Netflix Android App Hijacked From The LG Revolution, Being Leaked To The Internets

The LG Revolution isn’t even available yet, but some crazy resourceful lads have already managed to get a full dump of the handset’s innards. As we showed you (before anyone else!)back at Mobile World Congress, the LG Revolution just happens to be the only handset with the Netflix app on it right now — but now that the system dump is in the wild, the hacker-type crowds have ripped it out to be shared with everyone.

Alas, there’s a bit of bad news.

The bad news: You can’t… actually stream anything, right now. While the dudes over at DroidLife are thinking it’s just a matter of the Netflix team firing up things on their end, I think there might be more to it than that; last I’d heard, Qualcomm and Netflix had partnered for the DRM/Security setup in this app, requiring specific hardware in the device’s chipset (beyond that already found in most Snapdragon phones) before playback can go down.

In other words: unless something’s changed or the always-clever hacking community finds a workaround, chances seem pretty good that streaming will only work on the handsets that they intend it to work on.

On the upside, you can still use this leaked APK to browse around Netflix and manage your queue. That’s a start, right? You can find the download link over at DroidLife.

LG Revolution now using 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8655, not NVIDIA's Tegra 2

Consider it a mystery solved. Throughout the week here in Barcelona, we've spent an inordinate amount of time chasing down suits from LG, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Verizon Wireless to answer one simple question: "What's up with the processor in the Revolution?" If you'll recall, NVIDIA actually sent one of its own to Verizon's LTE press event at CES 2011, specifically to bust out a Revolution and gloat about the Tegra 2 chip within (video's after the break if you don't believe us). As it stood, it seemed as if the Thunderbolt and Revolution would be butting heads from a CPU standpoint, with the former definitively sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8655. And then, came the confusion. We showed up at Qualcomm's booth here at Mobile World Congress to see which phone it was using to demonstrate the recently unveiled Netflix-on-Android support -- lo and behold, LG's Revolution was the handset of choice. Obviously, there had to be a new Snapdragon processor within, as only the newest of the new will have the necessary DRM libraries at a hardware level that are necessary to pass muster with the MPAA. 

After venturing over to LG's booth, we were also able to confirm that the only Revolution it knew of was boasting a Qualcomm CPU, and the shot above (which was sourced from there) proves it. We also confirmed with Verizon Wireless' paperwork that the version it's expecting in the next month or so will ship with Qualcomm inside. Finally, NVIDIA refused to comment on the matter, simply suggesting that we contact LG for more details. Put all of that together, and we're able to come to two main conclusions. First off, it seems as if LG yanked support for the Tegra 2 at some point between CES and MWC -- right around four weeks. Hard to say if there were reliability issues, an unsatisfactory amount of power drain, or just irreconcilable differences between the two CEOs (joking, of course). Secondly, it's reasonablysafe to assume that Verizon's Revolution will be the first Android handset on Big Red to stream Netflix directly, which may please those who were planning on buying one but weren't looking forward to going without Netflix thanks to the Tegra 2 that was (presumably) slated for inclusion. Qualcomm 1, NVIDIA 0. 

Update: NVIDIA finally saw fit to drop us a line and clarify a bit. Turns out, the confirmation in the video below was a gaff to begin with, as the Revolution was never going to be outfitted with NVIDIA innards. Go figure, right?

Vlad Savov contributed to this report.