It looks like HTC's unlocked bootloader policy
may not be just what everyone was looking for, and several key portions
of the firmware remain locked. What appears to be the case, is that
using HTC's tool does unlock your bootloader, but doesn't grant you
S-off status. Right off the bat -- if you don't understand what S-off
means, you don't need it. It unlocks the ability to flash things like
radios and hboot versions, which are all closed and protected files from
HTC and the carriers.
What HTC's method does give you is the
ability to flash a modified version of a custom recovery, which can be
used to flash the files needed to root
the phone. Once rooted, you can run
root-required apps and have
read/write permissions on the system files. As it stands now, if this
is all you ever wanted to do anyway, HTC's tool will work for you. If
you think you might one day decide to get a little deeper, I suggest you
wait it out for a while. Will methods to flash ROMs get figured out
for phones unlocked with HTC's tool? Probably. There's also a chance
the boot partition is able to be flashed. The one thing we all know for
sure is that HTC has made it very hard to go back if you go through
with updating and using their unlock tool. Waiting to see how this all
plays out is probably the wise decision.
There are also Internet
rumors flying around saying HTC will send another update to give the
phones S-Off status, or that this is just step one and they will release
updated tools to do it. At this point, all that is just speculation.
Personally, I'll wait and see exactly what works and what doesn't before
I decide to buy another HTC phone. If all they have done is block
access to carrier-protected files and still allow the flashing of a new
system, data, and boot partitions, I can accept that position. If they
have blocked the flashing of new kernels or the boot partition as a
whole, that's another matter. With all the development going on for the
Sensation and EVO 3D, we'll know soon enough.
