Microsoft is sending out emails to Windows Phone app developers informing them that they will no longer be able to unlock any Windows Phone 7.x devices, like the Lumia 900, for app testing after December 31.
Microsoft recommends that app developers who want to unlock those phones do so before the deadline so they can continued to be used for app testing for another 24 months.
I’m guessing very few people are on Windows Phone 7.x at this point, so this kind of makes sense. The move to WP8 is nearing full completion.
I’m not familiar with Windows phone restrictions, but does this say all unlocked windows 7 developer phones will re-lock themselves after 24 months? While this is about windows 7 phones, do windows 8 phones have the same time bomb built in?
What MS *should* have done, given that these phones have no commercial value to MS any more, is released the unlock procedures into the public domain.
It may be an issue regarding Microsoft having to issue special certificates.
zzing,
MS programmed the time bombs, they could just remove them or issue certs that don’t expire. That is if they cared to. At least I can take comfort in knowing I never bought one of these to begin with, but the truth is this is a pervasive problem today across many companies.
Products generally face obsolescence anyways, but IMHO it’s really bad if “unbroken” devices will actually loose existing functionality over time due to programming.
Here on osnews, we reminisce about old technology all the time, ie Thom writes some very interesting articles about things in his personal collection. It’s amazing that one can still obtain technology which is decades past it’s prime and still have it run today on actual or emulated hardware. Much of our modern technology and media, by comparison, is encumbered with DRM, product activation, timebombs, phone home restrictions, etc. Alot of modern engineering has gone into making products not work, of all things. This sometimes interferes with legitimate users today, but it will become much worse in the future when online updates are gone, “activations” fail and control servers are no longer functioning.
Edited 2014-11-12 05:15 UTC
Obsolescence may be a goal, but then again it might just be a part of a strategy to limit access to the crap that has infested computers and some phones for over twenty years.
This view may not be popular here, however, I don’t think it would be hard to see the benefits and/or potential benefits of having something as simple as a signing requirement. Compared to Android, iOS has remained pretty much free of malware. I am glad that the mac has a clear system now: by default only signed developers and stuff from the app store (i.e. it doesn’t have to come from the appstore, but it does need to be signed). But you can turn that off, which is good because it is a general purpose device.
Java is increasingly needing signed code to do anything, the Java Webstart deprecated unsigned code a while back. You are starting to see sandboxes everywhere.
Now all this stuff no doubt has some high costs. They are making machines for today, not worrying about niche players years after they are deprecated. I know this interferes with the desires of hackers, and maybe they can fix it if enough noise is made — but I expect it is buried deep in the system.
This unlocking is for developing software. That software goes into a store. The Windows 7 phone store might stay open a while longer, but I am actually amazed that this is going to be for so long. Microsoft has an amazing trackrecord for keeping old things running
Microsoft is probably going to open up this unlocking when the end of 2016 is coming close. They might even make Enterprise/Sideloading easily available by then.
People are, rightfully, making some fuzz about this, but in reality there will not be any real reason to develop for Windows Phone 7 by the end of 2016 (or even now). The exception is of course people like you and me that visit sites like this
Yeah on one level, there was *never* a need to develop for windows phone 7. It didn’t have much market share, nor did it do anything unique enough to find a niche in any vertical market.
But on the other hand, some people ( cough, cough) bough one anyway for reasons unspeakable. Those people should be able to continue developing for the phone.
It is also needed for sideloading apps, like if you want to make screenshots.
I don’t share your optimism here. Nothing of that kind was announced or even publicly mulled by Microsoft. And that they stopped caring about “keeping things running” should be clear to anyone after WP7 Skype was discontinued.
The email app’s limitation to the insecure SSLv3 was mentioned by someone else below.
Thom mentioned that very few people are on WP7 now, but that is not because it is old. That is because it becomes unusable through neglect, and the users’ options take matters into their own hands are limited.
Mulling in public is not really Microsofts style. Not even with the newer, opener Microsoft.
To keep Skype running would have required to keep the Skype servers compatible. Opening up the sideloading 2 years from now would just require publishing a non-expiring key to the public
For the next two years you can do whatever you can do now. The market for Windows Phone 7 was tiny back then, is incredibly small now and will be basically 0 two years from now.
What a coindence. I have been using Lumia 800 and I love it. I had thought I would keep using it but its battery died again last weekend. This happened before and I fixed it that time by replacing with a new one. But this time it didn’t work and even worse I dropped the screen to the ground. So it’s time for a new phone and I ordered a Lumia 830.
Nowadays new phone has at least 5 inch screen, which is too large by my standard. It’s a new thing to try and I hope it would be worth it (I mean, I hope I would finally set out to write my application on windows phone
Lumia 530 has a 4″ screen. There are still small phones available if you really want to
(many people think a phone is too big, use it for a week, get used to it, don’t want to go back to a smaller phone)
And is now completely pissed off because wp7 is not supporting tls and her mail-provider switched off SSLv3 support, so no email anymore
As a workaround, you can set up an outlook.com account to collect your email, and receive it via that on your WP7.
The downside is that Microsoft can read your email then…