Just Days After Release, Google's Nexus 4 Has Already Been Rooted

An anonymous reader writes "Google's Nexus 4 sold out around the world very quickly this week, and while there was talk of very limited supply, apparently some key people managed to get their hands on it. That's right: the Nexus 4 has already been rooted."

Why is this news?

[Severus Snape]

Isn't this supposed to be dead easy?

Re:Why is this news?

[thegarbz]

From Wikipedia:

Even better: From the Android documentation [android.com]

Re:Why is this news?

[Karlt1]

So without knowing how many we're built, "it's a very good score?" Apple announced how many they sold the first weekend. Why won't Google? If they only made 50,000 and "sold out", is that good?

Re:Why is this news?

[Runaway1956]

"Sold out" means the same thing in any time or place:

More people want them, than are available. In a "free market", that scarcity drives prices up. Apple intentionally creates that kind of scarcity, and it's possible that the same trick has been pulled here.

0-day exploit!!!

[fsmunoz]

CONFIRMED: WIndows 8 0-day security BREACH, a certain Tim Black from MN has reported that he was able to log in as Administrator in a Thinkpad laptop he had bought just one hour before. The hack consists in introducing the password that he had previously defined!

GROUNDBREAKING: we have received an unconfirmed as of yet report that one-year Ubuntu user Jane Leary in Corpus Christi was able to root a RHEL system with all security patches installed: the process is involved but includes entering a "password" that one knows into a "login" prompt. Redhat has not yet replied to this incident.

STOP THE PRESSES: people who have lost all sense of actually owning the things they buy and are used to being prisioners in their little wall gardens are apparently so surprised that there are devices in which one can install whatever one likes that they have started reporting this as "1337 hackery". Some of them have posted their surprise on iTunes and on former technology-savy site /. (not to be confused with the one form the 90's).

PS: this is why most people actually buy Nexus devices: not specifically by their specs, simply because the concep of having to go out of their way to install stuff on something that cost them money is absurd.

Re:Why is this news?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish they would announce how many they sold. They still don't "get" physical merchandise fulfillment at all. I was trying to order one from 2:30 AM on the day they came out. They didn't bother to tell anyone WHEN they would become available on that day - we had to rely on reports from tech news sites that "it showed up in Australia and sold out in 1 hour and the play store was unusable". Finally at 8:37 AM Pacific Time, it shows up. I put one in my cart and proceed to checkout. I select a credit card and shipping address, then submit and - it clocks - and errors out and auto cancels my order. Within five offices of me two other folks were trying to order too. None of us got one. From what I understand there were a whole bunch of people wanting them that got nothing. We had also registered in advance for notification when they became available. No notification went out. During the "slow response" and errors the play store was getting, we registered again for notifications (hoping that they would tell us when they go back into stock or will actually allow pre-orders like other retailers). Now you can't even register anymore. They definitely screwed this up. And they continue to screw it up by not communicating AT ALL about it - they won't tell us when they might have more, won't let us pre-order, etc. I suggest that next time they let someone who knows how to build a store front site so that it stays up do the fulfillment. They should probably ask Google too as Google would have known how many units they needed. After all Google has all that data on everyone and they sell targeted ads. They can harvest Google+ posts (like mine that said I would be buying this phone day one). Oh wait - they are Google. WTF? They should have known how many they would need.