While all evidence that the 4th iteration of the original Droid pointed at a December release it was pushed back to February of 2012 and a lot of folks became a bit grumpy. Well it’s finally February, the Droid 4 has been officially announced and is upon us. Released yesterday it didn’t take long for the development community to root the device. Security Researcher Dan Rosenberg was able to get root only hours after the device went on sale. However, before he released the exploit he decided to try an experiment.

He would only release the exploit if a $500 bounty was met. This bounty though, wasn’t an attempt at holding a file hostage to make a quick buck but rather, for a good cause. He wanted the first $200 so that he could continue modding and developing support of the device. The other $300 would be donated to the American Red Cross.

Personally I feel that this is a noble idea. Seriously, everyone paying a few bucks to get this man a phone to continue custom development on a new device while also giving money to a charity in the process; it’s an honorable concept. Well apparently I am in the minority in this thinking as Mr. Rosenberg received a number of complaints in how this idea was unfair. Worry not, rather than abandon his work and not release the exploit Rosenberg took the high road. He has decided to release the exploit free of charge and any money donated for his hard work will be donated straight to the American Red Cross.  » Read the rest