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Our latest bit of Motorola XOOM news comes from the category “Things that Shouldn’t Surprise Us.” Answering a question posed in the Motorola Support Forums, one Moto rep has made clear that a rooted XOOM will be ineligible for the free hardware upgrade to a 4G LTE radio down the road. But before you start slandering Motorola for the decision, it should be known that another rep speaking in the same forum thread cleared the matter up a bit, stating as long as the XOOM is running the stock firmware that it shipped with, the upgrade process should go off without a hitch.
We take it this has a lot less to do with Motorola purposefully shunning the root crowd and more to do with the necessary firmware that will be flashed to the device alongside the hardware installation of the 4G radio. Otherwise it would be pretty difficult for Moto to get the proper hardware drivers running on your custom ROM. Still an interesting and important thing to note if you have been tinkering with your XOOM’s software and plan on taking part in the free 4G upgrade.
[via AndroidPolice]
good thing i actually read this, i was about to flip some shit. if you have been tampering with it wouldn’t you just be able to go to the stock backup you made? (assuming you made one). or maybe there is a SBF?
idc i just use my rooted phone i love my xoom!!! just need to get them apps coming
So unroot it, mail it in, then reroot it again. No problem.
I think this has more to do with Verizon being the closed dictators that they are (2nd only to ATT) and do not want anyone tethering off their LTE service. It’s not that hard to create drivers in a kernel had they opened up…
Can’t fault Moto for this one. Incurring the additional costs to service rooted devices makes zero sense form a business stand point.
I’m sticking with htc
The early misunderstanding sounds like someone mistakenly equated rooting with the installation of a custom ROM – something I see happen in the forums off and on.
Yay, Motorola is complying with US Federal law… they should be applauded. For reference, http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus01-businesspersons-guide-federal-warranty-law#Magnuson-Moss
They couldn’t deny you the upgrade. They would flash the device with the stock ROM. If you have the stock ROM, they only need to add the kernel and drivers (if it’s not compiled int the kernel). However, since they don’t know and shouldn’t bother to know what your custom ROM has, they can request to have the device with the same OS as when they sold it to you. They may also tuck in there “we will wipe device when you send it for service”, as a CYA.
@jr: of course you don’t. :)
It’s consumers like you that stand idly by whilst they rights are stripped away.
@UncleMike
You’re correct. It’s funny, because I know the difference as I’ve both rooted and installed custom Cyanogen ROMS on my HTC phones. Just a bad habit I suppose. However, I wouldn’t bother with custom ROMs on the Xoom. Honeycomb has impressed me with it’s spectacular UI. I’m currently debating rooting my N1 to get Cyanogen 7.0 for the HoneyBread theme. Funny how ever since I loaded 2.3.3 all I’ve done is attempt to make it look like Honeycomb. Anyone have a method of rooting 2.3.3 yet?
Boo for the misleading headline. Also, one of the reps flat-out said that he was speculating, and the other gave no indication of his background or department.in other words, this article presents zero useful info.
@ Joe, enjoy your Sense. I will take pure Honeycomb any day
@davisbs999
Yeah the HTC Flyer looks like pure crap. Shame on HTC for refusing to drop sense for their tablets. Seriously everyone go to your local Best Buy and demo the Xoom. Honeycomb is damn near perfect. Here’s to hoping Ice Cream offers the same eye candy.
When they do the hardware upgrade, they will probably have to flash new firmware to support it. If the tools don’t recognize the current firmware version, they’ll simply fail. Techs will not spend time trying to figure out how to make the tools work with modified units.
watch they lock the bootloader after installing the LTE chip. corksoakers.