Pages

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Don’t Hack or Mod the Droid X, Unless You Want a Useless Paperweight


Droid X owners, beware: If you mod or tinker too much with your shiny new phone it could suddenly turn into a useless brick, according to reports surfacing from people who have attempted to hack, root, mod or tinker with the massive smartphone.
In the first place, the device is difficult to hack due to an encrypted bootloader. If you then change or compromise the bootloader, kernels or ROM of the device, it will become completely unusable. The only solution is to take it in to a Verizon store, where you will likely be charged for a fix since you voided the warranty.
The security features focus around a technology called “eFuse,” which is designed to verify you are using the versions of your bootloader, kernels and ROM. If this check fails, the bootloader is permanently corrupted, making your Droid X useless.
You can find a more detailed explanation of how this technology works on the My Droid World forums, but it boils down to this: Motorola doesn’t want you hacking your phone, even though you purchased the device and it’s legally yours.
If you buy a new Droid X phone and intend to hack it, tread lightly. Otherwise, your expensive smartphone might become about as useful as a paperweight.

No comments:

Post a Comment