LG shut down its smartphone division earlier this year, but promised to continue providing Android updates for its latest flagship phones through 2022. Want to keep using up to date software on an LG phone after that? Your best bet may be unlocking the bootloader and installing a custom ROM. But you’d better hurry up, […]
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How to unlock an Android phone with a broken screen
A friend recently dropped his phone and ended up with a cracked display. That isn’t always a death knell for a smartphone, but in this case it meant that he couldn’t unlock the phone because the in-display fingerprint sensor stopped working and the phone wouldn’t recognize his PIN number when he tried typing it. That […]
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You can unlock the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K bootloader (but it’s not easy)
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is a $50 media streamer that comes with an Alexa-enabled voice remote, support for 4K HDR playback, and the ability to stream videos and music from most popular sources (including the recently re-added YouTube). But that’s not good enough for some folks — so xda-developers member k4y0z has posted […]
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Amazon Fire tablet hacks: Google Play, Root, Recovery, and ROMs
Amazon’s Fire tablets are arguably some of the best cheap tablets worth buying, thanks to a combination of decent displays, specs, and performance and low starting prices (which are even lower on Prime Day or during other sales). The Amazon Fire 7 has a list price of $50, but you can pick one up for […]
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Amazon’s 2019 Fire 7 tablet can be rooted, unlocked, and more
Amazon updated its entry-level Fire 7 tablet this year with a new model sporting a faster processor and twice as much storage as its predecessor. But two things haven’t changed. First, prices for Amazon’s Fire 7 tablet still start at $50 (or less during one of Amazon’s frequent sales). And second, the 9th-gen Fire 7 […]
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Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) hack: bootloader unlock, root, and recovery tools
It’s been a busy few months for Amazon Fire tablet hackers. After discovering a vulnerability affecting a group of MediaTek processors, independent developers figured out how to unlock the bootloader and root the latest Amazon Fire HD 8 and Fire 7 tablets… and then the 2nd-gen Amazon Fire TV Stick for good measure. Now it’s […]
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New Fire HD 8 bootloader unlock method doesn’t require opening the case
It’s been possible to unlock the bootloader and root the latest Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet since January. But up until recently the only known method for doing that involved prying open the tablet’s case, identifying points on the motherboard, and shorting them to enter bootrom mode. But now there’s an easier way. Xda-developers forum […]
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2nd-gen Amazon Fire TV Stick hack: Unlock the bootloader, install custom recovery
Amazon’s 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick (the 1080p model that has a list price of $40) is powered by a MediaTek processor, much like Amazon’s Fire tablets. So it should come as no surprise that the same exploit that hackers have been using to unlock the bootloaders and root the latest 7 inch and 8 inch […]
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Bootloader unlock and root for Amazon Fire 7 tablets (5th-gen and 7th-gen)
Less than a month after hackers figured out how to unlock the bootloader and root the 8th-gen Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet (the 2018 model), there’s now a method for doing that with Amazon’s cheaper 7 inch tablets. Xda-developers forum member k4y0z has posted instructions for unlocking the 5th-gen and 7th-gen Amazon Fire tablets (the […]
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Amazon Fire HD 8 (2018): You can root it and unlock the bootloader
Amazon’s 2018 Fire HD 8 tablet offers pretty good bang for the buck. The $80 tablet has an 8 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel IPS display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage plus a microSD card reader. You can pay a bit more for a 32GB model, or you […]