One of the best resources for finding hacked firmware for modern smartphones is about to start getting stale. Shipped ROMS is a one-stop-shop for custom ROM images for dozens of mobile phones. These disk images let you do things like upgrade from one operating system to another or gain access to hidden settings.
Some have custom software built in to improve the experience of using the phone. And generally these ROMS offer a way to keep old phones up to date long after the manufacturer stops shipping updates.
Last month HTC contacted Conflipper, the force behind Shipped ROMS, and asked him to remove some cooked smartphone ROMS from his site. Today he announced that after a lot of back and forth with HTC, he’s agreed not to upload any new custom ROM images to the site — but all existing files will remain online indefinitely.
In other words, Shipped ROMS will slowly transition from a resource for new files into a museum of hacked smartphone firmware that will slowly become outdated.
Conflipper has also announced that after spending four years as part of the ROM cooking community, he’s going to call it quits and move on to other projects.
There will clearly still be other places to find custom ROMs, but Conflipper’s work will be missed — and given HTC’s apparent stance on ROM cooking, it’s unlikely that we’ll see another comprehensive repository of hacked Smartphone ROMs anytime soon.
via Cool Smartphone