Unlocking a carrier tied mobile phone soon to be illegal in the US.

[rolfw]

A worrying trend, wonder if it will happen over here?


http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57565730-1/unauthorized-unlocking-of-smartphones-becomes-illegal-saturday/

 

[A nonymous]

Probably if the carriers give a big enough bung to the government

 

[sonic1]

Americans have the internet police and now they are going to have the mobile phone unlocking police

 

[Captain Jack]

The land of the free they say?

 

[A nonymous]

Don't you me Land of the Three

 

[2cvbloke]

Gotta love it, an unlocked phone to me is one that can be used if the carrier (say, Three) it's locked to goes down and you have a backup other-network (say, GiffGaff) SIM card, so that way you can continue to use the phone, while continuing to pay the original carrier of course!!!

So what's wrong with doing that? Is it wrong to be allowed to use a phone when you need to becuase of loss of service? Or are they doing a b$kyb thing and locking everything down so you cannot use anything they supply with anything else, and also not use anything from elsewhere on their networks? :-HB

All this will do is put people off contract phones, and contract phones are a lucrative source of cash for mobile companies, and less contracts, less profit, less profits in their pockets and they say "oh 5h1t, we effed up!!!"...

If it does happen here, you can bet your youknowwhats that there'll be petitions against it, seeing as the people have the power...

 

[wod]

have the Americans got removing the network carrier lock and removing the security on a phone OS eg jailbreak, so you can run anything you like mixed up ?

Removing the carrier lock shouldn't be illegal but modifying the OS on a phone could be on dodgy ground.

a lot of people root there android phones so what do it really do much harm ?

 

[2cvbloke]

Removing the carrier lock shouldn't be illegal but modifying the OS on a phone could be on dodgy ground. a lot of people root there android phones so what do it really do much harm ?

Modifying the OS on most mobile phones is prohibited, as most of them are closed-source, but Android is based upon open-source software (Linux), so they can't really say no to modifying the OS cos google doesn't own the core of the OS, the Linux kernel, so you end up with modified OSes like Cyanogenmod and the like giving access to the latest versions of Android (such as JellyBean), the only closed-source stuff they're not allowed to touch are the drivers that operate the periphery built into the devices (such as sound, cameras, bluetooth, wifi, etc.), making them tough to work with and only really any good for advanced users...

And of course, all mods on 'droids are reversible simply by reflashing a stock firmware, be it a network-bloated version or an OEM version from SIM-free models which have no branding other than the manufacturer's...

Apple & Microsoft OSes aren't based on open-source, so, they can be gits about what you can and can't do with their mobile OSes, though I've yet to hear about them actually cracking down on modifiers altering their software to make it, what's the word, oh yeah, "work", but I'm sure if they had their way, they would, but again, if they did, they'd lose a lot of customers and would end up down the toilet financially...

 

[Captain Jack]

Android FTW! Nearly bought an iPhone 5 last month until I realised how good Android actually is. Running AOKP ICS 3.5 on it - brilliant - and much better than the bundled firmware from Three.

 

[2cvbloke]

Android FTW! Nearly bought an iPhone 5 last month until I realised how good Android actually is. Running AOKP ICS 3.5 on it - brilliant - and much better than the bundled firmware from Three.

I need to reflash my new GalaxyS3 with non-Three fimware, I did the same with my GalaxyS, and Three never batted an eyelid, but I used OEM stock firmware, so was standard stuff that had no bloatware...

 

[Ghostleader]

Ooft hate Android, sorry guys!

 

[remlap]

I am quiet happy with stock Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus any other phone and I am sure it be rooted and running a build of CM

I have just recently rooted a Nook Touch eReader I got from Argos on sale, thing runs Android 2.1 and now has the Play Store/Market and other 2.1 Google Apps. Only really rooted to install Coolreader which is a far superior reading app than the default one plus a much superior launcher,

 

[Captain Jack]

I wouldn't change my HTC One X for anything. Hugely customisable... unlike IOS devices. But IOS is fine for those who simply want to use the phone and not tinker with it every 2 minutes.

 

[2cvbloke]

Ever since I first got my GalaxyS two years ago, I was impressed from day one as to what I could do with it, after using mostly basic Nokia phones for years prior, so despite my reservations toards google and their incessant need to harvest personal data, I was sold on Android from then on, and subsequently I have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 (GT-P7500), and now I have my Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300), the amount of customisation and addons and whatnot that you can do for free, perfectly legally too, is astounding, and you don't need any interface with your computer other than a USB cable, the rest is done by whatever file browser your computer uses (e.g. Explorer in Windows), rather than being forced to use software the manufacturer says you MUST use...

But all that said, I'm still more fascinated by vintage telephone hardware, heck, last Friday I got my SGS3 and an old 80's BT payphone (takes 2s-sized 10p coins), and I was playing more with the payphone than I was with the SGS3 for a few days!!! O-Ha

At least with those there's no risk of being fined for unplugging them and using them off-network...

 

[Channel Hopper]

But all that said, I'm still more fascinated by vintage telephone hardware, heck, last Friday I got my SGS3 and an old 80's BT payphone (takes 2s-sized 10p coins), and I was playing more with the payphone than I was with the SGS3 for a few days!!! O-Ha

Must have raised a few eyebrows in the supermarket

 

[2cvbloke]

Must have raised a few eyebrows in the supermarket

I tend not to take 1980s payphones I've bought off ebay to a supermarket, they already have their own modern ones, even if 99% of the time they're not working.... O-Ha