NVIDIA Opens SHIELD’s Software, Invites Modders to Come and Play

When I posted about iFixit’s handiwork with NVIDIA’s SHIELD last week, I mentioned that the silver portion of the device offers a perfect opportunity for modders to do their thing. Well, it looks like more than just hardware modders are going to be able to have some fun with SHIELD: NVIDIA has open-sourced the device’s software.

What this means: anyone will be able to download the SDK and tweak the OS and its software to their liking, and of course, add functionality (or remove it). In a blog post, NVIDIA says that it simply didn’t want SHIELD to be the sort of device where you’re limited to what the manufacturer gives you. While warranties can be affected here, NVIDIA welcomes modders to come and get to creating. If you’re not a developer, the company recommends keeping an eye on the XDA community for progress of projects there. If you are a developer, head here.

More on the warranties: “And yes, our warranty policy does allow us to reject returns if a device has been rooted or a boot loader has been unlocked. Our goal here isn’t to discourage people from rooting their devices – it’s yours, after all – but to give us a course of action if folks start to abuse the hardware through software modifications.“

This is truly a great move by NVIDIA, and to me, it makes SHIELD look even more attractive than it already was.