We are proud to announce the new beta-release of the Developers section of our site!

The idea behind it is to create a better place for developers to interact with their adoring fans (that’s us!).

Here are some of the key benefits we are trying to create for us readers:

Sort Work by Developer - No more scanning through a ton of forum topics to find your favorite dev’s ROM, recovery image, etc. Simply click on Developers > What OS You Want (i.e. Android) > then choose your Dev to see all their work in one place in chronological order. Great for finding the latest ROM or to see what the dev is up to lately!

ROM, Recovery Image, SPL Database - Easily sort all the devs work by ROMs, Recovery Images, SPLs, etc. Just click on Developers > What OS You Want (i.e. Android) > click show ROMs, recovery images, or SPLs to see all of the ROMs, recovery images, or SPLs the devs have released in one place! No more running around forum to forum to find the newest ROMs, etc.

Developer Challenges – We plan to add a section for developer challenges. In this section people could all donate to a cause, first dev (or devs) that get the result get the prize money and can split it with any devs that helped them! This hopefully means more developing and a great incentive for the developers themselves.

Developer Blogs - Just curious what your favorite dev is working on? Well, they can not only post their ROMs and other work, they can simply post news. Maybe Google approached them with a cease and desist this weekend, maybe they just got a super secret ROM in their hands and want to let everyone know they are working on it? Whatever they want they can post in a simple format and we can all check it out (Developers > What OS You Want (i.e. Android) click on News).

And again this is a beta launch, we want your opinions! What do you think of this concept? Can it be improved? Is it something you would like to see? Let us know in the comments!

Now, for the devs reading this, here’s some benefits to you (this is a two way street after all):

Fans Can Easily Find YOUR Work – Just like we said in the reader key points, this works in your favor as well. Whether you are developing for fun, recognition, resume building, or donations, it can definitely benefit from being easily found. The site is built so that it focuses more on Devs than anything else, people looking for your work will find your work quick and easily. This equals more fans, more name recognition etc.!

Fully SEO’d Pages - Our site is fully SEO’d and that includes your dev pages. Anyone Googling for your name, your work, etc. will likely end up on these dev pages than any of the forums you use. So again this means a great centralized place for you to post without having to update a billion locations.

Super Simple Back End – The back end we use for the dev pages is super easy and can be explained in a quick 15 minute presentation. You have total control over your pages, and can easily edit, add, delete, and alter them in anyway you see fit with just a few clicks. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use our back end.

Easily Accessible Donation/Twitter/Links – All of your twitter, page links, and donation links are all in one easy place for people to find (instead of scattered in signatures through out a forum). If people want to follow you, they easily can. If people feel the need to donate to you for your hard work, they can easily do that too. We do NOT take any of your donations (unlike other sites), all donation links are your own links, we do NOT touch them and any donations received are 100% yours (you did all the hard work after all).

Developers, we want to hear from you too! This is a beta test of the new dev pages, so please feel free to comment here or email us through the Developers Contact Form on our site and let us know what we can do to improve this, if you are interested, or if you just have an opinion!

Sound off guys! What do you think?
REMEMBER THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND IN TESTING, IF NOBODY LIKES THE IDEA, WE’LL SCRAP IT. FIGURED WE’D SEE WHAT EVERYONE THOUGHT!

Check out the Forum Post and See How the Pages Are Coming Along and Who’s Joining!
http://theunlockr.com/forum/about-theunlockr-com/developer-pages-thoughts-improvements-updates/#p19

Plus Leave Your Thoughts and Suggestions There as Well!

Do you know a developer? Are you a developer? Would you like a page on our site? Contact Us and we’ll get you set up right away!

Hello everybody,

Just wanted to inform anyone who might be interested that we now have a Facebook (bout time, I know)!

You can use our Facebook to:

Keep up to date on our posts!
Discuss with other TheUnlockr.com readers.
Post and check out images!
Enter into giveaways and contests that we will hold!

So head on over and become a fan!

Welcome to TheUnlockr.com! We understand that as a newcomer to the site, things may look a bit…well… overwhelming to say the least. So that is why we have this page here; to give you a quick tour so you can find what you need, whether it is how to root your new MyTouch, see what your favorite developers are up to, or see the latest wireless news, we want to make it easy for you to get it to it. So let’s get started.

I. How To’s, Phone Reviews, and Wireless News

Easiest way to find these things on our site is to use the Select a Category dropdown located on every page like so:

Simply select your phone as your category to have all the procedures involving your device pop up. You can also select Wireless News or the Phone Review category to see all of the wireless news and phone reviews we’ve reported in chronological order from the latest back.

II. Developers

Want to see what your favorite developers are up to? Check out their own pages on in the new Developers section of the site. You can click there and sort by Operating System and then sort by ROMs, SPLs, News, or even by individual Developers. You can get to the Developers section by clicking here:

Developers.TheUnlockr.com

III. Downloads

Here for a new app, ROM, or theme? You can sort by Operating System and then by ROM, Theme. or Applications for each OS. Simply click on the Downloads page at the top of our site and then select the category you wish to look in until you find what it is you need.

IV. Forums and Technical Support Forums

Need some help with one of our procedures or perhaps just want to share your opinion with other readers on a topic? Head over to the Forums to do just that and more. You can get to our forum by clicking on the link at the top of our site.

V. Need Some Help?

If you need some help or are having issues, please head over to the Support section of our site to use the custom search to find answers, head to the technical support forums, or get internet/mms settings submitted by other readers from all over the world so you can get your phone up and running! You can get there by clicking on the link for Support at the top of our site.

VI. Need Your Phone Unlocked So You Can Use a Different Service Provider?

No problem, we have a supplier who can unlock your phone remotely using just the phone model name and the IMEI. We can unlock almost ANY PHONE from ANY NETWORK and we also have a full money back guarantee that we will have your unlock code for you within 48 hours. So you have nothing to lose

To get to the unlocking section and submit your IMEI, click on the link called Unlocking at the top of our site.

VII. Want to Share Some News with Us?

Great! We’d love to here from you! Send us any info you think our other readers might like to know, we are happy to keep you anonymous if you want or share our thanks and link to a site you may have, up to you!

To get to the contact us section, click on the link called Contact Us at the top of our site.

You can get to all of these sections at the top of our site:

Ok, guys sorry for the slow downs and lack of posts/updates over the last week or two, we are now at our new server and hoping that alleviates our issues.

Please report any bugs or slow downs you guys incur here in the comments for this post so we can get everything optimized and as fast as possible for you guys.

Thanks!

So I’m sure you are all aware of the ridiculously long page load times (some people are saying a few minutes to load a single page). I just wanted to explain really quickly and let you know it is temporary.

What is happening is the server’s processor that we are currently using cannot handle the site anymore. We have tried over the last week to optimize, clean, and anything else we could think of to get the CPU usage down to a safe level to no avail. So over the next few days we will be moving to a new server with a 5x faster processor and that should hopefully fix the issues.

Sorry for the delays in loading pages etc. for those of you experiencing them. We will be moving everything ASAP and hopefully solve the issue.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding!

Enjoy the site!

Ever hear of strength in numbers? Well, I have an idea how TheUnlockr.com can benefit everyone Tell me what you think.

Ok, so let’s say a new phone is coming out soon (i.e. the Nokia N900) and there are a lot of people on the site that are serious about buying one for themselves. Well, what if instead of everyone going out to buy the phone on their own for retail price, we all post in a Forum on our site (made specifically for the purchasing of that particular phone) that we were serious about buying one. Then once we have 10, 20, 50, 100 (how every any we get in a certain time period for example) of us I can then approach a supplier and place our order all at once? The idea would be we would all get wholesale price on the phone instead of buying them retail separately. Make sense?

Now, we still need to work out the details so I’ve started a Forum under TheUnlockr Site News/Feedback called “Wholesale for Everyone!” for anyone who wants to give input on how we could go about doing this (or if you think it is a good idea in the first place).

Also if you are interested in buying the first phone we are going to try this with, the Nokia N900, then goto the Forum and look under Community Purchasing for the topic “Nokia N900″ and post your username.

ANY PHONE(S) YOU WOULD LIKE US TO ADD TO THE LIST?
Phones we have started this for already:

Nokia N900
HTC Dragon, GSM
HTC Touch HD2, GSM
Sony Xperia X3

Head over there and let me know your thoughts.

Ok, so a few people have mentioned that this site looks “weird” to them. There seems to be some formatting issues with certain browsers, causing ads to float over content, the logo at the top of the page to fall behind the video display area, not able to see or use the forums, etc.

So if anyone has a second to spare, would you mind just posting a comment here beneath this post with your OS, Browser, and if the site looks fine or if you notice “weirdness” like what I mentioned above (and please let me know what it is that is weird for you). Also try viewing the page in another browser and post again if that helped or not.

Really appreciate it ladies and gents, just want to make sure the site appears and functions the way it is supposed to for everyone.

So finally got a forum up and running on the site for you guys!

Here is what I want the forums to accomplish for everyone:

• A Place to Ask for Support (instead of the comments) -
  Each phone now has it’s own Technical Support section that has the ability to select Not Resolved, and Resolved once your question is answered. This way we can structure it in a way that each issue and its solution can be easily found, without having to scroll through all the comments etc.
• A Place to Learn -
  I have set up sections for each operating system and plan to put Glossary of Terms in each one to help people understand not just how to do something, but why its done that way.
• A Place to Hear Your Feedback and Improve the Site for Everyone
  The very first forum is for just that. You guys telling me what you think we can improve and what new How To Videos you guys would like to see.
• A Place for Everyone to Discuss Phones, Phone Companies, Manufacturers, and Much More.
  Well I figure this is a given for the forums, but a place for people to discuss.

Please take a look and put any suggestions you come up with in the first forum.

PS: ALSO looking for moderators… please post a comment here or use the contact us form on the site to let me know if you might be interested!

Let me know what you guys think! Enjoy!

So not a fan of Hero ROMs or just want a plain Donut ROM with root access and nothing else added? Well, it was released today and already we have a rooted version available for download. Go checkout our Downloads section for the Donut build for the G1 and the MyTouch. Enjoy!

UPDATE: If you have a Hero ROM and want to keep it, do NOT use this update. They are separate ROMs, the Donut ROM will make you have regular Android, no Hero on top. To get Donut AND Hero at the same time, you will just have to wait until someone puts Donut into their Hero ROM (which won’t be long I’m sure, check in our Downloads for JACHeroski ROMs as he will most likely be the first to incorporate it in).

UPDATE: Just put the Original Donut build back. Make sure you follow the instructions on the page the Download links to.

So I went into a Sprint and a Verizon store today and asked them about the MiFi, after they told me about it I got to thinking… trouble I know… but here’s what I came up with.

A Sprint or Verizon MiFi will cost you the same up front, have the same monthly cost, and have the same 5GB cap on usage.
So my only issue with this is the price per month and the data cap (mainly the data cap, 5GBs? I’d use that in a day… I have a disease, I think.).

So I found out that you can get an unlimited data only plan on a phone with Verizon for $49.99. Sprint doesn’t have such a thing, but their lowest plan with unlimited data is the $69.99 450 Everything Data Plan.

So then I looked around the store to find their cheapest smartphone with Wifi (already know where I’m going with this? )
I find the cheapest smartphone with Wifi at Verizon is the Samsung Omnia, which costs  $49.99 upfront (w/ 2 year contract) and the cheapest smartphone with Wifi at Sprint is the Blackberry Curve 8350, which costs $99.99 after $100 Mailin Rebate (w/ 2 year contract).

Now, what if I just put a Wifi Tethering app on either of those phones? I could use the phones 3G connection and share it with up to 10 people connecting to the phone (instead of 5 with the MiFi) with Wifi by using the Wifi Tethering app to produce a Wifi network from the phone. Pretty much would do the exact same thing as the Mifi, but without the data cap (and in Verizon’s case, save me $10/month).

So let’s use a table to recap, shall we?

So instead of getting a MiFi from either company, you could just buy their cheapest Windows Mobile phone with WiFi, get a data only plan, load a Wifi Tethering program, and get an UNLIMITED MiFi-like device.

Want to know how to turn the Windows Mobile phone into a MiFi with a Wifi Tethering program?
Check out our How To Turn Your Windows Mobile Phone into a WiFi HotSpot procedure.

Don’t care about Verizon or Sprint? Want to use your own carrier instead? No problem, just find the How To Root (Necessary for Android only), How To Load a Custom ROM, and the Wifi Tethering App procedures for your phone on our site and do them in that order and you are all set!

So thanks to MoDaCo (the guy who did the video showing the official update in our last post), we have a rooted and enhanced ROM based on the official update from HTC. So all of you rooted Hero users get on over to our Downloads section and check it out (or to the updated version of our How To Load a Custom ROM on Your HTC Hero procedure) for a link.

For all of you non-rooted Hero users, don’t want to wait for HTC to release the update (and want the benefits of rooting to boot)? Head to our How To Root Your HTC Hero procedure and then to the How To Load a Custom ROM on Your HTC Hero procedure for everything you need to get that coveted update ASAP.

For the Hero ROM users, this means it’s only a matter of time before you get this nice addition to the current Hero ROMs you are using

Please post below if you notice a difference!

CLARIFICATION! – The ROM here is ONLY FOR THE REAL HTC HERO. The idea is that though now that this is out in the open, the developers of the G1, Magic, and MyTouch Hero ROMs will put it into their updates. Check with the developers that currently make Hero ROMs for you phone if that have incorporated this update into their ROMs yet, again do NOT download this ROM and try to put it on any phone BESIDES the REAL HTC HERO.

We’re getting in an HTC Magic (Unbranded) thanks to a very kind viewer (he is letting us borrow his Magic to do the How To videos in exchange for us loading the Hero ROM on for him ! Videos about it including a how to root, how to load the hero rom, how to save your apps to your sd card, and whatever else we can get squeezed in in our limited amount of time with the device

Hey guys and gals,

We are getting a lot more comments from people that need some help with procedures on the site (which is awesome!), but a lot of them seem to be the same issues over and over for whatever reason.
Also, since I did the tutorials all in a row and didn’t have any issues myself, it is hard for me to determine  what the difference is in when I did it and they did so it is almost impossible to come up with a solution.

So here’s the deal, need your help in two ways if you can

1. Post comment(s) here on this post to let me know any issues you have come into when doing any procedure on the site. This way we can see what needs to be changed in the tutorials and what some common issues are and their fixes for everyone else to try.

Just copy and paste this and just fill it in:
Tutorial Name:
Issue:
Around about what step (#) did the issue occur?:
If solved, what you did to fix it?:

2. To figure out what you guys think would be the best, simplest, most straight-forward way to help people with common issues that come up? Just to stop the same questions and issues from hogging the comments on a post.

Should we:
A. Create a Support Page. People can then click on it and then click on a category (i.e. Android How To’s, Windows Mobile How To’s, etc.) and have an FAQ-like page with issues and solutions (and if the solution is provided by one of you guys, your username at the end. Due credit must be given, of course
B. Create a Support Section in each Tutorial at the bottom with common issues and their solutions (and again if the solution is provided by one of you guys, your username at the end).
C.  Just put more links directing people to support threads on XDA
D. Highlight comments that are issues in RED and comment(s) that are solutions in GREEN.
E. Something else!

Let me know what you guys think! And let me know your issues and solutions so we can help everyone else! Don’t be selfish lol