developer edition

The Verizon variant of the Galaxy S5 may be having a little camera trouble, but depending on who you ask, this might not be the handset’s biggest issue. Although Android’s setup offers a lot of flexibility, Big Red’s version of Samsung new flagship ships with a locked bootloader. This makes it extremely difficult to take advantage custom ROMs and early software updates. Verizon locking down the Galaxy S5’s bootloader has become such an issue, a band of developers are offering a bounty (now over $11,000) to whoever can find an effective workaround to this problem.

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After making the decision to halt the Android 4.2 rollout to One variants, HTC America president Jason Mackenzie has just announced on Twitter that the company plans to update the One developer edition to Android 4.3 this week. The update will include the latest version of Sense, as well. Mackenzie also notes that One owners in Canada should expect the update by the end of the month.

Good news – the latest Sense experience & Android 4.3 will push to One Dev Edition owners this week & One customers in Canada by month end.

— Jason Mackenzie (@JasonBMac24) September 23, 2013

There’s no word on when the carrier models here in the United States will get the Android 4.3 update. Once HTC finalizes the build for each model, it must send it to every carrier for final improvements and tweaks, and as we all know, carriers certainly don’t expedite the update process at all.

If you own an HTC One developer edition or Canadian variant, be sure to keep an eye out for the update and let us know when you receive it. 
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Following in the footsteps of Samsung and several others, Motorola has just updated the Moto X’s “ways to buy” page with a new variant that has an unlockable bootloader and 32GB of storage (via Droid-Life). The Developer Edition Moto X is simply listed as “coming soon” with no pricing details. Given that the 32GB AT&T model runs $629, however, it’d be surprising to see it cost any less than that.

In addition to the more developer-friendly enhancements, the device also features several cosmetic changes. The front of the device is all-black with a gloss design while the back is white and has a woven pattern on it. “DEVELOPER EDITION” is also engraved on the back and carrier logos are nowhere to be found.

While Motorola teases that the developer edition will “have a look of its own,” you could most likely build a device very similar with MotoMaker once it is fully functional. 
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