Kindle Fire and Nook Upgrades Kill Root Access

[wraggster]

The Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook tablets are similar enough and close enough together in price that they ought to be fighting market share and one-upping each other in terms of features they offer users. But the latest OS upgrades to both gadgets claims to be an 'upgrade' while actually taking functionality away: both remove the ability to root the device (http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/234809/kindle-fire-and-nook-tablet-both-get-upgraded-reduced-functionality)."A more balanced way of looking at it is that the updates fix known local privilege escalation vulnerabilities. This might be more of an issue for people wanting to hack on the Nook Tablet: its bootloader is confirmed locked, but reports lean toward the Kindle Fire having an unlocked bootloader letting anyone flash their own software (http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fastboot) without needing to gain root first.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/12/21/1437236/kindle-fire-and-nook-upgrades-kill-root-access

[DylanKean]

F**k....



the kindle fire and barnes and noble nook tablets are similar enough and close enough together in price that they ought to be fighting market share and one-upping each other in terms of features they offer users. But the latest os upgrades to both gadgets claims to be an 'upgrade' while actually taking functionality away: Both remove the ability to root the device (http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/234809/kindle-fire-and-nook-tablet-both-get-upgraded-reduced-functionality)."a more balanced way of looking at it is that the updates fix known local privilege escalation vulnerabilities. This might be more of an issue for people wanting to hack on the nook tablet: Its bootloader is confirmed locked, but reports lean toward the kindle fire having an unlocked bootloader letting anyone flash their own software (http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=fastboot) without needing to gain root first.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/12/21/1437236/kindle-fire-and-nook-upgrades-kill-root-access-kindle-fire-case (http://www.store4kindle.com/kindle-fire-case-kindle-fire-cases-kfire-cases-1-en.html)

[Xorad]

They don't really get it, do they? By locking all those devices they're slowing down their development... Seems like everyone in the industry is mimicking Apple's stupidity these days...