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Settlement Good News for MotorolaV710 Owners
bluebanzai writes "When hordes of people bought up the Motorola V710 upon its release a year ago, Slashdot readers may remember many impressive features including the cutting edge Bluetooth features (picture/mp3 transfer, wireless syncing) as described on Motorola's website. However, when used with the popular Verizon Wireless cell phone service provider, many Bluetooth features were sadly crippled (apart from a wireless headset) because OBEX features had been purposely disabled by Verizon. Hundreds of people donated to a hacker rewards program to unlock the full features of the phone to the tune of $3000, but was never fully successful.
Well, one year later, the Los Angeles Superior Court (PDF Warning) and Verizon have announced the initial steps of a Class Action Lawsuit that appears to be influenced by the user community allowing everyone who bought it before the start of 2005 a few options for compensation--including a refund up to the purchase price of another phone which, interestingly enough, is a lot easier to hack."
including a refund up to the purchase price of another phone which, interestingly enough, is a lot easier to hack.
How about Verizon just stop crippling their customers and unlock the locked features?
I've never met anyone with a phone that has cut-down features either.
/. window and walking out of your house. You'd be amazed what you learn when you meet actual people.
Try closing the open
This seems to be a unique problem to US mobile phone markets. Why the hell do they require the phone company's own phone?
In any other part of the world, you buy your own phone from wherever you choose (even another country) and just plug in a sim card from your chosen provider and it just works.
If any provier here tried to pull those tricks, the market would take care of the problem very quickly.
Is GSM actually getting any foothold in the US market?
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
are the lawyers with (fta) 6.3 million dollars + 60k expenses
seems everyday to a lawyer is like winning the lottery except you win every time !
now all they need to decide is which to buy , a speedboat or a Lear jet..hmmmm decisions decisions
you have to use < like this: < otherwise it doesn't show. Just a little hint to the troll, I'm not sure whether I chuckle or get annoyed that the arsehole still pastes >1%!
Verizon has consistantly pissed me off since I got their service, they've killed Kannel on their network, upgraded to prevent hacking the GetItNow service, and the only way to add custom anything is to locate an impossible to find cable & hack it using BitPim
...
Sure, you CAN add custom photos and ringtones, which I might do if I had to pay ONCE for, but Verizon charges a monthly fee just for having them on your phone. It's a blatent ripoff and I got tired of being fucked by Verizon.
I don't have any input on them crippling bluetooth, but frankly it doesn't suprise me. This company is a shit providor and I don't understand why anyone has their service. I'm sure they will offer better Bluetooth enabled devices, with many new features, as long as you pay X amount per month to have them enabled, and a fee for using them, and the fee for airtime, and the activation fee, and
I bought 2 of these phones from Verizon and was so upset with the situation I cancelled the service even-though I had to eat the cancellation fee. In the settlement mailing there are 3 options.
1) Current Verizon customers that want to keep the phone and the service may get a $25 credit to their bill.
2) Current customers who want to keep their service but not their phone may send it in for a refund.
3) Customers who cancelled their service and paid the cancellation fee can get a refund of the fee.
I am not sure why they just don't enable OBEX?! That is what everyone wanted in the first place.
My
I've got a Blackberry 7100t, and it supposedly has Bluetooth. But the OBEX implementation is crippled as well, and only supports headsets.
I've heard that RIM did this because of security implications; maybe so. But it said Bluetooth on the box, not partial Bluetooth.
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I own a V710, and Beside the FA's observation that lameware nerfed Bluetooth functionality, my main complaint is that people can not hear me when I use the device.
The complaint was personally confirmed as a common grief experienced by V710 Verizon phone users.
The solution which did not work was to reset the phone using the stencil.
Glad I'll be able to get something for the piece of junk.
I stopped using the phone about 6 months ago due the bad microphone sound quality.
I would pick the 3rd option on the claim form. I hope they offer a phone of equivalent function and price/value.
The first claim form option was for $25 which in no way near covers the $430 cost of the junk phone.
Another complaint is that when I purchased a replacement, Verizon had no way of transferring Contact phone #'s to another phone.
--
Avian flu dosen't kill people, people kill people.
In the UK you can buy a phone SIM free, but most people who want good handsets get a contract phone where you buy a phone for less than its cost and pay rental which also pays for the remainder of the handset cost.
Each operator seems to tailor some of the interface for their network. Vodaphone are well known for butchering the interface, many people are known to flash back to manufacturer sourced firmware where possible as the interface mods can be annoying.
Why don't they just enable OBEX file transfer, syncing and basically give you all features of a phone with bluetooth?? Why should they have to hack the replacement phone either?? Verizion is just screwed up on a great many things. Why must I pay 79 bucks or even 59 for 1XRTT or even EVDO?? Can't they have a unlimited plan that's a little more economical? How come I can get a GPRS connection via T-Mobile for HALF of Verizon's 1XRTT?? If they would just look at the POTENTIAL market, they could definitely lower thier price.
Also,with regards to EVDO, they SHOULD allow you to plug the card into that switch unit(forget the name of it). IF Verizon did this, then some people just might use this as thier ONLY connection to the web. When at home, plug it into the switch, when on the road, take another switch or just plug it into the laptop. Verizon could make TONS of cash if they were to do this, however they want to FORCE you to do things their way because they are afraid the network may not be able to handle it or some other stupid reason.
Gorkman
That was going to be my comment. OBEX is hardly a new protocol, and it's been fully implemented on every bluetooth phone I've seen in the last few years. Indeed, even on pre-bluetooth phones, OBEX was supported over IR. Bluetooth just speeds up the transfer somewhat.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
I was just in Japan for two weeks, and everyone there over the age of 5 has a really awesome cell phone. Being a techie, I got a bit jealous, so I decided I'd buy a new one when I got back. I needed to switch providers anyway as my old provider was really ripping me off.
So, I get back, read up on providers and such. I eventually decided that Virgin Mobile worked best for me, since I don't use my cell phone a whole lot but do find it a useful gadget. Their rates are pretty good for people who don't need to use their cell phones every day.
Now, here's where I screwed up: I did a Google for "Virgin Mobile" to see what kind of features the plan offered. This of course brought up the Virgin Mobile USA website. I live in Canada. There's no obvious indication on the site that it's the Virgin Mobile USA site, so I figured it was just a general Virgin Mobile site. These days most corporate sites redirect you to the appropriate page based on where your IP is located anyway, right?
So I'm looking at the features and I see that they have internet access and instant messenger support, among other things. So I go out and buy a phone (Audiovox CDM8910). Not a top of the line model, but it's got a camera, superphonic ringtones, and all that. Pretty nice, I think.
Of course, to my horror, when I open the package there is no data cable. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Instead, I discover, Virgin wants me to pay 50 cents per picture to get my pictures off of the phone, up to $4 per ringtone to download new ringtones (normally I wouldn't mind, but the phone's default selection is pathetic - none of them are suitable for anything, really), and up to $2 per picture to download new "wallpapers." Yeah right!
It is possible to purchase a data cable for this phone, and I've done so. The problem is that there's no software that really supports the phone, and of course the phone's firmware is completely undocumented... so I CAN get my pictures and upload new ringtones without paying Virgin's outrageous fees, but because of the shoddy, undocumented firmware, there's a good chance I could completely wreck my phone in the process. I doubt I'd have an easy time of getting a replacement, either...
Honestly, the cell phone market in North America is absolutely pathetic. I'm sick of being locked in by providers and being promised features that I don't receive. To be fair, I should have been more careful about my research in this case, but I'm sure several Slashdotters have experienced similar letdowns with cell phones. A lot of people seemed to think that the "Cell Phone User's Bill of Rights" was ridiculous. Maybe it was. But we all know that when North American cell phone providers aren't outright lying to their customers, they're crippling the phones they provide so that the only way to make use of all of the technology in the phone you buy is to pay outrageous fees.
but is there any technological barrier? is there any reason that cdma cell phones couldn't be paired with SIM cards?
Will this change Verizon's stance on bluetooth connectivity? I hope so, because I am long overdue for a new phone and have been waiting for the CDMA RAZR. I'm afraid what Verizon may do to the bluetooth and even the mini-usb port on the razr, since they've already replaced the entire Moto GUI with the new standard Verizon interface(this even meant removing the menu button from between the soft keys). Unfortunately in my area if you're not on Verizon you'll have spotty service, I know people with Cingular who do not have coverage in their own homes.
out form under them. To this day, they are the one company that leads the North East to believe there is no other option for service providers. In that, they are, daily, adding prices, adding hidden costs, retracting quality options, and ultimately, giving subscribers less with their increasing monthly premiums.
e.g. Once upon a time, a customer could change ESNs at no fee charge backs. These days, within the last 2 months VZW has released a memo to all retailers about charging $15 per ESN chnage done within an account that is not repair related. As of Yesterday, that cost has been raised to $20. About two weeks ago, another memo was released. Customers will not be charged a $35 for the primary line and $25 for any consecutive additionl lines for activation fee (previously $20 for all lines on a 2 yr agreement). With the addition of activation fee increases, as one might expect, there are no service advancements or added features to your just-increased-service fees.
What is the motivation behind it? Is it a straw grasping measure to hold on to a slipping market share? Has the Sprint/Nextel merger got them shaking in their shoes? I can only hope. I can only hope that VZW gets bought out and swept up by Sprint/Nextel so we can actually preogress wireless network technology to the next level instead of keeping the entire newengland region that digital/analog are the only options for you. Move over and let the people who know COM do it.
Don't even get me started on what they do to the LG vx6100 as a pre-pay phone. Wonderful phone with all the options, yet they are crippled when one activates it as a pre-paid handset, thereby devaluing the phone to merely payphone status at a $.10-.70/min high end premium.
"Q. Well, these features are available in phones from many other carriers, and people feel cheated. ... [Those features] don't work with our business model. Every customer is certainly entitled to their own feelings. "
A. Verizon does business unlike any other carrier, and we make no apologies for that.
'we make no apologies for that' =Translation= We do what we want, when we want, and you do not matter.
'don't work with our business model' =Translation= It is much more profitable for us this way
'Every customer is certainly entitled to their own feelings.' =Translation= F You!!!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Dear motorola,
I love your phones. In my eyes, you guys invented 2 way communications. But will you please fix or redesign your fucking charge port? Jeeeeeeeesus that thing sucks.
Your Friend and Motorola Retailer,
mb
My biggest problem with the v710 (apart from the issue at hand) is the power connector. It's the same connector that worked fine for years on my v60i, but on this phone, it's only intermittently functional. I often have a dead phone because it wouldn't charge.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Just got my settlement form and the BEST deal on it is to get a $25 credit on your Verizon bill. Don't be fooled that the consumer ever wins.
If the US had gone down the GSM route - without messing around with the band allocation - you wouldn't have this problem.
Over here is "Socialist Europe" I can buy a phone direct from the manufacturer and use it on any network, if that's what I want to do.
Instead you have half-a-dozen incompatible phone standards, poor coverage, restricted phones and dreadful service.
Sometimes cooperation and capitalism go hand in hand.
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
I purchased by crippled v710 in June of 2005, why on earth am I not entitled to some sort of compensation?!?!
I do not know how the cellphone market is in the States but here in Europe you can buy a cellphone at any shop, put your sim card in it and the phone just works. Wether it is Nokia, Motorola or the oldest Ericsson; it will always work. If you buy a phone with reduction (like 50 euro for the phone with subscription) there is mostly a SIM LOCK on the phones which prevents another provider sim card to be put in the phone without unlocking.
I've never seen or heart about any phones being crippled (in the literal sense) that badly. I'd feel royally f*cked if I'd get a phone like that.
I even wonder, does Verizon even announce the crippled functions on their cellphones? Because if you go to the manufacturers website you get a phone with full specs - are these specs also similar on the operators website(s)? Such wouldn't be even legal in Europe and would be called "misleading information before sale".
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Don't get me wrong, I like my v710... but here are my list of issues, for which reason I am taking it back to Verizon Saturday to try to get it fixed...
* When plugged in to charge will say "Unable to Charge"
* If I open the phone to turn an alarm on, then close it, the backlight
stays on (that's normal), however, if I now plug the phone in to charge it,
the backlight never goes off (or into it's reduced brightness mode).
I have to wait untilt he backlight goes off, THEN plug the phone in.
* The camera says "BUSY" when I try to use it. BUSY?!?! Who else is using
my camera?!
* The phone locks up totally when I try to access the camera.
* After opening the phone, if I close it, after the timeout period, the
text will go off the phone, but the backlight remains on, draining the
battery.
* After being on for several days, the phone begins to run sluggish,
especially when accessing audio files, recording voice, or taking pictures.
I have the same problem with my v300 phone.. The power connector is really finicky.
I got my cell service from T-Mobile. Not only are they a GSM provider (and I can even get a phone from them that works outside of the U.S.), but they don't disable their Bluetooth at all.
I am fully able to transfer files back and forth between my computer and my Motorola RAZR phone. I even sync my addressbook between my phone and my computer (and it was one of the big reasons I went T-Mobile and bought this particular phone).
I bet you could probably go to Japan, get one of those ultra-cool phones they have there, then use it with T-Mobile in the U.S.
BTW, I think it is a very bad sign that the U.S. is no longer the first country to get the latest technilogical doodads. Heck, we're not even one of the first. A lot of the really high tech stuff never even hits the U.S. markets. Many tech firms are beginning to treat us like a third world market. It's not just cell phones, but video game consoles, and even watches.
Step 1: Advise company to alter features in such a way that they can make more profit, and let them pay you.
Step 2: Find group of disgruntled customers and file class action suit, and let them pay you.
Step 3: Profit from step 1 & 2, with in step 2 the added bonus of a percentage of the settlement.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Why the January cut off date? Verizon continued to sell these V710 phones up until the new Motorola E815 rolled out recently. I purchased to V710's in August in fact without knowing about the limited functionality.
I guess I am just out of luck.
Its really not a new phone anymore, considering how fast the phone market moves. And you are right, OBEX is not really cutting edge, it is pretty much a standard feature that was removed.
I never heard about this, pretty underhand! No doubt Verizon took a nice cut from selling those handsets before they mentioned that most of it would work :p
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
It'd be nice if we could get a group like that together for their new v276 phone. At least we could hack the v265, but no one has found a way to unlock the file transfer stuff in the v276. I like Verizon's coverage and phones, but I really wish they wouldn't cripple their phones. Most non-geek/tech people will still pay for ringtones cause they're not going to know how or want to spend the time to hook up a cable to their computer.
My v710 will sporatically, when I plug it in, just say "Unable to Charge"... unable to charge?!?!?!
The Sidek!ck II from T-Mobile is horribly hobbled compared to it's original form, the Danger HipTop2. T-Mobile locks out any form of transfer of ringtones, whether from the end-user or a third-party company. The only way to install any is through their "catalog" application... the vast majority of which are "ghetto". They do the same with applications. Many, many apps are available for this device, but you're limited to about 15 from their catalog, many of which are beta quality at best and poorly maintained. No refunds for your alarm clock app when it doesn't work. Now if you live in Canada, you have multiple providers supporting this device, who do not lock it down in this manner. Unfortunately, T-Mobile seems to have an exclusivity contract with Danger (the company that designed the device and provides the back-end) in the U.S.
- Posted via Danger HipTop2 / T-Mobile Sidek!ck II -
I got my v710 in April.. it's still crippled.. i'd LOVE to get outta my contract and go to someone else.
Basically, we have an industry which makes loads of cash by preventing their customers from using technology to make things cheaper and more efficient. It is in the industry's interest to make sure that we download expensive ring tones and backgrounds from them, rather than simply using an MP3 or an image downloaded from the web.
In other words: This industry artificially maintains its profits by using what I consider to be highly immoral methods. If they did not have this choke hold on the market, the industry would shrink a lot and lots of people (investors, content owners...) would probably lose a whole lot of money.
It is almost like a cartel where various companies (content owners, mobile makers, etc.) get together to agree on how to squeeze the most money out of people and maximizing their own profits. Something like price fixing.
I am kind of wondering why no mobile maker has released a phone which lets the user do anything. Do they depend on content owners and network operators to make money?
Clever signature text goes here.
Aye, but the V710 was Verizon's first bluetooth capable phone. So, for Verizon customers, and for those where Verizon is the only major player (cingular tries, but just isn't that successful in our BFE neck of the woods), it was cutting edge.
;]
Perhaps a bit misleading useage of the word, but taken from a certain point of view (ie: a verizon customer who has never had an option of bluetooth before), it's still correct.
I did have the V710, and I got my letter in the mail yesterday about it. However, I also canceled early - and paid the early termination fee. I don't know if I get anything back. All I know is that I'm never going back to Verizon. Or Cingular, for that matter. And those are my only two options, so, final result: no cell phone. I'm pretty sure I'll survive
The V710 is crippled though Telus as well. Tried a number of hacks I've read and none seem to work...likely disabled in the Telus branded firmware.
I ditched Verizon because of this crippled bluetooth business. Approximately the same week that the hack contest announced failure, TMobile published the first ever street-level map of their coverage. That was all I needed. I switched to TMobile, got a much more fully featured phone than Verizon had available, and have been a happy camper ever since.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
What about those of us who bought one of these things after January 2005? Ours are just as crippled as everyone elses!
The v710 (with crippled BlueTooth) is still for sale in every Verizon store today.
If you ask the employees what's new about the e815, they only know one thing -- VCast. The $15/mo service where they use their high speed EvDO network to send you -- ads.
So, understandably, the v710 sells quite well at $50 cheaper.
Does the settlement apply only to California residents?
You can get your early termination fee back. Please see the settlement claim form under section C:
I suggest that you send that in as soon as you can. VZW will likely drag their feet on your refund for as long as possible.
-Turkey
Most importantly, the latest version of the v710 software from Verizon disables the other free transport -- Transflash. You can no longer copy wallpaper and ringtones (or anything at all) from the flash card to the phone. You can't copy your own pictures from the phone internal memory to the card either!
Early v710 phones from Verizon did have this feature. In fact, it can be re-enabled by some well-published hacks. Highly Recommended.
The e815 phone, of course, does have OBEX which can be re-enabled through more well-published hacks.
Verizon also doesn't publish the more significant differences between the e815 and v710, listing only "VCast" as a feature.
Yeah, I did check that, but I'm not sure if they'll give the whole thing back or not. And if they want the phone, well, I don't have it anymore. So I may not get anything.
Regardless, I filled it out yesterday. I just have to buy stamps and put it in an envelope. I'll send it no matter what, but I'm unsure what, if anything, I'll see in return.
Mods on crack.
How is this a troll?
The guy is simply telling the truth.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
The craziest element of this policy is that they are only pissing off the more technically inclined of their customers which must surely be a minority. Most people are probably more like my wife and her friends who take advantage of all of the over priced "services" that Verizon is forcing you to use. They will glady pay a quarter to send a picture easily rather than figure out how to sendit via bluetooth to another phone or to their computer.
Unfortunately for Verizon, these same less technically inclined friends always seek my advice when making purchasing decisions. I direct all of them away from Verizon on principle now. They don't even understand the issues, they just follow my advice. I am exactly the kind of customer that Verizon doesnt want to piss off. I will cost them 20 customers by the time I am done.
While they are not truly evil, I believe that they are self defeating.
It's worth pointing out that you can also send a GSM phone to any number of third-party "unlockers" who will remove the vendor/subsidy lock so that it can be used with any carrier's SIM card. (Or in the case of Nokia phones that just require a code to unlock, they'll sell you the code online.)
I don't think the phone companies have any recourse to prevent you from sending your phones to one of these places: the phone is your property, and once you're free of their contract you can take it wherever you want. It doesn't mean that the phone companies have to make it easy (hence the vendor lock) but I don't think they can prevent you from doing it either. Although I'm sure they might try via the DMCA or something, but I don't think they could be successful.
Anyway, the vendor lock is certainly annoying, but I'm willing to deal with it in order to get a phone at the reduced price that I did. For example I got a Motorola Razr V3 for free (after rebates, which must be sent in after your second month of service) with a one-year T-Mobile contract. Once that contract is due, if I'm not satisfied with T-Mobile I'll have the phone unlocked and switch to Cingular.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
One little part of your post isn't quite correct. Not all v710s have the disabled DUN (dial-up networking) profile. I bought my v710 last November and I use it all the time for dial-up networking with both my PDA and my laptop. Transflash transferring of pictures and mp3s is also still enabled on mine.
This is pretty simple:
Everyone wants a monopoly. The easiest way to do that is to own the content. If you have a crippleware product that can only use your content and features, then you can charge for that content and those features.
This is just capitalism at work! The new mantra is competition = bad. Own the content = own the market.
Hmmm I asked a cingular tech about the popular semi popular ericson cdma/gsm/anolog-aka GAIT phone becuase it seems like such a neet idea-the phone itself is nothing to write home about being shaped a bit like a cock and kind of flimsy feeling. The reason why this is related to verizon because they used to support this phone. In fact it's a little known fact it was on of their better supported phones. Cingular has speratic support for it and so does att. The technichian (Rob he was in in the bay area setting up new cell zones). and according to his explination the ONLY reason why they (att/verizon/cingular) killed GAIT was feer. It inessence was best of all worlds you got KFA signal, you didn't get charged roaming. Some people knew how to hack it so that you could borrow other providers towers. It all came back to feer- they were defly afraid of losing controll. Controll of what? Their network. It was also a kind of bug technology like the Erics T62u for instance is infamous for not switching to GSM if you pop in a GSM SIM. (and making it a HUGE pain in the ass witout the right equipment to set to a new user). The nokia on the other hand doesn't have that bug-they still killed it out of feer.---Question: Do you suppose given all the recent crap from cell carriers someone will make a similer technology?
I had a v710 and lost it during one of my drunken adventures. Luckily I had assurion insurance. When I went to have my phone replaced they didn't have any v710's in stock so they offered me a shitty LG vx9000. I didn't feel that was a comparable phone as required in their TOS so I demanded (advice given to me by a very nice verizon sales lady) a v815. Boom, 2 days later i had the phone. It smokes the v710 and obex is easily hackable as well as bluetooth DUN.
WICKED PISSAH!
I have a Verizon account (in spite of many shady years with them) and would like to get my Dell Axim X50 onto the EvDO high speed network. It seems the the e815 and the Dell Axim X50 have bluetooth. If I can unlock features on this phone does anyone know if I will be able to get the Dell Axim on the Internet?
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
The 815 isn't all that impressive anyway unless you need all the fancy-pants extra features. I traded up from a 7-yr-old StarTac, and I think the StarTac had better voice quality. I got the 815 before EVDO rolled out in the SF Bay Area, and in a non-EVDO area (without a menu hack) the batteries will run down in 24 hours standby, and about 45 min talk time.
It has good battery life as long as you stay in your EVDO service area, the ringer is insanely loud, and the camera is surprisingly good, but until EVDO rolled out I would have traded for a 710 if Verizon had still offered one. Oh well, the 815 was essentially free under "new every two".
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Haven't been here long, have you? The moderators here went to complete shit.
Have you paid me now? Good!
I'm still waiting for the ultimate cell phone feature... a phone that actually works, as a phone. I don't want a device that takes crapy pictures, crappy video, plays crappy games or crappy ring tones. I don't care for a crappy quazi color screen, TV or instant messages. I can do all those things better and cheaper in other ways. What I want is a phone that will actually let me talk to people. Cell phones still don't actually do what they were originally intended to do and I still refuse to buy one until they do. Okay, rant over.
Another complaint is that when I purchased a replacement, Verizon had no way of transferring Contact phone #'s to another phone.
Freaking duh! Your contacts are stored physically on the handset, be that in the SIM card or on the phone's internal memory. If Verizon stored your contacts on a server somewhere, thereby enabling them to transfer them to your new phone, then you'd be whining about privacy issues. Go get a freaking data cable and transfer the contacts yourself!
It is obvious you have not been in or seen the normal equipment and data cables Verizon offers in store as a free service for normal transfers of contact info from phone to phone.
They do have a large collection of data cables and simply may have neglected the data cable for the win CE to non CE environment transfer process.
To their credit they must have 60+ cables on site.
I am not aware of any transfer program to do this, perhaps none exists.
My point is that Verizon built up and rolled out the phone and according to how Verizon normally rolls out a phone, should have developed a comprehensive coverage similar to every other phone. This is a small quip.
Verizon's normal phone transfer service can accomplish this from nearly another phone to any other phone for free.
I give Verizon high marks for the transfer service they offer on non CE phones.
I bought mine from Verizon in april 2005 and have no problem with dialup networking over bluetooth. I have the latest firmware.
Yeah, it sucks, but come on, it takes 5 minutes of searching through howardforums.com to find a hack for your own phone, and 30 seconds to find a suitable data cable on eBay. Seriously, I spent $100 on my Motorola e815 (after $50 mail-in) with a 2 year Verizon contract, then $0.01 (+$6.99 S/H, what a racket but that's a completely different rant) on a data cable from eBay. Don't even bother buying one from Verizon, as they charge you upwards of $30.
I got home that night, found a thread for the e815 and after changing 1 bit in my phone memory, I had re-enabled OBEX and had numerous mp3s transferred over to my phone to use as ringers. The longest part of the whole process was editing my songs to ringer length.
Moral of the story is, yeah Verizon sucks for crippling OBEX on their phones, but can you blame them? By doing this, they can charge their customers for custom ringers, wallpaper, etc. It all equates to more profit, but if you spend $7 on a USB data cable from eBay, you can get around this fairly easily.
I've been a Verizon customer for 8 years until one month ago. I purposely avoided Verizon this time around due to the Bluetooth fiasco.
I suspect the Bluetooth hacks also hurt other bluetooth functions....bluetooth headsets on Verizon phones never seem to have enough volume, and car-kit compatibility was never quite right.
I bought a spiffy new Black Motorola Razr from Cingular. The phone and the service have been great.
Verizon's "business decision" to hack bluetooth cost them at least one customer.
-ted
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the situation here in Japan is the same as in the US in regards to only being able to use handsets branded for your carrier. On the upside, our cell phones use plain ol' email instead of SMS. At least I thought it was an upside until the first time I tried to message internationally.
eeeehm... and how does this happen in USA? Who pays for it then?
The truth is that "you want it, you pay for it" business model is currently de-fact everywhere. Except in USA where (at least two years ago) mobile subscribers still had to pay for INCOMING calls (this practice used to be used in Russia as well, but AFAIK it is now dismissed by all carriers).
I really don't see a problem. If I want to call - naturally I will be the one who will pay for the call. If I Receive a call I don't expect to be charged - what if those are some telemarketers calling? As for the bundling phone with contract - you haven't been in UK recently, right?
As for the service maps - what exactly do you mean? Do you mean that whenever I am in europe I can expect to have perfect GSM coverage and, altough there is roaming, be able to call and receive calls, have my GPRS working and don't worry about switching phones or cards in respect to USA where I can expect to have GSM coverage maybe in major cities, certainly not deeper out of the major freeways and occasionally have to switch my phone/sim just to stay covered in the mess of various cellular standards?
To be honest, both as an user and as a developer of software for mobile phones I have admired the paradox of leading economy in the world having simply the shittiest cellular networks and online banking systems.
I want to browse web via bluetooth/LAN. Is it possible?
Getting old fast, Shit!
CDMA networks are not inherently locked, the actual firmware that was put in the hardware handset is Carrier Specific and relies on a PRL (Preffered Roaming List) to tell your phone which towers it can pick up and use by SID. CDMA phones are active on an account by their ESN, they do not have SIM cards.