So we have some good news, and some bad news. The good news was reported this morning which is the fact that AT&T’s locked down Samsung GALAXY S 4 smartphone was hacked. Popular Android developers went to work and managed to hack and completely unlock that locked bootloader in just two days. The bad news, they won’t be releasing the unlock tool for another month.
Why you ask? Blame Verizon. Not really, but the developers behind this newly discovered exploit on Samsung’s GALAXY S 4 are correct in assuming that Verizon will also lock it down themselves. So in an attempt to save himself, and the developer community some time and hard work, they won’t be releasing the exploit method in hopes that it will work for all versions.
It’s a smart move, but sadly this little cat and mouse game with the carriers and manufacturers needs to stop. When Steve Kondik confirmed the S4 on AT&T was locked, he made some clear reasons as to why it does them no good. Dan (the man behind the hack) hopes that by not releasing the exploit, Samsung won’t close the exploit in time for Verizon to release the phone on May 30th. Which means his method will work on it too. They’ll patch it eventually, but hopefully not before we get a path to full access.
The developer behind the unlock, djrbliss, was nice enough to answer some questions over on XDA and basically confirmed these details. Stating he won’t be releasing this until after Verizon’s GALAXY S 4 hits the streets. He actually posted an entire Q and A sessions about the lock, so if you’re interested we have provided that at the via below. So in the end yes the S4 bootloader has been unlocked. And no, you can’t have it yet. Stay tuned!
[via XDA]
[device id=5332]
