Windows 7 Phone Gets Jailbreak Tool 159
An anonymous reader writes "Developers have released a 'jailbreak' tool for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, allowing the handsets to run any application, not just those approved for distribution through Microsoft's Marketplace. Although reminiscent of jailbreak tools for the iPhone, this tool, called ChevronWP7, addresses a feature missing in Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. It allows corporations to develop proprietary applications and install them on users' handsets without the need to first place the application on Marketplace, as is currently required by Microsoft."
Unofficial hack in a corporation?! (Score:1, Insightful)
What corporation would possibly use this? It has bad idea written all over it. If you base your business on being able to hack the phone then you're going to be SOL if Microsoft locks it down again.
As a business your best bet is to use a phone that meets your requirements and is officially supported by the phone manufacture without having to resort to hacks.
It's an API! (Score:4, Insightful)
According to this guy [withinwindows.com] it uses the same APIs as the Windows phone developer tools do.
Yep this is just a trick. Microsoft has released a veiled "Jailbreak" and by the time you're done coding your application for your Jailbroke Windows 7 Phone, you'll realize that you just coded a WinCE application for a mobile phone! Even worse, you purchased one thinking you could jailbreak it!
Sincerely,
Admiral Ackbar
Re:Huh (Score:3, Insightful)
Once again it is over the heads of the community here to see that people really don't want all this freedom in their computing platforms. They just want it to work. They pay for having a working gadget. Why does this escape the average Slashdotter?
I'm totally shocked. (Score:3, Insightful)
btw Its Windows Phone, or Windows Phone 7 (Score:1, Insightful)
Can we not call it Windows 7 Phone? Its Windows Phone.. as in Windows Phone OS 7, is it really that confusing? I thought we were nerds here
Re:Misfeature (Score:3, Insightful)
It allows corporations to develop proprietary applications and install them on users' handsets without the need to first place the application on Marketplace, as is currently required by Microsoft.
Any chance the jailbreak comes with the option to disable this functionality?
Why?
Isn't the whole point of jailbreaking a phone like this so that you can run your own code on it? So that you're not tied to the marketplace?
Why would you go to the trouble of jailbreaking a phone if you didn't want to run code on it that was not marketplace-approved?
If you don't want that feature, don't jailbreak your phone.
Re:Huh (Score:3, Insightful)
You give Microsoft (and Apple) too much credit. It's all about routing users through their respective App Stores, which allow them to have complete control over the platform and turn every bit of functionality into a revenue source for themselves.
Allowing users to sideload software defeats that entirely.
Same goes for PCs, and I'm sure Microsoft would love it if you agreed to hand complete control over your PC over to them. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to push this lock down model up in the stack over the next few years. So much for being opposed to Trusted Computing, eh?
Because, quite frankly, LOCK DOWN NOT REQUIRED FOR THIS TO HAPPEN. Yet stupid arguments like this keep getting made. This kind of restriction serves no one but Apple/Microsoft.
Re:Not a jailbreak (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Huh (Score:5, Insightful)
Original iPhone lacked 3G, MMS, video recording, third party apps of any kind, and of course an app store. To top it off, it cost $500-$600, came on one carrier, and a single form factor for all. This, on top of multitasking and copy/paste. If the only two things you can pick out are cp/multitasking, you're just grasping at straws to find shortcomings of the platform.
The fact is, these shortcomings of the iPhone were vehemently defended by Apple aficionados. Before June 21, 2010, the official line from Apple users was "Who needs multitasking on a phone?" Now it's some sort of benchmark for the success/failure of a platform, despite the fact that the iPhone earned most of its respect before iOS 4.0.
I understand that today, iPhone does have multitasking/c&p, and I agree it's a shortcoming of the WP7 platform, but I don't think it's a deal killer as there are other reasons to want one of the phones (xbox integration, wireless sync, zunepass, and office integration are my major interests in the platform), and they're sure to be introduced in future updates.
Re:It's an API! (Score:4, Insightful)
Really? All they'd have to do is make it a user optional switch with respect to non-store software and flip it to off by default, and make the store prominent. They'd probably never have an issue. Forcibly locking the system down with no opt-out doesn't help security at all.
Like Apple, this is all about total control over the end user and using that control to route them through profit centers (and I don't believe for a moment that these stores will not be profitable, otherwise what's the point.)