I just bought one of these bad boys and it's unlocked, seems it was unlocked officially from T-Mobile cuz the tmobile apps are still there. I'm not sure just speculating. I would like to install some cracked apps like PES etc but I was doing some reading and realised that if I plug in my phone it might update and become relocked. Is this true? Also how do I install cracked apps on this device? Thank you

[acefire]

I think you are confused.

There are 2 types of unlock in WP7.

The first type is "Carrier Unlock" which allows your phone to be used on any network with any SIM card.

The second type, which we refer to it often here is "Developer Unlock" which means that your phone has the ability to install XAP files without the need of having to go through the official Marketplace.

From your case, I highly doubt your phone is "Developer Unlocked" from T-Mobile. It seems to me that it's more likely that T-Mobile used their own ROM of WP7, hence the presence of their apps.

Now to address your issues 1 at a time.

if I plug in my phone it might update and become relocked.

It will only update IF you click the update the button in Zune should there be any update notifications. Not all updates re-lock your device, e.g. Pre-nodo to nodo update does not lock your device.

However, there are cases whereby UNAUTHORIZED phones which are illegally dev unlocked relock when syncing with Zune as Zune communicates with the MS server to check.

There are ways to prevent this. The simplest being to put your phone into Airplane mode whenever you plug it to pc. Another way is to edit the registry, but I won't go there since you are new.

NOTE:This does not apply if you purchase your unlock using Chevron WP7 Labs or by having a valid MS Developer account.

how do I install cracked apps on this device

This is actually very simple. Simply do a google search for XAP installers. One of the most user friendly apps would be Tom's XAP installer. Google it.

After downloading it, you will need to have the XAP file of the game/software you wish to install on your pc.

Let's use PES as an example.

1. Plug your phone into your computer(Please refer what I mentioned above about unlocked phones if you do not wish to get relocked)

2. Start Zune

3. Make sure Zune detects your phone

4. Open Tom's XAP installer or any other XAP installer you would like to use.

5. Browse for the XAP file, E.g. "PES.xap"

6. Select it and load it onto your XAP installer.

7. Make sure to check that the XAP installer says "Deploy to Device"(This should be the default). If it shows "Deploy to Emulator", click on the dropdown box and select "Device"

8. Make sure your phone is NOT in lock screen and is at the home screen.

9. Click deploy on the XAP installer.

10. Wait for it to finish and unplug your phone

NOTE:This WILL NOT work if your phone is not "Developer Unlocked"

[stillriza]

how do I install cracked apps on this device? Thank you

Look at my sig, and click the pic/link "How to deploy xaps for.." The info and tools are also there if you have a hard time finding them. It's just a link to the jailbreak section on this forum.

Alright so I have a better understanding. My phone is NOT DEV UNLOCKED. I need to jailbreak it but I can't because it is NODO. I can get it DEV UNLOCKED with a DEC ACCOUNT but I think all that is way to much trouble. It seems I will just have to pay for apps now and well since it's NODO it seems I can UPDATE but I'll have to trick Zune into updating it because I tried last night and no luck.

It's running OS 7.0.7392.0 and apparently the carrier is TMO-US. I not in the US btw I live in the Caribbean, I had a NOKIA N900 before so I'm sort of familiar with tweaking phones and I had an iPhone 3G also which I jailbroke myself. So I have a lil knowledge on these things but this OS has me stumped, MS really wasn't playing around.

Thanks again guys/gals

[stillriza]

You can update to Mango, you'll love it. You can also dev unlock using the chev method online. It will cost you $9 to unlock, but after you do so then you can load some other utilities that you can use to remove the sideload limit, interop unlock, etc. The chevron utility can be found here >> http://www.chevronwp7.com/

Oh sweet, well thank you, well before I get my hands dirty, I'll go get me a credit card because I am supposed to get one for the longest while but I never bothered. Now I have a very good reason to spend that cash. Thanks for all your helps guys. I hope to be a valuable member of this community like I was at talk.maemo.org

I've been reading and apparently amongst getting my device dev unlocked I can swap out the 8gig for a 32gig sandisk. do you guys recommend this?

[stillriza]

I have a Samsung focus with the standard 8GB but I also have an sdcard slot. I added my old 2gb card and it worked. I believe sandisk brand of cards work fine. Make sure you keep the reciept just incase. But ya, go for it!

I tried getting my phone unlocked with the student dreamspark method but that failed because I'm not a US citizen nor do I belong to any of the other regions. I can't create a .edu that is US because even with that method I need a social security number which my country does not possess. So messed up.

[acefire]

I tried getting my phone unlocked with the student dreamspark method but that failed because I'm not a US citizen nor do I belong to any of the other regions. I can't create a .edu that is US because even with that method I need a social security number which my country does not possess. So messed up.

I tried DreamSpark before. There are serious flaws in that system.

Although I'm not a citizen of US, it has my country and the exact name of my educational institution.

Hence, I tried to verify using my .edu address which was provided by my school and is 100% legitimate. However, I got an error saying that it is an invalid email address.

For now, there are 2 options for you.

1. Downgrade to pre-nodo and jailbreak it using the old Chevron tool, then update to NoDo and preserve jailbreak on Mango via the Provxml method.

2. Buy the Chevron WP7 Labs "unlock token"

I would like to try both methods actually, can I have the links for method 1 because getting a credit card to pay chevron would take a while. Also what are method one's risks besides bro king my device. Can I get caught by Microsoft or something.

UPDATED:
I'm on the XDA website and I'm searching through, my next issue though even if I get a custom ROM I hope it's SIM unlocked :S
Darn I'm seeing here backups so most likely ROMS are device specific.

[acefire]

If you flash your own ROM, there is a chance that you might brick your device.

Also, even if you get caught by Microsoft, the most they'll do is relock your device.

And yes, most ROMs are device specific.

So how do you propose to go about a downgrade in from Mango to PRE-NODO since my device came with NODO

[acefire]

So how do you propose to go about a downgrade in from Mango to PRE-NODO since my device came with NODO

Flash a pre-nodo ROM. But it's very risky and there's a chance of bricking your device and voiding warranty.

Hmmmm well jailbreaking and flashing on the whole is very risky, but I've done flashing before on other devices and it worked out well, but every device is different, on the scale of 1 to 10 how risky would you say it is if I have all the files necessary to flash and I follow the instructions exactly, because I know that there are usually 3 risks, either you don't have all the necessary files, you didn't follow the instructions to point or they were vague assuming you are not a noob or just your device decided not to take the flash.