There’s an odd group of people living among us, a part of society that for one reason or another wants to modify their mobile phone with custom software, often at the risk of losing their warranty. Within this group the number one reason you’ll hear justifying their need to roll out their own bits is the horrid software layers that most handset makers throw on top of Android. HTC has Sense, which takes over Android completely, Motorola has MotoBLUR, which makes Android look like a disfigured abandoned orphan, Sony Ericsson has Timescape, which looks like what Hollywood thought “cyberspace” looked like back in the mid to late 90s, and Samsung has TouchWiz, which aims to make Android look more like iOS. Now in order to rid yourself of that top layer of crap you need to “unlock you bootloader”, which is the equivalent of jailbreaking your iPhone, meaning you’re not supposed to do it or you’ll break something. HTC has recently said that they’ll start shipping their devices with unlocked bootloaders later this year, but what about existing HTC devices? This recent update on their Facebook page says everything you need to know:
“We’re thrilled to announce today that software updates to support bootloader unlocking will begin rolling out in August for the global HTC Sensation, followed by the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile USA and the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint. We’re in the testing phase for the unlocking capability now, and we expect it to be fully operational by early September for devices that have received the software updates. We’ll continue rolling out the unlocking capability over time to other devices as part of maintenance releases and new shipments.”
The funny thing is that no one would care about this if they simply hadn’t made Sense in the first place. Issing a software update to help people rid themselves of your custom software … are we the only ones who see the complete failure of logic here?