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Motorola Hacker Rewards Program
Posted by
michael
on Sun Sep 05, 2004 12:36 PM
from the some-disassembly-required dept.
from the some-disassembly-required dept.
Nuclear Elephant writes "Pen Computing Magazine recently ran an article about the Motorola v710, which has been crippled by Verizon. A hacking contest is now underway, and the pot is steadily growing. The first hacker to provide a hack (or instructions) to enable OBEX and OPP features on the handset before Jan 1 wins the pot. See the official site for more information." We mentioned this phone a few days ago.
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Does the prize include (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does the prize include (Score:2)
Re:Does the prize include (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Does the prize include (Score:5, Interesting)
Cheers,
Erick
Parent
Re:Does the prize include (Score:3, Funny)
Not to be too harsh on you... (Score:5, Funny)
Paul B.
Parent
Re:Does the prize include (Score:3, Insightful)
Separate betting pool established (Score:3, Funny)
Verizon? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Verizon? (Score:3, Insightful)
I have little to no use for a laptop, but I use my P800 all the time, for everything from reading acrobat files, to editing word documents, chatting on MSN/ICQ, taking photos,
Re:Verizon? (Score:3, Insightful)
You are being bamboozled. The CDMA network is only capable of doing this because the equipment is newer and the transmitters more powerful. The GSM system would be capable of the same should they choose to upgrade it. GSM while theoretically inferior on some technical sides, has a far superior consumer strength to it, with far more handsets and total freedom of changing your devices a
Verizon known for crippling phones (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Verizon known for crippling phones (Score:2)
It seems to me, if they are willing to front a $300-500 device and sell it to you for a penny, you kind of have to accept what they are offering. That a vendor would customize the software on their phone in an attempt to r
Re:Verizon known for crippling phones (Score:3, Insightful)
FYI2 -- The phone in question sells for around $250-350. That ain't a penny.
Re:Verizon known for crippling phones (Score:5, Insightful)
I wanted to sync my calendar/address book with Yahoo. I called Verizon, no program exists for syncing Yahoo to a Motorola 722. So I said fine I'll write one and open source it. When I mentioned this on the Qualcomm forms I almost got lynched. People complained about commies like me ruining their ability to make money and support their families. I said that I was willing to buy the program but none exists -- no one offered to write it.
Qualcom is completely against free distibution of apps for Brew. They told me that I could write it and distribute for free on the Verizon net if I was willing to pay the fees for all of the users. I also had to pay a $4000 up front fee. Turns out that they require additional app royalty fees to use the OS I just bought from them.
The offical reason for this "fee" is that Qualcomm will audit my apps to ensure that they don't contain a virus that would call 911. I tried to point out to them that a virus on home computers with modems is just as dangerous, but they wouldn't listen.
None of this is Motorola's fault. It is all Qualcomm and Verizon.
When my contract is up I'm getting a new network and Linux based phones.
Parent
Bet the pot goes to some Verizon tech (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd do it if it were me. Hopefully the pot grows enough to offset the lost income if Verizon finds out and fires the guilty party, though.
What!? (Score:4, Funny)
Free Publicity (Score:3, Insightful)
Just sit tight. (Score:3, Interesting)
Sit tight until the update comes out...then assess the situation. Then, if needed, we can work ourselves up into a hissy about this.
I think Verizon released this phone before it was ready, probably due to customers leaving for lack of a bluetooth option. They probably figured the backlash may be better than lost customers, or I could be wrong and they may just be totally missing the boat.
DMCA (Score:4, Informative)
I suppose Motorola could go after the people, but really do they have anything to lose by people figuring out how to turn a feature on that was originally in the phone to begin with?
Re:DMCA (Score:2)
All Motorola phones have flexcodes to customize the phone for certain vendors. Trust me, Motorola is not pissed at Verizon because Motorola cooperated in configuring the product, for Verizon, at the time of manufacture.
Que? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Que? (Score:2, Interesting)
But out here in the sticks, we pretty much only get service from Verizon, since they're the only ones with a tower.
Verizon or nothing
Re:Que? (Score:2)
Re:Que? (Score:4, Informative)
Verizon has the best coverage, some of the best customer service (The ONLY time I've had any problems with their customer service was when 90% of their employees were on strike.), and the best quality control on their phones. (Which is why their selection of phones sometimes suffers.)
Don't like the v710? Go buy another phone. The article linked to is wrong - There are plenty of situations where people have activated Sprint phones on Verizon with no troubles (other than having to unlock the Sprint phone's programming mode. Sprint are bastards like that, whereas the access password for every Verizon phone I've owned has been 00000.)
I have a Kyocera 6035 Smartphone, with LOTS of features that are "direct competitors" to the ones Verizon wants to push. None of them have been crippled in any way. Same for the 7135.
Parent
As a Verizon and Mac customer (Score:4, Interesting)
a) it would be better to go with Nextel for a wireless data service.
b) it would be better to go with AT&T/Cingular for a Bluetooth feature enabled phone selection.
Verizon gets Moto to give them phones but there is no guarantee who is responsible for the software running on the phone. I get the full impact of this approach when I use my phone today. When I can actually -use- the phone that is.
Sadly, the current phone I use (Moto T720C) just reboots and has general software issues because I actually try to use the features of the phone. It all started when I did my first iSync. After that, it is very common to just have the phone reboot after reading a text message and the battery life is horrible. That said, if I just used the unit as a phone it is reliable.
Verizon has swapped out hardware numerous times since it was considered to be a case of bad hardware. Right. Sure. Then when the 5p software load is on the new hardware it still chokes the phone. I would say it is just silly but I actually use my phone for work.
Finally, I got a rep to admit that Verizon let Moto outsource the software for the T720c and if you try to get one now most reps won't even let you get the T720c if you beg for it. Too many problems.
I was looking at going to the V710 but now I am leaning towards other options like the LG phones since the Bluetooth on the V710 is not fully baked and may never be.
I guess Verizon is the choice if -all- you want to do is make phone calls.
Re:As a Verizon and Mac customer (Score:2)
Bluetooth (Score:2, Insightful)
Correction... (Score:3, Insightful)
Correction. The first hacker's lawyers win the pot defending the first hacker in his DMCA suit.
I'd been waiting for this phone. (Score:3, Interesting)
I can understand them wanting to make more money with more feature offerings, but it's unexcusable that they don't explain things more clearly when you're shopping for a phone. The only question now, is who to switch to? My plan is up in December.
I tried to make sense of the price structures involved in AT&T Wireless' plans, as they do definitely have the best options in phones. I can't even find out anything remotely clear from the site, though. Do they charge different rates for data? Per K? Ugh.
Re:I'd been waiting for this phone. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'd been waiting for this phone. (Score:2)
I've previously had AT&T TDMA service and Cingular TDMA and switched to T-Mobile (GSM) a year ago.
They have been, by far, the best cellular company I've dealt with. Their customer service is great, as is their reception, pricing, phone choice (The T610 has excellent Bluetooth support).
I just finished with my contract with them, but I really have no intention on switching.
Re:I'd been waiting for this phone. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'd been waiting for this phone. (Score:2)
not confined to Verizon and Motorola (Score:2)
I wish someone who knew about these things could write an OBEX thingy to upload them. I know it is possible in theory - there is a closed source windows app that doe
I'm missing something. (Score:3, Insightful)
- there's a hostile cell phone company
- you continue to use them
- you complain when they suck
- you stick with them, despite their ignorance, but you then post "rewards" to fix their problems
Umm. Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to just switch cellular carriers? (Changing cell phone companies is not that hard to do!)
This ones easy. (Score:2)
- there's a hostile cell phone company
- you continue to use them
- you complain when they suck
- you stick with them, despite their ignorance, but you then post "rewards" to fix their problems
[/quote]
The primary function of a cell phone is...a phone! Verizon's service works pretty much everywhere with signal penetration inside buildings that other carriers can not provide. Least dropped calls...etc. As a final note, they pick up the phone on one ring when you call customer service.
If you want a Cell
Is This a Problem? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can see how this upsets people, and I think the best approach is to just advertise it and try to punish Verizon that way. Organize a kind of tech-geek boycott. But unfortunately, I don't think there's a legal problem with what they're doing.
Should companies be allowed to sell their products hobbled? If we decide no for Verizon, then we also must go after Microsoft, whose baseline operating system is always the more advanced flavor. For instance, in Win 2000 Pro, many of the features of Server are present but disabled. Should we apply the same standard here and say that Pro must have all such features enabled? I'm not sure...
As far as applying the DMCA to this situation of this contest...I don't see how any law can stop it. It can just force it underground, or force the perpetrators to come up with a flimsy cover story.
Re:Is This a Problem? (Score:2)
Re:Is This a Problem? (Score:2)
Take my money - please (Score:2)
Re:Take my money - please (Score:5, Interesting)
It's all about the extras. If they gave you a fully functional Bluetooth phone, with a functional OBEX profile, you wouldn't have to use their Get-It-Now service to send yourself the pictures you've taken using the camera phone you bought from Verizon. Could you imagine, getting your photos off your phone(which you paid for) for free? It'd almost make that
But that's not all. If you had Java on the phone, instead of that redheaded stepchild BREW, you could use bluetooth to send yourself the games you've bought in the past for your older phones. And Verizon wouldn't make a penny! Could you imagine the horror of getting to use your old games and Verizon not making a penny out of that, other than the initial cost of selling you the game?
But wait, there's even more! If you had multiple cellular phones, you could take a ringtone from off your fiance's phone and send it to yours! For free! Verizon wouldn't make a penny, except for the money they made when they sold you the ringtone to begin with. The horror.
Parent
Why Verizon? (Score:2, Interesting)
710 looks OK, but personally I'd take Nokia 6230 any day.
GSM networks allow you to use state of the art phones of your choice and cost less.
For mere 80$ I get 1000 minutes, free nights-weekends, free in-network calling, free WAP, unlimited SMS, unlimited access to Wi-Fi in almost every Starbucks, Borders, Kinko's. Beat that!
Buy something else (Score:2)
Of getting your panties all in a wad and wasteing a lot of time, just buy another phone/service/etc.
You wallet speaks a lot more loudly than your hacking skills.
If someone is smart enough to hack the phone... (Score:4, Insightful)
Who would a hack serve? Those who will continue to support bad business practices and companies.
For a comparable price one can find comparable "unlocked" GSM phones that have the original manufacturer's firmware, have all features enabled, and allow one to get service from any mobile company one chooses, often world-wide with the now commonplace GSM world phones.
Verizon's Expensive (Score:5, Informative)
I used to be a Verizon customer and switched to Sprint when the Treo 600 came out. I was expecting a decline in service quality, and was quite surprised the actual service was about the same.
What I did get was far more bang for the buck. For around $110 US a month, I get 2000 peak minutes, unlimited nights and weekends which start at 7 p.m. (versus 9 for Verizon), unlimited picture and SMS messaging, unlimited data, including unlimited modem use (thanks PDANet! [junefabrics.com]), and a host of other features.
Bottom line, I'm not sad I left Verizon.. At least with Sprint I know I won't be charged extra for something as simple as an SMS message or photo transmission.
back in the day (Score:3, Interesting)
Stu
Re:Verizon a monopolist? Say it ain't so..... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Secure (Score:2)
Bad thing is the pot won't even cover the cost of the phone at this point.
Re:Top Tip: (Score:3, Interesting)
If some "Operator" [http://brew.qualcomm.com/brew/en/operator/op_dir e ctory.html] were to post the Operator Gudelines [https://brewx.qualcomm.com/brew/sdk/authdownload. jsp?page=dx/operatorguidelines], then there'd be a lot more items to discuss.
Top tip: if some operator posted a valid username and password, then we'd have a lot more to discuss: