Why animated GIFs won't work on your CDMA phone!

A lot of people have been asking this question lately, so if you've tried to put an animated GIF on your phone for a wallpaper and only got a still shot of the first frame, this might be for you! I started looking into this question because I was curious myself, having had the same problem and given up long ago.

Apparently, this applies to all CDMA phones, not just Sprint (correct me if I'm wrong) but in my research I've found that CDMA phones (Sprint, Verizon, Alltel) require a CMX file to use as animated wallpaper, and the software to convert animated GIFs into CMX files is said to cost $500.

I don't have $500 to spend on a software I'll only use a handful of times, so I went back to my googling and found a free software. The problem with the freeware is you can't "animate" with it because it will do no more than one frame per second (if anyone figures a way around that let me know!) So, it's okay for making a little slideshow of images but that's about it.

I'm still a n00b with this tool so I won't be able to answer any "how to" questions. Yes, the software is confusing at first but if you go into the installation folder and find the documentation it will help you figure it out. Apparently, you can add midi audio to your slideshow but I haven't tried it yet to see if it would even work. Anyhow, here's the link for the free CMX Authoring Tool, followed by the link to request info on purchasing the full-featured software from Qualcomm. Hope this helps!

Moderati - CMX Authoring Tool

CMX Authoring - Qualcomm

If anyone figures out any tips or tricks to make the freeware easier to use, PLEASE post here.

THANKS!

It's been kinda cool since I figured this out, every time I open my phone it's on a different image in the slideshow I made. For the time being, I can't have an animated wallpaper but this is still an improvement on what I already had.

No thanks, Sprint! I'll just make my own wallpaper with this CMX Authoring tool.

I'm really new to this- way too old to just get a cell. How do I know if they will work on my phone? I keep sending them to no avail. Motorolla Rzer
Thnx

I have a Razr V3....is this considered a CDMA phone?!?

According to your profile on the left, you're a Cingular subscriber. Cingular is a GSM provider.

Do a quick search of GSM and CDMA to see what the difference is.

Ahh..I see. Thanks! I know its not PC to repost a question but I wanted to elaborate on the question above about animated wallpapers not working. With my GSM phone, I'm able to download the animated GIFs to my phone via Motorola Phone Tools just fine and they're moving in my pictures list locally on the phone but obviously when I try to use it as wallpaper, its a no go. Is there any nice and easy trick to making a animation work as a wallpaper with this phone or no??

Will animated Gifs as wallpaper drain the battery faster? I think it will.. right.

Only marginally so... the .gif file really doesn't require much more processing power than a .jpg file.

can't I just made the file using Flash and then find a progarm that can flip the GIF to CMX or whatever the file format is???

I use animated gifs on my phone with no problems or any slowdown at all. It is a newer phone though.

With my new phone, it will use the gif as an animated "screensaver" (it came with fish swimming around an aquarium) but not as a wallpaper, and I practically only see it when the phone is charging. Sprint is currently selling (I call it 'leasing') "screen revolvers" for $3.00+tax for 90 days if you want a revolving wallpaper. So my new Sprint phones definitely doesn't let me use gifs as wallpaper, maybe it's just another way for Sprint to make money, I don't know. What I do know is that I'd rather use this free software to make my own "screen revolver" than pay them for what I think is a ripoff (they don't have any screen revolvers that I'd like anyway, they all sound pretty lame to meh).

They seemed to work on my sprint razr

you can put animated .gifs and .swf files on lg voyager and dare
and they are verizon phones

here are some sorted by size , including animated

mobilepark.eu

if not for the 20 post to link rule i would post links with walk through
im not typing it all out

please do?

if ur animated gif is as screen of ur phone n in proper .gif format than it wil work