, the impression is that HTC will begin not being so developer friendly.
Thoughts?
Sent from my ADR6300 using......you get the idea.

I don't understand why these manufacturers, at the very least, can't treat their phones like the Nexus line: Ship with a locked bootloader, and give us an option to unlock it ourselves, and make it one-way. If they choose not to repair rooted devices, fine. But if I'm paying for the phone, I OWN it. I should be able to run the ROMS, kernels, and apps I want.

Product F(RED) said:
I don't understand why these manufacturers, at the very least, can't treat their phones like the Nexus line: Ship with a locked bootloader, and give us an option to unlock it ourselves, and make it one-way. If they choose not to repair rooted devices, fine. But if I'm paying for the phone, I OWN it. I should be able to run the ROMS, kernels, and apps I want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man I totally agree. I wish all Androids were treated like the Nexus line.
Sent from my ADR6300 using......you get the idea.

Because look at it this way. The people that like to fiddle with these things (everyone on this site) will be the majority of people who decide to root. We know what we do will void warranties and we know that, unless it's there's really really serious issue, we can fix these things ourselves. Besides, by giving us these bootloaders that can be unlocked and relocked, these manufacturers are actually screwing themselves MORE. HTC devices have always had bootloader security (NAND Lock). When you root, you can turn it off (aka S-OFF), but you can also turn it back on (S-ON) and then send the device in for repair or replacement. With the Nexus line, once the device is NAND unlocked, you can't re-lock it. I really don't understand the mentality behind the people who decide to lock things down.

So how long until HTC becomes Motorola?
Sent from my ADR6300 using......you get the idea.

Just wait, Some of us will go out and mess Verizon up by rooting overwriting their signed protection and do it just to prove they can't stop a dev or modder, all the companies try but none to date have succeeded, BUT it sucks that HTC is going down this line.

I think that they designed the system so that the good filers can relock it and bring it for warranty. If they wanted to make it so hard they could make them unrootable
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Product F(RED) said:
If they choose not to repair rooted devices, fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is that possibly fine?
Take the Motorola Defy as an apt example because I have one - my earpiece has just stopped working.
It's absolutely nothing to do with the OS or whether it's rooted, it's a pure hardware problem and has been known to afflict fully stock handsets as well as rooted/modded ones.
Why should the mere fact that I've fiddled with the OS on my phone excuse a manufacturer from fixing hardware problems that have not been caused by my fiddling?

Step666 said:
How is that possibly fine?
Take the Motorola Defy as an apt example because I have one - my earpiece has just stopped working.
It's absolutely nothing to do with the OS or whether it's rooted, it's a pure hardware problem and has been known to afflict fully stock handsets as well as rooted/modded ones.
Why should the mere fact that I've fiddled with the OS on my phone excuse a manufacturer from fixing hardware problems that have not been caused by my fiddling?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because they figure messing with the OS is apparently evil. I'm more than willing to bet this is more of a carrier pushed issue than the OEM because one big reason of rooting is to bypass carrier limits.
Sent from my ADR6300 using......you get the idea.

That's an excuse, not a reason.
There is no reasonable justification for manufacturers to take such a stance.
And even less of one for someone on here to apparently agree with such behaviour.

As one of the few founding members of the Dev Team AndIRC I got a good laugh out of this article, this is not the end of an era. All devices have had some challenges to rooting. The HTC Droid Eris which was our claim to fame took months to root and then finally we got some working methods, the fact that we owned the thunderbolt in less than a few hours (the article is too dramatic) is amazing, we have some very skilled devs and with time we get work done.

I think this is a carrier issue. Now that their all worried about tethering. Hey if you pay for the phone and service what you do with it is your problem. Its about making more money. If it gets worse I may downgrade to a metro! Omg
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Captainkrtek said:
As one of the few founding members of the Dev Team AndIRC I got a good laugh out of this article, this is not the end of an era. All devices have had some challenges to rooting. The HTC Droid Eris which was our claim to fame took months to root and then finally we got some working methods, the fact that we owned the thunderbolt in less than a few hours (the article is too dramatic) is amazing, we have some very skilled devs and with time we get work done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incredible took a while too... Kinda seems like they're stepping it up a bit, generation after generation.
Sent from my Droid Incredible running Myn's Warm TwoPointTwo RLS5.3.

maybe the carriers got something to do with it? they want to charge extra for tethering and so on after all. if it would be too easy to unlock extra features and wipe devices of their bloatware they might miss out on additional money?

Well f*ck the carriers. If they're going to cripple a device, they have no right to charge what they do. Yes, you already pay about half of what they pay for the phone, BUT you pay back the difference over the term of your contract.

Product F(RED) said:
Well f*ck the carriers. If they're going to cripple a device, they have no right to charge what they do. Yes, you already pay about half of what they pay for the phone, BUT you pay back the difference over the term of your contract.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably more than that.
Sent from my Incredible with the XDA Premium App.

The G2 and MT4G took a couple of months to root but it happened. The amazing devs here will always find a way.
I completely agree that we own it and should be able to do what we want. If you expect the carrier to support it they have a right to only support their approved configuration.
I think hardware warranty and troubleshooting warranty should be separated.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

Why can't they just do it more like the PC's do.
If you screw up you can insert a bootable CD and restore the OS.
Of course a CD is not a ideal option for a phone, but I can see a SD card formated and coded in a way that it is able to restore the OS completely, even if the phone is bricked.
If the manufactures give such a card away (could just be a 512mb card I gues) then the consumer could hack the phone to dead and still have a backup thus keeping the manufacturer out of sight.
I mean, how hard could something like this be? ;p

dragonithe said:
Why can't they just do it more like the PC's do.
If you screw up you can insert a bootable CD and restore the OS.
Of course a CD is not a ideal option for a phone, but I can see a SD card formated and coded in a way that it is able to restore the OS completely, even if the phone is bricked.
If the manufactures give such a card away (could just be a 512mb card I gues) then the consumer could hack the phone to dead and still have a backup thus keeping the manufacturer out of sight.
I mean, how hard could something like this be? ;p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impossible for the carriers since to them rooting is horrible.
Sent from my Incredible with the XDA Premium App.

..................

[Q] Shouldn't Bother Rooting?

I'v jailbroken itouches several times flawlessly so the concept of rooting is not new to me. I understand what has to be done and what it does for the device, positively anyway. I'v had the G2x for about 2 weeks now and i'm thinking about rooting it, but i don't want to do it without knowing all of the cons. I know i would be voiding my warranty, and that i might not get direct updates from my service provider anymore. I'v also read a lot about people rooting it without error, but for some reason after rooting the phone crashes. i took the risk of jailbreaking my itouch because i had it for 2 years already when i decided to jailbreak it, and because it's basically still just an mp3 player. This time it would be a phone which is more important to me. im also aware that gingerbread is coming out soon, so if someone could explain to me what the negatives are or at least point me in the right direction if this thread is already answered i would appreciate it.

With my phone, unrooting is easy if you know what you're doing, so I don't worry about the warranty part. The usual horror stories about rooted phones are usually due to user error. If you don't know what you're doing and don't fully read the instructions, you can end up doing some damage that is either difficult or impossible to fix. I think some people root their phones just for wireless tether, ad blocking, screenshots, or some "root only" app they see in the market. Then they decide they want to change their status bar icons or something and flash something that was not made for their phone or the stock rom... or whatever the situation may be.
My point is, if you know what you're doing you'll be fine. You should be able to go back to stock, unrooted - I'm not familiar with your phone, so I'm speaking in generalities. There are already Gingerbread roms out for many devices that haven't received official updates yet, even for phones that will never receive an official 2.3 update.
The only downside of rooting that I can think of is that you won't be able to put your phone down. Ultimately the choice is yours. If you don't want to put the time into learning, don't do it. It's a ton of fun though, I couldn't imagine not being rooted... there's so much more available for rooted phones.
My Evo + xda Premium App = This post.

In depth with the bootlooping "gingerbread" caused bricks

Does it only boot up to the HTC screen and bootloop? Basically what I'm asking is, can Verizon Wireless tell if the phone is rooted or not? ;]

Yes.
Sent from my ThunderBolt using XDA App

So if I get someone stupid at the store, if they miss it and hand me a new device, I'm in the clear? And if I do it via mail, and I get the replacement before I mail my device in, how do they protect themselves that way?
edit: Take out the pronouns and add "one". I'm more interested for curiosity's sake, not frauding out VZW, I already went back to froyo, ha.

I don't know how they would know, but I believe they can, I think you may get a new/refurb but may see a charge for your bricked phone.

I can see it now... all these people turning in bricked phones for replacements under warranty.
Next thing you know Verizon will be checking every single phone returned to make sure there was no "tampering" that will void the mfg warranties.

Verizon employees are just regular people with regular 10$/hour jobs. The technicians aren't any sort of certified or even necessarily technologically inclined (not that they should be, they're not professionals with careers, they're working for an hourly paycheck). Hiring skilled technicians for these jobs would cost WAY too much dough so I dunno how they could feasibly do it.

miketoasty said:
Yes.
Sent from my ThunderBolt using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see what you did there.
-sent via 1.21 giggawatts of android.

Yufice said:
Verizon employees are just regular people with regular 10$/hour jobs. The technicians aren't any sort of certified or even necessarily technologically inclined (not that they should be, they're not professionals with careers, they're working for an hourly paycheck). Hiring skilled technicians for these jobs would cost WAY too much dough so I dunno how they could feasibly do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's see, most of the people on here are just "regular" people as well. You don't think that if Verizon wanted to, they could not write up a simple script for any employee to follow to check obvious tampering (i.e booting into hboot and checking for s-off?)
I mean, sure they wouldn't catch all of them, but don't you think they would catch some? Not that they would do it, but I'm sure they keep track of what goes on over here in no-no land (at least for Verizon).
Let's face it, trying to get around the "system" is what causes cell phone companies to keep trying to lock us down. When it starts to affect their bottom line, don't you think they may take some steps to mitigate the problem?
Just my two cents.

Dnakaman said:
Let's see, most of the people on here are just "regular" people as well. You don't think that if Verizon wanted to, they could not write up a simple script for any employee to follow to check obvious tampering (i.e booting into hboot and checking for s-off?)
I mean, sure they wouldn't catch all of them, but don't you think they would catch some? Not that they would do it, but I'm sure they keep track of what goes on over here in no-no land (at least for Verizon).
Let's face it, trying to get around the "system" is what causes cell phone companies to keep trying to lock us down. When it starts to affect their bottom line, don't you think they make take some steps to mitigate the problem?
Just my two cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least one reported bootlooping in hboot also so not sure if it's long enough to see S-OFF. Another said he was able to get into hboot and flash stock firmware and S-ON but it wouldn't boot and stock recovery bootloop'd everytime it was accessed.

The bootloop itself would be a red flag. Employees in stores would not have to do anything but note: bootloop issue.
Since the phone is tied to you, maybe they send phones exhibiting the issue to a special group of (trained) techs, who will go into more indepth diagnostics.
If it is obvious the phone was rooted (not saying they can tell or not), 1 month later you see a charge for 500 bucks for a phone!
Yikes!
Again, just my two cents.

funkybside said:
I see what you did there.
-sent via 1.21 giggawatts of android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least someone did.
Verizon can't tell. Well they probably could if they wanted to but the time it would take to check the amount of phones they receive every day because of warranty replacements would not be worth it.
If I were you I would call and get a replacement the people on the phone just have you battery pull and try again then ship you a new one.
Finally, in the time it would take to tell that 1 phone was rooted they could have probably fixed 50 phones at that point and would void out any money they could charge you.
If it makes you feel better, I sent in a Droid 2 that was rooted and could still boot, got a new one with no charges.

I know this community is just "Regular" people, that's why I used the word regular; you have tons of arrogant posts of people saying "omg the verizon guy didn't even know what a kernel [email protected]!!!" when the verizon guy has no reason to care.
The problem is a lot of people in our community overestimate verizon/other carriers. Working at a verizon store, i've seen many of my less honest co workers do a warranty exchange over the phone/mail just because they didn't like the scratches they had put on the phone. A simple call to warranty saying "my phone reboots into a white screen sometimes" would get a new phone once every few months (up until the end of the one year warranty). Watching that go down really really really makes me doubt that there is some tech booting into HBOOT making sure it says S-ON. Even with a script, it's still a bunch of high school kids playing with a corporate giant's bank account: if they decide not to care and just give you a replacement, it doesn't effect them at all. I'm just curious if anyone working in a tech center can confirm that there is some second level testing going on.

Dnakaman said:
The bootloop itself would be a red flag. Employees in stores would not have to do anything but note: bootloop issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just wrong. When someone comes up with a phone with a problem, the procedure is pretty short:
pull battery.
Check settings.
Factory Reset.
RSD Lite is no where near our dell computers. There are no fancy screwdrivers with fancy technicians. I check settings and see if there is anything out of the ordinary.
If the phone is bootlooping/white screen/otherwise inoperable there are two choices:
1) Pull the battery. If there is no water damage, try to turn it on. If it doesn't work, tell them to call 1-800-922-0204 and talk to Verizon Customer Service
2) Pull the battery. If there is water damage or obviously physical damage, call Asurian and give them 99 bucks for a new phone. That's it.
What I was asking was am I the last link in the chain? Or is someone double checking my "work"?

PJnc284 said:
At least one reported bootlooping in hboot also so not sure if it's long enough to see S-OFF. Another said he was able to get into hboot and flash stock firmware and S-ON but it wouldn't boot and stock recovery bootloop'd everytime it was accessed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was me...as a last resort I used the first two files in this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1009423 and when I flashed the second file I did not receive the secitury warning so I'm taking it as the first one flashed.
When done flashing the frist two files in that thread my hboot version was S-ON

Yufice said:
I know this community is just "Regular" people, that's why I used the word regular; you have tons of arrogant posts of people saying "omg the verizon guy didn't even know what a kernel [email protected]!!!" when the verizon guy has no reason to care.
The problem is a lot of people in our community overestimate verizon/other carriers. Working at a verizon store, i've seen many of my less honest co workers do a warranty exchange over the phone/mail just because they didn't like the scratches they had put on the phone. A simple call to warranty saying "my phone reboots into a white screen sometimes" would get a new phone once every few months (up until the end of the one year warranty). Watching that go down really really really makes me doubt that there is some tech booting into HBOOT making sure it says S-ON. Even with a script, it's still a bunch of high school kids playing with a corporate giant's bank account: if they decide not to care and just give you a replacement, it doesn't effect them at all. I'm just curious if anyone working in a tech center can confirm that there is some second level testing going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, I see what you are saying.
This is my take on this. I've had an Android device since day 1 when I got my G1. All of the phones I had got rooted at some point.
In the "early" days, you had more, shall we say for a lack of a better term... technically advanced people rooting devices.
Fast forward a bit...many "regular" people are wanting to root, seeing all the benefits that the "chosen" few have been enjoying since rooting was possible.
As a community, we accommodated these "regular" people by creating a Staples "that was easy button", in the meantime, the Android user base is growing by leaps and bounds.
Fast forward to now...technology has changed, the OS has become more sophisticated. Companies see the huge profitability in Android, so they want to hold on tightly to their treasure (locked bootloaders, etc). So now the "easy" button, is not as easy to push anymore, yet us "regular" people still want the "easy" button..."Why can't I just do a one click method???!!!!"
As Android continues to grow and get a larger base of users, there is becoming more and more exposure to the "dark side" of rooting devices for customization. Now although it sounds like things may be changing here in the future as far as how easy it may become to build customizations, at this time, it is still kind of a no no, in the eyes of corporate America. That being said, sure right now Corp America is not too concerned, but as the user base grows, it is possible that the economy of scales may tip the other direction.
Ok, stepping off my soap box now, LOL

All I know is that MANY people here (XDA) are talking about committing fraud.... Then the SAME PEOPLE complain about encrypted bootloaders.

What is proof that my ex spies on my phons

So my recent ex boyfriend did something to my phone and was spying on me. He knew things that he would only know bc he had access to everything on my phone. Before u think I'm just paranoid I will say that he has been charged with a crime for doin this to someone else years ago. I think he flashed my phone to do whatever he did. He's very very smart when it comes to technology, he has about 6 laptops and works with computers. He even made the comment once that if he wanted to spy on my phone that it wouldn't matter bc I could never prove it. With one of my phone's I used to could put it in recovery mode but then one day it wouldn't go into recovery mode anymore, I have two build prop files when I used to have only 1. My question is where exactly would a folder be that has a file that wpild prove he spies on me, he's too confident that he can't be caught and admitted he's done it to his exes. This is illegal and wrong and he shouldn't get away with it. I saw something called conspy and cttyhack but I'm not sure if he put it on my phone or if that's just on some phones help me please, there has to be something in a folder I'm just unsure where to look

You could try Malwarebytes and scan your phone. I seem to mention this a lot around here but I've had good results helping friends and family when they screw something up.
Best bet is to wipe and factory reset.

KernelCorn said:
You could try Malwarebytes and scan your phone. I seem to mention this a lot around here but I've had good results helping friends and family when they screw something up.
Best bet is to wipe and factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset doesn't help. I know he flashed my phone so idk what he has programmed in the phone but he did something and I need to find the proof

Really really good question but you will hate the answer lol
To answer your question, you would need to seek someone with a reasonable level of tech (ideally) who is preferably certified or holds some form of IT credentials to present your case to the authorities. They would use a forensics program (such as EnCase® Forensic ) to make an exact replica of your phones data. Not to mention you would also need someone else (with a very high tech skill set) to be able to actually identify the malicious behaviour of your phone.... not super hard but can be.... if you were to just take your phone straight to the police yourself with your story .... I highly doubt much would come from it. Even if you can prove what you are saying is true AND you have your infected phone as evidence..... you still have no evidence he did it. Even if your friend was there with you and both watched the entire re flashing etc.... You are still beat... I am going to guess you would need no less than full video of him doing it and even then it would be very shaky.... who's phone was it etc etc ....non malicious hacks (to non celebs and elites) is run of the mill and they probably have about 0.1% of the IT personnel needed at their disposal.... long story short.... errr longish ... I would HIGHLY suggest replacing your phone or taking a chance and getting help from random "tech" Those are your two options.... or you could also get famous overnight I guess..... your call. :good:

Basically you can't prove he did it
But you can testify that he manually flashed a rom to your phone
You can get any decent intelligent tech company to dump your Rom
And compare it to the original rom for changes..
And if those changes are detrimental you have a civil case against him..
But for what it will cost you in tech fees and lawyer bills
Buy 10 new phones and don't let anyone touch them.

cutie28345 said:
So my recent ex boyfriend did something to my phone and was spying on me. He knew things that he would only know bc he had access to everything on my phone. Before u think I'm just paranoid I will say that he has been charged with a crime for doin this to someone else years ago. I think he flashed my phone to do whatever he did. He's very very smart when it comes to technology, he has about 6 laptops and works with computers. He even made the comment once that if he wanted to spy on my phone that it wouldn't matter bc I could never prove it. With one of my phone's I used to could put it in recovery mode but then one day it wouldn't go into recovery mode anymore, I have two build prop files when I used to have only 1. My question is where exactly would a folder be that has a file that wpild prove he spies on me, he's too confident that he can't be caught and admitted he's done it to his exes. This is illegal and wrong and he shouldn't get away with it. I saw something called conspy and cttyhack but I'm not sure if he put it on my phone or if that's just on some phones help me please, there has to be something in a folder I'm just unsure where to look
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use a firewall and see which apps have UNUSUALLY many permissions.
i think he used d*****ack, (sorry, i will not post the name of the hack)
Its quite easy to use and CAN be combined with an existing app
it can be used to record voice/video
can even see call logs, messaging history, whatssap etc.
so boot into recovery mode and wipe factory reset FROM recovery, not settings.(if you dont want to check each app manually)

I think he used d- r- o- i- d- j- a- c- k

cutie28345 said:
So my recent ex boyfriend did something to my phone and was spying on me. He knew things that he would only know bc he had access to everything on my phone. Before u think I'm just paranoid I will say that he has been charged with a crime for doin this to someone else years ago. I think he flashed my phone to do whatever he did. He's very very smart when it comes to technology, he has about 6 laptops and works with computers. He even made the comment once that if he wanted to spy on my phone that it wouldn't matter bc I could never prove it. With one of my phone's I used to could put it in recovery mode but then one day it wouldn't go into recovery mode anymore, I have two build prop files when I used to have only 1. My question is where exactly would a folder be that has a file that wpild prove he spies on me, he's too confident that he can't be caught and admitted he's done it to his exes. This is illegal and wrong and he shouldn't get away with it. I saw something called conspy and cttyhack but I'm not sure if he put it on my phone or if that's just on some phones help me please, there has to be something in a folder I'm just unsure where to look
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are just paranoid.
about the build.prop, whenever a change is made, the system saves the original as a backup. so youll have 2. if you dont want to be paranoid anymore, in twrp or cwm recovery, wipe the system then flash another rom or a factory image. wiping the system will delete any rom or anything that was added into your system. you will need to flash a rom before you could boot up again.

I think getting a new phone will be the most hassle free and likely cheapest solution. Turn off the other phone, take out the battery and you will have nothing to worry about it anymore.
Yes you can go and do al kinds of checks yourself, reset it and have some people look at it. But will you ever be sure that there is nothing malicious left on your phone? Just holding the phone that was once (or still is) infected by your (evil?) ex-boyfriend might bring up many emotions. Please don't lose your sleep over this. Spare yourself the trouble and get a new device.
Maybe it was time for an update anyway
Good luck!

If it is a good device, give it to me
Or even a crappy one I have a collection of both)
I'll use it
That will mess with your exs mind..

How to flash to the 'carrier-unlocked' ROM?

T-Mobile will only do a 'temporary unlock' on an S8+ my friend gave me, so I've got 30 days til they lock it again (oddly enough they say we can do this 5 times....can't make sense of that but ok!)
I want to carrier-unlock/crack this handset and it doesn't matter to me if I 'trip' the CPU by rooting to do this (I don't care about not getting updates, am not even intending to use data on this handset just talk/text), though I'm not sure rooting is even required as I've read on Reddit about newer firmwares that you can flash to that, once flashed, will make the handset carrier-free - I'm hoping against hope that that's true and that there's a simple/straight-forward way to just update it and crack the lock but am doubting that, *but* if I'm OK with 'breaking' the functionality of data-usage/updates to android/etc, is there *any* possible avenue for flashing/anything to crack that lock? So long as I can still call/text I'd be happy, am more than fine 'taking it off the network' so far as data is concerned and hoping that would make *some* approach worthwhile, so far my best bet is taking a chance with sites that sell codes to unlock but I've read of people doing this only for the phone to be re-locked (presumably the carrier catches-on, this is part of why I think just disabling data completely would be a smart move for me to get&keep the handset unlocked, and losing data capabilities isn't a real issue for me in the first place as there's wifi everywhere anyways!)
Thanks for any suggestions of what I could look into, I know the 'lock' is on the cpu (snapdragon/US-based/t-mobile) so harder to get around but just can't imagine it's un-crackable w/o a tech on their side helping me (ie those 'unlock unit' sites, which I'm imagining are run by people who work within the telecom infrastructure if they're able to do what they claim- still is hard to believe they'd be able to do that very long w/o being shut-down, it's not like they're working via bitcoin-only or something!)

New1Phone said:
T-Mobile will only do a 'temporary unlock' on an S8+ my friend gave me, so I've got 30 days til they lock it again (oddly enough they say we can do this 5 times....can't make sense of that but ok!)
I want to carrier-unlock/crack this handset and it doesn't matter to me if I 'trip' the CPU by rooting to do this (I don't care about not getting updates, am not even intending to use data on this handset just talk/text), though I'm not sure rooting is even required as I've read on Reddit about newer firmwares that you can flash to that, once flashed, will make the handset carrier-free - I'm hoping against hope that that's true and that there's a simple/straight-forward way to just update it and crack the lock but am doubting that, *but* if I'm OK with 'breaking' the functionality of data-usage/updates to android/etc, is there *any* possible avenue for flashing/anything to crack that lock? So long as I can still call/text I'd be happy, am more than fine 'taking it off the network' so far as data is concerned and hoping that would make *some* approach worthwhile, so far my best bet is taking a chance with sites that sell codes to unlock but I've read of people doing this only for the phone to be re-locked (presumably the carrier catches-on, this is part of why I think just disabling data completely would be a smart move for me to get&keep the handset unlocked, and losing data capabilities isn't a real issue for me in the first place as there's wifi everywhere anyways!)
Thanks for any suggestions of what I could look into, I know the 'lock' is on the cpu (snapdragon/US-based/t-mobile) so harder to get around but just can't imagine it's un-crackable w/o a tech on their side helping me (ie those 'unlock unit' sites, which I'm imagining are run by people who work within the telecom infrastructure if they're able to do what they claim- still is hard to believe they'd be able to do that very long w/o being shut-down, it's not like they're working via bitcoin-only or something!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't (really) root US phones. You should be able to put a U(niversal) rom on it, though.
You can have it unlocked via some service, leaving out the U rom.