ChevronWP7 Labs offered a limited jailbreaking tool for phones running Windows Phone 7 for a brief period of time. The tool didn’t give you complete access over your phone’s software the way that rooting an Android phone or jailbreaking an iPhone does. But it did make it possible to install apps that were not downloaded from the official Windows Phone Marketplace.
Now the folks behind ChevronWP7 have announced that they’re killing the project.
The team developed its tool with the backing of Microsoft, as a way of encouraging independent developers to try writing apps and testing them on Windows Phone devices without paying $99 for a full developer account. But after a while, the group ran out of “tokens” for new users, and today the team announced it was closing down altogether.
While 10,000 people unlocked their devices using ChevronWP7 tools, a fairly small number of those people went on to publish apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace for all users to access.
The good news is that Microsoft is letting anyone who already paid $9 to use ChevronWP7 1 year of access to the Microsoft App Hub for free. Normally membership costs $99.
Update: And the bad news is that anyone who unlocked their device with ChevronWP7 and doesn’t sign up for an App Hub account will lose their unlock in a few months. Any apps users have sideloaded will simply stop working.
via Electronista
That’s awesome! I paid the $9 but ChevronWP7 never worked for me. Free MS App Hub is fair compensation. :D