7 ms·

Termination of LG Mobile Developer website service

92 points by username190 5y ago

errcorrectcode 5y ago
I did client-facing tech consulting for mobile handset mfgrs. There is often a suite of servers that powers each type of phone too. Whenever they turn those off, large portions of the phone, or the whole phone, may stop working too. Motorola and Danger were particularly notorious for this.
puyoxyz 5y ago
Seriously uncool. Huawei did this too. It sucks
_ink_ 5y ago
Sad. I like their phones, but will not buy another one from them.
- quink 5y ago
  Well, of course, they got out of the smartphone business. The last new model was the W41 released in February, in the Indian market only.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- hagbard_c 5y ago
  Nobody will since they're closing up shop - that is why they're doing away with this program. That said it royally sucks that vendors have such control past the first sale and it is one of the reasons I either try to steer away from hardware which is encumbered with this type of restriction or, it that is not feasible, get rid of the restrictions before I ever use the device.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
josteink 5y ago
I seriously don’t get what companies think they gain by making moves like this. You’ll catch a bad rep among power-users, and what do you gain which is good enough to counter-act that? Anyone got any explanation for this kind of behaviour and what kind of (commercial) motivations which are driving it?
- quink 5y ago
  They got out of the smartphone business. That's enough of a motivation I guess.
- wincy 5y ago
  They don’t want to pay to upkeep a dev portal for phones they no longer make? They’re probably laying off all the people who would maintain such a thing.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    The solution to this is to open source the unlocking backend, or give the assets to a foundation that can maintain it.
    - laurent92 5y ago
      The problem is recruitment, which capable engineer would agree to maintain a dead system?
      - josteink 5y ago
        If they open source it, that’s no longer their problem, and the community can pick it up if/when there is a need.
      - heavyset_go 5y ago
        There are plenty of developers and hobbyists that would, take a look at XDA Developers. Hell, there are people still maintaining Maemo and Palm/HP Pre-era webOS despite the hardware and platforms being dead for nearly a decade.
LeoPanthera 5y ago
For people who didn't click through - this is because LG no longer make phones and are closing their dev portal. It's not that new phones will be locked - there will be no new phones.
- sam_lowry_ 5y ago
  And no way to upgrade old phones. This is the point.
elkos 5y ago
If a person is on the market for an easy to unlock/root Android phone which you would suggest?
- bcraven 5y ago
  Any Pixel phone. The 3a is nice and cheap second hand.
- phh 5y ago
  Denied list: - Oppo - Vivo - Unisoc/Spreadtrum nonames/unknown brands - Huawei - Honor Annoying list: - Realme (supposedly ok, but needs to wait for "deep testing apk" for specific model which can take forver) - Xiaomi/POCO (needs to wait up to one month after first boot) Should be ok, but YMMV: - Asus/ROG - Nubia/ZTE/RedMagic - Mediatek nonames/unknown brands - Qualcomm nonames/unknown brands Ok: - OnePlus - Samsung (EXCEPT US MARKET) - Moto - Pixel
- izacus 5y ago
  Pixel is pretty much the primary choice - you don't need to contact the OEM for unlock, the firmware sources are published and you can even relock the phone with your own firmware which others mostly don't allow.
  - SXX 5y ago
    Does cusrom re-locked firmware pass SafetyNet hardware attestation?
    - phh 5y ago
      No, it doesn't. Hardware attestation includes pubkey used to sign firmware. Yours will obviously be different from Google's. (Note that Hardware Attestation doesn't in itself "pass" or "fails", it simply does a signed report of whether bl is locked or not, and which is the pubkey. It's really SafetyNet's server-side interpretation which fails) SafetyNet is NOT meant to ensure your device is secure, but only to ensure that it is running the firmware Google certified the smartphone with (including its known flaws and malwares)
compsciphd 5y ago
I feel like when companies withdraw support like this, they should provide a generic unlocked firmware that can be installed so that devices don't become ewaste.
bmarquez 5y ago
Some commenters are wondering why LG would do this. LG announced they are quitting the smartphone business entirely, and therefore don't have to worry about their developer portal or any reputational damage. T-Mobile even gave away free LG 5G phones last Monday (probably because nobody would pay full price for a discontinued product). https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/05/lg-quitting-smartphone/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/05/lg-quitti...
- laurent92 5y ago
  Ok, who has an LG smart TV?
- lnxg33k1 5y ago
  i would reconsider the statement about reputational damage, LG still does many things and honestly if their approach when closing departments is leave me with an expensive paper holder, then it won't be at least my first choice, i mean all vendors do the same crap more or less, there is not really anything that gives one or the other a huge competitive advantage, so in this context I'm not sure why I should buy from a company with this track record
  - bmarquez 5y ago
    After they announced their exit from the smartphone business, LG promised 3 years of software updates. I don't know if they'll live up to that claim, but my LG Velvet phone recently got a software update dated November 30th, so at least their support team (different from the developer portal) hasn't been shut down yet. http://www.lgnewsroom.com/2021/04/lg-announces-three-year-pledge-for-os-updates/ http://www.lgnewsroom.com/2021/04/lg-announces-three-year-pl...
shrvtv 5y ago
Such a shame. So right now Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows unlocking the bootloader without losing any functionality or enrolling into some developer program
- JackGreyhat 5y ago
  OnePlus does so too...
- SXX 5y ago
  > that allows unlocking the bootloader without losing any functionality Does Google Pay work with unlocked bootloader? Any bank apps that require SafetyNet attestation?
  - rchaud 5y ago
    I don't understand why mobile apps need special security verification. I can use my bank website on any computer's web browser without issue. Why can't I use the mobile website to do the same? Why does it have to be an app?
    - fomine3 5y ago
      Some bank apps skip annoying authentication like webapp because they are in "trusted" environment. I wish those app have "untrusted" mode but unlikely happen.
    - jeroenhd 5y ago
      The only decent defence I know is DRM. Streaming companies are afraid of people ripping their 4K streams through hacked devices. They'd rather deprive their customer base of features than risk letting go of their strict requirements. I still see high res WEBDL torrents appearing online every time streaming services release new episodes, so whatever they're doing is clearly not working anyway. For banking apps there may be a certain level of liability ascribed to the bank. depending on local jurisdiction, but I don't think banks need top of the line security to comply with those regulations; even if there is legislation, security only needs to be good enough so that basic rooted malware can't steal money. I think the wording in the errors and warnings for broken apps say all. When an app doesn't work because the device is rooted, the messaging is usually "your device does not support X" or "your system does not meet the requirements" or "your device is not secured". It's never "you may have malware" or any other potentially helpful message; the wording always seems to punish the user for daring to modify the software on their phone.
necovek 5y ago
They are closing entire phone business, but it does not make the point about leaving unsupported devices locked-up in perpetuity moot. We seriously need to start adding some legislation (in any sufficiently representative customer base country because mobile phones are easily transported between countries) to reduce e-waste and breathe second life into all the devices which run out of their "supported" lifecycle: if a company can't support a device anymore, it needs to allow it to be unlocked forever. I am sure all the manufacturers can set up a shared IMEI-to-unlock-code DB at a relatively small cost.
- kelnos 5y ago
  Why are codes even required? Just allow customers to unlock the bootloader without jumping through hoops. If a code is for some reason required, print it on a sticker in the box it comes in or something.
  - necovek 5y ago
    Sure, that would be ideal. For some reason, phone manufacturers have started requiring registration to get an unlock code. So while I'd be ecstatic for us to get you-own-the-hardware-device-you-bought legislation, at this point in time, I'd be happy with your-device-needs-not-go-in-the-trash-once-we-stop-giving-you-security-updates at least. In a sense, we should push for both, but we don't have to push for both with the same initiative.
    - g_p 5y ago
      The OEMs' justification for this is to try to make it harder for greybox importers/resellers or box shifters to tamper with the firmware on phones. It's not unheard of for modified firmwares with malware to get put onto phones that are being sold into different markets. If you need to register phones one by one, it slows the process down and makes it harder to modify a large number of phones, as they can try detect and prevent bulk requests. In theory that is believed to make it less likely that a customer buys their phone and ends up with a bad experience (keylogger in the modified firmware) that they attribute to the OEM. There's obviously a self interest from OEMs to use this to also enforce market segmentation - they don't want people box shifting handsets from low margin markets into high margin markets and undercutting the official retail price. Some OEMs like Samsung have added region locks to their phones in the past because of this (which are released after 5 minutes of a call is made while connected to a mobile network from the original sales market.
necovek 5y ago
This post is a great way to establish how many people never read past the title of an HN submission: keep them coming all those "I'll never buy from you again" :)
- fsckboy 5y ago
  well... i never will buy from them again.
- username190 5y ago
  I wasn't sure exactly what to title this submission, since there was no clear title on the page (which is just a link to a pop-up window); I think the more interesting discussion here is around property ownership, versus the "I'll never buy from you again" comments. Would we accept that we couldn't update to Windows 10, or switch to Ubuntu, on our laptops, because the Compaq brand was discontinued in 2013? IMO, the sales & service model of mobile devices has been focused on centralized top-down control, which can often serve to harm the user more than it helps them; especially in cases like this. There's a lot of variability in a statement like that though—why I thought it would be an interesting discussion topic.
  - necovek 5y ago
    I think "LG disables unlocking of phones on Dec 31 as it stops producing them" would have helped with this. This one about who read past the title is definitely orthogonal, but quite a simple to figure out if someone "did read"/"didn't read", so I'd really love to see someone collate the results: it is useful information to have, to at least compare HN users to the general public (which there already are studies on title-reading on, which drives all the tabloid out-of-context titles approach already).
walteweiss 5y ago
What about Nexus 5X? Which is phone by Google made by LG.
- agilob 5y ago
  and LG G7 One which is Android One https://www.android.com/one/ https://www.android.com/one/
- systemBuilder 5y ago
  Nexus 5x has a pretty serious design flaw, I think it was boot looping but I can't remember precisely ...
  - wffurr 5y ago
    You could get the software update to complete by putting it in a fridge.
    - errcorrectcode 5y ago
      But only an LG fridge, amirite?
marcodiego 5y ago
They gave up on the phone business, but keeping the bootloader locked is also giving up on their reputation. The only good side on all this is that I have another good example why owning the device you paid for is so important.
- moonchrome 5y ago
  >but keeping the bootloader locked is also giving up on their reputation. To a few dozen HN readers who probably don't even own an LG phone ? I'm a pretty tech savvy person but the last time I had the time to install a custom OS on my device cyanogenmod was still around and cheap Chinese phones with custom roms were the only thing available in the affordable phone segment. Modern phones are cheap enough to replace when the OS updates stop coming and you can find distros with minimal crapware preinstalled and functional UI in any price range. Trusting some internet rando not to inject spyware into a ROM build seems riskier than a first party distro. Ditto for OSS that doesn't really get vetted (I wonder how many people review the niche device support code in projects like these) and building from source would probably cost me more in hours spent on it than getting a new flagship.
  - marcodiego 5y ago
    I use a ROM from the e.foundation. It is definitely not comparable to trusting "some internet rando not to inject spyware into a ROM build".
  - 0x_rs 5y ago
    I'll take "being able to do as I desire with my mass produced device to the fullest extent permissible currently" over "being forced to bin (or forever keep offline) a multi hundred dollars soon-to-be-ewaste device because it became obsolete few years after production and without software updates and security patches the few remaining applications working are a giant security hole where even viewing an image embedded with malicious code can turn it into a botnet peer and a threat to your network". I'll also take this "risk" which could be applied to various extents to basically all community driven projects such as package managers and more. To me this is a middle finger from LG to its users (of which they may not even be fully aware or caring of, since they're closing the department), but as far as I'm aware their reputation in software has never been brilliant anyway.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
didip 5y ago
So, why did LG exit the phone business? Isn’t phone business lucrative and high profile?
- gruez 5y ago
  >Isn’t phone business lucrative and high profile? only for apple. eg. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-handset-market-operating-profit-q2-2021/ https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-handset-market-o...
- systemBuilder 5y ago
  Ever since the G2, every generation of phone sold less and less. Pretty soon there weren't enough economies of scale to pay the engineers to build the next generation of phone.
corn13read2 5y ago
This should absolutely be illegal
dang 5y ago
The submitted title ("After December 31, LG phones' bootloaders will no longer be able to be unlocked") seems badly editorialized, which is against the site guidelines: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." We've reverted it now. Submitters: If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22level%20playing%20field%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
- username190 5y ago
  Apologies, I wasn't sure what to title the submission; I linked to this specific URL because it's served as a pop-up (and is automatically blocked by most browsers) on LG's bootloader unlocking page[0], which details that process specifically. I appreciate the heads up, and I'll keep in mind the "level playing field" next time I post. [0] https://developer.lge.com/resource/mobile/RetrieveBootloader.dev https://developer.lge.com/resource/mobile/RetrieveBootloader...
  - dang 5y ago
    Appreciated!
morninglight 5y ago
This should make everyone reconsider purchasing a "smart" device from LG. If LG can do this to their existing phone customers, they won't hesitate to pull the plug on future customers. Buyer Beware!
danielEM 5y ago
Not long time ago predicted that move and made a petition https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-their-phones-as-they-are-shutting-down-production-for-good https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-th... Went with it to LG, but didn't get a single response. I guess 8 hundred votes is something they don't care about. We would need at least 100 times more to have some significance. Now I really keen to legislation approach. We already have a movement like "right to repair", now we need a movement "right to own your device".

92 points by username190 5y ago

I did client-facing tech consulting for mobile handset mfgrs. There is often a suite of servers that powers each type of phone too. Whenever they turn those off, large portions of the phone, or the whole phone, may stop working too. Motorola and Danger were particularly notorious for this.

puyoxyz 5y ago

Seriously uncool. Huawei did this too. It sucks

_ink_ 5y ago

Sad. I like their phones, but will not buy another one from them.

quink 5y ago
Well, of course, they got out of the smartphone business. The last new model was the W41 released in February, in the Indian market only.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
hagbard_c 5y ago
Nobody will since they're closing up shop - that is why they're doing away with this program. That said it royally sucks that vendors have such control past the first sale and it is one of the reasons I either try to steer away from hardware which is encumbered with this type of restriction or, it that is not feasible, get rid of the restrictions before I ever use the device.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

josteink 5y ago

I seriously don’t get what companies think they gain by making moves like this. You’ll catch a bad rep among power-users, and what do you gain which is good enough to counter-act that? Anyone got any explanation for this kind of behaviour and what kind of (commercial) motivations which are driving it?

quink 5y ago
They got out of the smartphone business. That's enough of a motivation I guess.
wincy 5y ago
They don’t want to pay to upkeep a dev portal for phones they no longer make? They’re probably laying off all the people who would maintain such a thing.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  The solution to this is to open source the unlocking backend, or give the assets to a foundation that can maintain it.
  - laurent92 5y ago
    The problem is recruitment, which capable engineer would agree to maintain a dead system?
    - josteink 5y ago
      If they open source it, that’s no longer their problem, and the community can pick it up if/when there is a need.
    - heavyset_go 5y ago
      There are plenty of developers and hobbyists that would, take a look at XDA Developers. Hell, there are people still maintaining Maemo and Palm/HP Pre-era webOS despite the hardware and platforms being dead for nearly a decade.

LeoPanthera 5y ago

For people who didn't click through - this is because LG no longer make phones and are closing their dev portal. It's not that new phones will be locked - there will be no new phones.

sam_lowry_ 5y ago
And no way to upgrade old phones. This is the point.

elkos 5y ago

If a person is on the market for an easy to unlock/root Android phone which you would suggest?

bcraven 5y ago
Any Pixel phone. The 3a is nice and cheap second hand.
phh 5y ago
Denied list: - Oppo - Vivo - Unisoc/Spreadtrum nonames/unknown brands - Huawei - Honor Annoying list: - Realme (supposedly ok, but needs to wait for "deep testing apk" for specific model which can take forver) - Xiaomi/POCO (needs to wait up to one month after first boot) Should be ok, but YMMV: - Asus/ROG - Nubia/ZTE/RedMagic - Mediatek nonames/unknown brands - Qualcomm nonames/unknown brands Ok: - OnePlus - Samsung (EXCEPT US MARKET) - Moto - Pixel
izacus 5y ago
Pixel is pretty much the primary choice - you don't need to contact the OEM for unlock, the firmware sources are published and you can even relock the phone with your own firmware which others mostly don't allow.
- SXX 5y ago
  Does cusrom re-locked firmware pass SafetyNet hardware attestation?
  - phh 5y ago
    No, it doesn't. Hardware attestation includes pubkey used to sign firmware. Yours will obviously be different from Google's. (Note that Hardware Attestation doesn't in itself "pass" or "fails", it simply does a signed report of whether bl is locked or not, and which is the pubkey. It's really SafetyNet's server-side interpretation which fails) SafetyNet is NOT meant to ensure your device is secure, but only to ensure that it is running the firmware Google certified the smartphone with (including its known flaws and malwares)

compsciphd 5y ago

I feel like when companies withdraw support like this, they should provide a generic unlocked firmware that can be installed so that devices don't become ewaste.

bmarquez 5y ago

Some commenters are wondering why LG would do this. LG announced they are quitting the smartphone business entirely, and therefore don't have to worry about their developer portal or any reputational damage. T-Mobile even gave away free LG 5G phones last Monday (probably because nobody would pay full price for a discontinued product). https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/05/lg-quitting-smartphone/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/05/lg-quitti...

laurent92 5y ago
Ok, who has an LG smart TV?
lnxg33k1 5y ago
i would reconsider the statement about reputational damage, LG still does many things and honestly if their approach when closing departments is leave me with an expensive paper holder, then it won't be at least my first choice, i mean all vendors do the same crap more or less, there is not really anything that gives one or the other a huge competitive advantage, so in this context I'm not sure why I should buy from a company with this track record
- bmarquez 5y ago
  After they announced their exit from the smartphone business, LG promised 3 years of software updates. I don't know if they'll live up to that claim, but my LG Velvet phone recently got a software update dated November 30th, so at least their support team (different from the developer portal) hasn't been shut down yet. http://www.lgnewsroom.com/2021/04/lg-announces-three-year-pledge-for-os-updates/ http://www.lgnewsroom.com/2021/04/lg-announces-three-year-pl...

shrvtv 5y ago

Such a shame. So right now Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows unlocking the bootloader without losing any functionality or enrolling into some developer program

JackGreyhat 5y ago
OnePlus does so too...
SXX 5y ago
> that allows unlocking the bootloader without losing any functionality Does Google Pay work with unlocked bootloader? Any bank apps that require SafetyNet attestation?
- rchaud 5y ago
  I don't understand why mobile apps need special security verification. I can use my bank website on any computer's web browser without issue. Why can't I use the mobile website to do the same? Why does it have to be an app?
  - fomine3 5y ago
    Some bank apps skip annoying authentication like webapp because they are in "trusted" environment. I wish those app have "untrusted" mode but unlikely happen.
  - jeroenhd 5y ago
    The only decent defence I know is DRM. Streaming companies are afraid of people ripping their 4K streams through hacked devices. They'd rather deprive their customer base of features than risk letting go of their strict requirements. I still see high res WEBDL torrents appearing online every time streaming services release new episodes, so whatever they're doing is clearly not working anyway. For banking apps there may be a certain level of liability ascribed to the bank. depending on local jurisdiction, but I don't think banks need top of the line security to comply with those regulations; even if there is legislation, security only needs to be good enough so that basic rooted malware can't steal money. I think the wording in the errors and warnings for broken apps say all. When an app doesn't work because the device is rooted, the messaging is usually "your device does not support X" or "your system does not meet the requirements" or "your device is not secured". It's never "you may have malware" or any other potentially helpful message; the wording always seems to punish the user for daring to modify the software on their phone.

necovek 5y ago

They are closing entire phone business, but it does not make the point about leaving unsupported devices locked-up in perpetuity moot. We seriously need to start adding some legislation (in any sufficiently representative customer base country because mobile phones are easily transported between countries) to reduce e-waste and breathe second life into all the devices which run out of their "supported" lifecycle: if a company can't support a device anymore, it needs to allow it to be unlocked forever. I am sure all the manufacturers can set up a shared IMEI-to-unlock-code DB at a relatively small cost.

kelnos 5y ago
Why are codes even required? Just allow customers to unlock the bootloader without jumping through hoops. If a code is for some reason required, print it on a sticker in the box it comes in or something.
- necovek 5y ago
  Sure, that would be ideal. For some reason, phone manufacturers have started requiring registration to get an unlock code. So while I'd be ecstatic for us to get you-own-the-hardware-device-you-bought legislation, at this point in time, I'd be happy with your-device-needs-not-go-in-the-trash-once-we-stop-giving-you-security-updates at least. In a sense, we should push for both, but we don't have to push for both with the same initiative.
  - g_p 5y ago
    The OEMs' justification for this is to try to make it harder for greybox importers/resellers or box shifters to tamper with the firmware on phones. It's not unheard of for modified firmwares with malware to get put onto phones that are being sold into different markets. If you need to register phones one by one, it slows the process down and makes it harder to modify a large number of phones, as they can try detect and prevent bulk requests. In theory that is believed to make it less likely that a customer buys their phone and ends up with a bad experience (keylogger in the modified firmware) that they attribute to the OEM. There's obviously a self interest from OEMs to use this to also enforce market segmentation - they don't want people box shifting handsets from low margin markets into high margin markets and undercutting the official retail price. Some OEMs like Samsung have added region locks to their phones in the past because of this (which are released after 5 minutes of a call is made while connected to a mobile network from the original sales market.

necovek 5y ago

This post is a great way to establish how many people never read past the title of an HN submission: keep them coming all those "I'll never buy from you again" :)

fsckboy 5y ago
well... i never will buy from them again.
username190 5y ago
I wasn't sure exactly what to title this submission, since there was no clear title on the page (which is just a link to a pop-up window); I think the more interesting discussion here is around property ownership, versus the "I'll never buy from you again" comments. Would we accept that we couldn't update to Windows 10, or switch to Ubuntu, on our laptops, because the Compaq brand was discontinued in 2013? IMO, the sales & service model of mobile devices has been focused on centralized top-down control, which can often serve to harm the user more than it helps them; especially in cases like this. There's a lot of variability in a statement like that though—why I thought it would be an interesting discussion topic.
- necovek 5y ago
  I think "LG disables unlocking of phones on Dec 31 as it stops producing them" would have helped with this. This one about who read past the title is definitely orthogonal, but quite a simple to figure out if someone "did read"/"didn't read", so I'd really love to see someone collate the results: it is useful information to have, to at least compare HN users to the general public (which there already are studies on title-reading on, which drives all the tabloid out-of-context titles approach already).

walteweiss 5y ago

What about Nexus 5X? Which is phone by Google made by LG.

agilob 5y ago
and LG G7 One which is Android One https://www.android.com/one/ https://www.android.com/one/
systemBuilder 5y ago
Nexus 5x has a pretty serious design flaw, I think it was boot looping but I can't remember precisely ...
- wffurr 5y ago
  You could get the software update to complete by putting it in a fridge.
  - errcorrectcode 5y ago
    But only an LG fridge, amirite?

marcodiego 5y ago

They gave up on the phone business, but keeping the bootloader locked is also giving up on their reputation. The only good side on all this is that I have another good example why owning the device you paid for is so important.

moonchrome 5y ago
>but keeping the bootloader locked is also giving up on their reputation. To a few dozen HN readers who probably don't even own an LG phone ? I'm a pretty tech savvy person but the last time I had the time to install a custom OS on my device cyanogenmod was still around and cheap Chinese phones with custom roms were the only thing available in the affordable phone segment. Modern phones are cheap enough to replace when the OS updates stop coming and you can find distros with minimal crapware preinstalled and functional UI in any price range. Trusting some internet rando not to inject spyware into a ROM build seems riskier than a first party distro. Ditto for OSS that doesn't really get vetted (I wonder how many people review the niche device support code in projects like these) and building from source would probably cost me more in hours spent on it than getting a new flagship.
- marcodiego 5y ago
  I use a ROM from the e.foundation. It is definitely not comparable to trusting "some internet rando not to inject spyware into a ROM build".
- 0x_rs 5y ago
  I'll take "being able to do as I desire with my mass produced device to the fullest extent permissible currently" over "being forced to bin (or forever keep offline) a multi hundred dollars soon-to-be-ewaste device because it became obsolete few years after production and without software updates and security patches the few remaining applications working are a giant security hole where even viewing an image embedded with malicious code can turn it into a botnet peer and a threat to your network". I'll also take this "risk" which could be applied to various extents to basically all community driven projects such as package managers and more. To me this is a middle finger from LG to its users (of which they may not even be fully aware or caring of, since they're closing the department), but as far as I'm aware their reputation in software has never been brilliant anyway.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

didip 5y ago

So, why did LG exit the phone business? Isn’t phone business lucrative and high profile?

gruez 5y ago
>Isn’t phone business lucrative and high profile? only for apple. eg. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-handset-market-operating-profit-q2-2021/ https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-handset-market-o...
systemBuilder 5y ago
Ever since the G2, every generation of phone sold less and less. Pretty soon there weren't enough economies of scale to pay the engineers to build the next generation of phone.

corn13read2 5y ago

This should absolutely be illegal

dang 5y ago

The submitted title ("After December 31, LG phones' bootloaders will no longer be able to be unlocked") seems badly editorialized, which is against the site guidelines: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." We've reverted it now. Submitters: If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22level%20playing%20field%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

username190 5y ago
Apologies, I wasn't sure what to title the submission; I linked to this specific URL because it's served as a pop-up (and is automatically blocked by most browsers) on LG's bootloader unlocking page[0], which details that process specifically. I appreciate the heads up, and I'll keep in mind the "level playing field" next time I post. [0] https://developer.lge.com/resource/mobile/RetrieveBootloader.dev https://developer.lge.com/resource/mobile/RetrieveBootloader...
- dang 5y ago
  Appreciated!

morninglight 5y ago

This should make everyone reconsider purchasing a "smart" device from LG. If LG can do this to their existing phone customers, they won't hesitate to pull the plug on future customers. Buyer Beware!

danielEM 5y ago

Not long time ago predicted that move and made a petition https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-their-phones-as-they-are-shutting-down-production-for-good https://www.change.org/p/lg-electronics-lg-to-open-source-th... Went with it to LG, but didn't get a single response. I guess 8 hundred votes is something they don't care about. We would need at least 100 times more to have some significance. Now I really keen to legislation approach. We already have a movement like "right to repair", now we need a movement "right to own your device".