When I moved to San Diego this past summer, I decided to treat myself to a new Razr from Verizon. I know, I know, jumping on the bandwagon. But I actually really like the feel of the Razr. It even passes my infamous “ear test” which I give all new phones (hey, I used to work at Cingular).
While I’ve been basically happy with Verizon’s service, I’ve always hated how they locked down the features on their phone. For instance, they won’t let me transfer anything over Bluetooth, which makes it near impossible for me to upload my own ringtones, download pictures I’ve taken with the phone, etc. They also stuff the phone with Verizon branding that’s impossible to remove and so it just takes up space.
You may know that one can unlock just about all of those features by “flashing” the Razr with completely non-Verizon firmware (AllTell’s firmware, in fact). There’s other benefits like better signal strength, better battery life, and a faster UI. The downsides are that you void your warranty and risk turning your phone into a $200 brick if something goes wrong in the process.
I spent months reading the dozens of websites out there explaining how to do this, not to mention mustering up the courage to possibly kill my phone. Finally I stumbled upon this guide (permanent link), which I can happily report worked for me like a charm. If you’re planning on flashing your Verizon Razr V3m, this site is for you. It even includes links to all of the software you’ll need (you’ll have to engage in some piracy here, FYI). After getting all the software, the process took only about 10 minutes. It’s not, however, for the faint of heart. Mostly everything you’re doing is a complete hack and thus requires some comfort with archane software tools.
The new firmware looks almost identical to Verizon’s, the phone works just like before, and now I can play around with custom ringtones and really take advantage of the camera on this thing. My favorite new ringtone is from “Still” from the Office Space soundtrack. It’s great to hear “back up in your ass with the resurection!” when someone calls.
I’ll never look back to that bloated default firmware, and I feel great about getting around Verizon’s silly restrictions on my phone for which I shelled out the cash. Take that, VZW!
That is so sweet…
Verizon is such a stingy company. I can’t believe they lock features already avaliable in the cell phone and force users to pay to unlock these extra features. I do agree with your decision to look for alternative measures because paying for these extra features is like paying for napkins in a restaurant.
Nationwide Long Distance
Nice blog!!! I like it. On my blog I changed the title of the post to reflections, because I have learned that technically goals have to be made prior to the accomplishment for them to be goals. Rather, I achieved accomplishments in my life and have decided that I was happy that I acheived them, that doesn’t make them a goal. So I then made the label Reflections, since I am more reflecting on my accomplishments. Make sense?
My ringtone is the Techno Song from Life Aquatic. Nooch.
Hey 3rock,
I’ve been looking into this a little lately also. The reason I started looking was to change the default startup/shutdown images and sounds. I bought an unlocked phone and use Cingular (the new at&t, the old Cingular, the old AT&T the old Souther Bell, the old…) as my provider, so I needed to do some poking around to find the right gateways so that I could utilize the SMS and MMS features.
During my searches I ran into these websites:
http://www.motomodders.net/
http://www.modmymoto.com/
They’re forums devoted to modding different Motorola phones, including but not limited to the different flavors of the RAZR. There’s a lot there, so if the article the Huffmeister links to is sufficient for what the reader wants it’s a good deal, but if you’re looking for HOW TO DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING WITH YOUR MOTOROLA PHONE, check out these forums.
I’m a lamer… I have yet to mod my ringtones with mp3s.
Engage in piracy! That’s so wrong…shame on you……Dude! What the hell is up? This is the one and only IM Mike from PSU Springfield house. Nice to see you seem to be doing well! IM glad to stop by and say hi. IM gonna have to go now…..many papers to grade. Damn I’m lame…..WE ARE!!!!
dude…give me a call on that fancy phone…
ive got one question if i may ask… about wut percentage is there that a rookie like myself can get this to work???
oh and also… if i were to manage “flashing” my razr v3m while having verizon as my company…. would i still be able to have the same plan and text message and the same number as if i hadnt???
thanks for your time…
I think as long as you follow the instructions given on that guide then you should have no problem. Just make sure to give yourself plenty of time so you won’t feel rushed.
And Verizon will have no idea that you flashed your phone, so you’ll keep your plan, phone number, etc. But just remember that if you take it in for any service they’ll almost definitely not help you. I still think it’s worth it.
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