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Microsoft Advises Against Windows Phone 7 Jailbreaking

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After news of a jailbreaking/rooting solution was reported on the Internet by the name of ChevronWP7, Microsoft has come out to advise users against employing or utilizing ChevronWP7 on their Windows Phone 7 devices.

According to the developers behind ChevronWP7, the tool will allow users to enable “the sideloading of experimental applications that would otherwise can’t be published to the Marketplace, such as those which access private or native APIs,” features that are not enabled by Microsoft on stock, unmodified devices much like how Apple had locked down the iPhone to its own ecosystem. Potentially, while ChevronWP7 may enable piracy of Windows Phone 7 apps, the big upside potential is that it could open up a gray market of home-brewed apps that would otherwise extend the functionality of WIndows Phone devices with apps that would not have been approved for Windows Phone Marketplace to begin with.

Rooting, or jailbreaking, is a way of gaining access to the core system and will allow for more unrestricted use of a device. The process was recently made legal by revisions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and we’ve seen the potential on the iPhone. On that device, among the many features that are enabled by jailbreaking, developers were able to bring multitasking to iOS before Apple had done so, brought Google Voice, and also delivered customized icons and wallpaper solutions when Apple had limited the iPhone to a drab black background.

In regards to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft had issued the following warning:

We anticipated that people would attempt to unlock the phones and explore the underlying operating system. We encourage people to use their Windows Phone as supplied by the manufacturer to ensure the best possible user experience. Attempting to unlock a device could void the warranty, disable phone functionality, interrupt access to Windows Phone 7 services or render the phone permanently unusable.

It’s unclear at this time, however, if Microsoft will take the more relaxed approach that Google is taking with Android and rooting or if the company will aggressively play the cat and mouse game with hackers to patch any exploits taken by jailbreaking with successive patches and updates that will block ChevonWP7; this latter approach is more keenly used by Apple with iOS.

Via: Electronista and BGR

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. GoodThings2Life

    11/30/2010 at 3:28 am

    Microsoft is technically right– doing those things *could* result in those consequences. However, Long Zhen and Rafael Rivera are long time contributors to the Windows world, and none of what their current tool allows any of the consequences on its own. YOU, the user, have to be considerably more — in depth — and developer-oriented to accomplish actions that would trigger those consequences. How many of us does that describe? Not very many.

    More over, it is considerably different than the infrastructure Google and Apple have created in which it is not only possible but simple to pirate software using the JailBreak/Rooting options… simply put, as it stands, the Chevron tool does NOT allow software piracy on the phones.

    Of course, I understand Microsoft’s position on the matter, but I would hope that they will eventually open this up on their own due to interest and demand. Furthermore, I hope that they take a more Windows Mobile approach to enforcement as long as the current philosophy of Chevron is maintained.

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