Is your Android phone's bootloader unlocked? Is it SIM unlocked? What's the difference? There's been a bit of confusion in the blogs the past few days over unlocking phones. Maybe you're wondering about an unlocked bootloader. Or maybe you need something that's SIM unlocked. Or maybe you want to unlock your phone's bootloader, but you can't, because it's encrypted. It's confusing, we...
Want a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III without all the huffing and puffing that comes a long with encrypted bootloaders? The manufacture has you covered, as it will offer a "developer edition" Verizon Galaxy S 3 through its developer portal for $599. The other U.S. versions of the Galaxy S 3 all ship with unlockable bootloaders. But not Verizon. Samsung, apparently, has decided to take...
We don't have an official unlock through HTCDev yet, but that hasn't stopped the bootloader on the AT&T One X from being unlocked. After days of watching the devs do their thing on XDA, it seems that they have finally cracked it. This is the first thing we need to be able to flash all those custom ROM's we love, the next being a working recovery, which will probably follow suit...
We usually don't worry too awful much about the various people importing and hawking unlocked phones on the Internet, but sometimes things just need passed along. The deals site Daily Steals has the unlocked, Tegra 3 version of the HTC One X up for sale, and if you want to part with $630, you can get your hands on the world version. We're not going to get in the middle of the debate...
As promised, the bootloader unlock tool for the ASUS Transformer Prime is now available for download from ASUS directly. It's a simple little .apk that you'll download, move to your tablet and install, and it will set in motion the ability to rock custom ROMs and basically mod to you heart's content. Note that you'll need to have the Ice Cream Sandwich update installed, but you've...
ASUS this morning teased some news regarding the locked and encrypted bootloader on its quad-core Transformer Prime tablet -- and it's good news. A bootloader unlock tool indeed is on the way. As to why the bootloader's encrypted in the first place, ASUS says it was done for DRM -- digital rights management -- purposes. The reason we chose to lock it is due to content providers'...
Sony Ericsson has just announced that the Xperia Ray (see our hands-on) will now be available for US customers as unlocked, contract-free devices. Checking in at $425, it's quite a nice package -- 3.3-inch screen, 8.1MP camera (Alex says the new S.E. camera's are top notch), front facing camera for video chat, 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB RAM, and all wrapped up in a stylish aluminum...
Sensation, EVO 3D up first; future devices will still ship locked It's been nearly a month since HTC's last updated us on how it intends to start unlocking bootloaders, and it the Taiwanese manufacturer just dropped a doozy of an update on Facebook. Here's the deal:New devices will continue to ship with locked bootloaders.HTC will allow bootloaders to be unlocked using a web-based tool....
The Dell Streak hasn't exactly been a resounding success, but the PC manufacturer is looking to climb back into the race by offering the Streak directly from their website with numerous options. There are a couple different price points, so lets walk through them:$550 - 16GB, locked to AT&T or $300 with 2-year contract$580 - 16GB, unlocked$649 - 32GB, locked to AT&T or $400 with...
In celebration of our new unlocking help forums opening up today, we have a contest for anyone out there who has an HTC GSM device and would like to no longer have it locked to any specific carrier. Courtesy of folks over at CellUnlock.net we'll be giving away 50 codes in total. Let's make entry a little interesting though, leave a comment in the contest forums letting us know what...
At 499 Euros (about $660 US) it's not cheap, but who doesn't want to see a Samsung Galaxy S in white? Hopefully, if this blurry picture turns out to be true, sometime this autumn Android fans in Spain will be able to get their hands on one. Maybe it's just me, but some phones look really nice in white -- and I think the Galaxy S would be one of them. What say you? Feeling the white...
Everybody loves the option of choosing their own carrier. And the Dell Streak is now available for purchase factory unlocked. The half-tablet-computer-half-phone Dell Streak packs a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-inch display capable of taking quite a beating, along with a number of other goodies. The Streak shipped with Android 1.6 but will be updated to 2.2, as promised by Dell,...
Android phones are coming out of the woodwork! Alaskan regional carrier GCI announced today that they will have the Motorola Milestone and the HTC Desire available for pre-order "early next week", and PocketNow has shows us where we can buy an unlocked HTC Legend with AT&T 3G bands.No word on exact dates or pricing from GCI, but I'm watching closely and will shout out when they...
With the launch of the Nexus One on T-Mobile, the spotlight has been cast on "unlocked" GSM phones of late, or how to unlock a phone. (The short version is you need a code.) It's not a huge deal in the United States, especially because T-Mobile and AT&T don't use the same 3G radio frequencies, so swapping isn't too terribly common, but it does happen. But if you're going overseas...
The bad news: There's a flaw in the Motorola Droid 2.0.1 software that can potentially allow someone access to your data even if you have a lock pattern set.It seems that if your phone receives a call -- you can answer the phone without unlocking -- and hit the "back" button, suddenly you're in. No unlock pattern required. And that's bad.The good news: For this to work, someone has to...
The Samsung Galaxy I7500, once Samsung's only Android device and previously unavailable in the US, has hit stateside. The good news? It's not tied down to a carrier so any GSM user can pop in their SIM card and get rolling. The bad news? It's not tied down to a carrier so there's no subsidies, which means you'll have to pony up $579.99 to get rolling. Yikes.We'd be hard pressed to find...
If you were around a computer connected to the Internet yesterday you may have noticed a flurry of news items and posts detailing the unlock of the T-Mobile G1. Hey, we're all for freedom and openness here at Android Central and unlocking your G1 is an extension of that ideal. We support you unlockers. But what's funny to us is: We. Already. Unlocked. The. G1. A week ago. And we were...
We already showed you guys how to unlock the T-Mobile G1. Now we're catching word that it's possible to use the G1 with no activation with no hackery or tomfoolery necessary. Simply, when you get the G1, insert an already activated T-Mobile SIM card (preferably from a very nice friend), go through the sign in process, and switch on Wi-Fi. According to the enterprising user who did this...