Hisense Pulse – The Verdict is Accident

If you remember our previous post about the Hisense Pulse and its original shipping configuration then you’ll remember that the device, unlike all others in the Google TV line, came almost completely unlocked.  Specifically, it shipped with a hardware root shell in recovery and normal boot modes, as well as allowed adb to be rebooted as root with a simple command.  At the time we were wondering based on how open this device was shipped, was this an accident or was this a show of support to the “customizing” Google TV community?  Well the verdict is in after an update was released this morning patching all current Hisense Pulse root methods.  In particular, the update that was released today (BOX_2.31a.C1204_E_release , download here ) changes the “ro.debugabble” prop to 0 causing the hardware root method as well as the “adb root” command to no longer work.  At the moment there is no other public root method but don’t worry, if you haven’t updated yet you can still run our “Pulse Modification Package” from the Hisense Pulse section of the wiki which disables automatic updates. Also, if you haven’t purchased a Pulse yet or have one already on the way, the Pulse will continue to ship “unlocked” for the time being. If we use the Logitech Revue as a reference point, since it shipped with hardware root shell in recovery mode until it was discontinued, newly purchased Pulse units may never be patched but will need to be rooted before their initial setup.

It’s sad to find out that the little bit of hope we had about this being a show of community support, as opposed to an accident, is now gone. We will continue to help the community “free” their devices as we have on the rest of the Google TV platform while hoping for the much needed release of a true Google TV “Nexus” device.