ChevronWP7

ChevronWP7 Labs App Hub Offer Update

Hi all. First, the team would like to apologize to everyone who has been waiting patiently for a reply to email sent in. We’re working to catch up on email.

Second, we’d like to update you on the complimentary Microsoft App Hub subscription outlined in our April 13 announcement.

To recap, customers who wish to accept the free one-year App Hub subscription must meet the following criteria:

• Have purchased an App Hub subscription between January 1, 2012 - June 12, 2012
• Have purchased at least one ChevronWP7 Labs token

To simplify the refund process and prevent any mistakes, we will deliver all eligible email addresses to Microsoft on June 13, 2012. (They will then process refunds as fast as they can, promise.) After this date, no further account changes or refunds will be possible. Please ensure that your App Hub account email address matches your ChevronWP7 Labs email address. If you’re not sure what you used or need to change your email address, email us at help@chevronwp7.com.

Thanks again for your patience.

The ChevronWP7 Labs experiment comes to an end

tl;dr The ChevronWP7 Labs service is closing. Existing customers will receive a complimentary upgrade to a Microsoft App Hub membership.

So, you may recall that ChevronWP7 Labs sold about 10,000 developer-unlock tokens in a matter of two months. Working with Microsoft over the past few months, we finished analyzing the resulting data.

The goal of this experiment was two-fold: First, to determine if we could supercharge the Windows Phone beginner/hobbyist community by removing the initial cost barrier (i.e. App Hub membership.) And second, to convert potential developers into published developers.

While we kicked butt on the former, the latter didn’t work out so well. Our data indicates that most developers simply unlocked their devices for non-developmental reasons and never went all the way to publish an app in the marketplace. There was also some confusion about the actual purpose of the ChevronWP7 service – some folks thought we provided SIM-unlock capabilities, while others thought we were a hacker group providing full root access. On top of this, there were a larger than expected number of support emails.

As a result, both sides amicably agreed to discontinue the ChevronWP7 Labs experiment.

Fear not, we will continue to explore other ideas with Microsoft. All sides are still very interested in the hobbyist and homebrew developer communities.

As a thank you gift, courtesy of Microsoft, we will be offering paid ChevronWP7 Labs users a free upgrade to a one-year membership of Windows Phone App Hub.

Users who wish to take advantage of this will need to sign up with the same Live ID as their ChevronWP7 Labs account and complete App Hub account registration with a credit card. (Your purchase will then be refunded shortly after.) More details on this below.

All of us involved - Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng and the Windows Phone team at Microsoft — are very proud to have been able to bring the ChevronWP7 Labs experiment to fruition and are excited for what the future holds.

/shout out to Brandon Watson

Upgrade offer for ChevronWP7 Labs customers: Conditions for ChevronWP7 Labs customers to receive a Microsoft App Hub Annual Membership at no cost

Microsoft is offering existing paid ChevronWP7 customers a complimentary upgrade to a Microsoft App Hub membership.

Here are the details of the offer:

1. ChevronWP7 paid customers can sign up to Microsoft App Hub for one year from supported countries or regions. (Note: Microsoft will only be able to support developers in countries or regions where payouts are supported, see list)
    
2. If a ChevronWP7 customer signs up, Microsoft will refund the first year’s registration fee via Credit Card charge reversal.
    
3. Conditions:

• ChevronWP7 customers need to register using the same email address they used to register for ChevronWP Labs service. This email address needs to be provided in the ‘personal details’ step of the App Hub registration.
• ChevronWP7 customers need to sign up within 60 days after April 13, 2012  or ChevronWP7 customers have signed up for App Hub on or after January 1^st 2012.
• Only one App Hub account per email will be refunded.

Go to the Microsoft App Hub registration page to signup: http://create.msdn.com/en-us/home/membership

FAQ

• How long does it take to receive a refund?
  All eligible refunds will be processed monthly 60 days after April 13, 2012. It may take up to 60 additional days for the refund to appear on your credit card statement.
   
• What will happen to the unlocks provided by ChevronWP7?
  Unlocks issued through the ChevronWP service will expire 120 days after April 13, 2012. If ChevronWP7 customers choose to sign up for the Microsoft App Hub membership, they will be able to re-unlock the phone after expiration.
   
• What if I’m in a country where Microsoft App Hub membership is not available?
  If you are in a country or region not covered by Microsoft App Hub (see list) there’s no possibility to take advantage of this offer at this time. However as Microsoft is adding new countries and regions regularly, ChevronWP7 customers might want to check back for expended availability to take advantage of the offer.
   
• Where can I get help if I have trouble to register?
  You can find help on the support page http://create.msdn.com/en-US/home/feedback  or for help with Registration and Account Sign In, send an email to apphub@microsoft.com

Update regarding token availability and unlock issues

Since the launch of ChevronWP7 Labs a little more than a month ago, we’ve registered and successfully unlocked nearly 5,000 phones. We’re honored to have inspired many amateur developers to begin Windows Phone development!

As you may know, we recently deactivated the sale of additional tokens. This was done to prevent an over-sell situation and to give us time to implement a new payment gateway. We’ll talk about the latter in a future post. For now, we’re sticking with PayPal.

As you read this, we’re working hard to reopen the site and resume the sale of tokens. We should be done with this in the next hour or so. Before we go live, however, we want to outline a few important changes we made to the site.

First, we added a front-facing refund policy. The policy is simple – tokens not eligible for a refund include (but aren’t limited to) those involved in retail returns, resale, warranty repair, or theft. We’ll determine final eligibility on a case-by-case basis, so don’t be afraid to ask.

Second, we changed the order in which you unlock your phone. Previously, we implied that you purchase a token prior to downloading and using the unlocker. (It was listed as Step 1 and Step 2 respectively.) We flipped these steps to ensure users try the unlock client before purchasing a token. Why?

In some cases, the client may not work correctly with your Windows Phone. An issue plaguing us since launch involves a small percentage of Windows Phone handsets not communicating with the PC properly. This issue manifests in our unlocker as the error “Unlock your Windows Phone screen to continue.” Or if you wait long enough, our tool times out and presents the “Your phone is ignoring us” message. This issue also affects the official Windows Phone Developer Registration tool, showing an error of “Unable to connect to phone. Please check that the Zune software is running […]”.

After many countless attempts to debug the issue with a plethora of Windows Phones, we regrettably concluded this is a problem beyond our control and cannot fix. We understand how frustrating this must be, especially to our early adopters. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. If you’re affected by this issue, here’s what you can do:

1. If you possess an HTC Arrive, try the troubleshooting steps listed in Microsoft Support KB 2537993.
    
2. Try using Windows Phone Developer Registration tool (provided as part of the Windows Phone SDK).
   
   If the tool returns an “Unable to connect to phone” message, keep reading.
   
   If you receive a message other than “Unable to connect to phone”, contact us for support. This is likely a resolvable issue that we can help with.
    
3. Try a new USB cable (particularly the cable that came with the device) and port on your PC. Remember, not all USB cables are created equal.
    
4. Reboot the phone and/or the PC.
    
5. Get in touch with Microsoft by posting in the App Hub forums, specifically the Tools For WP7 sub-forum. Be sure to state your phone cannot communicate with the PC via the official Windows Phone Developer Registration tool (see step 2) as App Hub is not a place for ChevronWP7 Labs support.
   
   NOTE: A free App Hub account is required to post on the App Hub forums. If you’re signing up on App Hub for the first time, you may be asked to become an App Hub member for $99/year. At this step, simply click the Cancel button – you will then have a free account, allowing you to participate on the App Hub (but not publish apps to the Marketplace).

We will honor any refund requests via email for users affected by this issue.

To all our users: Thanks for your patience and Happy Holidays.

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

ChevronWP7 Labs Nov 14 “Mulligan” Update

Yeahhh, we’re just going to sweep that last deployment right under the rug. Sorry about that. :(

We ran into some interesting Windows Phone Support Tool binary versioning issues and also inadvertently introduced a bug in the ‘screen locked’ detection logic that blocked anyone with a developer unlocked device. (That’s pretty much everyone using the tool. Oops.)

We corrected the mistakes and pushed out a new client (0.5). Full change log follows.

Change log:

Unlock Utility

• Removed MD5 hash check of WPST binaries, as they’re not consistent across platforms
• Added load-check for old WPST binaries to replace MD5 hashing (see above)
• Broadened our WPST binary version checks, again as they’re not consistent across platforms
• Fixed a bug introduced in the “screen locked” logic, preventing unlock
• Added extra question marks to our app.config file. (Semi-inside joke.)

Web UI

• Added no-cache to IIS to help mitigate the downloading of our old broken clients.
• Added a “query parameter” at the end of our client download link to mitigate old client downloads…
• … but then removed it as Internet Explorer choked on this; it tried to save files as .5 and [1] files. (Yikes.)

Thanks for your patience!

ChevronWP7 Labs Nov 14 update

First of all, we apologize if we didn’t reply to every comment, email or Twitter message. We’re committed to ensuring the service works for everyone. Whilst a majority of users were able to unlock successfully, we’ve been working very hard to resolve some outstanding   issues for some people.

We disabled token purchasing last week to investigate some problems in the unlocking process. We had anticipated to re-enable purchasing sooner but one issue has turned out to be quite tricky.

Currently, we’re aware of an issue in which some phones do not properly communicate with the PC. This also means the unlocking process cannot be initiated. This not only affects ChevronWP7 Labs, but the official Microsoft Developer Unlock tool too.

We helped a number of users through a dozen known solutions and alternatives, all of which had no effect. Whilst some people had some success hard resetting their phone, this was neither guaranteed nor something we want to recommend.

We are currently in contact with Microsoft to explore other solutions, however this will probably take some time. Since this is an issue outside of our control, we will refund any users suffering from this problem who do not wish to wait. We ask that you first go through our support process to determine if you’re affected or not.

Needless to say, a lot of people are still waiting to use ChevronWP7 Labs. We know not being able to purchase a token has been frustrating, but please understand it was in good faith.

After implementing a number of server and client fixes today, we’re glad to announce token purchasing has now been re-enabled.

We anticipate a small number of new users will too run into the issue described above we hope they are patient while we continue our investigation.

Change log:

Unlock Utility

• Resolved an issue in which users would be taken to the unlock screen despite phone communication errors. This means if you were receiving errors before, you will now get stuck at the start of the app. until you resolve the communication issue.
• Added a Windows Phone Support Tool v2 hash check; we discovered an issue in which the tool’s Microsoft.WindowsMobile.DeviceUpdate.dll is overwritten with an older version (by either Zune or other components).
  
  
• Added a trap for uncaught exceptions, to ease the support process.

Web

• Moved FAQ to external blog post, added a link.

Backend

• Internal changes. :)

Update (15/11 10:07AM): We’ve looking into the “support tools” and “phone is ignoring us” errors with some additional information submitted by users. We hope the extra debug information will assist us in coming up with a solution.

ChevronWP7 Labs FAQ

Top questions and answers for the ChevronWP7 Labs service.

• The application stopped at “Your phone is ignoring us” (updated)
  A small number of Windows Phones have an issue communicating with the PC. This affects the developer unlocking process of both our tool and the Microsoft Developer Registration tool.
  
  We regrettably conclude this is a problem beyond our control and cannot fix. If you are affected by this issue, here’s what you can do but we cannot guarantee a successful workaround.
  
  - If you possess an HTC Arrive, try the troubleshooting steps listed in Microsoft Support KB 2537993.
  
  - Try using Windows Phone Developer Registration tool (provided as part of the Windows Phone SDK).
  
  - If the tool returns an “Unable to connect to phone” message, keep reading.
  
  - If you receive a message other than “Unable to connect to phone”, contact us for support. This is likely a resolvable issue that we can help with.
  
  - Try a new USB cable (particularly the cable that came with the device) and port on your PC. Remember, not all USB cables are created equal.
  
  - Reboot the phone and/or the PC.
  
  - Get in touch with Microsoft by posting in the App Hub forums, specifically the Tools For WP7 sub-forum. Be sure to state your phone cannot communicate with the PC via the official Windows Phone Developer Registration tool (see step 2) as App Hub is not a place for ChevronWP7 Labs support.
  
  Our refund policy (detailed below) grants users a token refund in this case. Please email us if you are affected.
  
  
• An issue occurred while unlocking
  This is in most cases a random bug. Most users have reported success after unplugging and replugging in your phone. Ensure Zune can see the device, then launch the unlock tool again. A PC reboot may help too.
  
  
• The tool asks me to install the “Windows Phone Support Tool” but it’s already installed?
  Other users who have reported this issue have reported success after uninstalling and reinstalling the Zune software
  
  
• The token appears to be “Pending” or “Used” even if unlock was unsuccessful.
  In most cases this is just to indicate the token was used in an unlocking attempt. It should work when attempting to unlock again. If it does not after multiple tries, please contact us for support.
  
  
• The phone has an “issue connecting to Microsoft server”
  The unlocking process requires the phone to communicate with Microsoft servers, if this is unsuccessful, it will not unlock. Some certain proxies may prevent this, so try at home/work if you can.
  
  1. Check your computer’s HOSTS file (C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\) for a record for “developerservices.windowsphone.com”. If it exists, please remove that line.
  2. Ensure your phone’s Internet Explorer can view “https://developerservices.windowsphone.com/” (note the HTTPS). If you see an 403 error, it means it works.
  3. Toggle WiFi/3G settings and retry
     
     
• Why does the phone name need to be unique?
  The phone name (in Zune) must be unique to be registered. This is a requirement of the Microsoft registration process. It is advisable to change the name to something relatively unique (perhaps with your name) before attempting unlock.
  
  
• The tool asks me to install the “Windows Phone Support Tool” but it’s already installed?
  Other users who have reported this issue have reported success after uninstalling and reinstalling the Zune software
  
  
• Does the phone need to be plugged in during unlock queuing?
  The phone must be attached during the entire queuing process. Please do not launch Zune during this time. The application will require the screen to be unlocked (it will prompt if it is not) when the phone is ready to be unlocked.
  
  
• During the unlock process an error occurred and/or the queue appears to have frozen.
  In some circumstances the connection to the phone or internet might have been affected and will cause the unlock process to fail. In most cases restarting the app will be successful. If not after repeated attempts, please contact for support.
  
  
• What if the phone is already developer unlocked?
  Unlocking will fail if the phone is already registered to an App Hub account. To use ChevronWP7 Labs, the device must be removed from the registrar’s App Hub “devices” list.
  
  
• Why is there a queuing system?
  We implemented the queuing system in response to certain infrastructure restrictions. Although we understand it may cause delays, it is necessary to ensure the safe operation of the service. We apologize in advance for any inconveniences.
  
  
• I can’t unlock my phone. What is the token refund policy?
  The policy is simple – tokens not eligible for a refund include (but aren’t limited to) those involved in retail returns, resale, warranty repair, or theft. We’ll determine final eligibility on a case-by-case basis, so don’t be afraid to ask.

ChevronWP7 Labs Weekend Update

Important notes:

• Please re-download a new copy of the unlock client. 0.2 and below clients will either say “Connectivity issues” or simply crash. Sorry about that, we added upgrade support in 0.3.
• We aren’t quite ready for new payments at the moment, so that will remain offline. Our focus is to unlock the paid user base — they’ve been super patient thus far and we appreciate it.

Changes we made over the weekend:

Unlock Utility

• Resolved an issue in which certain Windows themes (e.g. Classic) would cause a crash.
• Resolved an issue in which the client did not report unlock status in rare cases.
• Decreased queue poll timer from 10 to 5 seconds.
• Added custom messaging support, allowing us to force upgrades if/when needed.
• Added a few more checks around our Zune socket code.
• Altered dependency check messages to indicate the browser window will appear after you click the OK button.
• Added a version number to the unlock view.

Website

• Added an FAQ. (We’ll work to keep this updated with relevant questions/answers.)

Backend

• Added heartbeat functionality to clear stale entries in queue (e.g. next-in-line client lost connectivity)
• Improved logic in the queuing and registration areas

We’ll be standing by to monitor this new rollout and provide updates in this post if things go awry. Thanks for your patience, we’re getting there!

Update (7/11 4:53PM UTC): We’ve identified an issue causing client to crash. Please verify you have Windows Phone Support Tool v2.0 installed in the “Add/remove program” list. If you have version 1, please upgrade http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2530409

ChevronWP7 Labs Launch + 1 Update

Shortly after launch, a few issues cropped up forcing us to stay up all night on Hot Pockets® churning out fixes. If you were previously having problems with unlocking your device, we ask that you please re-download the client and try again. (We released a new version.)

Some additional points we want to bring to your attention:

• The 10-year-old Windows XP operating system is not supported. This is a limitation imposed by various Windows Phone prerequisites of this century.
• Provided unlocks are equivalent to those provided by Microsoft’s App Hub. That means 10 side-loaded applications. That also means no “Interop access”.
• When an unlock is attempted, your token is marked as Used immediately. If an unlock fails for whatever reason, it will be queued for reset. This process takes a little time, due to the validation hoops we must jump through.

If you have any questions, feel free to ping us at anytime! Even if you want a refund.

Here’s a short change log of what we changed:

Unlock Utility

• Added retry dialog, giving you a chance to unlock your Windows Phone screen if it’s locked. (Previously, you would have to wait in line again.)
• Added cookie trimming, just in case you make a boo-boo while pasting it in.
• Added platform checks, to avoid x86/x64 confusion.
• Resolved an issue related to continuous position checking, even when a result was received.
• Resolved an issue related to the attempted animation of the welcome text, before the window is fully loaded.
• Resolved an issue related to the configuration file not being written to disk correctly in several cases (e.g. Internet Explorer “Run” users, indirect execution)

Website

• Changed the text of three countries to match common equivalents (e.g. PRC to China). Users will now find Venezuela, China, and Pakistan much easier.

Backend Services

• Improved logic in the queuing and registration areas
• Shortened the timeout for failed unlocks from 5 to 3 minutes.
• Improved some internal auditing. (To better document how users love to break things.)

Again we cannot emphasize enough — if you are still trying to unlock, please re-download a new copy of the client. We updated it and it’ll give you the best odds for success.

ChevronWP7 Labs Availability

Hey folks, we want to brief you on an important milestone we’ve reached.

Early this morning, we officially signed off on the final deployment of ChevronWP7 Labs. This marks the point in the development process where we leave the keys in the ignition and bail. Just kidding. Seriously though, we are very happy to announce the immediate availability of ChevronWP7 Labs.

First, let’s recap: ChevronWP7 Labs was designed to allow hobbyist developers to install, run, and debug unsigned applications on their personal Windows Phone. You log into the site with your Windows Live ID, pay a small fee, and presto — you’re ready to write and share some homebrew code.

 We’re also happy to announce we have about 30  “I Heart Windows Phone Homebrew” shirts to give away, ranging in size from M to XL. In two weeks, we’ll draw and notify 30 registered ChevronWP7 Labs users at random.

For you shirt connaisseurs out there, these are Gildan pre-shrunk 100% cotton shirts sponsored by the awesome folks at ooShirts. If you need some shirts for a Windows Phone bowling league or just some friends at school — they have you covered. Even better, here’s a secret coupon code “ighokqq” to get free shipping regardless of how heavy the box is. (So take advantage.)

On the homebrew application front, we’ve already spotted a number of interesting apps:

• Screen Capture v3  - Take screenshots from your Windows Phone 7 to share a funny SMS or illustrate an app on a blog post
• Webserver (Mango) - Why wouldn’t you run a web server on your phone? (be sure to download the “no-interop” version)
• Folders for Windows Phone Mango - Organize apps and settings into folders on the Start screen
• Mango Battery Status - Check your phone’s battery stat in a Live Tile and graph your battery usage

So what are you waiting for? :D

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

Update: We’re tracking two issues with the unlock client and hope to have them resolved shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Update 2 (5/11 4:16AM UTC): We’ve since had lots of reports of successful unlocks. The service is slowly recovering back to normal. We hope everyone is patient when trying again.

Update 3 (5/11 7:47AM UTC): We have taken the payment action offline until we resolve some service issues. We have also edited the homebrew application list, as we mistakenly posted applications that require interop access.

ChevronWP7 Labs is reaching the finish line!

As you’ve probably worked out by now, we operate on Valve time - a measure of time that vastly differs from real time. So when we said we’d be launching ChevronWP7 Labs “soon”, we really meant “in a few months” bringing us to now – only a few weeks away from launch!

While you wait, let’s set some expectations.

The ChevronWP7 Labs site and service was designed to allow hobbyist developers to install, run, and debug unsigned applications on their personal Windows Phone. All you need to get started is a Windows Live ID. (A Windows Phone might also be handy.) It’s important to note that we don’t need the Windows Live ID tied to your phone. We simply require any Windows Live ID to simplify the registration and login process.

After registering, users will have the ability to purchase and manage what we’re calling “unlock tokens”. One token equals one unique Windows Phone device registration. (You get unlimited re-registrations of that device should the need arise.) Tokens will cost $9.00 USD and be sold via PayPal. If having a Paypal account makes you cringe though, you can elect to check out with a credit card instead.

On the desktop, you’ll run our custom version of the unlocking tool. It’s very similar to the official “developer registration” tool, however instead of requiring an App Hub account, it requires an unlock token. Oh and it looks prettier. Otherwise, it behaves identically. No magic spells. No exploits. Your phone’s warranty and support lifelines will remain intact.

When using our tool, you may notice the “unlock queue” – you’ll be put into one. This queue exists to serialize our unlock requests for various security and administrative reasons, so we’ll just apologize for the inconvenience right now. We’ll be monitoring these queues to ensure they’re kept short and will add capacity where needed.

We know that our work is sometimes misinterpreted as promoting “jailbreaking” activities. This is not the case. Our goal is to help bright people do awesome things without infringing upon the developer community with apps in the Marketplace. In fact, we had many conversations with Microsoft to make sure we do this the right way. It may be the long way around, but we feel this approach is ethical, the best way to ensure that the program stays alive and hobbyists like us get more access to cool toys.

As said earlier, we’re a few weeks away from launch. We’ve been working hard this year to plan, design and implement this system to meet the needs of the homebrew development community; we hope you like it.

Thanks for your patience!

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng