Customizing the Motorola Vxxx
Here's a cool guide for hacking your Motorola Vxxx (x being a wildcard) so you can make it show the color styles, shutdown and startup animations, outer text displays, etc, that you want.
You'll need a usb to phone cord, a program called P2Kman (apparently you have to register for free here and look in their downloads section), a hex editing program, a technical and anal mind, and patience.
Be advised that 1) if you don't follow the instructions exactly you can totally break your phone 2) modifying your phone like this will likely void your warranty.
Cellphones are made with a lot more features and capabilities than we think, but carriers would rather cripple the devices and charge you for customizations instead. — BEN POPKEN
This is a test contextual ad for the SHOPPING category. It should appear on all SHOPPING entries, unless the subcategory has its own ad.
Post a comment
Comments:
@joemono:
Who are we? Those who are annoyed at waiting for the thing to turn on or shutdown. We are not scared of the technology and do not think of it as magic. It's not rocket science.
The easiest way to find out if you can make your phone do tricks or to unlock features your carrier has annoyingly locked out, just google "hack" and the name of your phone (e.g., "hack and "razr 3")
Cool, but not worth the risk of breaking a phone. If you do this and screw up, the phone will be ruined. It will no longer be covered on warranty and can not be turned for a damage phone for your phone insurance company.
If you do this, just make sure you have insurance on the phone and then if you screw it up, lose the phone. Pay your deductible and get a new phone. Then, don't break the new one.
@rbb: I refuse to believe that those 15-second animations really tax your day.
Hack a phone (usually a Verizon or Sprint handset, Cingular and T-Mobile are relatively uncrippled) for a real reason, like enabling OBEX or increasing a cap on video times or something.
This is just a lot of work for very little payoff. Equivalent to wiping the logo off your phone with a cube of sugar because heaven forfend someone on the street might realize you use Alltel and not invite you into the clubhouse.
It's not as hard as it seems. As long as you save a copy of your "seem" before you start editing it, the chances of completely destroying your phone are slim.
It's a good idea to back up the original "seem" anyway, in case you have to return the phone for some reason, you can avoid them voiding your warranty.
I hacked my e815 a long time ago and it was well worth it. Not only was I able to make and use my own ringtones and wallpapers, but it also unlocked the Bluetooth wireless transfer.
It's amazing what great features are disabled by carriers in the name of greed.
The less dangerous way to "hack" your Motorola is with a USB cable and Motorola Phone Tools.
It will NOT let you tweak anything that can potentially destroy your phone.
Who shuts off their cell phone and why? I think the last time my phone was actually turned off, it was because the battery died.
@homerjay: Because functions on the damn thing stop working if you don't reboot it periodically. Razr V3c here.
Periodically meaning daily? It might be time to get that thing replaced if thats the case.
@homerjay: sometimes once a day. sometimes on a per phone call basis. sometimes if you set it down too hard. sometimes just for fun.
you wouldn't believe how crippled the V3c is. mine won't even charge on the wall charger that came in the box with it anymore, it displays 'unauthorized charger' yes verizon now makes the decision on which charger i can use for my phone.
I "hacked" mine to get rid of the big V on the front because I don't like being a walking billboard for verizon when i'm on the phone. I also enabled the "vibe and ring" capability that verizon thought was TOO CRAZY for me to have on my phone.
p.s. If you're reading this verizon, STOP crippling phones.
I had hoped that the links from this post would ease the pain and suffering I've endured while trying to customize my Verizon V3m via OSX. Alas, most of the apps only run on Windows or for GSM handsets. Curses! I'm guessing that headaches like this is what will push many towards the iPhone.
Actually bricking your phone seems to be covered by motorola. I bricked mine and sent it to moto and they reflashed it for free...
I "hacked" my Verizon Razr with success. I admit i hacked it to make it prettier (Verizon's red screens clashed with the pink phone) and to make my mom's ringer an ABBA song. I didn't know you could enable a vibe+ring ( only have vibe, then ring), or change the start-up screen (which takes a long time, but can be cancelled out by repeatedly pressing the "End" button), but I am going to plug my phone in today and modify it some more. Thanks for the tips!
I hacked mine (V3c from VZW) a while ago. Much, much faster now. The site www.hacktherazr.com was where I found all the walk throughs and guides. Also, no need to register for that site. (No, I'm not affiliated with it, other than a happy visitor of it!)
So far, I've removed all stupid animations (so it shuts off near instantly and turns on more quickly), removed all of VZWs logos (grr), added the ability to use as a modem tethered for my laptop, upload/download all pics for free, sync with address books, vibe+ring, etc.
@homerjay: depending on the network, a periodic reboot may be necessary. for example, cingular's towers order phone registrations on the network newest to oldest. your phone registers when it is powered on. as the band gets crowded or when they send updates, they start kicking the oldest registrations first (FIFO). it's not unusual for a phone that hasn't been power-cycled to completely lose service around the 1-month mark. simply power-cycle to fix that problem.
i use phone tools - picked up a copy on ebay for $10 shipped. it's an older version, but moto automatically updates on install. def. worth the buy.
the best fix i can offer for the razr is a hardware fix...after getting the infamous "white screen" & various random reboots numerous times, i discovered what was causing the problem: the battery was pulling away from the contacts. creating a shim out of a business card & inserting it between the battery & that little lip at the top of the phone works wonders.
As usual, people have no clue what there phone is capable of. While the guide included is somewhat simplified, here's a few things you can do. And as always, before you start wrenching on a phone, please make a backup.
1. Enable uploads of whatever java game
2. Enable uploads of custom ringtones
3. Enable Cingular ENS on unbranded phones
4. Unbrand your phone
5. Unlock recording times
6. Customize the look, feel, and speed of UI
7. Enable Engineering mode
8. Customize browser settings
9. Edit the TAP dictionary
10. Unlock your phone
11. Enable time autoupdate
12. Change the language set
13. Add different carrier settings if you switch
14. Enable airplane mode
15. Generally piss off carriers by denying them revenue such as ringers like "What you gonna do with all that ass" @ $2.99
Modding a Moto is a beautiful thing. Sometimes they don't do what you want them to right out the box. I take my cellie wherever i go. It might as well work as i want, look as i want.
excuse the grammar.
Okay, I think the point of the article is lost.
It's not "their" phone, unless you're in some sort of wack indenture. If that's the case, go do something else. If you want to pay insurance, great.
And if you break it, tough turkey.
The point is, you could have a 2.0MP camera with editing features, a xenon flashlight, calendar, world clock, automatic time zone adjustment, video camera, compass, e-mail, Opera, MP3 player, and the best of all, Airplane Mode.
Phone dependent, obviously.
I did not intend to malign Motorola.
Their products are field-tested and sound, even up to and surpassing military and NGO standards.
Unless you want to buy a thousand units, they don't want to hear from you.
So please, I beseech you, go yell at Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, or whatever your carrier du jour may happen to be, and ask them why THEY shut off all this stuff.
$
Who are these people that care enough about startup/shutdown animations that they're willing to risk breaking their phone?