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“[application name] has been revoked by Microsoft.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.
