Motorola Droid Hacked Open, Sells Out In UK

UK online retail site Expansys sold out of the Motorola Droid – or Milestone as it is known in Europe – in hours, while hackers have opened the US vesion of the device to run applications beyond those allowed by the operator.

The Droid – which came top in Time Magazine’s list of the year’s best gadgets, is called the Milestone in Europe, and in the UK is only available from retail site Expansys which reported that the units it had were sold out in hours, outselling the site’s source of unlocked iPhones.

The phones sold in the UK have all the manufacturer’s features enabled, but US versions sold by Verizon have multi-touch disabled, prompting hackers to “root” the device, opening up features that the operator might want users not to have.

The hack, posted by Zinx Vertuse to the Alldroid forum, is only for US Droids, not for Milestones, but it gives US users the ability to tether their phones for use as modems, and to add their own custom themes.