Hacking the Motorola v265

phoric writes "Unfortunately, Verizon Wireless cripples their phones so that you have to use their fee-based service in order to add new ringtones, or to transfer the pictures you take with the camera. The Verizon logo conceals the date display on the main screen and covers over the top portion of the background, among various other corporate silliness. Selling a device that is intentionally crippled is just plain ridiculous. Of course, the only natural thing to do in a situation like this is to hack it."

Comments

Corporate Silliness

[fembots]

Some call it Strategic Market Pricing and Positioning. Almost everybody's doing it, on things like digital cameras, DVD-writers, car engines, CPUs, MP3 players and games.

In order to cut cost, most manufactuers use obscurity as the only line of defence.

So will manufacturers be forced to have separate production lines for "Starter" and "Professional" products. Is it possible that one day when hacks are so common, manufactuers will find it cheaper (than losing the upper market sales) to have two lines so that they can price products for each market accordingly?

Re:Corporate Silliness

[macaulay805]

Kinda like what Nvidia does with the Geforce and Quatro lines?

Re:Corporate Silliness

[black6host]

It would be interesting to know the percentage of equipment that is actually hacked. That would be a deciding factor as to as to whether or not it's worth it to incur the additional expense of re-tooling.

Re:Corporate Silliness

[bhtooefr]

Intel and AMD actually did that in the Celeron Mendocino and the Duron pre-Applebred days - the Mendocino and Morgan cores were actually developed specifically for the budget chips.

Intel had tried to use a regular P2 missing the (external) cache, made on the same production line, for the Celeron (Covington), but that was a real dog. Now, of course, they use the broken Pentium (3/4/M) cores to make a Celeron (D in the case of some P4s, M in the case of P-Ms).

Re:Corporate Silliness

[arose]

In order to maximize profits, you can't cut costs by disabling what's already there.

Re:Corporate Silliness

[tomhudson]

In order to maximize profits, you can't cut costs by disabling what's already there.

Sure you can. Modem manufacturers used to do it all the time - 1 assembly line, 1 printed circuit board, etc., is cheaper than 2. Just cut a few traces and your 56k faxmodem is now a 33k modem w/o fax.

Same with software - it may be capable of n number of users at once, but its been crippled so that you need to buy licenses for each user.

Re:Corporate Silliness

[spuzzzzzzz]

You can't cut costs by disabling things, but you can increase profit:

Person A works a lot with CAD software and he can afford a NVidia Quadro 4000 or whatever it's called.

Person B wants to play DooM 3. He can't afford a Quadro, but he can afford a 6800 Ultra.

Now, it's cheaper for NVidia to make 2 Quadros than a Quadro and a GeForce 6800 because they only need 1 assembly line. If they try to charge person B the Quadro price for his card, he won't buy it. If they offer person B the Quadro for the Geforce price, person A would have no incentive to pay full price for his Quadro. So they disable a bunch of features in person B's Quadro before selling it to him as a Geforce 6800.

Re:Corporate Silliness

[jcgf]

I think he means that your overall costs would go down ie $56k + $33k > $56k + $(cut traces on the odd card). So it's like you have designs for two different pieces of hardware at the cost of one. Now whether or not it would be better for everyone if they would just sell the 56k at a decent price is another matter.

Re:Corporate Silliness

[Ucklak]

You can have a run of 10,000 PCB's.
The next 10,000 you cut a trace.
The next 10,000 you stamp a Compaq logo on it
etc...

Manufacturing is a cheap process when you're not doingg a 1-up. Same with printing

Re:Corporate Silliness

[DigiShaman]

How exactly does this cut costs? If anything, the 33k should be more expensive since it takes an extra step in the production process.

It's called market saturation. Take the CPU industry for example. While it may cost a few bucks more to fab a Pentium Extreme vs Celeron, you just destroyed your potential profit margin if both CPUs were priced nearly the same. In fact, some of newest "lowend" CPUs to come out of the fab are just UNDERCLOCKED CPUs rebranded.

The idea is to capture your profits at the high-end. Selling the low-end stuff at cost is just... tangible marketing.

Re:Corporate Silliness

[MightyMartian]

In order to maximize profits, you can't cut costs by disabling what's already there.

Been done for years. Old single-sided floppies were actually double-sided, but only one side was tested. Intel's 80486SX was an 80486 with the math coprocessor disabled (not sure of the explanation, though I suspect, like single-sided floppies, it was cheaper to test if you didn't have to worry about a large chunk of the circuitry).

Re:Corporate Silliness

[rsynnott]

And people continue to buy the phones?! Eek. There'd be war over here if they tried that. The closest thing I can think of to it is that on themable phones, vodafone includes their own theme as default; but it is easily changable.

OMGWTFBBQ

[Quick Sick Nick]

Verizon doesn't give me free ringtones? This is ridiculous!

The only sensible thing to do is hack it so I can listen to the latest shitty pop songs to their full glory.

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[Anonymous Coward]

Ringtones should be prohibitively expensive. Or, better, all phones should be crippled to not allow customized ringtones, period - except for a handful of pre-selected ones.

It's a phone. It's not a boombox. When your phone rings, it should... well.... ring. That Puddle of Mudd ringtone doesn't make you look hip or cool or interesting. And when you're in a business meeting or I hear your stupid 50-Cent ringtone from across the office ten times a day, I don't think you're cool. I think you're a fucking pretentious tool. Even moreso if you paid $2.99 for that 10 second song clip on your phone. In fact, the same thing goes if you have those stupid "cell phone covers/faces". Not to mention, if you're one of those assholes with the stupid wallpaper on their cell "desktop".

IT'S A PHONE. IT IS NOT A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL'S TRAPPER-KEEPER.

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[bhtooefr]

As for wallpaper, it's not bad if you've got a data cable (or built-in IR (like I've got) or Bluetooth), because it's free (unless the bastards at your phone company disabled it. Shenanigans like that are why I won't look at Verizon (even though EVERYONE I know is either on it, or planning to go on it, and won't be stopped, so I can only call them on THEIR nights & weekends for it to be free for both). I'm on Sprint, FWIW.)

As for ringtones, I use a stock tone (not a ring, though). You see, it's for phone identification. I wouldn't EVER pay money for a tone. However, I'll never use the default tone, or a ring - that's what causes everyone to check their phones.

Faceplates, though? That's idiotic.

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[agraupe]

The problem with this is, at least on my phone, all the default ringtones are shitty. Why can't they just provide a ringing phone ringtone? I have my phone permanently on vibrate, and that's the way it stays because I'm so fucking sick of the ringtone selection.

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[hahiss]

Nothing like an anonymous coward deciding what we should and shouldn't want. . . . Too bad you didn't leave your email address so that we can all ask you for advice about how to run our lives.

FYI: In order to get a plain old ''phone ringing" ring tone on my phone, I had to download it and install it on my computer. At least the bluetooth wasn't crippled. (And MAN, it was hard finding an mp3 file of an old fashioned phone ringing that didn't totally suck.)

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[Mr2001]

As for wallpaper, it's not bad if you've got a data cable (or built-in IR (like I've got) or Bluetooth), because it's free (unless the bastards at your phone company disabled it. Shenanigans like that are why I won't look at Verizon

Verizon doesn't disable that feature, at least not on all phones. The LG VX7000 I have now, and the LG VX4400 I had before it, can both transfer ringtones and wallpapers over the data cable for free. You don't even need to buy Verizon's cable; you can get one for $10 at Radio Shack or on eBay.

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[_damnit_]

One of the few soapboxes I really stand on all the time is cell phones and fscking CDMA carriers' lock down on phones. I only use GSM phones. Period. If I get one free from the cell company, I unlock it ASAP. If it's disabled in some way, I either fix that or get rid of it. By staying with a GSM carrier, I leave my options open and I can buy whatever model I choose. I'm not limited by whatever selection Verizon or Sprint offers. I don't have to tell them which phone I'm using or pay them for ringtones.

Most people don't know that there is a difference or that Verizon continually screws them by disabling advertised features on most of their phones. I do my best to educate people, but it's only a few at a time. Don't use phones without SIM chips, or use a provider that screws you right up front.

Re:OMGWTFBBQ

[rsynnott]

If you've got proper internet access, of course, you can just download the things. Hmm, now I think of it, I run a small website that allows people to upload images to have them put into a format that a phone is happy with. Then they can download the new image. I get an abnormally low number of US users. Maybe this is why.

Ridiculous!

[Linus Torvaalds]

Selling a device that is intentionally crippled is just plain ridiculous.

Yes it is. The only thing I can think of that is more ridiculous is buying it.

Seriously. If it's that big a deal, then don't buy the damn thing. There are other phones on the market you know. Vote with your dollars.

Re:Ridiculous!

[Apreche]

Scary thing, no there aren't. Very few phones are completely wide open and allow you full access to all features. Even things like the Treo 650 have crippled Bluetooth.

The problem here is that a cellular/smart phone becomes more and more a vital piece of technology. And there are almost no choices that suit the geek who isn't loaded with cash. Vote with your dollars. Get the cheapest cheapest shit plan that they barely proft off of. Then hack the phone to bits. Maybe one day they'll realize that they're losing money by ignoring an important market segment.

Re:Ridiculous!

[jdreed1024]

Vote with your dollars.

Seriously. If you buy it, and then hack it, Verizon will (at best) think it's ok to sell crippled phones or (at worst) use the DMCA to send your "cyber-terrorist" ass to Guantanamo.

If instead you go to a Verizon store, return your phone, cancel your service, and say "Sorry, I'm switching to {Cingular|Sprint|T-Mobile|any other provider that doesn't cripple phones} because I feel consumers shouldn't get screwed" then maybe, just maybe they'll get the message. It's bad enough that phones are vendor-locked so you can't use whatever provider you want - there's no need to send a message to the CEOs that it's ok to screw over consumers to increase profits.

Re:Ridiculous!

[log0n]

Yes.

Yes yes yes.

I've got the Verizon Motorola V710. It's advertised as Mp3 playback.. mp3 ringtones.. Bluetooth for interaction and connectivity.. etc.

The Bluetooth is crippled so much that I hope that some Bluetooth org somewhere rescinds their right to use the trademark (nowhere did it mention in writing it's lack of functionality with comps, with other bluetooth devices, etc). After sending the phone in for repair (battery charging problems) the mp3 ringtone feature was disabled. When I first bought it it originally worked as expected - they performed a software update that removed the functionality. Additionally with the update, you can't play Mp3 files greater than 64kbits (so no real way of using it as a standalone mp3 player - you used to be able to play anything up to 320kbits, etc).

Fuck Verizon. The whole reason I bought the phone (and it was the best and MOST expensive phone out there for a while) was because it direct methods of interfacing with a computer without doing anything shady or sneaky. And it had awesome features. Corporate greed, more money, fuck em.

(Yeah, I'm pissed over it.)

Re:Ridiculous!

[log0n]

Oh and the 1megapixel cam on the v710 is awful too. Just a heads up to potential buyers. The update (mentioned above) made the quality slightly better (very digital noisy images - even in broad daylight). Oh and you can't transfer pictures from phone to the memory card (or vice versa) after the update. They intentionally locked you into their Pix transfering service (the whole point of the phone is that it comes with a memory card you can use to bypass all of this crap).

Sorry for the rant.. I'm just so frustrated with this thing.. I'm glad to see people are starting to hack apart and play dirty using the same methods Verizon does.

Re:Ridiculous!

[gkuz]

It's bad enough that phones are vendor-locked so you can't use whatever provider you want

Gee, I've been with T-Mobile since Omnipoint days, had like 4-5 phones in that time -- some bought from them, some bought via eBay -- and every single time I've asked nicely to have them remove vendor-lock, I've had no problem whatsoever. Used the phones with all sorts of pre-pay SIMs all over Europe. I can honestly say "vendor lock? what's that?"

Maybe you should just avoid VZW.

Re:Ridiculous!

[Algan]

I've got the same phone; I bought it while being fully aware of the crap that Verizon pulls. Luckily I'm not really affected by the limitations, I just use BT for handsfree operation and I'm not into crappy digital pictures (got a real camera for that). They do however have a decent network and 90% of my friends are on Verizon, so switching wasn't really an option for me.

Anyway, there is a workaround to the mp3 ringtone block. Apparently you can convert the mp3 to 32kbps, mono and email it to @vzwpix.net. When you get the message, save it as a ringtone. Voila, free (almost) mp3 ringtone. Some people find it helps if you rename it to .mid. I haven't tried it personally (just got a couple of tunes from a friend who did it - you can msg them from phone to phone). YMMV, use it at your own risk, blah blah all disclaimers apply... but let me know if it works for you :)

Re:Ridiculous!

[plabtfall]

The cheapest Verizon phone: $70

The cheapest Verizon plan: $40 a month

Never having to worry about my cell phone, while getting to watch all you gullible bozos complain about not being able to change your ringtone: priceless

Or

[UserChrisCanter4]

Of course, the only natural thing to do in a situation like this is to hack it."

[Obvious] Or, you know, not buy it. [/obvious]

Re:Or

[ThisIsFred]

You can't unbuy your contract when you're already signed. Well, you can, but you'll get screwed twice: Once by the false advertising, and again by early termination fees. I think that's part of the point here. The fellow above found that the product didn't work as advertised, and was further crippled by an update when he had it repaired for an entirely unrelated reason.

verizon TOS

[thegoogler]

he says nothing about the verizon TOS, and doesn't even warn that you could get your service cut off if they found out you did this.

that would seem like something that should have been mentioned...

Re:verizon TOS

[tomhudson]

he says nothing about the verizon TOS, and doesn't even warn that you could get your service cut off if they found out you did this.

that would seem like something that should have been mentioned...

Bullshit - they *sold* him the phone. They didn't license it to him, they *sold* it. You buy the phone, and license the service. Also, they failed to mention that they had crippled it before he bought it. Seems to me that cell phone companies selling crippled phones without full disclosure merits an investigation by the local Attorney General and/or Consumer Protection office for fraud.

Re:verizon TOS

[minus_273]

actually most people get the phone with the service plan and not independently. That is why in the US we get phones for free or for next to nothing and outside they have to actually pay. In all liklihood, he does not own the phone until the completion of his contract. Haven't you noticed that if you sign up for a longer contract, you will get the phone for less.

Re:verizon TOS

[j-turkey]

Also, they failed to mention that they had crippled it before he bought it.

I'll say right off that I'm totally conflicted by this. The phone-crippling stuff is bullshit. I hope that Verizon gets theirs, bigtime. That being said...there are two sides to this, and your argument has some holes.

I'm sure that he knew that his phone was crippled before he bought it. Who didn't know that Verizon crippled their equipment? It's pretty widespread knowledge, and there is a class-action lawsuit pending against VZW. Further, I believe that employees at Verizon stores are required to inform you of the 15-day trial period...if not, it's in writing. Did he have his phone for 15 days before he bothered to figure out that it didn't do what he wanted? I find it difficult to believe that he was ignorant, didn't read his license agreement, wasn't informed about the 15-day trial period, and didn't find out that his phone didn't do what he wanted until after that 15-day trial period. With the above being said, he doesn't have a right to diddly squat in this case. It's Verizon's network, and Verizon can do what they want with it. Since there is plenty of competition, he can take his business elsewhere.

Doesn't this whole thing stink of someone feeling like they deserve something from a company when they actually don't? Isn't the better thing for him to do is to take his business to a different provider?

T-Mobile's the last frontier

[yog]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and have been very happy with them except for lack of coverage in some places. I can dial up my favorite ISP with my bluetooth phone for no extra fee, and did I mention I got a bluetooth phone? Verizon Wireless appears to have only heard of bluetooth about 3 months ago, and they seem to have only a brushing acquaintance with that European phone maker, Nokia.

Unfortunately, T-mobile may be history pretty soon, and that likely means more consolidation and less competition in the U.S. mobile phone market.

What's the next best option? Cingular or Sprint? I hear terrible things about Sprint's service, and Cingular just merged with AT&T Wireless, which had a horrendous reputation for customer service.

Re:T-Mobile's the last frontier

[UserChrisCanter4]

Agreed. I don't understand a lot of Verizon customers. Verizon's only major advantage is a coverage area that's a little better than most carriers, but we're realistically talking about a coverage area that's only beneficial to uber-travellers. For the majority of us who aren't constantly travelling, their rate plans are nowhere near as good as most competitors, and their phone prices are outrageous compared to the other carriers. Who the hell goes for the two year agreement just to get the crappiest phone for $30?

I sure hope T-Mobile hangs in there. They were the only major carrier willing to do a family plan with different area codes (a Godsend when both my brother and I were at different colleges), and their rate plans have generally been pretty reasonable.

My only recommendation if they go under would be Cingular, if only because of the GSM factor. Even though Sprint and Verizon's CDMA is technically better in almost every respect, I've typically found the handsets to be of lower quality (particularly the Korean ones). Also, the absence of a SIM-style system for storing phone numbers boggles my mind - I still crack up when I see people writing down every number in their phonebook when they're upgrading/replacing a phone.

Re:T-Mobile's the last frontier

[Mr2001]

Agreed. I don't understand a lot of Verizon customers. Verizon's only major advantage is a coverage area that's a little better than most carriers

There are a couple other advantages. First is high speed data - when my cable modem goes out, or when I'm out someplace where there's no WiFi, I can get online at a decent speed with 1xRTT (faster than landline dialup). If I lived in a bigger city, and had the money to spend on it, I could get online at DSL speeds with 1xEV-DO.

Second is unlimited "in network" calling. This may be less of an advantage for you, but I know several other Verizon customers, and I can talk to them for free.

and their phone prices are outrageous compared to the other carriers. Who the hell goes for the two year agreement just to get the crappiest phone for $30?

If you've already been a customer for 2 years and you renew your contract, you get an extra $100 off the regular subsidized price of a new phone (under a promotion called New Every Two). That's how I got a free VX7000.

And hey, if you manage to get the phone you want somewhere else for less, you can probably use it on Verizon anyway. Unlike Sprint PCS, they don't have a policy to only activate phones they sold themselves.

Finally, the crappiest phone is $20 (for new 2-year contracts), not $30, at least in my market. ;)

Re:T-Mobile's the last frontier

[drew]

and they seem to have only a brushing acquaintance with that European phone maker, Nokia.

Nokia stopped making CDMA phones almost entirely back around 1998, when the majority of their CDMA phones were so bad that Sprint stopped carrying them entirely, and the other CDMA services could barely give them away for free (back before it became common for providers to give out new phones for free with extended service contracts)

I was on Sprint back around 99-2000, and I actually had frieds who switched to other carriers so that they could get that stupid little Nokia phone that was all over the place. I'm on a GSM carrier now, but from my experience with their phones so far, I would be hesitant to ever buy a Nokia phone anyway, even when they are available.

Huh?

[ilyanep]

Selling a device that is intentionally crippled is just plain ridiculous

Why is it so ridiculous? The company is only out to make some more money. They don't want anything but that. Some people just don't get the fact.

Re:Hacking the RAZR V3?

[puto]

Motorola Tools runs on windows. But as an employee of the Wirless provider that introduced the razor, I can say probably no. And the V3, while kinda neat looking, is mostly hype, does not do edge, and breaks if you look it. V551 is same phone, does edge, and cost less, and is pretty hardier.

Puto

V710

[matth]

This is nothing new.. I have a V710 from Verizon and have modified the firmware. Hack is a strong term and really isn't what is being done. It is my phone.. I purchased it under my contract. I chose to flash it with a firmware I wrote, and I take full responsibility for any technical issues I may have with it. I have not ripped Verizon off of any cost or services that (ie free minutes)..

Re:V710

[nxtw]

Summary: Verizon Wireless's customer agreement does not have these stipulations you speak of. You are, in effect, making things up.

Direct quote:
Your wireless phone is any device you use to receive our wireless voice or data service. It must comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations and be compatible with our network and your calling plan.

And if the contract states that you won't use Verizon's services with any phone running non-Verizon-authorized firmware, what then?

I don't know, maybe the Verizon firmware police will confiscate your phone after using their firmware-detecting machine? The customer agreement linked above has no mention of Verizon-authorized firmware. It says it only must be compatible with Verizon's network and your calling plan.

Unless they had intended to charge you for custom ringtones or something silly like that...

When you purchase a phone, it becomes your private property... they *sell* it to you, at a reduced price, and you also sign a contract tying you to the SERVICE. The phone however, is not theirs. You're allowed to modify the software on it all you want. So if these nonexistant contract stipulations existed, it's still not their phone.

I'm sympathetic that the stuff that they do charge for is often bullshit. But that doesn't mean that you should have the "right" to circumvent what you've contractually obligated yourself to follow.

There is no contractual obligations here and no circumventing of them.

It's one thing if they really did sell you the device outright, and sold you service on their networks with no stipulations about what you could do to the software running on your phone.

They did sell the device outright! The device is yours; the contract you sign for 1-2 years is in exchange for a reduced price on the phone. They allow you to do whatever you want. They *sold* you the phone. It's *yours*. The contract only locks you to their service. If you cancel the contract after the first 15 days, you keep the phone and pay the early termination fee (before 15 days, you return it and pay no fee.)

But if you don't like the terms of the contract, you don't have to accept them. If enough people felt like you, and actually did something about it and refused to do business with companies that offered shitty ToS, and told them so, there'd be a market for products that did not come with shitty ToS strings attached. I don't see anything in Verizon's ToS that's nonstandard or not to be expected from any large corporation. The problem is not with Verizon's ToS, but with the phones they sell.

It is extremely difficult/impossible to enter the nationwide wireless market without reselling, so there's not going to be some new nerd-friendly service launching.

Also, there are other choices that don't limit their phones down so much. Cingular and T-Mobile sell GSM phones without any limits on what you can do (besides the subsidy lock); if you don't like their phones, you can use any other compatible GSM device. Sprint's phones aren't nearly as limited...

Look at Speakeasy as an example of an ISP who respects what geeky customers want, or Google as a web services company that by and large does things right -- this isn't just some idealistic pipedream, it is a reality and can be for more products if we stand up and make ourselves heard, instead of being whores for the lowest-priced goods and services available, without regard to the other intangible costs.

Speakeasy fills a niche market. Otherwise, SBC and Verizon have a much larger DSL marketshare. I still don't understand what the huge attraction to Google is all about: good search engine, otherwise I don't care. If you want to stand up and make yourself heard while making up things about large corporations, you'll only make yourself look stupid. There have been and still are mobile companies that don't do this to customers. Verizon has never been the only choice.

not just the v265

[Matey-O]

My V600 had a great deal of whackyness I couldn't get fixed (garbled external clock, occasionaly reboots, oh and fi you return your phone for a refurb with games on it you've had more than a few months...you're screwed.)

So Google 'hack v600' and there's a plethora of nifty things out there for it. The BIG stickler is: you've gotta get a REAL USB cable...my first one had a black box in the middle that converted usb on the PC side to the serial interface on the phone. You MUST have full USB to update the phone.

There are two (and a half) levels of updates for these phones; Flex, Flash, and Seems.

The Flex is similar to a firmware update in that is updates the low level internals of the phone. In doing so, I noticed improved reception, slightly better battery life, etc. I didn't wait long enough to see if that alone would fix my problems, I proceeded to :

The Flash. Flash contains all the software that operates the phone. For awhile, I played around with a European software set that had a ROCKIN version of Monopoly (trust me, that's not a dichotomy of terms) It's major problem was a lack of american GPRS support. So I had a more stable phone, with some tnifty new features, but I couldn't surf the web using bluetooth on the busride.

I then found an american Flash that did what I needed it too. I still had to enter the defaults from mMode, and SMS stuff (luckily I had the wife's phone to refer to), but it did a pretty good job of squashing the bugs in the native AT&T Flash...

Which brings up an important point: the OEM flash is NOT backup-able, nor is it available via the usual suspects. So when you jump, you jump with both feet and no net. It turned out okay in the end (after I got the internet connectivity stuff worked out) but it's somethign to be aware of. If you're REALLY stuck on it saying AT&T, don't update your phone.

One of the mods allows for uploading java apps from the desktop (A procedure usually masked off by the cellphone carriers...they want YOU to pay THEM for this stuff) So I managed to get that european version of Monopoly back.

Seems are patches to a Flex that enable, disable, of modify behavior. I haven't tried them, and haven't yet seen the need to.

Lastly: While this has been v600 specific, the vXXX series of phones (6XX 5XX and 4XX at the very least) all support these flex/flash combos. so a cheaper phone can pick up the multimedia apps and some items available on the more expensive bretheren. (except where hardware limitations prevent it...face it, if bluetooth isn't on the motherboard, you can't turn it on via software)

It kinda bugs me that this wasn't available as a service from AT&T, I would have gladly stuck with a firmware REV to solve the problems...coure now, I'll never have to pay for phone software, so I'm okay with that too.

Deja vu

[Bilange]

"Crippled" cell phones seems to be common.

For example I bought a LG 5450 from Telus, but Telus blocks downloading tones/wallpapers off the net, forcing users to download off Telus website only.

When I asked about the phone-to-PC data cable, the vendor said it didnt exist, when in fact it does

Today, I use Bitpim to download/upload photos, ringtones, you name it, using this guide. Enjoy!

Cell phone hacks

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.cellphonehacks.com/

nuff said.

The only

[wowbagger]

... only natural thing to do in a situation like this is to hack it.

Of course, because we simply CANNOT do without our toys - we cannot simply REFUSE to buy phones that are crippled, and if there are no service providers who will allow you to get a phone that is not crippled to simply DO WITHOUT.

Because it is a LAW OF NATURE that we must CONSUME whatever toys we are told to CONSUME.

We simply cannot refuse - so we must hack.

YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. SUBMIT. CONSUME, AND REPRODUCE.

MP3 Playing phones! not ringtones

[screwthemoderators]

I've been waiting for a cheap phone that will play mp3s. I don't need a hard-drive iPod phone, I just always have my phone with me, it has a earphone jack, and it has multi-megabyte memory, So why don't they include MP3 playing capability on cheap cell phones? Fsck ringtones.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

[syntap]

The OP links to this guy's blog where he has all the seem edit info, etc but give credit to all those who worked all of this out in the past year. These are frequent posters to howardforums.com and cellphonehacks.com. This guy was "standing on the shoulders of giants" for all of his info on hacking the v265. It's basically a repost of what others had already done through trial, error, and oopsies that fried their phones.

Re:Give Credit Where Credit is Due

[endeitzslash]

Also, motomodders.net is a good place for this kind of stuff.

Personally, I'm thinking about ditching Verizon

[l0ungeb0y]

It may sound fickle, but the fact that Verizon likes to pretend that Windows is the only operating system in the world and they cripple Bluetooth to the point of uselessness makes me want to switch to another carrier.

I'm hesitant though, since I've been with Verizon so long, love the quality of customer service support and have no coverage issues at all.

But, seeing how they are willing to commit fraud by selling something pretending to be what it isn't i.e. calling it Bluetooth instead of CrippledBy VerizonToRapeYourWalletTooth -- there is currently a class action suite against them for that -- pisses me off to no end. And personally, I think speak volumes of their attitude torward both technology and their user base in general.

So I've heard T-Mobile dosn't jack their bluetooth phones...
Is this the case? Personally, I'm thinking about just waiting for the Apple/Motorola iPhone and switching to whatever carrier has that (if and when it does come out) since it is the phone most likely not to be fucked with by a greedy carrier and it should integrate seamlessly with my all Apple home network.

Any readers online who have words of praise for cell carriers in the SF Bay Area that offer quality coverage, reasonable customer service and serve bluetooth straight up with no feature lockdowns?

For the forgetful...

[__aaitqo8496]

Same subject but different phone:

V710 Hacker Reward Program Unsuccessful

Verizon Crippled Bluetooth Features in Motorola V710

Not really.

[Transcendent]

Unfortunately, Verizon Wireless cripples their phones so that you have to use their fee-based service in order to add new ringtones, or to transfer the pictures you take with the camera.

Unfortunately, you can easily buy a data cable w/ software to hook up to your computer, which lets you transfer pictures, movies, ring tones, address book, etc. My friend and I use it on our samsung phones.

Re:Not really.

[DrXym]

The whole point of bluetooth is that you shouldn't have to attach your phone to a computer. If you need a cable (or infrared), it means the bluetooth has been crippled or is broken to begin with.

When bluetooth works, it's actually kind of neat. But it breaks so much that I am impressed when it works at all. I have four bluetooth devices - an Acer laptop, a Sony-Ericsson T610, a Motorola wireless headset and a iPaq 4150. Bluetooth for each of those devices (except the headset) is buried under 4 or 5 nested menus. The bluetooth software on the iPaq & Acer is also extremely fragile. I actually feel that I have been blessed when I manage to get them to talk to each other without problems.

More often than not, the devices can be right beside each other and they still don't work properly. Or a device crashes. Or if it does work I can detect (for example) my headset, but the PC / iPaq can't use it as a device even though it would be fantastic for Skype.

I don't know much about the organization behind the bluetooth 'standard' but my feeling is they should be cracking the whip. Halfassed and crippled implementations are killing it. The 'standard' could more accurately be called 'pot luck' and its doing the technology no favours at all.

T-Mobile not selling

[rale, the]

This article on forbes indicates that the whole thing about selling it was likely fabricated.

While Deutsche Telekom spokespersons refused to comment on a report they termed "pure speculation," high-ranking company officials told the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung they were convinced the report in the Wall Street Journal Europe was fabricated.

They told the newspaper they believed certain elements in the U.S. financial sector were interested in "disrupting Telekom and its U.S. investments."

Not quite true

[Mr2001]

Unfortunately, Verizon Wireless cripples their phones so that you have to use their fee-based service in order to add new ringtones, or to transfer the pictures you take with the camera.

This might be true for a few specific phones, but not in general.

I recently got an LG VX7000, which is a camera/video phone. Verizon naturally wants me to use their services to purchase ringtones and wallpapers and to retrieve the photos and videos I capture, but with BitPim and a simple USB cable ($10 on eBay), I can transfer all the pictures, ringers, and videos I want to and from the phone. Verizon even sells a cable as part of their Mobile Office kit.

Now, if only I could develop my own BREW applications...

The Magic Word is 'Subsidy'

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a story regarding the new Motorola v551 phone that I "bought" from a Rogers Wireless store in Toronto. To get the phone at a decent price, you sign up for a contract that lasts 2 or 3 years. I picked the 2 year contract, paid a little extra, and brought my phone home. It's GSM, so my phonebook was intact as soon as I popped the sim card in from my old Rogers phone.

Within a few weeks, I wanted to go overseas and use my cell phone over there. Rogers in Canada charges nearly $3.00 a minute for any international calls (roaming + international) which was completely unacceptable. So, I picked up a Euro sim card that works in France from a friendly vendor in Chinatown (College and Spadina), and all looked well; the sim card gave me a France phone number, unlimited incoming calls as long as I was in France, and a killer per-minute rate on one of the Euro networks (Vodaphone, O2, etc). And the sim was pay-as-you-go, with the ability to top it up from almost anywhere (including online).

I popped the new sim and turned the phone on, and I wasn't surprised that it said "Please enter subsidy code." I phoned up Rogers and asked them politely for the subsidy code. They basically told me to fuck off and use their contracted providers over in Europe at $3.00/min incoming and outgoing. You know that saying.. "they get you coming and they get you going?" ..well, that's exactly what this was -- literally!

The key point is that they sold me my phone at a loss. It's a RAZR V3 without the flimsy packaging and edge capabilities that actually work. I paid $150, and they said the phone was worth much, much more than that. That little word "subsidy" means exactly what it means, and they want you locked to their network until the end of time (if they had it their way).

Luckily, I live in Toronto. So, I walked back to Chinatown and found someone who unlocks cell phones for $40. I haggled and got the service down to $30. 5 seconds is all it took to unlock my v551 and it didn't even need a sim card installed to do it. A cable was plugged in at the bottom of the phone, a button was pressed on an external 'black box', a green light came on next to the button, the phone was powered on, and that was it.

The point of all this? That's real hacking right there. The guy/gal or guys/gals who worked on that bootstrap code to remove the subsidy lock on my v551 without even needing to know the firmware revision my phone was at.. now they deserve an article on Slashdot.

I used my unlocked phone in France without a problem. My phone is now worth whatever they're going for on eBay in an unlocked configration (more than $150 CDN that's for sure). I saved a lot of money by not paying Rogers their international rates.

Just because a cell provider wants to cripple your phone, lock it up, and sell it to you at a loss.. doesn't mean that you can't have someone unlock it, load a better firmware on it, and set you up with the cable you need to transfer your photos and contacts off of it.

I love the stuff that comes out of Russia sometimes ;)

Re:The Magic Word is 'Subsidy'

[Malc]

Yeah, I got a V600 off eBay. I use Rogers pay as you go. I refuse to lock myself in to a plan. I'm in England right now and their dumb plan won't even let me receive texts or calls or check my messages. I popped in a Virgin pay as you go SIM and off I went. So glad I got a used unlocked phone - saved money and kept my freedom. Oh and guess what? They still seem to bill by the second over here. None of this bollocks like paying for 30 seconds a call that you didn't use. Now I just need to flex or flash the thing as ATT Wireless (original network of the phone) made some settings impossible to change.

I would switch from Rogers, but I don't want to change my phone number. It's time we got number portability in Canada. I hate the obcene billing behaviour too of the Canadian providers (might be the same everywhere). "Pay as you go' is a joke! If you don't use your minutes in a month you lose them (what did I pay for?), unless you top up. If you want a $10/mo plan because you don't use much, you'll get stupidly high billing rates. You're almost forced in to $20/mo. With billing rates of the $20/mo plan, I don't use all my time and so I start accumulating. Of course, you have to make a minimum $20 payment to top up too, which makes it worse. Then there's the whole billing by the minute thing that can only be described as daylight robbery. I have a feeling that the only provider around here that doesn't do that is Fido... and now that they're owned by Rogers I wonder how long that will last.

The v710 Story

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the story of what Verizon did to the v710: http://www.canyouhearusnow.net/v710/v710story.php

Dialup? No problem

[Mr2001]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and have been very happy with them except for lack of coverage in some places. I can dial up my favorite ISP with my bluetooth phone for no extra fee

You can do this with Verizon too... as long as you're on an America's Choice plan, and your favorite ISP is Verizon. ;)

There's no extra fee, but it does use your minutes just like a regular phone call (so it's free between 9 PM and 6 AM, and all day Saturday, Sunday, and many holidays). Just connect the phone to your computer and make a dialup connection with the following info:

Number: #777 (spells PPP)
Username: <your 10 digit phone number>@vzw3g.com
Password: vzw

Presto, you're online. You may want to download the Venturi client, which will do some compression to make web browsing faster, but it's not required. As an added bonus, since you're using Verizon's 1xRTT network (packet data) instead of a regular circuit data connection, you'll probably get speeds of 60-80 kbps or higher, instead of the 14k or so you'd otherwise get with a cellular data call. (If you're outside the 1x coverage area, you can still connect at a slower speed, but the settings are different.)

The verizon logo doesn't conceal my clock!

[compange]

"The Verizon logo conceals the date display on the main screen and covers over the top portion of the background"

If only people would spent 5 minutes looking at the options on their phone and not bitching. The verizon logo on the sub-screen is actually the name of the network you are on. Go out of area and it says "Extended Network." Their coverage is just so good you never see it. On my Audiovox phone I can turn it off too, and the text on the screen.

Menu->Settings->System->ERI Banner. Turn it off. No more "advertising."

Change the "greeting" message and yours too can say "Yes Sir?" or even nothing at all!

Thanks for playing. You failed.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Can somebody please explain this...

[cjsnell]

I spent about 20 minutes poking around on Google and have come to the conclusion that most of the unlocking and modding tools for cell phones are very hard to find. My searching turned up, for the most part, people in Russia trying to sell collections of cell phone hacking utils.

So, what's the deal? Are these tools illegal to possess and that's why they are hard to find? Or, is it simply a matter of too much demand and too little bandwidth?

Do they tell you up front what the phone cant do?

[jonwil]

If not, thats false and misleading advertising.
Although I dont know if thats illegal in america (I know its illegal here in australia)

The only thing to do in a situation like this

[pklong]

The only thing to do in a situation like this is to use another company to provide your cell phone service. If everyone who cared did, they would soon change their minds. Its all about the bottom line.