[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Guides, News, & Di] Superguy:
Hehehe, I remember doing that with my old Rezound. Juopunut Bear! :D

A lot of the points you bring up are exactly why I'm confused with Samsung's hostility to development over the last few years. Up until the S3, Samsung was awesome. My mother-in-law's still using my completely blown open S3. Then later in the cycle, with Knox, they started locking things down more. I get that they're trying to appeal to business use more being secure and giving confidence to IT departments that info is less likely to be leaked. However, that really hosed us in the process.

I blame the US carriers more for this than Samsung, though. If you take a look at the Exynos version, and even the Chinese version with the SD820, they're not locked down like they are here. We've known for a long time that AT&T and Verizon have been hostile with the locked bootloaders. Still, there are companies like HTC and Moto that have tried to find the middle ground with "look, we've locked the bootloader by default, but here's a way you can do that - and you assume the risks." I don't understand why Samsung hasn't taken that approach given it's stgart here.

That goes back to my previous point - why not take HTC's and Moto's approach of shipping locked by default, but allowing unlocking with the user assuming the risks? It takes 5 minutes with HTC and Moto, so we know it's not a complicated process. You're then on your own unless you have a hardware failure that's not related to tinkering. That would go along way to placating the likes of AT&T and Verizon while still showing that it listens to its power users.

The Chinese version isn't hardlocked like ours is. There may be some other hardware differences, but at the very least, we know it isn't a flaw within the SD820 that requires the lock.

I don't think most of the carriers care at all. Legere appears to be the only one that seems to be the only one that does, but who knows if he's actually sincere in that. If T-Mo supports it and Armageddon doesn't happen, maybe the others will soften on it. Who knows. I find it unlikely like you do, but if T-Mo actually works it out, it may help things out. No one thought a few years ago they could shake the industry up like they did. It's a pipe dream, but it could happen. :D

I was one that canceled my preorders for the AT&T version. I let the know. Of course, like you said, I don't think they care a whole lot but it at least shows them they lost $1600-2400 in revenue. A drop in the bucket for Samsung, but it's really voting with my wallet's the most I can do.

I agree to a point on this. Root and other locks have generally been obtained by an exploit of some sort. This puts Samsung in a bit of a bind. While it might not care a whole lot about a few people using it get root, you then have the shareholders and security companies out there pointing to a flaw that allows root access and can be used for malicious purposes. Samsung then has to choose whether to ignore it or patch it. If they don't, they'll get fried in the media and market. I don't think they have any other choice but to patch it.

That of course leaves us with a game of cat and mouse. That brings me back to HTC's and Moto's approach for dealing with this.

First, I think your big problem is Comcast. :D Just messin'. :)

Seriously, though, you already have a way around it, so I think it's moot whether they give it to you or not the S7. I'm actually an AT&T user, so I think this is less of an issue as we've had metered data for quite a while now. So I admit my vision may be a little myopic here. That said, if you're doing your thing off peak, say in the middle of the night, when few people are on, does T-Mo really care? And couldn't they take care of the issue by blocking torrents, throttling your connection, or just restricting tethering to a certain allotment each month? I thought tethering was always capped under unlimited plans? I can understand if you're sucking bandwidth during prime time, but off peak?

You make really good points, and I agree with a lot of them. I don't think it has to be an all-or-nothing issue as it seems to be with Sammy right now. It's frustrating that there are ways to cater to this crowd without blowing things up for everyone else. I don't understand why they won't take it.