Downloader: Motorola on Droid X self-destruct controversy: it won't brick your phone, just put it in recovery mode

Monday, July 26, 2010

Motorola on Droid X self-destruct controversy: it won't brick your phone, just put it in recovery mode

Our sister site, Engadget, has done some laudable reporting on the Droid X "self-destruct" controversy I covered yesterday. The Droid X was rumored to brick itself if a user modified the bootloader, but Engadget asked Motorola about those rumors and found out they're only half-true. Yes, the eFuse chip in the Droid X will "protect users" by forcing the phone into recovery mode, but it won't brick it.

Once your phone is in recovery mode, you can fix it by reinstalling an approved, untampered version of the software. So, the rumors that the phone was difficult to mod were absolutely true, but the rumors that a hardware fix from Motorola would be required to get your phone working again were wrong. No bricking here, people.

The next step, of course, is for Droid modders who want to hack different wrappers for the OS (like HTC Sense, or Froyo) onto their Droid Xs to figure out a way around the bootloader protection on the phone. I suspect it's only a matter of time.