AximSite: YES to "hacked", "cooked", but still legal ROM's!

By Werner Ruotsalainen, Submitted Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Topics:

My readers may have realised I haven't really reported on "hacked" ROM's for about 10 months (except for one - the hx4700 AKU 3.5.2 upgrade). The sole reason for this was hacked ROM's being on the verge of legality; this is why I've refused to post news on the advances of ROM hacking in the last 10 months, after discussing this question with some Microsoft folks. (After all, don't forget I'm a Microsoft MVP and don't really want to lose this title.)

The question of ROM hacking have been the most central subject of debate over at AximSite for some months ever since Football has released his excellent AKU 3.5.2 upgrade for the Dell Axim x51 series. This Dell Axim series only has the definitely inferior AKU 2.2 ROM officially; hence the heated debates on whether discussions of ROM hacking should be allowed or not.

Other sites have also addresed this question before AximSite's (current) decision. MoDaCo (one of the leading MS Smartphone forums) has stated long ago they would allow hacking-related discussions (but NOT linking in real ROM's). FirstLoox, the leading Fujitsu-Siemens (RIP) board has also posted on the hacked WM5 AKU 3.5.2 upgrade on their frontpage. So did the leading Windows Mobile gaming page, PocketGamer.org, with their frontpage reports of the Dell Axim x50v/ ROM upgrade.

Fortunately, now, AximSite has also announced they will also let for legal (!) hacking discussions. What does this mean? Everything is allowed that discusses upgrades, hacks of the underlying operating system that originally came with the device (or is available for it as an official upgrade). That is, you're legally allowed to install, say, the WM5 AKU 3.5.2 upgrade on both of your Dell Axim x51(v) and HP iPAQ hx4700 because the former runs under WM5 and the latter has an official WM5 upgrade. That is, you've already paid for the WM5 license, which entitles you to use any AKU version of that operating system - even with hacked versions.

HOWEVER, if you do pay for a WM5 license, you still cannot legally use WM6 on the same device because it's WM5 that you've paid for, not WM6. This means I will still not report / comment on for example brand new WM6 ROM upgrades for, originally, WM5 devices having no official WM6 upgrades. I'm very sorry for this - you'll need to follow the discussions over at XDA-Developers and HowardForums instead.

All in all, hacked ROMs are allowed, unless you use WM6 on an, officially, WM5-only device. Therefore, I'll only elaborate on "hacked" WM5 ROM's, not WM6 ones. This also means I will not answer questions like "what are the advantages of / problems with the hx4700 / x51v WM6 upgrade?". Sorry about that.

Submitted by Werner Ruotsalainen on August 29, 2007 - 4:46pm.

To the first question / comment:

well, it seems the folks at HP don't really concentrate their forces on either quality assurance (see the REALLY bad bugs in version 2.00 - and even 2.01 - easily (after some minutes of playing with the upgrade) spotted and fixed by me and some other hackers) or hiring some real programmers / system engineers.

Submitted by Werner Ruotsalainen on August 29, 2007 - 6:16pm.

Yup, the ROM type does have a direct effect on the speed of compaction.

However, the original 2.00 (and, to some degree, even the 2.01 - for example, the touchpad bug wasn't fully fixed in it either) version had a lot more problems, completely unrelated to compaction.

Submitted by Werner Ruotsalainen on August 30, 2007 - 3:53am.

HP *had* to release their WM5 upgrade because they had promised it and didn't want to go the Fujitsu-Siemens (F-S) route.

The F-S folks had also promised the upgrade for their flagship model 718/720 but, then, refused to release it. It was already existing and being betatested; even some FirstLoox members had the chance to play with it. This was one of the first blows to the, up to then, really popular F-S brand. I think it also contributed to their recent leaving the Windows Mobile scene - in addition to their other cardinal mistakes (not releasing a REAL successor, keeping the feature set of the original device, to the 718 / 720; not officially selling the handheld in the States, releasing the far-from-perfect T830 etc).

The same stands for Asus and Toshiba - they have also refused to release a WM5 upgrade for their VGA devices. No wonder they are pretty much out of the market right now (except for Toshi's returning with the G900 and Asus' some - not very popular - PPC phones and navigation solutions; still, they are in no way as famous as the Asus / Toshi handhelds were between 2002 and 2004 - particularly in the e800 days.)

Of course, HP should have spent a LOT more on careful planning (sector size) & testing (various other bugs discovered & fixed by users in an hour). Still, I think HP has done the right thing by releasing the upgrade - they, at least, released *something*, even if it was a pretty crappy one.

The legality should be

Submitted by PurpleHope on June 28, 2010 - 11:37am.

The legality should be discussed in court don't you think? It can't be settled in another way from my point of view. Or at least hire one of the best lawyers in Louisville and you can also talk about the Louisville KY insurance! It's a very good deal isn't it? As a firm you must have a representative at all costs.