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An Open Source Alternative to Verizon's GetItNow?
"A bit of explanation: Recently, I was trying to find ringtones for my LG cell phone, and was having some difficulties in figuring out how to even get them onto my phone without the cable.
Finally, I contacted Verizon Wireless via email.
My original email: 'How do I provide content *I create* on the GetItNow network AND/OR how do I SMS the content to my own phone?'
Their response was to first explain how to use GetItNow to download ringtones (many of which really suck, none of which are free). They continued with 'You are unable to SMS Get It Now created from any websites to your phone
and [we] apologize for any inconvience this might have caused.
To my humor (due to the fact that every application I had downloaded had crashed), they also said: 'Verizon Wireless requires extensive lab and field-testing of the Get It Now
applications we choose to offer, to ensure that our customers get the highest-quality applications in the marketplace
today. (Emphasis, mine)
In response, I asked: 'How would an open-source developer put applications onto the get-it-now phones without charging customers for use of the program? And, while we are at it, can I only use Brew to write applications for verizon phones, or can I use Java?'
They gave me the link to the GetItNow developer site (click on Developer Zone at the bottom) and said, 'Verizon Wireless does offer SMS downloads of ringtones and graphics through our Vtext.com website.'
As a side question: I would prefer to write my applications in Java instead of Brew (which Verizon GetItNow does NOT support). Has anyone had experience using any of the Brew-in-Java implementations (like the one from IBM)?"
Looking at the larger picture, we all need to keep speaking with our money and only buy what we can change and have true control/access of.
The more money companies making all kinds of digital devices recieve when they allow us to really change/hack them, is the incentive for this to continue.
./revolution
We need a resource that streamlines this process:
* Users spot the need for software that doesn't yet exist
* People 'vote' (or something) on the importance of these projects, and/or share any relevant information (like an existing project which can do the same thing)
* Groups of coders, documenters, testers etc. form to make these project a reality.
Let's face it - a lot of ideas get lost because the people who happen to think of them don't happen to have the time or the skills to code them.
first, let me just say that I have never heard of GetItNow, nor use Verizon, but here's my take:
Verizon Wireless requires extensive lab and field-testing of the Get It Now applications we choose to offer, to ensure that our customers get the highest-quality applications in the marketplace today.
That sounds like a "Verizon-certified" thingy. Similar to the Nintendo Seal on old NES games. A way for consumers to know if what they are getting meets some quality standard.
There almost has to be a way around it and develop personal software for GetItNow, much like the volumes upon volumes of games out there without Nintendo's little seal of approval.
Perhaps a better way to present it to VErizon is to ask "Is it possible for me to develop my own little personal application for GetItNow?" rather than linking in open source. Verizon doesn't necessarily need to know that you're trying to come up with some open source stuff.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
I looked at this after my gf chose a verizon phone for me (I'm quite happy with pay as you go, I like being in touch but have no desire to shoot the sh*t for hours).
Basically you have to join the program, pay qualcomm to unlock your phone and then pay around $1000 per phone to have your app tested.
They're unlikely to let you in because people are paying $$'s for games that are poorer than open source equivalents. The $$'s go to subsidise the cost of handsets.
I got discouraged, but feel free to poke around the brew websites + user forums for more info. As much as it screws homebrew development brew seems fairly popular (read profitable).
..or what? what's the problem?
providing j2me's for download(over-the-air download) for example is easy as making pie, you just need the right mimetypes set on the server and you're set(sdk's availabe from sun&phonemakers). then the guy wanting your app just browses to your page with his phone and downloads it. providing sms(mms) installation is a bit harder and not so simple as it (doh!) involves getting all the things required for starting to send mms's on demand.
you could very easily create a library of free j2me programs and build a phone friendly site for browsing them by category and providing downloads(in fact, please do, I think there would be some 'market' for it).
same thing for providing symbian programs for the usual symbian phones.
anyone know a good site to promote freeware symbian(series60) game, apart from freshmeat? I'm kind of lost on finding any since google searches for it bring up just total crap(linkfarms&shit).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
TryMicroDevNet which is a developer orientated site for J2ME, but only provides links to the authors web site for listed apps. (and you have to be a member..)
Another one is Midlet.org, but I've been mailing the site admin for 2 months trying to get a J2ME RSS reader I wrote posted on the site, with no reply. The downloads look like they were last updated on Jan 23rd and there is a fairly lively forum.
You can download via wap at http://midlet.org/wap
GAGIN is "get around Get It Now" and is a copy of Qualcomm's AppLoader for BREW (distributed without permission of course) with a binary patcher to let it do more than load BREW apps.
It let me see files, but not download or upload them to my 1monthold Motorola T720c.
BALpatches are other binary patches to AppLoader.
If you get the "update" for Motorola TrueSync 3.1, you can install it without having an earlier version (again, in violation of the EULA) and use a $16 USB or serial cable to syncronize Outlook or PalmDesktop to your phone. It also comes with USB drivers (for Windows of course) to handle the USB-to-serial (I think the T720 just has a Prolific chip or integrated IP to handle USB) and let you use the phone as a modem.
PST is a Motorola app for messing with all sorts of really deep, nasty stuff in your phone. The guy who distributes it (google beavermjr) supplies a patch, but that didn't come down right for me, so I don't know what it does. PST comes with a large collection of USB drivers, so I assume the app isn't talking to the phone with a set of AT-command extensions.
HowardForums have a lot of frustrated Verizon subscribers discussing how to use the capabilities their phones already come with without paying VZW $more.
I have a Windows COM port "interposer" that watches traffic & colors in the display window according to direction. It would be good for reverse-engineering the protocol for implementation in open source. I'll post the name when I find it again.
Verizon's premire camera phone, the LG VX 6000 is hackable. When you press [MENU] it will give u a selection of options. Press 0 and a service code message will popup. The code is "0000000". A new menu opens up, which is full of cool features from FCC tests to changing ur phones call priority on the network. There is also a section for brew, where u can change the IP adddres of where Get It Now connects to. Use this if u want to upload games to ur phone for free.
If you had looked on SourceForge you would have found BitPim which lets you play with the embedded filesystems of most CDMA phones. It also does phone book, calendar, wallpaper, ringtones and other stuff for several models. And it ships on Windows, Linux and Mac.
If it's vtext.com and if I'm not mistaken, you can just send an email to phonenumber@vtext.com and you should get a message on your cellphone. For example, mine is: 4042742060@vtext.com (send a fun message!). It apparently works across networks and providers. Try it on your own phone number first, but I think it's pretty universal. I created email aliases at work like: randys_cell@mycompany.com that are just email aliases for their phonenumber@vtext.com addresses.
Try it for yourself, and post the results if it works.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
In A.D. 2004 ....
A wireless slashdotting was beginning.
Verizon: What happen?
Operator: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: New phone get signal.
Verizon: What!
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Verizon: It's You!!
AC: How are you gentlemen!!
AC: All your base stations are belong to us.
AC: You are on the way to irrelevancy.
Verizon: What you say!!
AC: You have no chance to survive make your GetItNow open.
AC: Ha Ha Ha Ha
Verizon: Take off every "approval form"
Verizon: You know what you doing.
Verizon: Move "approval form".
Verizon: For great justice.
--- You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad- Neal (not Cowboy) Boortz
They do this in Japan. I have a phone that I bought for about $60, they have an over the air provisioning service, but they also allow you to load custom apps just by visiting a URL. They prevent piracy by refusing to allow you to access content on the phone(it's probably possible, but most people just don't bother with it)
Meanwhile Verizon doesn't allow you to run custom apps on the hardware you bought.
Now I gotta go back and use their crappy service again, really blows!
The problem is that verizon cripples most of their phones such that you cannot download files via the web. Additionally, verizon phones don't speak j2me, they speak Brew. Brew apps require an expensive proprietary SDK and then can only officially be installed via their GetItNow interface (i.e. Verizon gets to bill you a few bucks per download).
There are ways to install brew apps via a data cable, but you still need a generated license file from Qualcomm for the thing to run. Getting this file runs upwards of $1000.
This actually reminded me that I had called and bitched to the Verizon Wireless executive offices and talked to a VP there who *assured me* that a program was in the works to upload these progs and ringtones, etc. for free via the data cable. A good year ago. Damn, wish I wrote her name down...
Oh well. I'm thinking I'll switch to T-Mobile anyway. The data rates on VZW are just ridiculous and they're far and away the worst when it comes to BS like this.
Carriers like Verizon and Sprint do their best to limit what you can do with your phone. They think that earning pennies by selling crappy applications and ringtones is of greater value than keeping their customers happy.
Nokia also provides enormous support to software developers. You can download free IDE's and SDK's from their website. Pick your favorite language - C++, Java, OPL, VisualBasic, and soon Python. Nokia puts no restrictions on what you can do with YOUR phone. WHY? Because they know that they're in the business of selling phones, not software.
Sprint PCS offers what you're looking for. Let me rephrase that, they let you do what you're looking to do. Basically, they use J2ME which you can download the SDK for (free) and then download to your phone. Verizon uses Brew which doesn't let you do that, they require you to go through them.
With Sprint you can roll your own apps and download them from the web if you have your MIME types set correctly. Google for it, you should find all the info you need.
most providers won't let you run anything but certified/signed code on their phones so that they don't have to support anyone elses half baked efforts. This isn't to say that you won't make something professional, but their main goal is to make money by providing content like games, organizers, ringtones, sms, etc...
The big difference btwn nintendo and verizon is that verizon has much stricter controls built into the hardware/software to prevent just the kind of thing you mentioned
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
yes under such bitchy deals I'd be switching in a second.
thank god tie-in is illeagal here(and therefore there is nothing 'locked' in the phones sold, and gsm providers have to compete with calling/data prices that are easily comparable).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
So far, I'm very happy with the T720 - the only negative is it takes about 30 seconds for the phone to boot up - other than that it's been great.
Brian
Are you a Candy Addict?
check out http://www.3gupload.com
*sob*
:(
Why oh why is the US so unenlightened
Too bad Verizon CDMA has far and away the best coverage. T-M can't touch them in that regard. The worst is that I'll have to cough up my $200 "termination fee" unless I can beg the powers that be to let me out of it since I'm about halfway thru a 2 year contract.
Damn, wish I wrote her name down...
wouldn't matter, most likely she would have been transferred by now to a completely new location/business/job description by now.
this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
T-Mobile is exactly the same and seems to have the worst coverage of any cellular provider in the US. I have a Siemens M46 phone, and I have a data cable, but I cannot find an unlocker for it. (I can find unlockers for some related phones, but not this one.) I did manage to find software which would load ringtones, but it only plays monotonic midi and I can't find a utility which will intelligently convert a polyphonic midi (I would be happy to select just a few tracks) to monophonic, so I really haven't even accomplished that. This phone apparently has a pretty good set of capabilities if you have some way to get data in and out of it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ummm, email sim-unlock@tmobile.com. Once you are out of your initial 90 days they are fine. Tell them you are traveling to europe and want to use a prepaid sim.
A step in the direction of telling developers which apps the market prioritizes in value would be stats for which apps are installed. Mere download counts from distribution sites provide a rough guess. Comparison charts from FreshMeat and proprietary sites like Download.com would also help. FreshMeat in particular would do well to open a query interface to its distribution database, either publishing popularity comparisons, or even a queryable interface.
Without those popularity ratings, software market preferences are uneducated guesses. Developers rely on either clueless marketdroids parroting the hype of the hour, or revert to trying to sell what they've got, rather than developing what people want. The market for plugins and components, as well as dataformat-specific content, is especially subject to this (lack of a) market research regime. If we developers compared the installed base curves of, say, MediaPlayer and XMMS, we could target our components and content to the audience most appropriate. Without the market research, we make discouraging mistakes all the time.
Open source is specially suited to benefit from this market communications. The community nature of development and distribution, and the bidirectional flow of coordinating communication between producers and consumers, is enhanced exponentially by the absence of constraints on roles and privileges, while proprietary products are largely wedded to a centralized, broadcast development/distribution model. We've revolutionized development, and then distribution. Now we have the chance to make "marketdroids" literal robots, and crank a wave of customer satisfaction (and developer compensation) more powerful than we've ever seen before.
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make install -not war