Microsoft triggers the kill-Switch and remotely re-locks ChevronWP7 unlocked devices OTA
Talk about a fast turn around. In the last weeks of November, we reported of the unlocker being released for Windows Phone 7. Then on December 1st, we reported that the unlocker was pulled. Now, today, it appears that Microsoft has triggered a remote kill-switch that prompts the user to uninstall the app because the program has been revoked.
People at XDA-Developers are reporting that you can re-unlock your phone, but it appears that this is a server-side check by Microsoft that will randomly check the certificates and you will probably be prompted to uninstall the application again.
Source: PocketNow.com
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© 2010, mindfrost82. All rights reserved.
Say what you want about iphone, at least Apple hasn’t done a remote kill switch on any of my jailbroken phones and apps.
now that microsoft has successfully implemented the kill switch, apple will follow
Back off M$. You’re junk mostly sux0rs without 3rd party tweaks.
@ProfEngr – then don’t buy it… i hear android is amazing
Another reason not to switch to wp7………kill switch my a## microsoft, if I paid for it let me do what I want with it. BIG BROTHER.
Its a shame, I was really looking foward to giving them a shot. If this is how they’re going to do business, then they have lost me as a supporting customer.
The only way I’ll move into WP7 is if they decide to end their stupid cherades .
It’s not Microsoft, it’s a bug with chevron http://www.chevronwp7.com/
it’s amazing how much xda and ppcgeeks are against wp7…. Sad really that you can no longer get reliable info on here.
@nrfitchett4 –
Xda and PPCG are not against WP7. They may be unhappy with the locked down development model it uses as they should be though!
It was sites like XDA and PPCG and their members who have kept the Windows mobile operating system on life support for all these years while MS had their heads up their butt unable to add the features other phones were providing, and now the only reason anyone ever had to buy a MS based phone before has been modeled out of the picture!
If MS had done the smart thing it would have not copied Apple in cornering the Application Market for it’s phones and instead left it open so people could develop for the OS without the need to pay MS or the Marketplace for the priviledge.
WP7 as a user interface alone is a decent enough product and the only thing that is going to kill it is lack of available applications.
I am leaning away from it simply because I want to be able to customize my phone to do only what I need it to do so it runs smoother but I won’t be able to do that at this point in time.
MS lost sight of the only reason they had any marketshare at all. The ability and willingness of its customers to develop applications and customizations of thier phones.
More than 85% of the people with a WinMo phone are running a customized ROM with unused software stripped and free useful ones put in their place. This has extended the life and purchase for many users who would need to go buy a whole new phone if not for the developers keeping the ROMs up to date with the latest and greatest software.
Some give Apple credit for reinvigorating the Phone market. and Some (MS included) have misread what made Apple so successful.
It sure wasn’t the business model, it was multitouch screen and adequate hardware specs for the first time in mobile phone history.
unlike HTC who made an upgrade to the TP (the TP2) and used pretty much the same hardware and proc of the older model but with a bigger (non-multitouch) screen which was already known to be antique tech by the time it was released!
Apple sold because it did not try and sell two year ago technology! Not because it’s market wasn’t fragmented due to the software lockdown and single point marketplace!
Apple turned the Mobile Phone market into the Video Game market now. You want to play on their hardware you have to pay them for the priviledge. You buy a phone from them it is not your phone, they tell you what you can and can not use on it.
MS copied Apple but copied the wrong parts from them. They should have stuck to their OPEN model and instead just set RAM, Screen and proccessor requirements to modern day standards.
If HTC put multitouch (which is the main reason WM6 is being dumped) and upped the proc and ram in the TP2 then iPhone would have gotten no traction at all!
iPhone was the first phone that was fast enough to keep up with the user and it sold DESPITE bad carrier service because people could actually do something useful with the phone quickly and easily when they weren’t using the carrier or radio.
All MS had to do was rework the WM OS to support multitouch and newer tech features better and it would have been enough. But no they went after the Corner the software market as they always have and they will pretty much put themselves into the place PALM is right now!
And that is why many older users from XDA and PPCG are so down on WP7!
MS dropped the ball and took the wrong lessons from the success of the iPhone!
And now many of us will be forced to switch to something like the Android or god help us actually have to use an Apple product because thats where all the development is going to be!
@havox22 – Its still not really a bug either. The message people are seeing makes it sound like its Microsoft, but according to ChevronWP7, Microsoft still implemented a periodic check against their servers and since its reporting that its unlocked, Microsoft shows the user that message.
Since ChevronWP7 got pulled, I doubt there will be any new versions that go around this issue.
@nrfitchett4 – We’re not against WP7 at all, a lot of long time WM users just don’t like some of the decisions that were made by Microsoft. I own a WP7 device and I’m actually working on a long editorial explaining my thoughts about it. I actually like the OS and think it has potential. So hopefully you’ll read that once its published (hopefully today) and get my honest opinion on it.
Also, almost every major smartphone blog posted a similar story about this happening, so its not just PPCG and XDA.
@mindfrost82 you are spot on where we stand on Microsoft, most all of us grew up on Windows Mobile devices and like you said do not agree with where Microsoft has taken this product. I think most of us are still open to Microsoft and would like to see them turn things around and take back some of the Market Shares that they once had that have went to Android and iPhone. I think this article here sums up where most of the old timers stand with WP7 http://www.anandtech.com/show/4045/lgs-optimus-7-samsungs-focus-reviewed-a-tale-of-two-windows-phones
Its actually not something that was “triggered” by Microsoft but more by design.
When the device was unlocked it installed a security certificate from chevrons website allowing the device to be “unlocked”.
Now that Chevron has pulled the unlocker, and the cert no longer exists where it was installed from, the device will uninstall the app, or “re-lock” the device.
The device was designed to do cert checks, and since the device checked and the cert isn’t there, your app would have been uninstalled.
Hope that helps and makes sense.
Sigh, I personally hate feeling I am being controlled.. -CC
After being a WM apologist for years, upon seeing this I’m even happier that I made the switch to Android. You’ve lost me as a customer for good, I don’t care how good the OS is.
After they pulled the Plug on REAL Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 7 deserves to die. I hope it gets pwned by someone; anyone – even apple.
- 2 Bunny
I was thinking about getting a phone 7 after recently switching to a wide open Android but after this there is no chance I don’t want anyone telling me what I can do with my own device. Good luck entering the market treating your customers like this.
@newt – Well Newt the problem is that everyone is treating their customers the same way.
Apple and Android are also locked devices. It sold because the hardware was up to today’s hardware standards leap frogging even the next generation of planned releases by HTC and Samsung. Some of this has to do with the limitations of WM6 which for all intents and purposes is based on a 10 year old software base.
Even the first Google Phone did not have Multitouch enabled!
Thats what people wanted and thats why they didn’t really care about the locked down apps and the one portal access to those Apps.
Thats fine for most Apple users who either have an iPod or Mac and are used to having only one place to get stuff even if it means paying a premium.
That simply won’t fly with much of the WinMo crowd. We are too used to reprogramming, Re-Flashing to the latest software and pretty much taking control of our phone.
Thats why WinMo has survived all these years.
I understand thier business reasons but they should have thought more about what their core user market was and why they stuck around so long before they changed and removed that part of the market from their customer base.
I think the best thing to do here is to update the article with the information published on ChevronWP7.com. It’s NOT Microsoft locking you out as a big brother effort, and all you’re doing is pissing people off unnecessarily.
It is absurd to me the amount of misinformation being spread about WP7 and even more so about the Chevron project. It is perfectly clear that Microsoft and the Chevron team (a group of long-time, well-trusted Windows enthusiasts) are working together at this point.
I expected this coming from Apple. But Microsoft…?? Well I’m glad I didn’t switch. Android FTW
Yet another reason I’m glad I jumped ship to Android. I’m considering dumping Windows 7 on my PC & installing Ubuntu. I’ve had it with M$’s crap. Microsoft: your phone, the way WE want it….