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Motorola Hacker Rewards Program

Posted by michael on from the some-disassembly-required dept.

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.

11 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Does the prize include by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lawyers fees for the DMCA lawsuit from Verizon?

    1. Re:Does the prize include by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I worked for one of the top three cell phone companies from April until August of this year (I resigned on Aug 12th). You would not believe this industry from the inside. First they shoot themselves in the foot by selling phones for a penny that costs them several hundred dollars. Then, they try to get it back by selling all sorts of "extras." The billing errors alone probably make up some of the lost profit. I did not see a single billing error on any of my screens that were in favor of a customer. My own bill for my two boys were off by $150/month for three months in the carriers favor. The pressure to get new "activations" is enormous. You are directed to say almost anything to get a new activation and then they deal with the lies on the backend. If you choose not to lie, as I did, they make your life almost unbearable. I did make a good income and I could have continued. But, I got so that I didn't like myself much anymore.

      Cheers,

      Erick

      --
      http://www.busyweather.com/
    2. Re:Does the prize include by Wordsmith · · Score: 4, Funny

      isn't everything?

  2. Verizon known for crippling phones by __aaitqo8496 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Verizon is known for doing this type of things with thier phones. Entire communities have been created to discuss the problems and find workarounds. Just taking a look around at Howard forums and you can come up with tools such as the balpatch which was created in an attempt to take control of the Motorola T720 for loading of pics and tones. Despite a user outcry and many letters written to them in complaint of abandoning JAVA in favor of BREW (a proprietary Qualcomm language), Verizon cares not.

    1. Re:Verizon known for crippling phones by jonsmirl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have to agree that Verizon is making the phones useless. Next phone I get is going to be voice only. I wasted a bunch of money buying a couple of Motorola 722's to then find out that I had to pay more to use every feature.

      I wanted to sync my calendar/address book with Yahoo. I called Verizon, no program exists for syncing Yahoo to a Motorola 722. So I said fine I'll write one and open source it. When I mentioned this on the Qualcomm forms I almost got lynched. People complained about commies like me ruining their ability to make money and support their families. I said that I was willing to buy the program but none exists -- no one offered to write it.

      Qualcom is completely against free distibution of apps for Brew. They told me that I could write it and distribute for free on the Verizon net if I was willing to pay the fees for all of the users. I also had to pay a $4000 up front fee. Turns out that they require additional app royalty fees to use the OS I just bought from them.

      The offical reason for this "fee" is that Qualcomm will audit my apps to ensure that they don't contain a virus that would call 911. I tried to point out to them that a virus on home computers with modems is just as dangerous, but they wouldn't listen.

      None of this is Motorola's fault. It is all Qualcomm and Verizon.

      When my contract is up I'm getting a new network and Linux based phones.

  3. What!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    They win pot? Where do I enter?!

  4. Que? by iamdrscience · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I missing something? Why not just switch to a different network that isn't so hostile towards their customers. I mean, the fact that Verizon is actually saying that they don't offer a bluetooth phone because it doesn't fit their business model, despite the fact that many customers want it is ridiculous. Sounds like a path towards an out-of-business model to me.

  5. If someone is smart enough to hack the phone... by Go_Ask_Alex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...then they should be smart enough not to waste their time and effort buying a crippled Moto V710 in the first place, or otherwise contributing to having more people buy the phones and becoming satisfied customers via a hack.

    Who would a hack serve? Those who will continue to support bad business practices and companies.

    For a comparable price one can find comparable "unlocked" GSM phones that have the original manufacturer's firmware, have all features enabled, and allow one to get service from any mobile company one chooses, often world-wide with the now commonplace GSM world phones.

  6. Not to be too harsh on you... by PaulBu · · Score: 4, Funny

    But maybe this story explains your .signature? ;-)

    Paul B.

  7. Verizon's Expensive by Mean_Nishka · · Score: 4, Informative
    Verizon is really all about nickel and diming the customer. Walk into any retail store and you can see many 'packages' to be added on to a normal account. They charge for everything beyond a typical phone call, even on the more premium accounts.

    I used to be a Verizon customer and switched to Sprint when the Treo 600 came out. I was expecting a decline in service quality, and was quite surprised the actual service was about the same.

    What I did get was far more bang for the buck. For around $110 US a month, I get 2000 peak minutes, unlimited nights and weekends which start at 7 p.m. (versus 9 for Verizon), unlimited picture and SMS messaging, unlimited data, including unlimited modem use (thanks PDANet!), and a host of other features.

    Bottom line, I'm not sad I left Verizon.. At least with Sprint I know I won't be charged extra for something as simple as an SMS message or photo transmission.

    --
    www.lonseidman.com

  8. Re:Take my money - please by ElGuapoGolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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....

    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 .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...

    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.