HTC One M9 has already had its bootloader unlocked

If your purchase decision for the HTC One M9 hinged on its ability to have its bootloader fully unlocked, you can scratch that prerequisite off your list. Jcase is back at it with his exceptional development skills to provide proof that he has successfully achieved S-OFF just under 24 hours after receiving it (which means a fully unlocked bootloader with no restrictions on your ability to write to the system partition).

And that’s where the story ends — the unlock method is not yet available. Jcase came right out and said there are no ETAs, and that it will likely be weeks before they’re able to release the method to everyone. They’re likely taking the time necessary to create the easiest and safest route possible, and also testing the method to make sure nothing can screw up tons of devices in the process.

The best thing you can do right now is follow Jcase’s Twitter account as he usually posts all updates there. It might not be a bad idea to bookmark this XDA thread as well. Fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan!

Sony gives developers an official path to bootloader access on select phones

In Sony’s ongoing quest to make their phones more developer friendly, the company has opened up bootloader access for a handful of their current Android smartphones. FXP has found that Sony’s official Mobile Flash tool now offers up an “Open Devices” bootloader option alongside the standard consumer-shipped bootloader.

What will this enable? It’ll allow developers to install custom recoveries right to the devices’ recovery partition. This enables the use of custom ROMs and operating systems without the need to use tricky and clunky bootstrap solutions. In fact, it’s so open that it would be possible to flash recoveries and ROMs for non-Android operating systems such as Ubuntu and Firefox OS (if one has the wherewithal to figure that out, of course).

Sony has only rolled out support for devices with chipsets based on ARM Cortex-A7, so that effectively limits it to the Sony Xperia T3, Sony Xperia M2, Sony Xperia T2 Ultra and the Sony Xperia E3.

That’s not to say more won’t come down the line, though, and we hope to hear something official from Sony soon. In the meantime, you can find the mobile flash tool right here. We wouldn’t recommend using it to do anything immediately, but you’ll likely want it on-hand once the development community takes proper advantage of this new level of access.

You will soon be able to officially unlock your LG G4’s bootloader

LG has been one of the odd souls out of the “let’s give depeer access to developers” party, but that looks to be changing soon. The company’s developer website has been updated with instructions for officially unlocking the LG G4’s bootloader.

There’s a catch here, naturally. It’s only possible to do this for one model of the LG G4, which is the European H815 variant. LG’s site says select “devices” will gain that ability eventually so you can bet there will be more.

We’re not sure if this courtesy will ever be extended to the likes of the LG G2, LG G3 or any of LG’s other models, but we’ll be looking to find out. In the meantime, if you’re the lucky owner of the necessary variant and have been waiting for an official bootloader unlock then LG has everything you need right here (note that it’s liable to void your warranty and that it’s a process which can’t be undone).