HTC, after announcing that all of their phones released after September of this year would have unlockable bootloaders, has updated their dev site to reflect that statement. Oh but wait, they went even deeper than that and even included the Thunderbolt and Incredible 2, two devices released long before September. Talk about making a statement to both the developer crowd and other manufacturers in the game.

We were led to believe that this was all up to the carriers, but HTC seems to have either found a way around that, doesn’t care what the carrier’s think, or produced a carrier accepted bootloader unlocking tool that everyone is willing to accept. No matter what, we are loving it.

I think all that’s left to be said now is, ”Doesn’t Motorola owe us an explanation?” A solution? Something?

And go get yourself unlocked if you haven’t already at HTCDev.com.

Cheers to everyone who sent this in!

Patience is finally paying off for HTC Thunderbolt owners as Gingerbread is now officially rolling out and CyanogenMod 7 has been updated for rooted users too.  There are good fixes in this new build, but we always recommend knowing your device inside and out before attempting these types of things.  Plus a backup or two wouldn’t hurt either.

Added to the list of working features are Bluetooth calling, camcorder will now have better audio, and you’ll be introduced to some different lockscreen options.  Full support and instructions can be found at the original RootzWiki thread.  Feeling frisky?

Via: RootzWiki

Cheers Phil!

The first set of ROMs for the the DROID Bionic and the DROID3 are starting to pop up now that we have official bootstrap apps and an easy root method.  The two we have listed below each have been de-bloated, include tweaks to build.props, and run on the latest firmware available.  There will likely be many more on the way, including one from Team Liberty which is rumored to be available in the Liberty Toolbox already.

ROM Threads:  Unleashed (Bionic) | Steel Droid (DROID3)

Cheers Brian, Jason, Graham, and Connor!

We’ll start this off by saying that this is NOT the final Gingerbread build that your HTC Thunderbolt will receive from Verizon whenever it gets approved.  This is technically an “official” build from HTC and Verizon, but again, is not THE build you will see when they start rolling out 2.3.  What I’m trying to tell you, is that if you load this, there is also a chance that you could be stuck with it for good (non-rooted users of course).  That make sense?

If you are interested though, our buddy Chingy has made version 2.07.605.0 available for both non-rooted and rooted users to test drive.  Actually, “test drive” is a bad word since this is no longer a test build and is the closest thing we’ve seen to a final release.  I know that both the Incredible and Incredible 2 received 2.3 before it, but at least we’re finally getting close.

Download links can be found over at the Mik Mik. (You’ll have to register, sorry.)

Via:  RootzWiki

Cheers Steve!

AlphaRev and Unrevoked have joined forces and are making it very easy to own an HTC device. For quite some time now, the Unrevoked team has been the way to go when rooting select HTC devices. Owners of the DROID Incredible2 running Gingerbread, and the HTC Thunderbolt can now enjoy full S-Off support, plus a much easier rooting process. We know that the Thunderbolt owners are getting sick and tired waiting for the Gingerbread update, so why not take it upon yourself?

If you have been looking to root your Inc2, or Thunderbolt, now is the time. Feel free to head over to their site to get the full list of instructions. Be aware, you take the plunge at your own risk. We are pretty sure you won’t regret it though.

Via: Phandroid

Cheers Pete, Zane!

The CM7 build for the Thunderbolt that slayher has quietly been working on hit v0.6 yesterday and we wanted to point out how far it has come.  From its early pre-alpha stage, many of you were a little hesitant to go with it, and rightfully so – the warnings were pasted all over that original post.  Since then though, our very own MrPicolas has grown quite fond of it and even made it his daily driver.  He mentioned that some people are having to toggle their 3G and 4G from time to time, but he hasn’t had to at all.  And let me tell you, for a guy that uses his device for everything and rarely touches a computer, a ROM better be good for him to stick with it for a long time.  Pretty good sign right there.

Download:  update-cm-7.1.0-RC0.6-Thunderbolt-KANG-signed.zip

Doesn’t work:  Slow GPS (although Picolas hasn’t had any troubles), mic on video is broken (might be fixed actually), possible data/voice bugs.

Does work:  Everything else.

*The original Thunderbolt radio is recommended.  And I’m actually not even sure if the new radio will work.  So I highly recommend you flash back to the original radio if you plan on running this.

Load it up as you would any other ROM.

Full support can be found at this RootzWiki thread.

Earlier in the week we received the new radio for the Thunderbolt which will accompany the MR2 update that is scheduled to be released by Verizon in the next couple of weeks.  And when we say “MR2,” we’re talking about the update that will fix all of the random reboot problems that many of you have experienced after taking the MR1 update from a few weeks back.  Today though (thanks to Chingy and TeamAndIRC), we have the full MR2 RUU for non-rooted users to run and a set of ROMs based off of it for those with root to flash.

We’re still waiting on an official changelog from Verizon, but as you can see from the screenshot above, they have finally included the ability to turn off 4G without having to load up a separate app.