Fears raised, downplayed over Droid X bootloader lock
updated 01:15 pm EDT, Thu July 15, 2010
Droid X likely to be hacked without bricking it
With the Motorola Droid X arriving in stores, hackers have expressed concerns that it might be hardware-locked. An e-fuse chip is present in Motorola's phone that locks the bootloader and could theoretically "brick" the phone if modified. The limit could prevent custom firmware for speed, newer versions of Android or otherwise unofficial upgrades.
The reality may not be as dire for hackers, however, as it was revealed that other, already cracked handsets using an OMAP3 chip have the same e-fuse component; both the Droid and its harder-to-crack equivalent the Milestone both have the chip but have been safely modified. While Motorola includes the e-fuse in both handsets, it doesn't use the feature to lock the bootloader.
Since the Droid X is believed to use similar security measures as the Milestone, it isn't likely that modifying the bootloader will brick the newest flagship Android device. [via BGR]
