Some phones allow you to connect to both CDMA and GSM networks. This means that you can have signal pretty much wherever you go. However, hacking phones to use such capabilities can take a little time. Now, Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE users have a SIM card mod to help unlock their phones.

XDA Senior Member CornholioGSM released a step-by-step hardware tutorial to help users connect whatever SIM card they want to their Photon Q. Be warned: It is a complicated process, and can potentially mess up your device. As per the norm, you’re responsible for breakage. Here’s a list of the tools you’ll need:

Soldering Station, Hot Air Rework Station with Nozzle Straight approx Ø7mm Dia, Solder Flux (not important), Tweezer, Small wires (you can use bonding wire from old headphones), Screwdriver and Good Nerves

The mod revolves around taking the device apart to get to the SIM already in the phone. Then, you modify it to use other SIM cards. CornholioGSM has not only provided pictures of the mod, but videos as well, including a final test video to show it works. This can be great for Photon Q users who want to play with their phones on other networks.

For all the details, check out the original thread.

Just a short time ago, we brought you news that the Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE got root and ClockworkMod Recovery. Usually, users would be happy with just that, but having more options is always better. One popular alternative to the venerable is the Team Win Recovery Project. Now thanks to XDA Forum Moderator arrrghhh, the Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE has its own TWRP port.

To get started, users need to be unlocked via MotoDev. Users are then to install GooManager from the Play Store and use it to flash the recovery. If you’re not already rooted, you can then flash SuperSU to obtain root.

For additional info, check out the original thread.

Not long ago, we brought you the amazing news that Motorola is finally taking some positive strides in their locked bootloader policy. Why is this great news? Because this is XDA Developers and we like our bootloaders unlocked. The only issue with the new MotoDev site is that it only supports a few devices. One of them is the Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE, which was recently given its own forum here on XDA, and now has a root and recovery method.

What makes this so interesting is that this is the first root and recovery method released that requires users to use the MotoDev dev site to unlock their bootloader. Users are to unlock using the MotoDev website, then follow the instructions written up by XDA Recognized Developer shabbypenguin. It’s a pretty basic root method. Users have to flash the recovery using Fastboot and then flash SuperSU via the custom recovery that they just flashed in the previous step. Once done, users will be rooted and running a custom recovery.

The root method is still in beta, though, and testers are still doing their thing. However, so far no one has reported any massive issues. USB Mass Storage has been reported not working, but that should be the only outstanding bug in recovery right now. For more info, check out the root thread.