I haven’t had much to write about lately, unless you consider what I’ve been writing for Consumerism Commentary. My life’s been moving slowly lately and I’ve been dealing with my next MBA class, law school applications (perhaps I should wait until next year for this), and a search for a new job. I’m also trying to work out a trip to California in April.
On top of that, I decided to replace my cell phone. It’s been over two years since I bought the last one, and I had one hundred dollars in credit at Verizon Wireless to be used for a new phone. I now have the Motorola V710 with a bunch of accessories. Despite having claimed for the last year that phones and cameras should be separate devices, I finally caved.
The phone is very nice, but I did make some necessary changes to the phone’s software.
So I guess the seem edits worked?
You do realize that most of the accessories for the V710 (charger, USB cable, etc.) are the same as the T720, right?
According to Verizon, I can’t use my older chargers for the V710 even though they have the same connectors. I was told the older chargers have been screwing up the software on the newer phones. When I get a chance, I’ll ask around to see what the deal is. I have all my other accessories from the old phone.
I’ve ben able to make seem edits and flash the software without a problem.
1. I agree that cameras and phones should be separate.
2. I now have a deep and abiding hatred for Motorola and Verizon.
3. Cingular is really much better, at least in LA.
4. Nokia and Samsung phones have software that is infinitely more user-centric than Motorola’s.
5. Long time no see.
Spike – sorry to say that VZW is lying to sell you more accessories. To the best of my knowledge, the only conflict is with certain makes of Moto’s car charger wouldn’t charge the V710, but I’ve never heard of any old Moto accessories causing problems with the software. So I’m going to call BS on that.
David – No real reason to hate Motorola. If it were up to Moto, they’d release the phone with no locks or limitations. (You can buy unbranded, no-carrier-lock versions of their GSM phones.) But Verizon Wireless…well, they like money. So they had Motorola lock down certain features they view as “revenue leak”…like the ability to transfer ringtones via the TransFlash card. Verizon’s not the only carrier to do this, but they’re probably the worst offender. If you’re going to hate anyone, hate VZW.
I wasn’t specific in my comment just to keep things short, but it’s the car charger that I was “warned” about. I didn’t buy the “it’ll fry the software” line but I could understand that new phones wouldn’t be able to be charged by the older chargers. The phone comes with the standard charger, and I purchased the accessories pack and the Bluetooth headset. I have my USB cable from several years ago which works without any problem. In fact, it works better with the V710 than it did with the T720.
I downloaded the latest mobile Phone Tools and PST.
Nice to see (read) you dvg!
Now, see, I was thinking of flashing my phone so that I could use the bluetooth link with my PDA, but then was reminded that if I did that, it would probably void my warranty. No concerns about that?
Also, I agree that camera phones are stupid. That said, the V710 seems to make really good calls and gets EXCELLENT reception. So if they want to throw a camera on it, too…well, whatever.
Don’t put off the law school applications. Just plow through them as best you can.
Darren – Any modification to your software TECHNICALLY voids the warranty, but in this case we’re just modifying certain bits of code (“seems”) to change a parameter from “0” to “1”. Unless you did something stupid, like tell the VZW guy that you bypassed their software, they’d never notice.
So…what did these changes DO?
Hello I was waiting for a good Blue Tooth phone so I can use it with an Apple Laptop viva Blue Tooth. Dam Verizon has crippled this V710 phone so much I can’t even sync my contacts from my Mac with a Motorola USB cable. I use to sync my T720 and it worked beautifully just using Apples sync program using a USB cable. Can you help? I have a few days left to take this phone back and switch to Singular.