Microsoft requests Geohot to hack Windows Phone 7

In an ostensibly unusual move, Windows Phone 7 team lead Brandon Watson has extended an invitation to notorious hacker Geohot to "build cool stuff" on WP7.

He’s even offering to give out a free phone to help speed matters along, with the reasoning that it would "let dev creativity flourish".

The move comes a week after Geohot exposed flaws in the Sony PS3’s security system, creating a hack that bypassed security measures on the home console allowing for homebrew apps, Linux (again), and lots and lots of cheaters on PSN multiplayer games like Modern Warfare 2.

The hacker has also been involved in jailbreaking Apple’s iPhone in the past.

It seems strange, then, that Microsoft would want him to break into their own OS. Given the timing of the informal request - a week after Sony’s ridiculous announcement that it would somehow clamp down on the whole internet to get the PS3 hack out of people’s hands - it does make the company look far more progressive than its close console competitor.

Whether or not Geohot will take the company up on the offer, or that MS would genuinely want him breaking into the OS and distributing the method, is another thing entirely.