Reply With QuoteI just don't like the fact that they said it was "Hacker friendly". Even if it wasn't "Hacker friendly" people would still open it up and do software hacks.
I would've liked it more if they said "indie friendly" instead.
In all honesty, they could not have worded it any other way. Think about it for a moment.
What if they were liable for everything you did? You could just break your OUYA and freely get replacements. Bad situation for OUYA.
What if even opening the case voided your warranty (like almost every other consumer device ever made)? Obviously this is also a bad situation for OUYA because they encourage tinkering, but tinkering voids the warranty, huge uproar, media crapstorm could ensue, etc.
This is the best possible wording they could have made. If you don't break it, it's fine. If you break it, they aren't liable. It makes perfect sense. I don't understand why everybody's upset.
I just don't like the fact that they said it was "Hacker friendly". Even if it wasn't "Hacker friendly" people would still open it up and do software hacks.
I would've liked it more if they said "indie friendly" instead.
Exactly my point. Unless people have money to go out and buy a spare OUYA; I doubt we'll see a lot of hacks considering it took so long to get their units. That and the strict(but fair) legal measures against them.Originally Posted by o MELTDOWN o
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If they gave us a proper way to get into fastboot or recovery there would be so much less risk involved. With access to those, most of the time the unit would be fixable by the consumer rather than having to send it in to OUYA. If they want the device to be "hacker friendly" they need to to give us fastboot/recovery access or warranty support for bricked devices.
Isn't CWM available for the OUYA? I think I read somewhere that it was, not sure.
OUYA states the product is warranteed against"material defects in materials and workmanship under normal and intended use, as described in the applicable OUYA specifications and documentation at www.ouya.tv"
There are no such specifications or documentation to be found on the website.
" Exclusions and Limitations.*This Limited Warranty does not apply to: (a) normal wear and tear; (b) defects caused by alterations or modifications not made by OUYA; for clarity, opening the Product or rooting the software in and of themselves do not void this Limited Warranty, however, defects or damage caused by these actions do void this Limited Warranty;"
Once again OUYA has chosen to use completely vague language open to all manner of interpretation. It gives OUYA complete control of the decision making as to how the damage was done. Someone could make minor tweaks to the system files to improve internet speed, and then the next OTA could be incompatible with those tweaks and destroy all connectivity and the user can't reset and OUYA doesn't have to help. The wording is so generalized that if an OTA corrupted the system they could blame the user.
"(c) damage caused by use with non-OUYA products;"
What does that mean? A usb drive, an extra fan, aftermarket cases?
"(d) damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fire, zombies, earthquake or other external causes;"
Aww, how cute.
"or (e) damage caused by operating the Product outside the permitted or intended uses described by OUYA. Recovery and reinstallation of games, apps, software programs and user data are not covered under this Limited Warranty."
This is where we all got duped, even people pre-ordering today. No one knows what these terms of use are and most likely they will be written with the clause that they can be changed at any time.
I feel like a sucker for believing in OUYA's promise of being open. This warranty proves that they have zero commitment towards being hacker friendly for either their hardware or software.
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It is, but if things get messed up and you can't fully boot into the Android OS there isn't a physical way to get into recovery or fastboot unlike every other Android device.
They should have an option where if you hold the power button for "X" amount of time you access it. Then you can move around through the options with the controller.
On my phone you just have to hold the power button, menu and volume up to access the recovery. If you press the volume down button instead, you go into Odin Mode.
I'm sure someone will come up with a solution. And that someone better be OUYA.
This would be ideal.
You can't use the controller in CWM (since it requires bluetooth), but it works fine with a USB keyboard. Pretty much everyone has access to a USB keyboard so I doubt this is a problem.
Every Android device I've owned other than the OUYA has had some sort of hardware method to get into fastboot or recovery. Without a physical method to get into it, what should be a soft brick ends up being a full brick.
In other news, if you root any other device at all, even if you're successful and don't cause any damage, you have voided the warranty.
OEMs do not typically distribute recovery images. So while it's true you can get to recovery on many other devices, there's not much you can do in those circumstances (legally speaking, anyway).
That said, I can sympathize with some people who may have read into the marketing hype a little too much and focused on that particular thing as a reason to back the device. Maybe I've been around marketing folks too much. One of the first things I wondered when reading that particular thing was.. "How can open/hackable co-exist with a walled garden app store"? Turns out everyone has their own idea of what that means, including OUYA themselves and those that backed for that reason.
I do think that warranty is little too restrictive for those particular folks and does leave OUYA a pretty significant "out", but they need to draw the line somewhere. Even then, that is really speculative to a degree, and you really can't tell them they're unfair in their judgement or their treatment of you in regard to the warranty until you challenge them on it by sending in a device.
Companies have warranties in place because it makes lawyers happy to impose some limitations on the liabilities they have should they have to go to court over something. But their returns department will ultimately decide to what degree they enforce the rules. For instance, I had a couple Nintendo DS's that went defective, and I returned them outside of warranty with a full expectation that I'd get charged for the repair, especially with Nintendo being Nintendo. But someone on the receiving end made the judgement not to do that, even though they had every legal right to. It might have been because I was very polite to them and didn't act like I was entitled to special treatment. That tactic never hurts anywhere.
Personally, if I were OUYA, I'd have made the warranty only 90 days and say it's a no questions asked kind of thing unless the unit came back in a state in which it can't be refurbished.
I'd guess if you're in that group that's intent on doing things that put the functionality of your device at risk and you're not comfortable with that warranty, you could opt not to do it and return it. That's what I'd do. I'd ask for a refund or put it on e-bay. If you haven't done any damage yet you'll probably get your money back and you could get a game stick and try it there. (assuming they let you do this)
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