Verizon, Mobile Phone Tools, and Motorola E815

Damn, I've been hoodwinked!

My family got me a Motorola E815 for Christmas...my first full
featured phone. The daughter even got me the (extra cost) USB cable!
The phone takes pictures, video, and plays MP3s.

Turns out, everything I want to do costs extra.

The USB cable is worthless without the Mobile Phone Tools software
(extra cost, naturally). So I get the software, and find out that I
can't transfer images. (When I bring up MPT, the "Media Center" icon
is not there.)

After talking with Motorola, they tell me that Verizon has blocked
this capability! Bastards! Oh yeah, Verizon says, "just send the image
to PixPlace" (extra cost, naturally). And the extra airtime? "Just do
it on the weekend."

To play MP3s, I have to get an SD card (extra cost, naturally).
Actually, I'm not surprised...MP3s can be pretty huge. The instruction
booklet says NOTHING about the memory card. I wonder how Motorola
expects the average phone user to deal with this?

I am not happy about being bamboozled. I told both Verizon and
Motorola that I am a dissatisfied customer concerning the phone's
"features". Yeah, it sends and receives calls fine, but I had a "free"
LG phone that did that - at no extra charge!

So here are my questions for now.

1. Can I buy any SD card for this E815, or are there special types?
How large can I go? I think I want lots of storage space for MP3s.

2. Can I tell the phone to store the images and videos on the SD card?
That might be a way to get the stuff to and from the phone.

3. Can I just pop the SD card in my laptop's reader and transfer files
in either direction (i.e. no special file format on the card)?

4. Is there any way to "unblock" the phone so that MPT thinks it's ok
to transfer ringtones and images between the PC and the phone?

5. Is there any other software that can use the USB modem directly to
manage the phone?

6. Can I make up my own ringtones using my Yamaha keyboard? MIDI files
or MP3 only? How do I get them into the phone?

Thanks
tbone

Thanks! This looks like just the thing.

Already overcame the first problem when trying to set up on my laptop:
Bluetooth didn't work - it's an XP SP2 problem. I deleted the
Bluetooth devices and rebooted, and this reinstalled the right
drivers. The PC and phone can now converse!

I think I'm on my way to mobile phone hackerdom! }-<)

Thanks again
tbone

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:08:27 -0700, XS11E <xs11eNO@SPAMyahoo.com>
wrote:

>"Slap" <slap@gmail.com> wrote in news:y0Ozf.284016$2k.65077@pd7tw1no:
>
>>
>> "tbone" <noneedto@email.me> wrote in message
>> news:796vs1dvr3h1mqalfqhlb87jd6vnsddpv7@4ax.com...
>>> Damn, I've been hoodwinked!
>>> So here are my questions for now.
>>>
>>> 1. , 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6
>>> Thanks
>>> tbone
>>
>> Yes. Go here...
>> http://www.howardforums.com/forumdis...prune=30&f=101
>
>Or here:
>
>http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=674803

tbone wrote:
> I'm completely new to this mobile phone internals stuff. I wandered
> around on the howardforums for an hour without finding what I need.
> But It looks like that forum has tons of info. It may be several weeks
> before I learn enough to do what I need to do.
>
> Thanks for the reference though...
>
> tbone
>
> On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 15:13:34 GMT, "Slap" <slap@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>"tbone" <noneedto@email.me> wrote in message
>>news:796vs1dvr3h1mqalfqhlb87jd6vnsddpv7@4ax.com. ..
>>
>>>Damn, I've been hoodwinked!
>>>So here are my questions for now.
>>>
>>>1. , 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6
>>>Thanks
>>>tbone
>>
>>Yes. Go here...
>>http://www.howardforums.com/forumdis...prune=30&f=101

Go to www.v710.org/mark for very specific and detailed step-by-step
instructions on how to re-enable the multimedia and bluetooth functions
on the E815. One of the posters on HowardForums set up this page,
collecting the wisdom on the afore-mentioned forum.

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:14:47 -0500, tbone <noneedto@email.me> wrote:

>Damn, I've been hoodwinked!
>
>My family got me a Motorola E815 for Christmas...my first full
>featured phone. The daughter even got me the (extra cost) USB cable!
>The phone takes pictures, video, and plays MP3s.
>
>Turns out, everything I want to do costs extra.
>
>The USB cable is worthless without the Mobile Phone Tools software
>(extra cost, naturally). So I get the software, and find out that I
>can't transfer images. (When I bring up MPT, the "Media Center" icon
>is not there.)
>
>After talking with Motorola, they tell me that Verizon has blocked
>this capability! Bastards! Oh yeah, Verizon says, "just send the image
>to PixPlace" (extra cost, naturally). And the extra airtime? "Just do
>it on the weekend."
>
>To play MP3s, I have to get an SD card (extra cost, naturally).
>Actually, I'm not surprised...MP3s can be pretty huge. The instruction
>booklet says NOTHING about the memory card. I wonder how Motorola
>expects the average phone user to deal with this?
>
>I am not happy about being bamboozled. I told both Verizon and
>Motorola that I am a dissatisfied customer concerning the phone's
>"features". Yeah, it sends and receives calls fine, but I had a "free"
>LG phone that did that - at no extra charge!
>
>So here are my questions for now.
>
>1. Can I buy any SD card for this E815, or are there special types?
>How large can I go? I think I want lots of storage space for MP3s.
>
>2. Can I tell the phone to store the images and videos on the SD card?
>That might be a way to get the stuff to and from the phone.
>
>3. Can I just pop the SD card in my laptop's reader and transfer files
>in either direction (i.e. no special file format on the card)?
>
>4. Is there any way to "unblock" the phone so that MPT thinks it's ok
>to transfer ringtones and images between the PC and the phone?
>
>5. Is there any other software that can use the USB modem directly to
>manage the phone?
>
>6. Can I make up my own ringtones using my Yamaha keyboard? MIDI files
>or MP3 only? How do I get them into the phone?
>
>Thanks
>tbone