Microsoft To Work With Windows Phone 7 Jailbreakers

markass530 writes "Microsoft had a sit down with the first people to jailbreak their Windows Phone 7. Seems like good progress was made. This seems like a good approach to me. It would be great if Sony, Apple, Microsoft, and several Android phone makers would implement a simple development switch in their phones — these would obviously void the warranty, but it would give hackers the opportunity to actually own their devices without fear of having to jailbreak all over again whenever an update arrives."

Nokia

[devxo]

Maybe Nokia has its hand on this? They've never been against locking the platform, you've always had a simple option to enable installing unsigned apps.

Voiding the warranty

[the_other_chewey]

It would be great if Sony, Apple, Microsoft, and several Android phone makers would implement a simple development switch in their phones — these would obviously void the warranty [...]

Why?

Re:Some hack, some don't

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not the phones, its the ringtones, apps, media and other features they make money from.

It's a trap!

[Anonymous Coward]

In the mobile OS market, they're the underdog, so they have to play nicer right now to get people to buy their shit. Once they achieve a position of dominance, that's when they start turning the thumbscrews on you.

Remember how they used to, aside from token efforts, turn a blind eye to rampant Windows piracy, particularly in Asia? Their stance in the 90s was, they'd rather you use their stuff, even if you stole it, than use a competitor's product. After they made some good headway, most PCs no longer came with a full Windows install disc that you could share with your buddies who could easily find install keys online-- you instead got crappy "restore" discs, locked to your computer model. And then when they finally reached the level of unquestionable dominance, you got product activation.

As a side note, when they're the underdog in a particular market, they also like to partner with someone already ahead of them in that market, steal what they can to gain an advantage, and then (in most cases) destroy the partner. Poor Nokia is dead, they just don't know it yet.

Re:Nokia

[phantomfive]

I've been following this story from day 1, and to me it looks like the greatest PR attack Microsoft has ever pulled. Back in November, when the 'hackers' first came out with a semi-jailbreak, Microsoft invited them to a party, told them how great they were, said they wanted to work with the homebrew community, and convinced them to remove the tool. What did Microsoft actually do? Nothing other than being really friendly, and they got what they wanted.

Now in January they invited the guys over again, gave them some t-shirts, and talked some more; saying how much they want to work with homebrewers.

But what has Microsoft done? Nothing other than keep their system locked down, prevent people from writing native code, encrypt communication layers so it can't be sniffed, etc. etc. They have done nothing for the homebrew community except token PR statements. It's garbage. Let's see them open the native API, or allow you to use the 'LOADUNSIGNEDNATIVEDLLCAP' when writing your own apps. That's how you could support the homebrew community.