Motorola Releases an Official Bootloader Unlocker

New submitter Nertskull writes "Motorola has released a tool to allow anyone to unlock the bootloader on their phone/tablet. The only supported device so far is the Photon Q 4G LTE, though three other devices are supported through their developer unlock program. Support for unlocking other devices is supposedly on its way." Motorola leads into the unlocking process with this amusing tidbit: "WARNING: Motorola strongly recommends against unlocking the bootloader and/or modifying or altering a device's software or operating system. Doing so can have unintended, unforeseen, and dangerous consequences, such as rendering the device unusable, violating applicable laws, or causing property damage and/or bodily injury, including death." Careful, folks; unlocking that bootloader might kill you.

Re:Wow

[TheGratefulNet]

yup, last time I saw someone do an 'rm -rf' he lost one of his fingers. and once, a friend of a friend tried running fdisk and to this day, he still can't talk right.

it can happen, folks! believe it.

Let me break it down for you.

[supercrisp]

Rooted custom OS leads to installing from "Uknown Sources." Installing apps from unknown sources leads to installing pirated apps. Installing pirated apps leads to installing pirated media. Pirating media leads to terrorism. Terrorism leads to death. QED.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, the Yakuza take system administration very seriously.

Re:Wow

[flex941]

Why so complicated and technical?

Unlocking the bootloader can cause death, because the one doing the unlocking probably proceeds by rooting his device and putting god knows what on the device.

Next thing you know, the guy is on the road exploiting the GPS functionality of said and unlocked/rooted device. But the GPS is now a bit flaky (just buggy software or intentionally misleading)
and instead directing the guy to the real highway gives him a parallel side-road but displaying to correct one. The guy - feeling really good about everything and listening to the pathetic music
coming off the car-radio - does not notice a thing.

Next thing you know some guerilla guys stop his car, help him get rid of his earthly possessions and one the way to the heavenly roads. Nice and quick.

So, unlocking your bootloader can kill you. And no explosion in your face needed for that to happen.

Re:Now for iOS?

[Miamicanes]

> When is Apple following suit?

You didn't get the memo? iPhone 5w. "w", as in "Woz Edition".

Rumored features include

  * Zigbee wireless mesh networking

  * multiplexed pins on the headphone jack that can be repurposed for I2C, SPI, or GPIO (not at the same time, obviously). Oh, and legacy UART (3.3v logic) that also supports Atmel-friendly baudrates (125kbit, 250kbit, 1mbit), 9-bit word length (9/N/1, to be exact), and can use pin #3 for GPIO, RTS, CTS, or synchronous clocking in or out.

  * fixed 4800mAH lithium cell

  * gamepad wings that slide out from the underside (to the left and right when held in landscape orientation). One side has an analog stick & digital stick, the other side has an analog stick & 4 buttons.

* Volume button pair that also serves as the "left trigger button" in "gamepad" orientation, and 2-stage camera button that serves as the "right trigger button" in gamepad orientation. All of which can be intercepted, redefined, and repurposed by end users as they see fit.

The iPhone 5w's flagship applications will be a logic analyzer/DSO, which demonstrates the use of the bundled iProbe (4 clip-on leads, terminating at a 1/8" TRRRS headphone jack). Additional accessories will allow connectivity to most car ECUs, CANbus, and JTAG.

Oh, and the phone will also include a fully-unlocked bootloader. Of course, not even Woz will likely be able to get the Powers that Be at Apple to release the source to their crown jewel, but it won't matter. People will buy one, and reflash it to Android. Even Larry & Sergey will be spotted in public with it (running Android, of course).