Throughout the years, numerous companies have made the decision to lock the bootloader on a smartphone or tablet, making it impossible for savvy users to run custom kernels and have complete control of the device. The Android community is perhaps one of the most vocal user bases in the world when it comes to the practice of locking bootloaders. When HTC and ASUS began to lock their bootloaders, thousands of users took to social networks and had the decisions overturned. Motorola began locking the bootloader w...

It looks like the gang over at xda-developers have leaked a build of Microsoft’s Windows Phone NoDo update — better known as the copy and paste update — for the HTC HD7. Forum member football has posted the build, which is in RUU format, for European HD7s only. If you want to try to shoehorn this update onto your T-Mobile HD7, you had better be prepared to roll up those sleeves. Using the GoldCard method, it is possible to load this ROM onto unsupported hardware, what it is not, however, is ...

Back at Google IO 2010, we got a sneak peak at the company’s next generation music player to be included in the Android mobile operating system. The software wowed us with its ability to stream and download music from a users home desktop and the subtle but distinguished user interface refinements. Now, thanks to the folks of at xda-developers, we’re getting another look at the software on video. The new music player utilizes the foggy, transparent background effect seen in-use by Android’...

The tinkering community that is xda-developers has managed to shoehorn the phone.apk Android module onto T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Tab. Forum member Jyveafk has figured out how to flash the device, using Odin3, to allow calling over T-Mo’s EDGE network. In it’s current state, XDA cautions that the procedure is “for experienced flashers only.” If you’re the adventurous type, and give this a shot, let us know how you make out. (more…)

Dear hardware OEMs: Resistance. Is. Futile. It seems as though the gang over in the IRC channel #G2Root xda-developers have found a permanent rooting solution for T-Mobile’s HTC G2 handset. As you may recall, the rooting community ran into a little hiccup with the Android 2.2 device due to an auto-restore feature aimed at helping the average consumer un-brick their handset. The new solution comes just days after HTC released the source code for the G2 on their website. The root exploit for the G2 is far...

We can’t even count the number of times we’ve heard someone say, “webOS is great but I wish it was available on some decent hardware.” The PEBL-esque Palm Pre certainly sports a sleek design, but the build leaves much to be desired. When HP acquired the struggling smartphone maker earlier this year, a new hope for solid hardware was born. While Palm’s first post-HP offering won’t be the hardware revamp we’re all waiting for, HP is bound to step up its hardware game ne...

Kids, don’t try this at home. Seriously. Despite the fact that the Internet let out a collective gasp when the T-Mobile G2 was revealed to sport an 800MHz processor, the handset is fantastically responsive out of the box. But that won’t stop the good folks over at xda-developers from ripping T-Mobile’s latest G-phone apart, of course. Forum member coolbho3000 has posted all the goodies one would need to overclock a T-Mobile G2 to a blistering 1.42GHz. While we recommend strongly against atte...

It looks as though your friends over at xda-developers have successfully over-clocked the processor in the Samsung Captivate — AT&T’s version of the Galaxy S — to run at a full 1.2 GHz. The new kernel has several hiccups, including a small lag at boot, and will definitely void your warranty. If you want to take a walk on the wild side, and potentially see your Captivate spontaneously combust, hit the read link and give it a whirl. Let us know if you have any success, ok?[Via Talk Andro...

HTC EVO 4G owners disappointed that the graphics on their premiere handset were deliberately capped at 30 FPS by HTC should head over to xda-developers and give the folks over there a hearty thank you. With some clever coding, this software cap has been lifted and select EVO 4G handsets can achieve up to 60 FPS performance in games and other graphic intensive applications. This fix needs some tweaking as tearing, v-sync issues, and other graphics anomalies are present after uncapping. The fix is also limite...

The Nexus One’s inability to record videos in HD has always been a bit of annoyance, but thanks to a member of the xda-developers community, 720p video recording is now a go on the one true Google Phone. To get the mod to work you’ll need to be running Cyanogen’s CM5.0.8test3 and up. This means that for the time being Froyo is not supported, but a remedy for the lack of love for 2.2 is said to be coming soon. Click on through to check out a video shot by a Nexus One running the mod and then...

The render you see above is of the HTC Mondrian — or at least according to some forum dwellers at xda-developers. Found within a .cab file from a recently leaked Windows Phone 7 ROM, it is said that the Mondrian features a 4.3″ WVGA display, 1.3GHz processor, HD-capable camera in excess of 5 megapixels, and digital compass. Interestingly enough, for a device believed to be headed to AT&T, the Mondrian’s Qualcomm QSD8650A/B Snapdragon processor supports both GSM and CDMA. Of course this d...

Worried about the multitasking capabilities of Windows Phone 7? Worried it will only have support for one ActiveSync profile or be missing some of those key features from Windows Mobile 6 platform? Well, we’re pretty sure the good people over at XDA-developers are going to have you covered come release time. A full eight months before it is due to hit the streets, the tinkerers over at XDA-devs have acquired a code dump of the Windows Phone 7 operating system. The code was pulled from the SDK emulator i...

The folks over at XDA-Developers have posted a new, non-over-the-air, firmware build for the Nexus One. The new build contains, among other things, an update to the radio firmware. Several days ago we reported on how some N1 users could trigger a dropped 3G connection or poor 3G signal by simply putting their hand over the lower half of their superphone. In our comments, there seemed to be close to an even mix of those who were seeing the problem, and could reproduce it, and those who were not. For those will...

The coding cowboys over at XDA Developers have released a new software patch for the Nexus One, a patch which provides some added functionality… multitouch goodness in the native web browser. Now, the code does have a fairly large prerequisite, and one that will surely turn some folks off, your N1 has to be rooted in order to apply the patch. We have the video in all its pinch-and-zoom glory queued up for you after the break. And for those of you who are terminally-challenged, or lazy, this functionalit...