The long wait may be over for Verizon Xperia PLAY owners.  The device may have finally been unlocked and rooted thanks to XDA member ashergray.  He’s claiming to have a method that will be unveiled tomorrow and has provided screenshots of his successes for the time being.  The top one is apparently the unlocking process, but you’ll also see screenshots showing proof of root below – something that had not yet been accomplished either.  

With the release of the Gingerbread update for the DROIDX2, many of you have been waiting for an official SBF to pop up in case you run into any dark corners while either trying to root or flash something to it.  Thanks to daywalker04 over at XDA, it is now available.

File this one away, you never know when you might need a full SBF.

Via:  XDA [Download]

Cheers Mikey!

You have got to give it up to HTC.  They may not have unlocked a bootloader yet, but they sure have been up front with their plans to do so in the very near future – something we can’t say for another big time smartphone maker.  In just under three months, they have gone from locking it all down, to realizing that their customers are important, and in some cases want more from their devices.

Starting this month, HTC will start to roll out a software update to a select few devices that will then provide users with the ability to unlock their bootloader.  Once the update has been received, HTC will provide a “web tool” that can be used alongside the Android SDK to unlock devices.  Obviously, there will be disclaimers and warnings about this process voiding your warranty, but those of us that have been doing this for a few years now, completely understand the risks.

Moving forward, HTC has also admitted that they will ship devices as locked, but that customers can decide for themselves if they want to unlock them.  Exactly the way it should be.  

Over the weekend, we were tipped to instructions that had been released for rooting the Motorola Atrix running stock, locked Android 2.3.4 – something that had previously not been accomplished on any non-Nexus device.  And once we found out, we started doing our best to spread the word, but thought we should also let all of you know, here on the site.  You see, the more we get people talking about it, the more likely  we are to find someone who can make it happen for our friend the DROID3 which could also lead to the rooting of the DROID Bionic.  We’re expecting both devices to be running almost identical software on very, very similar hardware.

There is talk that we may need an SBF in order to accomplish root, but our friend @P3Droid thinks he may be close without one.  You’ll want to keep it close, as we’ll be all over this story.

Atrix owners, you’ll want to head over to this RootzWiki thread for instructions.

Cheers jigga_z!

With the new Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3) build for the DROIDX2 arriving to soak test members, we also welcome in a pre-rooted version for those of you who wish to continue on with superuser access.  Our buddy @P3droid put in work as he always does to make sure you can all stay current without losing root, something that has yet to be officially gained on 2.3 builds for any Motorola device.  What I mean by that, is if you update to 2.3 and lose root, there are no current methods to root except to SBF back to 2.2 and then install a pre-rooted build.

Update:  I stand corrected, the Atrix on 2.3.4 has been rooted.

The good news is that you can apparently (haven’t tested myself) still SBF back to 2.2 even on this latest 2.3 build for the DX2.  We had a feeling that Moto would lock us out, but they have at least left us one ounce of rooting safety.

Go get some!  

If you’ve been running CyanogenMod on your DROIDX, you’ll be happy to hear that the newest of the nightlies uploaded this afternoon, is running Android 2.3.5, and is most definitely stable. Seems like just yesterday this beast was finally semi-cracked and the developer community jumped on it. In the words of Ian Malcolm: Life is like Android, it will find a way.

Has everyone been trying out the nightlies on their devices? We’re sure that 2.3.5 will be leaking onto all the phones soon. To check your device’s nightly status, check Rom Manager (you must have the premium version to get nightlies) or at the Team Douche Mirror Network. Happy flashing.

Cheers Zach!

Our buddy Pete Alfonso continues to work his magic to make the original DROID one of the most current Android devices on the planet.  Today, he’s releasing Android 2.3.5 through DL so that OG owners can have it before almost any other smartphone.  There aren’t a lot of spicy changes, but there are new GApps, an updated Search app that is not in the market yet, Gtalk with video and the new market.

Download:  generic_sholes-ota-eng-pete.zip

As usual, download the file from above and drop it on your SD card.  After that, boot into recovery through ROM Manager, make a backup and then “install zip from sd card.”

And just in case he updates it, you’ll want to check this folder.  Here is his github.

Be sure to keep up with Pete at his site and on Twitter!