Says eFuse is meant only to prevent unofficial ROM installations

Jul 17, 2010 09:37 GMT  ·  By

DROID X by Motorola, the latest Android-based handset the company brought to the United States market on the airwaves of Verizon Wireless, has already managed to prove a highly appealing device. Big Red went out of stock with it during the first day of availability, and says on its website that it would ship the DROID X by July 23. Running under Google's Android 2.1 operating system and packing a wide range of high-end features, the phone would certainly attract as many users as possible on its side, but it seems that the modding community might not find DROID X too appealing.

Mobile phone maker Motorola reportedly designed the DROID X with a bootloader that would prevent any unofficial ROMs from being installed on the handset. There is a eFuse technology the phone comes with, meant to ensure that only updated and tested software solutions are loaded on the handset, but also aimed at stopping modders and hackers from installing their own custom ROMs on the handset.

Motorola's primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software,” the company stated, according to Engadget.

If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats. Motorola has been a long time advocate of open platforms and provides a number of resources to developers to foster the ecosystem including tools and access to devices via MOTODEV at http://developer.motorola.com,” the handset vendor concluded.

However, chances are that the phone maker is not saying all that there is to say about eFuse. While it says that the technology would shut down the device when an unapproved boatloader is included in the equation, some suggest that it is actually meant to corrupt the booting process and to brick the device; at least this is what a recent post on mydroidworld states. Undoubtedly, some will try to hack the DROID X, though it remains to be seen what they would be able to achieve. We should also mention that DROID 2 is expected to arrive with the same solution on board. DROID X can be purchased from Verizon's website here.