unlock - Android Community

PSA: Unlocking your phone is illegal starting today

By Cory Gunther
on 26 Jan, 2013

In case you haven't heard, starting today it will be illegal for users to unlock their phone. Yes a device you've actually paid for. While this has absolutely nothing to do with root, jailbreak, and tweaking phones like we all love to in the Android Community, it's still a shame. Thanks to some edits and tweaks made the the DMCA back in October it's now illegal to unlock a phone without carrier consent.

Motorola has no plans to unlock older devices

By Cory Gunther
on 22 Aug, 2012

Sadly I'm not really surprised with the news that just landed in our tip box this afternoon. Motorola has just released an informal statement over on Twitter regarding the bootloader unlock process they've recently released. Today they've confirmed that older devices will not get their bootloaders unlocked.

Motorola “Unlock My Device” Website goes live – finally can unlock bootloaders

By Cory Gunther
on 17 Aug, 2012

It's about time! Today Motorola has finally launched their initiative to allow Android users the option to unlock the bootloader on their smartphones. We've been waiting for this to come for well over a year, and today they've finally started the process. Motorola has just launched their Unlock My Device website although there's currently no supported devices.

Motorola finally unlocking bootloaders – for real this time

By Cory Gunther
on 26 Jul, 2012

Great news! And yes it's actually true although we've heard Motorola sing this tune before. Today they've announced that starting with their new Motorola PHOTON Q they'll be unlocking bootloaders. On a very brief Blog post Motorola outlines that they'll also offer this to other devices in the future too -- but who knows how long that will take. We can probably all thank Google for this too.

AT&T HTC One X gets its bootloader unlocked

By Cory Gunther
on 24 May, 2012

If you're the type that enjoys tweaking your Android smartphone (who doesn't) and have recently purchased the HTC One X we have good news today. After we reported on AT&T's efforts to lock down the bootloader it appears that they've failed because the trusty XDA developers have already got a solution. You can now safely and easily unlock the AT&T HTC One X bootloader using the method below.

Reminder: Unlock HTC One S and X bootloaders at HTCDev

By Cory Gunther
on 2 May, 2012

So T-Mobile finally released their new HTC One S and you're loving it right? Then AT&T's One X will arrive in a few days and the next step for any die hard Android fan would be to unlock the bootloader, root the phone and get ready for some awesome developer ROM's to arrive. Just like most of HTC's current phones you can easily and safely unlock the bootloader with HTC's developer site.

Google patent depicts future lockscreen features on Android

By Sam Koutroulakis
on 17 Feb, 2012

After Apple patented their "Slide To Unlock" lockscreen method, Google has been busy readying their own next-gen unlock features. Surprisingly, it looks to work just like the one used in HTC Sense 3.0. By sliding applications to the respective unlock area, users will be able to instantly access particular apps with ease.

ASUS confirms bootloader unlock tool coming this February

By Cory Gunther
on 24 Jan, 2012

ASUS has just issued a quick and timely update stating when we will be seeing the bootloader unlock tool for their popular quad-core Transformer Prime tablet. I'm happy to announce that the official Twitter page @ASUS just tweeted the update software will be here in February -- so it's coming soon folks.

All cellphones in Chile must be sold unlocked

By Sam Koutroulakis
on 3 Jan, 2012

Though this doesn't specifically refer to Android, it undoubtedly applies to every cellphone in Chile. Active immediately Monday, January 16th, all phones sold within the country must be unlocked to use on any mobile phone company. The announcement was made by the Department of Telecommunicaitons of Chile, Subtel today.

HTC Thunderbolt gets the HTCDev unlock treatment

By Cory Gunther
on 30 Dec, 2011

HTC has been busy adding devices and support for their bootloader unlocking program and just yesterday announced that all devices released after September 2011 are fully unlockable. While this is great news I know there are still thousands of HTC Thunderbolt owners waiting for the real thing too. Today it appears they've updated just that as the Thunderbolt and Incredible 2 have now been added to HTCDev.com and are now truly free.