Slashdot Log In
Hacking the Motorola v265
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Jul 05, 2005 08:30 PM
from the desucking dept.
from the desucking dept.
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."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Corporate Silliness (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Corporate Silliness (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Corporate Silliness (Score:5, Interesting)
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).
Parent
Re:Corporate Silliness (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Corporate Silliness (Score:3, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Insightful)
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-e
Re:Corporate Silliness (Score:3, Insightful)
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 Geforc
OMGWTFBBQ (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:OMGWTFBBQ (Score:3, Interesting)
As for ringtones, I use a stock tone (not a ring, though). You see, it's for pho
Re:OMGWTFBBQ (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:OMGWTFBBQ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OMGWTFBBQ (Score:3, Interesting)
Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)
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! (Score:3, Interesting)
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 l
Re:Ridiculous! (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:Ridiculous! (Score:3, Informative)
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! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.)
Parent
Re:Ridiculous! (Score:3)
Sorry for the rant.. I'm just so
Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Informative)
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
Parent
Or (Score:4, Insightful)
[Obvious] Or, you know, not buy it. [/obvious]
Re:Or (Score:3, Insightful)
verizon TOS (Score:5, Informative)
that would seem like something that should have been mentioned...
Re:verizon TOS (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:verizon TOS (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:verizon TOS (Score:3, Insightful)
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 a
T-Mobile's the last frontier (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, T-mobile may be history [yahoo.com] 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 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:T-Mobile's the last frontier (Score:3, Informative)
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" c
T-Mobile not selling (Score:3, Interesting)
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."
Dialup? No problem (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [venturiwireless.com], 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.)
Parent
Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
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.
V710 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:V710 (Score:3, Interesting)
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, mayb
not just the v265 (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Cell phone hacks (Score:3, Interesting)
nuff said.
The only (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Give Credit Where Credit is Due (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Give Credit Where Credit is Due (Score:3, Informative)
Personally, I'm thinking about ditching Verizon (Score:3, Insightful)
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... (Score:4, Informative)
V710 Hacker Reward Program Unsuccessful [slashdot.org]
Verizon Crippled Bluetooth Features in Motorola V710 [slashdot.org]
Not really. (Score:5, Informative)
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. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Not quite true (Score:3, Interesting)
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 [sourceforge.net] 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' (Score:5, Interesting)
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?"
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
The natural thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Er, no, the natural thing to do is not to buy intentionally crippled devices.
Can somebody please explain this... (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
Re:Hacking the RAZR V3? (Score:4, Informative)
Puto
Parent