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Motorola Hacker Rewards Program
Nuclear Elephant writes "Pen Computing Magazine recently ran an article about the Motorola v710, which has been crippled by Verizon. A hacking contest is now underway, and the pot is steadily growing. The first hacker to provide a hack (or instructions) to enable OBEX and OPP features on the handset before Jan 1 wins the pot. See the official site for more information." We mentioned this phone a few days ago.
Well, let's hope all this leads to more secure phones in the future... isn't that what's hacking all about ? Detecting flaws without abusing them, so companies can improve their product ?
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com
What do you want to bet the tech(s) who originally figured out how to cripple the phone hear about this, un-cripple it (or at least tell how), and collect the bounty?
I'd do it if it were me. Hopefully the pot grows enough to offset the lost income if Verizon finds out and fires the guilty party, though.
There is a bluetooth update coming something soon (schedule is/was early this month) for the v710. At least one person has claimed to have received word via email from verizon that at least some of the functionality this "hack contest" is looking for will be provided in the update.
Sit tight until the update comes out...then assess the situation. Then, if needed, we can work ourselves up into a hissy about this.
I think Verizon released this phone before it was ready, probably due to customers leaving for lack of a bluetooth option. They probably figured the backlash may be better than lost customers, or I could be wrong and they may just be totally missing the boat.
Soccer Goal Plans
I find that
a) it would be better to go with Nextel for a wireless data service.
b) it would be better to go with AT&T/Cingular for a Bluetooth feature enabled phone selection.
Verizon gets Moto to give them phones but there is no guarantee who is responsible for the software running on the phone. I get the full impact of this approach when I use my phone today. When I can actually -use- the phone that is.
Sadly, the current phone I use (Moto T720C) just reboots and has general software issues because I actually try to use the features of the phone. It all started when I did my first iSync. After that, it is very common to just have the phone reboot after reading a text message and the battery life is horrible. That said, if I just used the unit as a phone it is reliable.
Verizon has swapped out hardware numerous times since it was considered to be a case of bad hardware. Right. Sure. Then when the 5p software load is on the new hardware it still chokes the phone. I would say it is just silly but I actually use my phone for work.
Finally, I got a rep to admit that Verizon let Moto outsource the software for the T720c and if you try to get one now most reps won't even let you get the T720c if you beg for it. Too many problems.
I was looking at going to the V710 but now I am leaning towards other options like the LG phones since the Bluetooth on the V710 is not fully baked and may never be.
I guess Verizon is the choice if -all- you want to do is make phone calls.
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Cheers,
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
Oh, I agree, wholeheartedly. That's what a free market economy is about.
... hmm. If it weren't for my wife's insistence on having a cell phone, I'd choose the latter and put that $45/month into wireless internet.
But out here in the sticks, we pretty much only get service from Verizon, since they're the only ones with a tower.
Verizon or nothing
For the last -year- I had been waiting for a chance to get a Bluetooth phone with my Verizon account. Fortunately, the same week I see that it's been released, I see posts about Verizon having totally screwed it up so I can avoid spending any cash on it.
I can understand them wanting to make more money with more feature offerings, but it's unexcusable that they don't explain things more clearly when you're shopping for a phone. The only question now, is who to switch to? My plan is up in December.
I tried to make sense of the price structures involved in AT&T Wireless' plans, as they do definitely have the best options in phones. I can't even find out anything remotely clear from the site, though. Do they charge different rates for data? Per K? Ugh.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
I can see how this upsets people, and I think the best approach is to just advertise it and try to punish Verizon that way. Organize a kind of tech-geek boycott. But unfortunately, I don't think there's a legal problem with what they're doing.
Should companies be allowed to sell their products hobbled? If we decide no for Verizon, then we also must go after Microsoft, whose baseline operating system is always the more advanced flavor. For instance, in Win 2000 Pro, many of the features of Server are present but disabled. Should we apply the same standard here and say that Pro must have all such features enabled? I'm not sure...
As far as applying the DMCA to this situation of this contest...I don't see how any law can stop it. It can just force it underground, or force the perpetrators to come up with a flimsy cover story.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
Verizon is expensive, unfriendly and the phones they ancient.
710 looks OK, but personally I'd take Nokia 6230 any day.
GSM networks allow you to use state of the art phones of your choice and cost less.
For mere 80$ I get 1000 minutes, free nights-weekends, free in-network calling, free WAP, unlimited SMS, unlimited access to Wi-Fi in almost every Starbucks, Borders, Kinko's. Beat that!
Ericsson, the original inventor of Bluetooth, bowed out last week - so, yeah, it is pretty much dead in the water.
If some "Operator" [http://brew.qualcomm.com/brew/en/operator/op_dire ctory.html] were to post the Operator Gudelines [https://brewx.qualcomm.com/brew/sdk/authdownload. jsp?page=dx/operatorguidelines], then there'd be a lot more items to discuss.
Top tip: if some operator posted a valid username and password, then we'd have a lot more to discuss:
This is where the serious fun begins.
It even seems to have the national media afraid to reverse-engineer statements from the country's so-called leadership in order to search for the truth.
I don't get it: Verizon has rabidly faithful customers already. They do a great job with the high-speed data service. Why don't they go the last mile and carry a decent Bluetooth phone? It's not like I'm asking for it for free - I'll *give* them the money, they just won't take it....
.3 megapixel picture somewhat compelling. And I know you can do it with the transwhatever card that's in the phone, but imagine how nice it would be to do it wirelessly...
It's all about the extras. If they gave you a fully functional Bluetooth phone, with a functional OBEX profile, you wouldn't have to use their Get-It-Now service to send yourself the pictures you've taken using the camera phone you bought from Verizon. Could you imagine, getting your photos off your phone(which you paid for) for free? It'd almost make that
But that's not all. If you had Java on the phone, instead of that redheaded stepchild BREW, you could use bluetooth to send yourself the games you've bought in the past for your older phones. And Verizon wouldn't make a penny! Could you imagine the horror of getting to use your old games and Verizon not making a penny out of that, other than the initial cost of selling you the game?
But wait, there's even more! If you had multiple cellular phones, you could take a ringtone from off your fiance's phone and send it to yours! For free! Verizon wouldn't make a penny, except for the money they made when they sold you the ringtone to begin with. The horror.
Err, perheaps in some ivory-tower, elitist, theoretical manner. In practice CDMA phones lack flexibility and features.
Such as a SIM card that stores your phonebook and other info, which can be moved from phone to phone so you dont need some assholes determining what you can use. Between a phone and a CF-card modem? GPRS? Etc. Etc.
Less "performance"? Who gives a fuck about performance which you cant use?
CDMA is a standard designed for the carriers and against consumers. It is meant to be restrictive and demanding multiple accounts for multiple devices while dangling a carrot of some supposedly superior qualities which you and I will never get to see on our crippled-to-oblivion, pay-per-even-thinking-about-it handsets.
There is a reason Betamax lost. Sony, just like CDMA carriers, were arrogant, self-absorbed, greedy assholes who believed they will get the entire planet by the balls. The result? Planet: 1, Sony: 0.
The same will happen (as is already happening) to CDMA.
I seem to remember an Apple CEO saying that the way to network Macs and PCs is with a floppy disk, much like the memory card for the phone. This was right before Apple almost went out of business. Verizon doesn't have a Jobs brand defribulator.
Stu