Sure, no one was pleased when they realized that their Prime arrived with a locked bootloader. Asus shipped the device that way because of “content providers’ requirement for DRM client devices to be as secure as possible”.  As you might know, rooted devices will not play DRM content since there is a risk of piracy. However, they announced that a bootloader unlocking tool was coming. But when?

Now, an official tweet has revealed that it is indeed coming and it will arrive in February.  Unfortunately, there have been no hints regarding an exact date of release, and unlocking it will lead to a warranty void and also there won’t be any Google video rentals. We are quite sure that most folks looking to root it are not too worried about that.  Unlocking the bootloader bring good things, like allowing for a community released GPS fix.

The post Asus Transformer Prime Bootloader Unlock Tool Coming February appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We have heard your voice and starting now, we will allow our bootloader to be unlocked for 2011 models going forward. We plan on releasing the updates that will allow you to unlock your bootloader in the coming months, please keep an eye on this website for more details on which devices will be adding this feature. We are extremely pleased to see the energy and enthusiasm from our fans and loyal customers, and we are excited to see what you are capable of. HTC eagerly anticipates your innovations.

The not so good news is that this step undertaken by HTC is followed by a flurry of caveats and disclaimers of any HTC responsibility for the customers unlocking actions. Even if that brave customer uses an official unlocking tool designed by HTC themselves. Then, the unlocker will work first for the HTC Wildfire S, Wildfire, Salsa, Merge, and Desire brands that account for 22 models. Now, by PDADB data base reports, HTC has more than 500 phones, and it remains to be seen how many of them locked and how many will be presented with an unlocker tool in good time.

Then, the FOTA option for deploying unlocker tool is quite dubious at best: if its designed as FOTA with unlocker, it certainly much safer to have a FOTA upgrade option with factory unlocked bootloader.

Even if the HTC unlocker tool is already available as a separate download, there are some problems with deploying it over what hackers did to their HTC devices already, that is, without HTC help.

But don’t get me wrong, the movement to unlock their devices’ bootloaders widens across manufacturers, and it’s a very good thing. We need to shout this news out to Motorola for the RAZR and Barnes & Noble for the NOOK Tablet.

The post HTC Dev Team Unlocks Bootloaders On Their 2011 Phones appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Motorola was not the first and it probably won’t be the last company that struggles with their customers over the issue. What seems to making users particularly angry with Motorola is that in early 2011 Motorola had promised to unlock the bootloaders of its smartphones and while it did unlock a few, a majority of Motorola phones remain locked.

The usual reasoning behind decisions for locking bootloaders from many manufacturers and carriers don’t really hold water in the eyes of customers. They want more freedom in trying alternative firmware for their phones; the respect and protection of DRM for the content saved on these phones has generally nothing to do with the decision to lock a bootloader on a given device, or just leaving it unlocked all together from the beginning. Many exploits on devices aimed at gaining root access to them are successful for both locked and unlocked bootloaders. Then, root access to the file system of a given device makes any protection scheme very questionable.

The Android community has a history of fighting against locked bootloaders in many phones from different manufacturers and carriers. The latest outcry originates in XDA-Developers community for the Motorola Droid RAZR. It was named ‘Movement of #OPMOSH (Operation: Make Ourselves Heard)’, and it has turned in to a rather heated discussion here.

We informed you already that ASUS will be unlocking the bootloader on its Transformer Prime with a special, proprietary unlocking tool of their own. This approach looks like an attempt of good compromise. While this step from ASUS is squarely directed at pleasing their customers, it might be not considered as a good precedent to influence Motorola decisions about their bootloader. Or HTC decisions. Or Acer’s decisions.

The post Motorola RAZR Owners Upset, Wanting Unlock appeared first on Mobile Magazine.