Related
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/31/android-still-has-horrible-text-messaging-bugs-thatll-get-you-f/
Is this really a widespread problem, or is it more Engadget anti-Android propaganda?
Not sure but I haven't experienced it in almost a year of using several android devices.
I use Handcent, so I have no idea what they're talking about.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Read the source links.
For the record, I love android. I hate all the anti-android crap going around. But I have experienced this before. One time upon booting up, my contacts were all mixed up with the wrong numbers. It was so weird. My friend became my dads name on there and another friend became my cousins whom I never texted. So when they texted me I saw the names and was like wtf? How do they know about (whatever we were chatting about earlier). Took another reboot and everything was fine. I also experienced the phone clicking on the wrong thread that I pressed, that definitely happens. I've learned to double check who Im texting.
Is this fixed by using a different SMS app then? Apparently it happens with e-mails, too, but only with the default e-mail app.
I have been using an HD2, that dual boots WM 6.5 and Android 2.2 Froyo, never had this problem.
My daughter uses a Behold 2 and sends and receives over 16000 text messages per month, and never a problem like this.
I think it's more hate against Android, since it is starting to get a strong hold of the smartphone market.
I'm also sure it's a lot of user error too.
Google just updated this to critical, so I'm guessing it'll be patched pretty soon.
It happens to me at least twice a week. I actually switched to handcent it was so bad. Thankfully I never had anything truly embarrassing go to the wrong person, but I have had some confusing moment...The worst was when I carried out a long conversations with the wrong person... The problem happens when you click on the new message item in the notification menu without actually opening it up through the messaging app. You see the correct reply thread, and it is only when you press send that you realize it sent to the wrong person. This is very real, but I used to think it was just my phone.
lmao. This is just amusing.
The ONLY time I ever got the bug was when I received a new message, I used the drop down menu bar to view the message, and this was on a beta froyo build. Any time I went through the regular messaging app, everything was fine. Last I read in a forum long ago burried, only time the bug happened was when you used the drop down...
I've used Android since the G1 was released and don't remember ever experiencing this issue. But if it is an issue, then it needs media attention to get Google to fix it as quick as possible. Although, the problem is getting the fix out, since you know, all these carriers and manufacturers take forever to get an OTA out.
Google said:
Hi all,
I want to let everyone know that we are actively investigating this issue, and we hope to have an update soon. Obviously, this is a very difficult to reproduce bug.
Rather than replying "me too", you can star this issue to follow it. Just saying "me too" just obscures the useful information in this bug, and makes it harder to fix. Of course, if you have useful information to add to the bug, such as a system dump or an insightful analysis of the code, feel free to update the bug with your observations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So they are now investigating this. I'll be using Handcent on my DHD until they sort it.
tooter1 said:
I have been using an HD2, that dual boots WM 6.5 and Android 2.2 Froyo, never had this problem.
My daughter uses a Behold 2 and sends and receives over 16000 text messages per month, and never a problem like this.
I think it's more hate against Android, since it is starting to get a strong hold of the smartphone market.
I'm also sure it's a lot of user error too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
16,000? I'm sure most networks in the UK have a 3,000 FUP
Anyway, I haven't experienced this issue in the 18 months I've been using Android
LooieENG said:
16,000? I'm sure most networks in the UK have a 3,000 FUP
Anyway, I haven't experienced this issue in the 18 months I've been using Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can believe 16,000. My 17 year old sister has about 10,000 a month. Unlimited texting, ftw.
I've been using Android since the release of the HTC Dream in Canada and I've never ever ever ran into this problem, and most of the ROMs I've ran have been beta or experimental. I'm thinking they're blowing it out of proportion.
TheBiles said:
I can believe 16,000. My 17 year old sister has about 10,000 a month. Unlimited texting, ftw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When we were on Verizon, one month it was up to 39,000. I was floored. That is when I was like thank goodness for.....Unlimited Texting FTW!
Still no problems like this.
I've never had this problem and Goggle has made a press release and said they are having a hard time replicating it. I think that there could be an error that happens once in a blue moon, but I think most of the time it's just user error.
Sent from my shoe, I mean....Epic shoe... I mean Samsung Epic! http://mobilehighway.blogspot.com/
TheBiles said:
I can believe 16,000. My 17 year old sister has about 10,000 a month. Unlimited texting, ftw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah, I believe it. I'm just curious as to how their fingers haven't worn to the bone yet?
Googles claiming they can't reproduce this internally and they've only upped it's status cause of bad publicity. That's what androidguys claim ...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Yeah sometimes when I get a message I click on the thing in the drop down menu and it takes me to another thread, but I'm pretty sure the point of clicking that button is just for it to get you to the messaging app. Also sometimes I go to the messaging app and click the top thread and it takes me to a different thread. So this bug is true at times.
Today, My girlfriend sent me a message and insted of it coming up in one big message, like the iphone, BB and other phones, it broke it down in to little 160 letter chunks, I know what SMS means that the protocal behind it but is there a way to get around the chunks and just make it one big message, i am okay with it being delayed a few seconds.
it would not bug me as much if they came in order, not 1,3,6,4,7,2,5
Any help would be greatly appreciated i love android sept for this one little problem.
ALSO this is on a HTC Desire Z
It may be a stupid question but are you sure this doesn't come from your girlfriend's phone?
Shes got a Blackberry It send as 1 message and when i revice it it show up as one message, i also just tested it from my iPhone to the desire Z and its still doing it.
and theirs no such things as a stupid question
thanks for your help
Hello Everyone,
I just got the Arrive and I'm loving it, but something weird is happening. For some reason, when I'm writing a txt, it just flat out stops at 160 characters and doesn't continue the message with an auto-split.
I called into Sprint, HTC, and Windows Phone support and they all think" woah, that's weird" and the majority of tech support didn't even know it had launched already. I also read the manual from Sprint, HTC, and from Microsoft stating that 160+ characters will be auto-split.
Since the phone is so new, as well as NoDo and such, I have not seen anything about this issue and it's driving me mad. My only theory is that for some unknown reason Microsoft limited the txt messaging in CDMA WP7 to 160 because CDMA doesn't handle 160+ characters well. If this is the case, WTF?!
I know there are very few of you who have an Arrive, but anybody have this same problem? Anybody have any ideas on how to fix this?
The only workaround I have is sending the message incomplete and continuing it with another (and that makes me feel like I'm using my old Nokia with Snake. I haven't had a phone that couldn't handle more than 160 characters before)
Mine does the same thing, while it is a little annoying until it get resolved sending it parts is the only work around.
Well that's lame.
Why does it seem like Microsoft is just dropping the ball with the basics on Windows Phone 7? I love the OS to pieces and I really like the phone, but these little nuances (along with simple things like changing colors, custom ringtones, group contacts, etc) are just plain unacceptable.
Also, I noticed something about the Arrive.
The OS version is 7.0.7389.0
but the NoDo being pushed today is 7.0.7390.0
That 0.0.0001.0 Might be all the difference, at least I hope so. It means a posibility of a tiny update
I wouldn't count on any updates in the forseeable future. And FWIW the manual for the phone says that it will break up messages longer than 160 characters, so this definitely sounds like a bug.
-R
I just learned this might be unique only to the Arrive
It is, I have the arrive and buddy has focus with nodo, his splits texts fine.
ScottSUmmers said:
I just learned this might be unique only to the Arrive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
It must be all Arrives, because mine does the same thing. It's very annoying when you're used to having your texts auto-split. My Touch Pro 2 split text messages just fine, so I see no reason that it should be a problem with the Arrive. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.
Sent from my T7575 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
My Arrive does the same thing. Of course, I didn't read the manual, so I wasn't aware that it was supposed to work differently (but had expected it to since even my WM5.0 Cingular 8125 did it).
And I've already heard that the .0001 isn't significant in terms of build number. CDMA vs GSM difference only.
Its an issue with Microsoft not implementing proper code for CDMA text splitting its annoying but they'll fix it.
Hi, I am an employee of Sprint. The HTC Arrive was intended to allow users to exceed 160 characters by automatically creating a new message after 160 characters is exceeded. This is explained on pg. 83 of the HTC Arrive User Guide. Currently the device will not allow users to exceed the 160 character limit. This has been recognized as a known issue and Sprint has asked Microsoft to address this issue in a future update.
Looks like it wasn't fixed in Mango. At least not for me
...
I am so tempted to ditch my Arrive right *now*. Sprint/HTC has been notified many times over about this issue. They had time to fix it. There is no excuse for this.
EDIT: Anyone know if Verizon HTC Trophy owners are having the same limit? I'm hearing *nothing* from that sector.
Chris-h11 said:
Looks like it wasn't fixed in Mango. At least not for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't. This was the single thing I was most looking forward to. If they didn't update it with Mango, I suspect it will never be fixed.
I really hope that Sprint releases a new device, as I am ready a Windows Phone variant of the Galaxy SII.
Got the update notification. Updated, and sure enough, that limit is still there.
I don't think any words can sum up how much rage I am feeling right now. I really just want to throw caution to the wind and grab a Photon 4G.
To note: If this limit was stated clearly in the manual, I wouldn't have a problem with it. It is the fact that this is a feature that is SUPPOSED TO EXIST, but does not.
I son't understand why you're all raging of such a simple thing, I rarely need to write more than 160 chars in an SMS (a 1 minute call would be cheaper for me in that case ), but yeah it's apparently an Arrive-only bug because I don't have it in my HTC 7 Pro.
hassanselim0 said:
I son't understand why you're all raging of such a simple thing, I rarely need to write more than 160 chars in an SMS (a 1 minute call would be cheaper for me in that case ), but yeah it's apparently an Arrive-only bug because I don't have it in my HTC 7 Pro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct...last we knew it was a Sprint firmware issue as you can now type more than 160 chars but the phone won't send it. I haven't been over to BUZZ in a while but try seeing if the Buzz About Wireless people are talking about it since that's Sprint offical forum
The 7 Pro won't have an issue because it's GSM, and GSM can support it no problem.
Only the 7 Pro (US Cellular) and Arrive will have this issue.
And I regularly send messages that get close to or go over 160 characters, and rarely make phone calls. So for me, this is a pretty big deal.
EDIT: Got one person saying this isn't an issue on the CDMA Trophy:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1280146
If this is the case, it's HTC/Sprint's problem, not Microsoft's.
EDIT: Got first-hand confirmation that this is now HTC/Sprint's problem:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anticitizen/6193110593/
That is a CDMA Trophy, doing a messaging split. I sent it to myself, and sure enough, it came through as two messages, but it did come through.
Btw, bump, just in case no one saw my edits. (Since they're a tad significant)
Yet another edit: Reached out to HTC over this. Gist of the response from them: We have no updates coming to fix any of the issues with the Arrive.
Going to give this one last bump, because seriously, this problem is really, really irritating.
I have some communication with HTC, but all I'm getting from them is "We'll notify you when we have more information!" Listen, I don't want more information. I just want to know if some kind of fix is being worked on. Or if they're going to get around to it. It's getting infuriating to wait on this.
Just noticed this on my N5, someone with an iPhone sent me a pic via text and I get a "Unable to show image." with an X where the pic would be. Someone with a Blackberry and other Android phones can text me no issues.
My wife has an S4 and she also has this problem, texts from iPhone users don't come through.
We are on an AT&T plan with no contract, just switched from Sprint and we never noticed this issue on Sprint. (of course they had other issues)
Any idea on what this could be if it is only isolated to me? If it is a larger issue is there a resolution?
Thanks
Raistlin1 said:
Just noticed this on my N5, someone with an iPhone sent me a pic via text and I get a "Unable to show image." with an X where the pic would be. Someone with a Blackberry and other Android phones can text me no issues.
My wife has an S4 and she also has this problem, texts from iPhone users don't come through.
We are on an AT&T plan with no contract, just switched from Sprint and we never noticed this issue on Sprint. (of course they had other issues)
Any idea on what this could be if it is only isolated to me? If it is a larger issue is there a resolution?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a stupid question, but what iPhone is it not sending it from ?
I red a recent article where Apple has admitted that it is an issue from their server end and they are trying to work on it. I think the issue is with people registering their SIM on imessage then using that SIM number on an android device. It's suppose to be feature for imessage to be able to send text back and forth on iPhone for free.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I am in a group mms with:
2 x Iphone 5s
1 x Iphone 5
2 x Iphone 4s
1 x Iphone 4
1 x S4
and my nexus.
I generally won't get a response from one of the 4s even though she resonds, but my fiance's 4s works.
Don't know what's up with that.
bushako said:
I red a recent article where Apple has admitted that it is an issue from their server end and they are trying to work on it. I think the issue is with people registering their SIM on imessage then using that SIM number on an android device. It's suppose to be feature for imessage to be able to send text back and forth on iPhone for free.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My issue is an iPhone user sending me or my wife an MMS message on our Android phones and us not getting the picture. Now if those iPhone users previously had Android phones or something else I have no idea.
But I have also read about what you posted, but not sure that relates to my issue.
dia_naji said:
Sounds like a stupid question, but what iPhone is it not sending it from ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what iPhone version the people are using, my friend had a 5 or 5s I think.
YES, yes I have!
It's kind of.. comforting to know that I'm not the only one.
It's insanely frustrating, though, that I can get MMS just fine from Android, and really, most of the time from iPhones.. but the ones that I know I am missing, all of them were from iPhones. Group messages, picture messages, it's a crapshoot as to whether or not they work, but my mom is the most frustrated with it that I am not receiving her messages in our family group messages. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one, and that my carrier isn't the issue. Is there an article about Apple admitting the faults?
One more thing - I've never had an iPhone, never had my number registered with iMessage.
wizard7926 said:
YES, yes I have!
It's kind of.. comforting to know that I'm not the only one.
It's insanely frustrating, though, that I can get MMS just fine from Android, and really, most of the time from iPhones.. but the ones that I know I am missing, all of them were from iPhones. Group messages, picture messages, it's a crapshoot as to whether or not they work, but my mom is the most frustrated with it that I am not receiving her messages in our family group messages. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one, and that my carrier isn't the issue. Is there an article about Apple admitting the faults?
One more thing - I've never had an iPhone, never had my number registered with iMessage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems that for some time now (years?) if there was ever a problem with mms it was with an iPhone. My sisters 5s works, but a 4 or 4s I don't always get their mms. I don't even worry about it any more. I just always figured it was some conspiracy perpetuated by the black turtle neck wearing nazi to screw with android when he was around! :laugh:
wantabe said:
It seems that for some time now (years?) if there was ever a problem with mms it was with an iPhone. My sisters 5s works, but a 4 or 4s I don't always get their mms. I don't even worry about it any more. I just always figured it was some conspiracy perpetuated by the black turtle neck wearing nazi to screw with android when he was around! :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was able to test this out last night. Out with a friend, he had his iPhone out and I asked him to send me a pic message. Nothing came through (full bars LTE). Had him send me a text message, came right through.
I've definitely been experiencing this intermittently for a few weeks now - I feel like I've also had an issue in general getting MMS bc my gf sends me stuff and i get it like half the time.
Or i get the message and it says unable to download, and never downloads
wizard7926 said:
Was able to test this out last night. Out with a friend, he had his iPhone out and I asked him to send me a pic message. Nothing came through (full bars LTE). Had him send me a text message, came right through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really started to notice this a couple years ago or so. I bought my One X the week they came out and maybe a month or two later I got tired of not getting mms messages thinking it was my phone that was the problem. Called AT&T, they escalated it up to a couple different techs, phone calls back and forth, got an engineer involved. Checked that the data was set up right, that the sim was provisioned right, they sent messages to my phone, blah, blah, blah! Long story short, I came to the conclusion that failing to receive mms only happened when sent by an iPhone. And I've only ever received failed mms from the iPhone 4 and 4s, I don't remember any failed mms from the 5s (whatever the newest one is) or from other android devices. The funny thing is iPhone users ALWAYS receive mine. I don't know what's going on but I've seen it for some time now and on every device I've owned. Personally... I think it's an iOS and/or iMessage problem.
This is an Apple issue. They know of it but once they have their money they don't care, ESP with iPhone to android issues as they think the world should be apple
From the wonders of mobile telephony.
howard bamber said:
This is an Apple issue. They know of it but once they have their money they don't care, ESP with iPhone to android issues as they think the world should be apple
From the wonders of mobile telephony.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any explanation on why it's just starting to happen? I never remember having this issue before.
Is it an iOS 7+ issue?
I have the same issue with receiving MMS messages from iPhone users. A family member was trying to send me an image of their new car and I kept thinking T-Mobile was having issues. Hopefully Apple pushes a fix soon.
wantabe said:
I really started to notice this a couple years ago or so. I bought my One X the week they came out and maybe a month or two later I got tired of not getting mms messages thinking it was my phone that was the problem. Called AT&T, they escalated it up to a couple different techs, phone calls back and forth, got an engineer involved. Checked that the data was set up right, that the sim was provisioned right, they sent messages to my phone, blah, blah, blah! Long story short, I came to the conclusion that failing to receive mms only happened when sent by an iPhone. And I've only ever received failed mms from the iPhone 4 and 4s, I don't remember any failed mms from the 5s (whatever the newest one is) or from other android devices. The funny thing is iPhone users ALWAYS receive mine. I don't know what's going on but I've seen it for some time now and on every device I've owned. Personally... I think it's an iOS and/or iMessage problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So.. I may have figured it out.
I removed my cell phone number from my iTunes account information.
Still testing my theory, but.. I had sent the suggested text message to Apple for posterity, the one that is supposed to remove you from the iMessage database. I have never once used iMessage, but I figured better safe than sorry. While the message back confirmed my removal, I still had the issues, so I kept hunting. I came across an article (I've read through so many that they are all running together at this point, honestly) where someone mentioned iTunes, so I went in to my iTunes settings and removed my cell phone number from my iTunes account, replacing it with my MagicJack landline. I then texted the Apple number again for more posterity. Curious and excited, I asked a friend to attempt to send a picture message. Sure enough... IT. CAME. THROUGH!
I asked a few more iPhone friends to chip in, and everything seems to be more or less ducky right now. Group texts seem to come in again. Still testing, but it looks like a good start. If you have an iTunes account, I would highly recommend going in and removing any trace of your cell phone number from anything Apple, because it appears that something buggy with their databasing might cause your number to get into the iMessage catch-all. I'll keep you guys posted!
ALSO, a friend pointed out that the newest version of iTunes can receive iMessages because they want it to be cross-platform?? Who here uses iTunes and has the issue? That might be the ticket there..
Some timeline that I can come up with:
- I have never had an iPhone with active service.
- I HAVE, however, had an iPhone used only as a wifi device, but since that was an original iPhone, it never even got up to the firmware update that included iMessage, so.. not sure how relevant that even is.
- I have not purchased any music on iTunes in quite a long while, probably a year or so. Haven't updated my information, either.
- I did just reformat my computer and reinstall the newest version of iTunes, which I guess was around a month ago, which was probably about the time I started having issues (correlation doesn't imply causation, I know).
TL;DR: Try removing your cell phone number entirely from your computer's iTunes account, it might work!
---------- Post added at 03:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:38 PM ----------
TXRaunchy said:
I generally won't get a response from one of the 4s even though she resonds, but my fiance's 4s works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Raistlin1 said:
My issue is an iPhone user sending me or my wife an MMS message on our Android phones and us not getting the picture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AceKingNYC said:
I've definitely been experiencing this intermittently for a few weeks now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd be interested for you to guys to check out my post above and see if it applies. I feel like I might be on the path to figuring out what's causing all of this..
I think that is entirely wishful thinking on your part! If it works great but I'm extremely skeptical. I have never purchased or owned an Apple product and I have never used iTunes. Before the One X I had the HTC Aria and before that I had a Samsung Jack windows mobile device and before that numerous Nokia's. I personally know people that use an iPhone 4 or 4s and I expect that their mms will occasionally fail, not always but often enough to be annoying. I don't even say anything to them anymore. It's definitely not as bad now as it was before the 5 and 5s came out. A lot of the iSheep have the 5s now and I don't have a problem receiving mms from that phone, yet! Like I said before "I just always figured it was some conspiracy perpetuated by the black turtle-neck wearing nazi to screw with android when he was around!"
I have received MMS ok from iOS users but group messaging sucks ass, I could never send a group message without it sending individually to each person in the chat. I think apple just doesn't like android
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Perhaps this article could shed some light on this issue
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/22/tech/mobile/aple-imessage-problems-fix/
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
bushako said:
Perhaps this article could shed some light on this issue
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/22/tech/mobile/aple-imessage-problems-fix/
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That acknowledges the issue of someone having an iPhone and switching to a different OS and having issues, but what about those of us who never had an iPhone?
Okay could you try and sign out of iMessage from the iPhone and then try sending the MMS?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
so im making the switch from ios to android. ive had ios since the iphone came out but made the switch to android a few years back with an htc vivid but the back plate got too hot to hold so i traded it in for a galaxy s2 and after about 6mons of ownership, i dropped it on carpet and it turned off and wouldnt turn back on. after that, i switched back to ios. so i had a bad first experience with android. i just ordered the opo and plan on rooting it day one. i always jailbroke my iphones and wanted widgets and weather on my lockscreen but the options ios users have are crap and drain the battery. im a big fan of street fighter 4 volt on ios and will be sad that i cant play online anymore, but im sure ill find another game on android that i love too.
im coming from an iphone 6 (not the 6 plus) and i felt like the screen was too big, but the more i thought about it, i think apple just didnt handle the larger screen sizes very well. they put all the buttons at the top of the screen. on android a lot of the buttons are at the bottom. this was annoying in apps like mail. i switched to mercury browser on ios and made it the default web browser, so ill likely do the same on android but i want to try out a few and see. the ones i know of are... mercury, dolphin, and k9 (i think thats what its called). mail apps i honestly have no clue what you guys use but i heard the stock mail app that is on cm is pretty good. i use 3 gmails, an icloud, and an outlook, so id need something that can manage all 5
im excited to learn about android and what all it has to offer and i hope eventually ill be able to help the next new guy like myself
randrewm97 said:
so im making the switch from ios to android. ive had ios since the iphone came out but made the switch to android a few years back with an htc vivid but the back plate got too hot to hold so i traded it in for a galaxy s2 and after about 6mons of ownership, i dropped it on carpet and it turned off and wouldnt turn back on. after that, i switched back to ios. so i had a bad first experience with android. i just ordered the opo and plan on rooting it day one. i always jailbroke my iphones and wanted widgets and weather on my lockscreen but the options ios users have are crap and drain the battery. im a big fan of street fighter 4 volt on ios and will be sad that i cant play online anymore, but im sure ill find another game on android that i love too.
im coming from an iphone 6 (not the 6 plus) and i felt like the screen was too big, but the more i thought about it, i think apple just didnt handle the larger screen sizes very well. they put all the buttons at the top of the screen. on android a lot of the buttons are at the bottom. this was annoying in apps like mail. i switched to mercury browser on ios and made it the default web browser, so ill likely do the same on android but i want to try out a few and see. the ones i know of are... mercury, dolphin, and k9 (i think thats what its called). mail apps i honestly have no clue what you guys use but i heard the stock mail app that is on cm is pretty good. i use 3 gmails, an icloud, and an outlook, so id need something that can manage all 5
im excited to learn about android and what all it has to offer and i hope eventually ill be able to help the next new guy like myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome back to Android. The first thing you need to do when you get your phone is unlock your bootloader, do this before you really start using it because doing so wipes all user data. Even if you don't want to flash ROMs having an unlocked bootloader is essential because you need it unlocked to flash stock images, and flashing stock images is what will get you out of trouble if something ever goes wrong with your device. I've written a very detailed and easy to understand guide here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2839471
You might be tempted to use a toolkit to do things for you, but I'd advise you not to because they bypass some very crucial learning. And anyway, a toolkit really isn't needed for this device, it's very easy to work with. So check out my guide and feel free to ask any questions if any arise.
Transmitted via Bacon
android base
The android is based off Linux. So everything is open source. Anything broken can be repaired. Take time to read and study. Learn all you can, and use a second phone for development. Remember.. Always make a backup...Always have redundant copies
Cheers, and enjoy.