Jailbreak, Root or Unlock Your Smartphone - FAQ

[Guest]

This primer provides a breakdown of what it means to jailbreak, root or unlock your phone.

Jailbreak, Root or Unlock Your Smartphone - FAQ : Read more

 

[expl0itfinder]

Good information on the basic concepts, it would be nice to see a guide as well.

 

[sunflier]

"The White House agrees with the 114,001+ of you..."

-There, now I'm included.

 

[sunflier]

"The White House agrees with the 114,001+ of you..."

-There, now I'm included.

 

[clonazepam]

Where did the term 'jailbreaking' even come from? Who coined it? Why does it sound stupid to me? It sounds funny anytime someone says it, and especially funny when they apply the term to other actions not even remotely associated with Apple / Apple products.

With some of the new custom voice features on Android, people are less inclined to root phones and lose functionality. It all depends on what matters more, I guess.

 

[WyomingKnott]

'Fraid I have to disagree. The cell company "sells" me a $700 phone for $50 under the understanding that I'll use their service for two years. They make up the money with profit on the service.

I think that rules should be fair to cell phone companies too. Or they will lose the motivation to sell phones at 93% off to the 90% (roughly) of us who get a phone to use with our current service provider. The majority of us will lose from that.

How about requiring the companies to unlock a device after the agreed-upon service period is expired, or the penalty for not completing said service period is paid? Then this is no longer a license for some people to steal from the service provider, the net cost of which will be passed along to the rest of us.

Dunno about you, but I'd rather pay $50 and stick with my longtime service provider.

 

[g-thor]

I can't help but wonder about this in light of computers. If I buy a computer with Windows installed on it, and then down the road I decide I want to put Linux on it, or some other OS, am I infringing a copyright?

If I buy a phone and complete the contract, so that now the phone is fully mine, and it has one company's version of Android on it and I decide to put Cyanogenmod on it, have I infringed a copyright? How?

Maybe that's a bad example. How about books? I know what copyright infringement in a published work looks like. I take someone else's work (both writer and publisher) and then do up my own version to sell or give away. I profit either from income or good will for the gifts given, and the author and publisher are cut out. How does changing the software and/or firmware on my phone infringe a copyright?

Maybe somebody can come up with an example that would explain it for me, because I don't get the copyright infringement aspect.

@WyomingKnott - really good point, in my opinion. Once the contract is completed then I should have the right to do what I want with the phone. Until then, the "ownership" is sort of shared with the phone company - kind of similar to the house that the bank holds majority financial interest in. But don't forget - the moon is a harsh mistress, and so are the phone companies.

 

[house70]

@clonazepam: you probably already knew this, jailbreaking as a term came to life when iPhones were released, and the reason for that was to illustrate the process of "escaping from the restrictions - jail- imposed by Apple on the owners with regards to apps/functionality/etc , hence the very appropriate term coined.

 

[JMBieber]

actually blackberry 10 phones can install and run android apps, and with the newsest update for blackberry's, it can also install the apps from a number of android markets right from the phone.

 

[NoUsernameGiven]

I usually wonder how precise or how investigated an article is when I read it. This is one that obviously was NOT very well researched, nor even cited.

You CAN SIM unlock a phone. Carriers will even help you do it if you're traveling abroad, granted you're keeping up with your bills. The vast majority of Android phones can, fairly easily, be unlocked (by rooting and voiding warranties, but still).

 

[Grandmastersexsay]

"One petition in March 2013 implored President Barack Obama to legalize the unlocking of smartphones..."

First of all, Congress is responsible for enacting legislation, not the president. I know if you looked at all executive orders the president signs, one might not realize this, but that is how the system is supposed to work.

Secondly, any legislation that forces cell companies to sell unlocked phones is going to drive up prices for the consumer. Keep in mind such a law would benefit less than 1% of cell customers. You don't like having your phone tied to a carrier? Then don't buy one of their subsidized phones. Deal with it. Don't force even more government intrusion into everyone's lives because YOU don't want to pay the full price of a phone. $@& holes.

 

[hoofhearted]

@WyomingKnott Disagree with you.

These wireless carriers do the same as credit cards. They check your credit before they let you walk away with that $700 phone. Then if you try to stiff them on the bill or drop service after one month, they get you to return the device, bill you the amount, or both. This almost seems analgous to a car company telling you which brand of gas you can use while your car is under loan or even forcing you to drive on certain roads where their ads are visible. I actually like the way tmobile is doing it. They actually make the device somewhat separate from the service and will finance it into your bill.

I think the legislation needs to be on what recourse they can take if you stiff them, not what can or can't be done to the actual device.

 

[Calvillowjw249]

Do you know that you can unlock your at&t locked things for no money at all through the at7t official online customer chat? Its way faster than the previous unlock as they are able to unlock your device instantly now. and because the link is so long, i cant just paste it here, so i have it shortened for you folks: miniurl.???/e6dv

 

[icallbs]

The White House looking out for the peoples rights is a flat out false statement, with the nsa's spying fiasco perpetuated by the president himself he couldn't be farther from the truth in the quest for phone freedom....what a joke. Impeached, jailed then given a unlocked phone would be a fitting end to this idiot.