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Root Bootloader for Photon unlocked - what does this mean for Bionic?

A lot of people are going to be disappointed if the Droid Bionic is not unlockable, or fails to reach that point in the future.

I don't see why they wouldn't unlock the Bionic, it is obviously going to be a big phone squaring off against the iPhone 5. So unlocking it would increase interest with this phone dramatically.
 
Poseidon126 said:
A lot of people are going to be disappointed if the Droid Bionic is not unlockable, or fails to reach that point in the future.

I don't see why they wouldn't unlock the Bionic, it is obviously going to be a big phone squaring off against the iPhone 5. So unlocking it would increase interest with this phone dramatically.
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Carriers brah. Verizon would be like "You're gonna unlock a bootloader? On MY network?! To compete with MY FAVORITE CHILD??!:mad:"
 
Covington said:
Carriers brah. Verizon would be like "You're gonna unlock a bootloader? On MY network?! To compete with MY FAVORITE CHILD??!:mad:"
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Verizon actually has a few devices that are unlocked. Revo is, the Samsung phones, and then the Thunderbolt via Revolutionary, soon to be unlocked by HTC themselves.

If Motorola wants this to appeal to the OG Droid crowd, they have to make it unlockable.

Oh, and who's the favorite child? The iPhone? No competition there.
 
tehsusenoh said:
......The iPhone? No competition there.
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No competition?

080508-185910-849007.jpg


Just wait til you see the 5 o'clock news with a line wrapping around 2 city blocks when the iPhone comes out.
 
First the Atrix, now the Photon....there's a good chance the Bionic, the DX2, the D3 can all get theirs unlocked.

Just need folks with those phones willing to try to get it unlocked. Dont really know the details, but for more info check out the XDA threads for those phones.
 
bluefire1914 said:
No competition?

080508-185910-849007.jpg


Just wait til you see the 5 o'clock news with a line wrapping around 2 city blocks when the iPhone comes out.
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Yes, Apple gets all of the coverage. No competition for any of us, at least. I've never met a sane person who switched from Android to the iPhone, personally, except for the pictogram-esque hipsters. ;)
 
tehsusenoh said:
Yes, Apple gets all of the coverage. No competition for any of us, at least. I've never met a sane person who switched from Android to the iPhone, personally, except for the pictogram-esque hipsters. ;)
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Hey, if the Bionic's battery lasts 5 hours and the iPhone 5 has a screen over 4 inches, count me as one of the pictogram-esque hipsters.

GMDH02_00730.gif
 
bluefire1914 said:
Hey, if the Bionic's battery lasts 5 hours and the iPhone 5 has a screen over 4 inches, count me as one of the pictogram-esque hipsters.

GMDH02_00730.gif
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Aak. But it won't. That's a big battery in the photos, plus Yoda says it has good battery life.

I'd rather have Android than an iPhone any day. For the hackability. It's why I have an OG Xbox, PSP, etc. It's all about how many things I can do that the manafacturer never intended. :p

Sent from my enV Touch. (Not actually a siggy, you can't get tapatalk on a feature phone.)
 
I have been on this forum reading most for a while now and I want to ask a stupid question.....What is unlocking a phone do for ya, what will it allow you to do?
 
elcameano said:
I have been on this forum reading most for a while now and I want to ask a stupid question.....What is unlocking a phone do for ya, what will it allow you to do?
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Don't worry about it, it's not stupid at all.

A locked bootloader prevents the user from flashing any system images (ROMs, SBFs, etc) other than those signed and protected by the manafacturer or carrier (Over the air updates).

When it's unlocked, we can mess around and flash files to the system's filesystem, making it easy to root, ROM and remove the bloatware.

That being said, rooting is not impossible with a locked bootloader. Unlocking just makes things very easy.

The reason why companies lock the bootloaders is to prevent the end users from doing dumb things to their phones, making troubleshooting and fixing the problem hard for anyone who doesn't know what they're doing. It's not that they are jerks, but they need to do it to make things run smoothly.

Of course, the solution (in my opinion) to all of this is to lock the bootloaders, but then let the user unlock them (a la HTC). This strains out those who know what they're doing, making things less of a hassle, pleasing the companies, troubleshooters, regular consumers, developers and the people who love to play around.
 
Just a question, but let's say that Verizon sells 500,000 Motorola Bionics when it's released. What is your best guess, if the bootloader is indeed unlocked, as to how many Bionics out of that half millions phones will be "rooted?"
 
dirkbonn said:
Just a question, but let's say that Verizon sells 500,000 Motorola Bionics when it's released. What is your best guess, if the bootloader is indeed unlocked, as to how many Bionics out of that half millions phones will be "rooted?"
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Well, zero from the start, but probably about the 5 percent that lennydude said.
 
tehsusenoh said:
Well, zero from the start, but probably about the 5 percent that lennydude said.
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No way, I'd be the first to root my phone before I get it, making me the .00001% of the world with a rooted Bionic ;)




Haha I only wish, but yet again I heard the Bionic was supposed to have an unlocked bootloader. Reading this thread I guess that was only hearsay and the blogs I read were false (which doesn't surprise me with Motorola, Verizon, or the reliability of the internet).

Here's to seeing the Bionic release!
 
Couple this with the Google blog that Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility and I'm betting that the unlocked bootloader comes sooner rather than later.
 
Joining in late. Personally, having had the DX for over 13 months, I'm tired of hoping. Even though I love Moto's hardware, there are other great(er) phones in cue, that will be fully customizable. I won't be jumping on the Bionic, therefore.
 
Steven58 said:
Joining in late. Personally, having had the DX for over 13 months, I'm tired of hoping. Even though I love Moto's hardware, there are other great(er) phones in cue, that will be fully customizable. I won't be jumping on the Bionic, therefore.
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Although it has taken some time, the devs were able to achieve root for the X as well as 2nd init. Currently, I'm running a pure gingerbread ROM on 2.3.5 with absolutely ZERO bloat. That's really all I could ask for from any android phone I own.

I am, however, going to wait until August 29 for Samsung's PR event. If they announce that the Nexus IS coming out to VZW, I will wait for that and then make the comparison when it comes out.
 
I know several people who have gone from Android to iPhone. The thing with ios is what does, it does perfectly. Android still has many quirks. Vanilla Android Exchange support is still lacking though it supports multiple accounts. Business users demand things to work right. Sense works a bit better but has some bugs that cause contacts to disappear on Exchange. Blur (Moto app framework) is the only competition to ios exchange support. Moto hardware too rivals the best the industry has to offer.

Of course I'm hoping for an unlocked loader. The droid 2/droid x recovery is a compromise. At least sbf is available (sometimes). Rom'ing Samsung is so much nicer. even HTC phones are better in this respect once you get s off.

I don't want root for tethering so much as the guarantee of being able to update old phones and fully customizing new ones. Being able to load GB on my Eris makes it an acceptable temporary backup phone though it doesn't really have enough ram to be syncing three exchange accounts, one google and a FB.

soapbox done LOL
 
RDKamikaze said:
No way, I'd be the first to root my phone before I get it, making me the .00001% of the world with a rooted Bionic ;)
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Right. I think most fail to realize the only people rooting are people on forums like this one. Even then, only a percentage of the forum members actually root.

johnlgalt said:
Couple this with the Google blog that Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility and I'm betting that the unlocked bootloader comes sooner rather than later.
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I thought Google lost money from rooting. From my research, it looks like they are working with the carriers to crack down on it. Remeber, Google doesn't charge for Android. They make money from us when we buy apps and when we see ads. Rooting allows for side-loading apps, and removing ads.
 
Ah just remember who is the only one to release rootable phones. GOOGLE! The Nexus series is the only one with an OEM unlock! Side loading apps is not equal to pirating nor have anything to do with rooting; unless you are on ATT where they disable that in their phones. As far as removing ads, remember that Adfree android is not a rejected app from google market. In fact the Market app itself has a feature to disable targeted ads.

Oh here's something you may be interested in. Google gives the carriers a cut of the profits from app sales. Apple keeps it all for itself.
 
charlie310 said:
Right. I think most fail to realize the only people rooting are people on forums like this one. Even then, only a percentage of the forum members actually root.



I thought Google lost money from rooting. From my research, it looks like they are working with the carriers to crack down on it. Remeber, Google doesn't charge for Android. They make money from us when we buy apps and when we see ads. Rooting allows for side-loading apps, and removing ads.
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Sideloading apps can be done regardless of root in many cases - my Thunderbolt and Streak both allow it.

Google is working on cracking down on rooting because, in many cases, the exploits being used to gain root are actual security risks that need to be patched.
 
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