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I own an HTC Dream, otherwise known as the T-Mobile G1. Yes, it's now dated and slow and pitifully behind the curve compared to today's superphones, but with my contract just about up, I'm riding it out before switching carriers (T-Mobile's coverage in my area isn't the greatest). So how do I deal with constant smartphone envy? It helps that I rooted my G1 almost from Day 1. I even wrote a guide right here on Maximum PC on how to do so (a lot has changed since then and there's an updated guide right here).
Still today the XDA forums are brimming with modified firmware for the G1, and it's that culture of modders that helped make the first Android handset such a popular device. Surely then the recently released G2 would follow in the same footsteps, right? Sadly, that's not the case. Rather than encourage third-party ROM development, or even just leave them be, the G2 comes with a security mechanism that prevents the device from saving changes made by modified firmware.
Following a backlash from scorned G2 owners, T-Mobile issued the following statement:
"As pioneers in Android-powered mobile devices, T-Mobile and HTC strive to support innovation. The T-Mobile G2 is a powerful and highly customizable Android-powered smartphone, which customers can personalize and make their own, from the look of their home screen to adding their favorite applications and more," T-Mobile explains.
"The HTC software implementation on the G2 stores some components in read-only memory as a security measure to prevent key operating system software from becoming corrupted and rendering the device inoperable. There is a small subset of highly technical users who may want to modify and re-engineer their devices at the code level, known as 'rooting,'but a side effect of HTC’s security measure is that these modifications are temporary and cannot be saved to permanent memory. As a result the original code is restored," T-Mobile says.
In other words, it's for your own good, according to T-Mobile. But what the wireless carrier doesn't seem to understand is that such a security measure flies in the face of what made the G seires so popular in the first place. T-Mobile and HTC have every right to lock down their hardware, but I'm not so sure doing so is really in their best interest.
What do you think? Should T-Mobile/HTC have left the G2 open to modifications, or did they make the right move here?
Comments are closed on this article
schneider1492
October 10, 2010 at 3:52am
Wouldn't this be a violation of the open license that android is published under!
Shadow24
October 09, 2010 at 6:35pm
They said similar things about the Droid 2... it took them a while to root it, but they got there.
neo1piv14
October 09, 2010 at 12:27pm
HA HA! Yeah...unrootable. I give Cyanogen five days, maybe a week and a half, tops. If HTC and T-Mobile have a way to work on these phones, they're going to be found out and exploited. Let's face it, if the T-Mo tech support guys can go in and fix the phone's firmware, then we're going to figure out how to do it.
Rudder2
October 09, 2010 at 2:57am
An OS based on open source user adaptation being locked down on a rom so that you can't do exactly what started the project, linux, that made it's OS possible...Ironic...Part of what makes an Android based phone of interest to technology savvi people is the fact they can mod it to do what they please and it's not the apple devil. I hope this is just a learning phase not becoming the rule. It it does become the rule Andriod will die in my eyes and I will continue searching for an OS I can call my own.
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October 08, 2010 at 11:51pm
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AndyYankee17
October 08, 2010 at 9:20pm
if the OS is stored in ROM how do official updates get pushed? or is it going to end up like the G1, ditched before it's first birthday?
Vano
October 08, 2010 at 9:14pm
Congratulation, you've been promoted. From now on you may read any articles you want and skip articles you don't want read about.
IFLATLINEI
October 08, 2010 at 2:43pm
No one has ever been able to release a gadget that is unhackable. Time and time again even the best attempts eventually fail leaving companies who go this route looking foolish.
Captcha still sucks
Oedipus_Rex
October 08, 2010 at 12:16pm
but was holding back until the phone was rooted. I guess I still am but now if something equal or better comes along, without these restrictions from the carrier, I'll have to get that instead. Or maybe they will have a firmware release without all the crapware installed, that I don't want running on what is supposed to be "MY" phone. Maybe when Gingerbread comes out. I won't hold my breath.
ibfreeekout
October 08, 2010 at 11:58am
As stated in the article, the only reason I'm toughing it out for at least two years with a Motorola Cliq is because I was able to root it from stock Android 1.5 (such and outdated phone) to Android 2.1. It runs very well surprisingly and rarely slows down in performance. If I couldn't do that, I would be trying my hardest to get a new phone. I really like what the G2 has to offer but if you can't apply a custom ROM to it I would have to say that is a definite "NO" in my book.
athlon11
October 08, 2010 at 11:40am
As much as they say that there has to be a way to overwrite it with custom firmware otherwise there would be no way to apply HTC/T-Mobile issued OS updates if the parts that would be modified are in ROM as the code that modders hack is some of the same code that official updates touch.-
