Sony Ericsson offers Android smartphone hacking ‘how to’

Sony Ericsson has published a blog post on the ins-and-outs of hacking your Android smartphone.

Obviously, this is quite a big deal, especially when you consider that HTC is now locking all of its new handsets, much to the dismay of developers and ROM hackers.

Well, looks like all these disenfranchised ROM hackers and developers now have a new home in Sony Ericsson – the unofficial last bastion of Android’s open source philosophy.

In fact, we can’t ever remember a manufacturer actively encouraging its users to hack their phones. Apple is dead against it, as is HTC and the rest, well, they’re all pretty quiet on the issue.

Here’s the official line from Sony Ericsson:

‘Since the launch of the unlock boot loader site, we have received a lot of really great feedback. The Sony Ericsson Developer Program wants to continue to build on this open dialogue with external developers.

‘Developers and advanced users can now unlock the boot loader, which is the first step to be able to flash your own image.’

We like what we’re hearing from Sony Ericsson. It’s good to see a proactive approach to hacking (much like how Microsoft dealt with Kinect hacks) as apposed to one that just attempts to stomp it out.

So what does the blog tell us? For one, it details information on how you go about compiling a custom kernel for the Xperia, as well as how to modify it by flashing it and unlocking the bootloader.

Of course, Sony Ericsson is quick to point out that if you completely mess up your phone up doing this it will void the warranty – so make sure you’re careful and you know the risks.

Check out the full blog post here.