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Hardware Hacking Communications Hardware

Hacking the Motorola v265 333

Posted by timothy 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."
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Hacking the Motorola v265 More

Hacking the Motorola v265

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  • Corporate Silliness (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:31PM (#12990521) Homepage
    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?
    • Kinda like what Nvidia does with the Geforce and Quatro lines?
    • 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 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bhtooefr ( 649901 ) <bhtooefr@bhtoo[ ].org ['efr' in gap]> on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:47PM (#12990633) Homepage Journal
      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 (Score:3, Insightful)

      by arose ( 644256 )
      In order to maximize profits, you can't cut costs by disabling what's already there.
      • 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.

        • 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.

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

          • Re:Corporate Silliness (Score:2, Insightful)

            by jcgf ( 688310 )
            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 (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Ucklak ( 755284 )
            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: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
            Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • 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 Geforc
      • 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).

    • You don't understand the situation, Motorola makes a phone with X features. They make one fully working version, you buy such a version through Verizon. Again, fully working hardware wise or at least before Verizon got it. Verizon now disables certain features which are already working to make more money, some quite ridiculously.

      I guess an analogy would be getting a discount on a computer if you sign up for some internet access. The computer comes with a cd-rom drive however the internet access provider ha
      • I forgot to add: You also can't pay Y to get a phone with all features enabled or buy a "better" model because it simply doesn't exist (if you use verizon that is). In other words, Verizon is disabling features so you're forced to use their services and pay more.

  • OMGWTFBBQ (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quick Sick Nick ( 822060 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:36PM (#12990557)
    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 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:43PM (#12990606)
      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 (Score:3, Interesting)

        by bhtooefr ( 649901 )
        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 pho
        • Faceplates do have their purpose. I dropped my motorola v440 and cracked off part of the outer housing. The phone still worked but I didn't like exposed innards so I bought a silver "faceplate" off of ebay. presto, non-broken phone.

          Now the neon dragon flashing whatever covers, those I'd agree on.

          • True - I guess I forgot about the phone repair aspect, and another one: the phone identification in multiple phone of the same model households aspect, which I've actually experienced... (phone backgrounds and stickers got me out of that one without buying a faceplate, though)

        • Re:OMGWTFBBQ (Score:5, Informative)

          by Mr2001 ( 90979 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @10:23PM (#12991097) Homepage Journal
          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 (Score:3, Insightful)

          by _damnit_ ( 1143 )
          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 ringtone
      • Back to the god old times when everyone had to check their phone when it was ringing...
      • 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.

        Crazily enough, they aren't marketing to people who work in offices. Cell phones should be set to mute/vibrate or turned off while at work anyway.

        The $1.99/2.99 r4ngt0n3z are marketed to douchebag kids that *are* "cool" when their lame friends hear

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Maybe so, maybe in the "business professional" world, whatever the hell that is, but most companies now days don't care a whole lot as long as you turn the off to vibrate/silent. The only time I ever have my phone set to an audio alert is when I am expecting an important phone call.

        Now as long as you want to limit the phone to only having one background, and one ringtone lets also remove text messenging, camras, wireless internet, bluetooth, etc.

        Do you think people will like this? Probally not, the same

    • Re:OMGWTFBBQ (Score:3, Interesting)

      by agraupe ( 769778 )
      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.
    • 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.

  • Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Linus Torvaalds ( 876626 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:38PM (#12990564)

    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)

      by Apreche ( 239272 )
      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 l
      • Maybe you need to switch networks. My Cingular handsets have all been cripple-free. My current Nokia 6230 allows me to upload ringtones, graphincs, games and other java apps via bluetooth. I can't get rid of the Cingular logo but that's about it.
    • The problem is that Verizon advertises the phone as having bluetooth capabilities, but declines to remark that the functionality is, indeed, crippled. Thus, the folks who bought this phone expecting it to deliver on that are a bit miffed that Verizon has omitted basic file functionality, yet continues to market the bluetooth aspect of the phone.

      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by log0n ( 18224 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:20PM (#12990803)
        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.)
        • 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

        • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:5, Informative)

          by Algan ( 20532 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @10:47PM (#12991187)
          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! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jdreed1024 ( 443938 )
      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

      • maybe, just maybe they'll get the message.

        Yep. Then they'll bill you the [roughly] $200 early cancellation fee you signed off on.

      • Re:Ridiculous! (Score:3, Informative)

        by gkuz ( 706134 )
        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.

      • I don't know of any cellular provider in the U.S. that doesn't cripple their phones, so who would I switch to?
    • 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
  • Anyone know of any attempts to access the contents of a RAZR V3 phone on Linux?

    • Re:Hacking the RAZR V3? (Score:4, Informative)

      by puto ( 533470 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:45PM (#12990619) Homepage
      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

  • Or (Score:4, Insightful)

    by UserChrisCanter4 ( 464072 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:41PM (#12990580)
    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 (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ThisIsFred ( 705426 )
      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.
      • I don't know. His blog talks about buying this v265 to replace "an old junker cellphone." The fact that his cell is an old junker implies to me that he probably wasn't in contract. It may just be poor writing on his part, but none of his post seems to imply that he discovered this crippling after the fact.

        With number portability now in effect (and most of the bugs worked out by now), I don't see any reason why he'd resign himself to a crippled piece of garbage if he didn't have to.

  • verizon TOS (Score:5, Informative)

    by thegoogler ( 792786 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:41PM (#12990584)
    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 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tomhudson ( 43916 ) <barbara@hudson.barbara-hudson@com> on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:03PM (#12990718) Journal
      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 (Score:3, Interesting)

        by minus_273 ( 174041 )
        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 (Score:3, Insightful)

        by j-turkey ( 187775 )

        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 a

      • Bullshit - they *sold* him the phone. They didn't license it to him, they *sold* it. You buy the phone, and license the service.

        Yes... but when he signed the contract to get that service, he may have agreed not to modify his phone.

        Also, FCC regulations may prohibit him from modifying it - the phone has to be certified not to transmit at unacceptable power levels or on the wrong frequencies, and those functions are controlled by software. Even a minor firmware change like this may require recertification,

  • T-Mobile's the last frontier (Score:5, Informative)

    by yog ( 19073 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:41PM (#12990586) Homepage Journal
    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 [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.

    • I have Sprint and while their service is pretty bad, I can tell you that their coverage is the worst I know of. If you're in a major city or along an interstate you're usually ok but you don't have to venture far into the hinterland to drop off the net. I work in a pretty reasonably-sized city (Colorado Springs) on top of a mesa and I can barely get any signal. I'm well within their coverage map by their own admission. Yet no signal. The phone remains in analog roam mode most of the time when it has any sig
    • I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and have been very happy with them except for lack of coverage in some places.

      I have T-mobile solely for the Sidekick/hiptop. When you say "some places" you are exaggerating or are not leaving your area.

      Most of Western/Central WI is void of data service even along I-94 (a major highway). You can sometimes roam on AT&T Wireless (that's what it's reporting itself as -- not Cingular) or someother tiny/noname carrier but other than that you might not even have phone
      • It's definitely hit-and-miss. But I can say that on a trip from Pensacola FL back home to Chattanooga TN through the hinterlands of AL, we've been online with our laptop via our bluetooth phone almost the entire 8 hours, with very decent GPRS throughput. Once in a while a timeout a refresh, but not all that often. Sadly, about a third of that time was on /.
    • 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 ph
      • Out here in east-central Iowa (i.e, the populous part), every other service is terrible except Verizon. US Cellular is OK in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City only, but in between you're screwed. Plus, I need to make Chicago calls and it wasn't included in the regional plan, only the national plan...doesn't work for me. Meanwhile, I can use my Verizon phone in my cement bunker-esque office building and even in the Amana Colonies (think Amish, only not). I've found about a 3 mile strech between my home and the Colo
      • 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" c
    • I use Cingular and my experience with the service has been very good. I have a quad band GSM phone and they agreed to unlock it with a simple email. Turnaround time was 24 hours. Dump Verizon. I did.

    • T-Mobile not selling (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rale, the ( 659351 )
      This article on forbes [forbes.com] 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."
    • found here (TMO not interested to sell): http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/44408.html [ecommercetimes.com]

      As for the best option if you were to jump ship, its dependant on your area really. Besides that, Cingular is SIM based so you can bring your phone to them (after its unlocked) and you dont have to sign a contract (unless that deal has changed).

    • Dialup? No problem (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Mr2001 ( 90979 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @10:41PM (#12991162) Homepage Journal
      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 [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.)
    • 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

  • Huh? (Score:4, Funny)

    by ilyanep ( 823855 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:41PM (#12990589) Journal
    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.
  • Getting a phone that lets you record your own ringtone? I signed up for T-Mobile and the cheap Siemens phone lets me do that.

  • V710 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by matth ( 22742 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @08:53PM (#12990668) Homepage
    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)..
    • I purchased it under my contract.

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

      I have not ripped Verizon off of any cost or services

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

      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 fol

      • Re:V710 (Score:3, Interesting)

        by nxtw ( 866177 )
        Summary: Verizon Wireless's customer agreement [verizonwireless.com] 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, mayb

  • not just the v265 (Score:4, Informative)

    by Matey-O ( 518004 ) <michaeljohnmiller@mSPAMsSPAMnSPAM.com> on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:02PM (#12990711) Homepage Journal
    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 (Score:2, Informative)

    by Bilange ( 237074 )
    "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 [ebay.com]

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

  • Cell phone hacks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:14PM (#12990763)
    http://www.cellphonehacks.com/ [cellphonehacks.com]

    nuff said.

  • The only (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:14PM (#12990766) Homepage Journal
    ... 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.

  • Give Credit Where Credit is Due (Score:4, Informative)

    by syntap ( 242090 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:20PM (#12990807)
    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.

  • Personally, I'm thinking about ditching Verizon (Score:3, Insightful)

    by l0ungeb0y ( 442022 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:21PM (#12990810) Homepage Journal
    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... (Score:4, Informative)

    by __aaitqo8496 ( 231556 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:22PM (#12990823) Journal
    Same subject but different phone:

    V710 Hacker Reward Program Unsuccessful [slashdot.org]

    Verizon Crippled Bluetooth Features in Motorola V710 [slashdot.org]
  • I recently had to give up my StarTac 7868W for a 265 because of the GPS-911 thing. I keep setting it for a loud ring and the standard ringtone and it keeps getting re-set (I have no idea how) to soft and one of those arpeggio things so it's 50/50 whether I realise that someone's calling me before they hang up.

    I really miss my StarTac. It's been like changing to a newer computer and version of Windows. Takes longer to boot up, has more stuff for which I have no use, all my old shortcuts are gone, and I ha

  • Not really. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Transcendent ( 204992 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:33PM (#12990864)
    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. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @03:26AM (#12992265)
      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.

  • Not quite true (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mr2001 ( 90979 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:38PM (#12990894) Homepage Journal
    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 [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)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:47PM (#12990937)
    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 ;)
    • 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.

      They don't need to know the firmware revision because the subsidy lock has nothing to do with it. The subsidy unlock code is based on the IMEI.

      A Slashdot article is definitely NOT deserved, as the unlocking algorithims are not public and the hard

    • 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 fl

  • The v710 Story (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here's the story of what Verizon did to the v710: http://www.canyouhearusnow.net/v710/v710story.php [canyouhearusnow.net]
  • "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 o

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @11:09PM (#12991273)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Some really twits posting in the comments over there. Bad enough I actually defended C. Taco. I'm assuming even Taco wouldn't be that rude...

  • Can somebody please explain this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cjsnell ( 5825 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @11:55PM (#12991431) Journal

    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? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @02:25AM (#12992049)
    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 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pklong ( 323451 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @03:10AM (#12992213) Journal
    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.

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