Just like HTC and Motorola, Sony has openly embraced the Android development community by providing official bootloader unlocking tool for its devices. This makes it easier for Xperia device owners to gain root access on their handsets, as they can simply unlock the bootloader and then proceed to flash a root permission manager app.

However, unlocking the bootloader of a Sony device disables certain features, which is why most users actively avoid unlocking the boot loader of their handset.

Last week, developers jcase and beaups managed to gain root access on the HTC One (M8) including the Verizon variant. Less than a week later, S-Off has been achieved on the device as well allowing users to flash custom ROMs and kernels.

AT&T customers with a Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note 3 can now get their hands on leaked Android 4.4 KitKat updates, thanks to a member of the XDA Developers forum. Both are pre-release builds that may contain a few bugs, but if you can’t wait for AT&T to roll out the official versions, then they’re ready to download now.

After locking down the bootloader of its devices in 2011, HTC faced strong community backlash. This led to the company to release a web-based bootloader unlocking tool in an effort to appease users. Since then, the bootloader of any Android device from HTC (except for some of the carrier variants sold in the United States) can be completely unlocked in just a few simple steps.

It is not possible to gain root access on any of the HTC’s Android device without unlocking the bootloader first. While the process might be an added inconvenience for some, the whole process is pretty trivial and does not require more than 5 minutes. Here’s how to do it.

Earlier this week, we reported that the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 had a locked bootloader, and that meant it would be unlikely we would ever see custom ROMs like CyanogenMod for the new Android flagship. But just days later, developers have already successfully unlocked the bootloader.

They won’t be releasing the unlock to the public for another month, however.