It was back in November 2010 that ChevronWP7 was released. This was the application that allowed Windows Phone 7 users, who didn’t have a Marketplace developer account, to unlock their phone. This would then allow them to sideload applications on the device, for testing/experimenting, that couldn’t be submitted to the Marketplace.
Jailbreaking has and will be a source of debate between the homebrew community and the hardware and software providers. But this was the first application that gained the blessing of Microsoft themselves in trying to attract more developers to the platform and make themselves look that little bit cooler in the process.
The ChevronWP7 app was available to anyone for $9 and was developed with a little help from Microsoft. It was released just in time for Windows Phone 7.5 (or Mango), in November 2011. But in April this year it was announced that the project was coming to an end, mostly thanks to confusion over what the app actually did for users. Although anyone that did purchase the app would get a free one year membership to the official Windows Phone App Hub (now the Windows Phone Dev Center).
So now, when you next sync your Windows Phone to your PC the device will be locked again. But you will be able to unlock the device again using the Windows Phone SDK’s Developer Registration tool.
Did any of you use ChevronWP7 to unlock your Windows Phone? Would you like to see the same functionality available in Windows Phone 8? We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
Source: Windows Phone Daily
Images: Neowin via IStartedSomething and WPCentral