Some sad, but expected news on the homebrew front: the Chevron Labs unlock, the only Microsoft-sponsored "jailbreak" for Windows Phone, has now officially expired. Chevron Labs' Rafael Rivera posted on the group's blog that, as of August 11, any unlocked phone will be once again locked the next time that device is synced using the Zune desktop software.
The change, which was announced back in April, will not affect any Windows Phone devices that are unlocked using other methods. It may, however, affect those who moved to a paid App Hub account. If you are one of those people, you may have to use the Developer Registration tool to unlock your phone once again. Instructions can be found here.
The Chevron Labs project was shut down for a few reasons, technical, logistical and ideological. A big part was because most people who unlocked their devices never went on to publish apps, which was the Microsoft's primary goal in the effort. For a lot of us, the motivation behind unlocking our phones was not to test apps we developed, but rather to be able to sideload apps and tweaks that would add functionality that was not inherent in Windows Phone 7.
If there is a bright side, it is that the former ChevronWP7 members: Rafael Rivera, Long Zheng and Chris Walsh will continue tinkering around:
"Fear not, we will continue to explore other ideas with Microsoft. All sides are still very interested in the hobbyist and homebrew developer communities."
Source: ChevronWP7
Reader comments
Chevron Labs unlocks for Windows Phone are now expired
What a scam this Chevron Labs was...
not really a scam as anyone who signed up got a refund or free apphub membership, 99>9$
I was going to say, a $99 AppHub/Dev Center membership for $9 is hardly a "scam".
First I am hearing of this. I just tried signing unto apphub and got right in... Had no Idea I got a free account out of this
Just fyi: We wrote about it back in April when it was announced.
I'm fairly certain you had to pay the $99 with the understanding that when chevron unlocks expired you would be credited... Assuming you used the same email with apphub as you used with chevron
Speaking of which I need to see if my card was credited...
I didn't quite care about Apphub, I was speaking about the token itself compared to the free version that they published before.
Well, I was initially bummed by this. But after I unlocked my phone, there wasn't much out there in terms of homebrew apps. I only stuck with tube8 and waze apps
It was not a scam, it gave people who could not afford, or simply could not create a developer account to create and test apps on their phone. Sure some people used it to side-load apps but that was not the point.
For a couple of years the country that I live in (the only one I have a credit card for, which is a requirement by MS) was not available for creating dev accounts, so Chevron was the only reasonable option for me to use my own apps on my own phone.
Now it's time for them to move on & hopefully work on a unlock for wp8. I use my unlock to sideload & tweaks like having more options on colors for the tiles/backgrounds. Sorry ms not all of have the time to develop apps & some of NEED are phones unlocked.
Gee. Glad I didn't give them any of my money. I didn't realize it was only temporary. I really kinda miss Windows Mobile,
I'd like my 10 bux back...
Has anyone found an alternative to the $99 license?