ChevronWP7

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

Announcing ChevronWP7 Labs

It’s been a while since we posted something. Between fixing state machines and avoiding the paparazzi, we have been busy tinkering with Microsoft behind the scenes.

As you may remember, one of our goals was to make Windows Phone development more accessible. Plans have recently solidified and we can now reveal a solution we’ve been working on.

As announced on the Windows Phone Dev Podcast, we will soon be launching an approved Windows Phone unlocking service as part of ChevronWP7 Labs. This will be available to developers across all skill levels and all regions.

The service will require a small fee — currently via PayPal — to offset costs but we assure you it will be more affordable than the App Hub. Those who wish to write and immediately publish apps are recommended to sign up to the App Hub instead.

We’re excited to be making this service available to users with the support of the Windows Phone team.

Follow us on @ChevronWP7 to know the moment we launch.

Edit: It has come to our attention that Tumblr/Disqus has lost the majority of the article comments. We sent a note to support in an attempt to rectify the situation.

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

A first step in the right direction

After two full days of meetings with various members of the Windows Phone 7 team, we couldn’t wait to share with everyone some results from these discussions.

Although a large majority of the content presented by Microsoft is covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which we voluntarily agreed to, we can say we’re genuinely excited by many of the forward-looking presentations. We can only hope they come to fruition as soon as possible.

To address our goals of homebrew support on Windows Phone 7, we discussed why we think it’s important, the groups of people it affects, its direct and indirect benefits and how to manage any risks.

With that in mind, we will work with Microsoft towards long-term solutions that support mutual goals of broadening access to the platform while protecting intellectual property and ensuring platform security.

In the meantime, a forthcoming Windows Phone 7 update will fix a bug that the ChevronWP7 unlocker tool took advantage of; the tool will cease to work thereafter.

To fill this short-term gap, we’re collaborating with Microsoft on an interim solution that will continue to support homebrew developments after the update. We will share details of this when it has been finalized.

In summary, we appreciate Microsoft’s outreach, genuine interest and involvement in this matter and we hope the community can understand we’re working towards a win-win scenario.

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

Upcoming discussions with Microsoft

As everyone is settling into the new year, we’d like to provide an update on our scheduled face-to-face meeting with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team next week in Redmond.

We’ll be sharing our perspective on the homebrew potentials of Windows Phone 7 and some of the wider community feedback around the platform.

In addition to our homebrew focus, we will also be pushing for stronger protection of WP7 developer intellectual property (IP) on the platform as we believe both can co-exist on the platform.

If you have any other feedback, suggestions or even questions you feel we should bring up in our meeting, please feel free to leave a comment below.

On a similar note, we’re aware the ChevronWP7 unlocking tool is still being utilized since it has been discontinued.

Although this has been subtly communicated before, we’d like to reiterate Microsoft has informed us the “coding error” used in the ChevronWP7 unlocker will no longer work after the next Windows Phone 7 update (officially announced at CES 2011).

We hope to provide an update after the discusions.

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

False alarm: Microsoft isn’t remotely locking your phone

In our preliminary discussions with Microsoft, we were surprised to hear that after a short amount of time — approximately two weeks — phones unlocked via ChevronWP7 would revert back to their original locked state. We couldn’t verify this claim at the time and didn’t look into it again.

Our bad. Don’t panic, though!

Contrary to circulating reports, Windows Phone 7 devices unlocked via ChevronWP7 are not being targeted by Microsoft. Instead, the phone is reverting back as a result of a periodic check. Simply put, the phone rings Microsoft and asks “Hey, am I supposed to be unlocked?”. If Microsoft responds with a “No, what are you thinking?”, the phone apologizes and initiates a lock down.

Unfortunately, while in this state, an unsigned application launch results in a misleading (and scary sounding) error message:

“[application name] has been revoked by Microsoft. Please uninstall it.”

This is not the case.

Pursuing the future of homebrew on Windows Phone 7

Earlier today, we were contacted by Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7, to discuss the ChevronWP7 unlocking tool.

Through this discussion, we established a mutual understanding of our intent to enable homebrew opportunities and to open the Windows Phone 7 platform for broader access to developers and users.

To pursue these goals with Microsoft’s support, Brandon Watson has agreed to engage in futher discussions with us about officially facilitating homebrew development on WP7. To fast-track discussions, we are discontinuing the unlocking tool effective immediately.

We are excited to explore the opportunity to become more involved with the shaping of the platform and to build a feedback channel for developers around the world.
 
To reiterate our enthusiasm to enable new opportunities, we have made available a WP7 custom ringtone manager that shows off exciting platform potential. The source code has also been made available to guide homebrew developers.

We look forward to sharing some good news soon.

- Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh, Long Zheng

ChevronWP7 custom ringtone manager

We now have the first WP7 homebrew application taking advantage of unlocked phones - a Windows Phone 7 custom ringtone manager.

The applications has two components

• Desktop application - used to build a custom XAP package with 5 custom ringtones you select from your computer (Requires .NET 4.0 Framework)
• XAP application - to be deployed to your WP7 to install custom ringtones to the system

Notes

• Ringtones have to be in the WMA format at 48KHz as required by the OS. We recommend using Expression Encoder 4 (free) to transcode any MP3s.
• Currently, to deploy the XAP you will have to use the Microsoft “Application Deployment” tool with the Windows Phone 7 Developer SDK. In the future, we hope to make available a standalone deployment solution for homebrew apps.

Download ChevronWP7 custom ringtone manager here.

Update: The source code for this whole solution has been released as our commitment to homebrew developers.