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Microsoft Communications Media Music

Microsoft Deal Limits Verizon MP3 Phones 157

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the electronic-sabot dept.
An anonymous reader writes "PCSIntel is reporting that the new VCast music system by Verizon may not be quite as positive as users were led to believe. Claims were made that the new software for this service would disable the ability to play MP3s on these phones. It turns out that the ability to play MP3s still exists but only because the software first converts it to the WMA format. This conversion, however, is not available for phones on Mac or Linux, leaving these customers unable to play MP3s."
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Microsoft Deal Limits Verizon MP3 Phones More

Microsoft Deal Limits Verizon MP3 Phones

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  • Why do you put up with this shit? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gordonjcp ( 186804 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @08:39AM (#14421137) Homepage
    Every other country in the world has sane mobile phone pricing and services. Why not the US?
    • Sue your lawyers.
    • Um, just a question, have you actually LIVED in other countries and the US? I have lived in the US, Japan, and Germany and the US system is the cheapest(esp. if you want to use it as your only phone). It costs me 65 euro cents a minute to call on my mobile phone, it costs 20 cents a minute to call a mobile phone from a land line(which costs 20 euros a month just for basic service, it's cheaper to call across the globe than to call a cell phone across the street). You can get a good plan in the US for abo
      • If those prices are supposed to be German prices, it is clearly a couple of years that you were in Germany. I am not saying that Germany is cheap, but calling a mobile phone right now from my (standard) landline would cost me less than 11 cents. And for 25 Euros you get nowadays a contract which includes a flat rate for calls to land lines and mobile phones on the same network.
      • You might want to search a little harder for a good deal. Average around here is 10c/min for normal calls, I found one (limited in number of target phones, but still good enough) with which I can call everybody I know for 60 hours a month for 10,50 in total, including phone and 30 smses a month. Calculate it out, the phone costs 6*24= 216 euros (ok, that's a slight bit more), the smses are 60 euros for in total 720 smses (8.8c each) and the phone calls average to something like 0.06 cents a minute.

      • Re:Why do you put up with this shit? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Hank Powers ( 467121 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @09:29AM (#14421248) Homepage

        Maybe you haven't been to Finland. We have such prices that calls cost only 6.9 cents a minute and the monthly basic fee is a little over than half a euro.

        In addition to that, there are no obligations about using the phone provided by the operator. Just simple and understandable pricing without any "plans" as they're called in the US. In fact it is even forbidden by law sell operator-locked cellulars here. (However, they're trying to make it possible for 3G phones soon.)

        • Maybe you haven't been to Finland. We have such prices that calls cost only 6.9 cents a minute

          Hmmm...so Finland goes at 6.9 eurocents min? That comes to US 8.3 cents a minute.

          In the US, after taxes, I was paying $45/month for 1000 minutes, and I got to keep unused minutes. Not the best deal, but I didn't have to pay long distance to call between Hawai'i and the mainland, which I did frequently (same country but 4,000 miles distance).

          That works out to 4.5 US cents per minute, I believe you could get tha

          • Re:Why do you put up with this shit? (Score:5, Informative)

            by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @02:34PM (#14422415) Homepage Journal
            When comparing per-minute prices for US and a country like, say, Finland, don't forget that in the US you pay per-minute prices also for incoming calls, which, if you terminate as many calls as you originate, means the actual cost is twice as high.

            As for 1000-minute-per-month plans, who in their right minds spend that much time on a phone? If you do, and it's not for work (who'd pay for your phone anyhow), I'd say you have an abnormal unsatiated need for human contact, and might want to consider talking to someone professional. Face to face, that is.

            Regards,
            --
            *Art
            • perhaps the average /.er has noone to talk offline, but half an hour a day is not a crazy amount of time to to be on the phone. on top of that, a lot of people use their cell phones instead of paying long distance charges on their landline. also, most people people pay for their own phone, not work. many carry two, one work and another personal.
            • It is not an even comparison there too.

              For example, most companies in the US do not meter any calls made entirely on their network, even during peak times, plus they all nights and weekends are not metered as well.

              I have recently signed up for a 2-year contract with South Pacific Railway International (SPRInt) for the whole family, For about $60 a month, I have received 3 new phones, 800 minutes (metered during the day incoming and outgoing) shared between the phones, free weekends and nights to anywhere in
            • If you do, and it's not for work (who'd pay for your phone anyhow), I'd say you have an abnormal unsatiated need for human contact, and might want to consider talking to someone professional. Face to face, that is.

              Hey, thanks for the social tips. I now recognize, half an hour on the phone per day is a huge amount of time, and was definitely getting in the way of talking to people in real life. Got it.

          • In the US, after taxes, I was paying $45/month for 1000 minutes, and I got to keep unused minutes.

            This is false value. Unless you are using every one of those 1000 minutes every month, the fact that you get to keep them into the next month is only helpful to smooth out monthly variants in your minute usage. You cannot cash them out, nor do they do you any good when you stop paying $45 per month to your provider. Even if you assume that you will stay with said provider forever and the plan will never cha

      • While it's true that European cell rates are probably slightly higher than US ones (at least in my experience), I find the service as such to be orders of magnitude better. It's only in recent years that the US has even begun to compare to Europe in terms of coverage, interoperability, and legal issues (for instance, simlock removal has been required to be free by the service provider here in Denmark for years).
      • maybe you would want to check out the price in hong kong
        landlines to mobile are free for landlines
        mobile plans are like in the thousands minutes (incoming calls also use up minutes though) for 20 USD

        my information were abit out-dated though :p

      • To be fair, I have a plan in the UK for about the same price with a completely unusable number of calls and texts, plus a mobile phone included with the plan, and we're commonly cited as being overpriced. I know for a fact it's less in many places in Europe.

      • In the netherlands you can get SIM-only plan starting from 3 euro's from T-mobile, a german provider. So what are you talking about? It's still pretty expensive to call from a landline, but normally you would get a slightly higher plan and call back using the mobile phone. These prices will come down (because of the various governments pushing the old monopolies). My plan costs me 20 euro, with 5 months free out of the 24. But then again, I wanted that particular expensive phone (bluetooth support, rather n
    • Every other country in the world has sane mobile phone pricing and services. Why not the US?

      It depends on what you mean by sane. I can call an area the size of Europe for one flat rate - no roaming, no need to buy and switch SIM cards and phone numbers if I visit a place 3000KM away, plus part or all of the cost of the phone is spread over a 12 or 24 month period. Sure I can't take my phone overseas unless I make sure to get one that has the right GSM or CDMA bands and if I want that my phone choice is l
      • most Europeans I meet here are loath to use their phone here because of the costs; if they really need a phone they can get a prepaid one dirt cheap or buy a SIM card which means they lose their number temporarily.

        This is likely why so many of them use SMS to talk more than actually calling each other. You can send 3 or 4 SMSs for a minute long phone call.
      • "It's not that one system is better - ours works well for the US consumer based on their phone use habits."

        no, more like the phone companies here know how far they can turn the screws on their customers before too many customers will leave. And they're always looking for more screws to turn. Verizon is probably the most notorious. /me glances at his moto v710 with crippled bluetooth
      • no need to buy and switch SIM cards and phone numbers if I visit a place 3000KM away, plus part or all of the cost of the phone is spread over a 12 or 24 month

        Which is exactly how it is in Europe too.

        • no need to buy and switch SIM cards and phone numbers if I visit a place 3000KM away, plus part or all of the cost of the phone is spread over a 12 or 24 month

          Which is exactly how it is in Europe too.

          Except in Europe you generally can't call from say Poland to Portugal for no charge past your basic fee, or roam from Germany to England and call a number in Italy for no additional charge; OTOH in the US you can roam without any additinal charges nor long distance fees.
      • no need to buy and switch SIM cards and phone numbers if I visit a place 3000KM away

        Only if that place is in the US. Why do so many Yanks act like Yurp is just one country, it isn't it's a couple of dozen with separate histories, languages, and yes cell-phone companies. Try going to Mexico or Canada and see if the above statement is true.
        • no need to buy and switch SIM cards and phone numbers if I visit a place 3000KM away

          Only if that place is in the US. Why do so many Yanks act like Yurp is just one country, it isn't it's a couple of dozen with separate histories, languages, and yes cell-phone companies. Try going to Mexico or Canada and see if the above statement is true.

          Actually, I can call for no additional charge (beyond the basic flat fee) from a good bit of Canada and Mexico if I pick a plan with taht feature. While I realize Europe i
    • Its because the American market doesn't have mobile-phones, they only have expensive knock off "cell-phones".
      If the companies would release proper mobile-phones over there then your right, the world would be a better place.

      [/tongueincheek]
    • I'm not sure about the pricing part of it, but mobile phones in Japan are fairly well locked down with DRM restrictions too. I got a Nokia 6630 smartphone from Vodafone Japan, billed as an mp3 player, photo/video player, tons of games and apps...lo and behold, NOTHING works on it unless you bought the app, song, vid, etc. from Vodafone Japan. What a joke. You can use HalWin to un-sis apps on your computer, then install them directly into the phone's system folder, and this gets around the primitive DRM. I'
    • China - the world's largest cell phone market - is quite a bit more expensive than the US. People end up using SMS just to avoid the charges, even though using SMS with Chinese Characters is kind of a pain.

      The US has 5 major service providers in competition with each other, and many smaller regions are serviced by local cell phone companies. Of course the prices are better than most other countries.

      Considering what a small share of the desktop market Macintosh and Linux has (in the US, about 4%), and th

    • Every other country in the world has sane mobile phone pricing and services. Why not the US?

      Well, I don't know about pricing for phones in other contries, but here in the US, you have to sign a contract to get service, or pay a much higher rate and deal with a very limited phone selection (and I think you still end up signing some sort of implied contract). Verizon is the only provider in my area that has any sort of coverage once you get over the mountain, so that's what I have to use. I really don't wan

    • Shop around.

      There are great mobile deals to be had in the U.S., but they require you to shop around, and they require you to sign contracts.

      My current deal?

      I just signed up with T-mobile for a Motorola V330. The phone was free, and they paid me a $100 sign-up bonus (Amazon.com). I'm on a $45.99 a month contract, with 1500 minutes included, nights/weekends free, and T-mobile to T-mobile free.

      I pay an addition $19.99 for unlimited EDGE Gprs service. My monthly bill comes to about $70.00, which I feel is pretty good for the number of minutes, and the unlimited internet access. I use approximately 2000 minutes a month, with heavy emphasis on nights and mobile-to-mobile. I use ~40 megs per month of date transfer.

      For me, that averages about .025 USD per minute, and .000488037109 USD per kilobyte. Both of these are substantially cheaper than any plan I've found in Europe (just got back for a 2 month Europe trip, visted France, UK, Netherlands, and Spain).

      It's all about usage patterns. In Europe, you'll pay substantially less than an average American if you control your usage. In the U.S., you'll pay an incredible rate if you have a very high consumption level.

      Where Europe generally shines is on the high-end services. The only 3G option we have here at the moment is EVDO, which is fairly expensive, and requires you to sign with Verizon, whom I hate. Given the European pricing structures, however, and government backed loans to the mobile operators, it makes financial sense for them to offer these services, while American operates attempt to make as much money off their existing equipment as possible.

      The nice thing about this from our perspective is that we tend to get better tested systems when they finally do release them. Every EVDO subscriber I've talked to has been pretty thrilled, if mainly because the system was well worked over in Japan and S. Korea before it came over here.

      I imagine that T-Mobile's European experiments with 3G will enable them to build a fantastic system over here when they get round to it.

      The crappy part is the obvious part; Europeans (and S.E. Asians) get better equipment substantially faster, and have a wider diversity of phones avaliable.

      Again, this makes sense; the American consumer expects their phone to be free, so we aren't gonna get the best phones, we're going to get the bottom of the barrel. I'm not particularly happy with my V330, but I didn't have a Nokia option avaliable with Bluetooth, EDGE, and a moderately okay camera. Someday, I will; and then I'll be paying less per minute and KByte than the average European phone customer. But I've got to wait longer :(

      P.S. Oh, wanna tip for being able to transfer your American phones from carrier to carrier? At least with GSM?

      Calll your carrier before you cancel. Tell them you are going to travel to Europe, and you want your phone SIM-unlocked for a Pay-as-You-Go plan for Europe. You'll read them your IMEI number, and they'll e-mail you within 48 hours the SIM unlock code. I've successfully done this with Cingular and T-mobile. If they give you any trouble, tell them your friend with whom you are travelling with did the same thing last week.
      • I pay an addition $19.99 for unlimited EDGE Gprs service. My monthly bill comes to about $70.00, which I feel is pretty good for the number of minutes, and the unlimited internet access. I use approximately 2000 minutes a month, with heavy emphasis on nights and mobile-to-mobile. I use ~40 megs per month of date transfer.

        Hmm. My monthly bill with Verizon is around $60, which includes 450 peak minutes, unlimited N/W and mobile-to-mobile, and 250 text messages. Data is billed using the same minutes as voice,
        • No Offense, but 1xRTT is pretty crappy ;-)

          EDGE GPRS is similar, as long as you use a Class 10 device.

          EVDO is 'the real deal'. 1xRTT doesn't really get you much past dial-up speeds, and the latency (although not as high as EDGE GPRS) is significantly higher.

          Also, Verizon charges $60 (with a voice plan) for unlimited data (tethered to laptop), and I don't think Sprint has an all you can eat data plan.
      • T-mobile is the way to go. I got totally shafted by US Cellular to the point that I didn't have service, but I had to pay anyway. After I cancelled (for free, due to them fucking up the fine print!), I didn't have a cell phone for months because I hated every single American provider and their handsets. (My first introduction to cellular phones was in Japan many years ago, and I loved their service and phones so much....)

        Anyway, I was finally coerced into getting a cell phone again. I looked at T-mobile
        • I just got a T-Mobile Motorola V360 and mine does NOT sync with my Mac using iSync. There are some hacks to get it mostly working (Basically is just involves copying the specs of a similar phone, putting the right model number in, and adding it to a file that contains all the iSync specs), and I'm hoping OS X 10.4.4 will make it work. But, at least for me, it didn't iSync right out of the box (as of 10.4.3). Otherwise a pretty good phone (and much more comfortable than the RAZR, IMO).
      • There are great mobile deals to be had in the U.S., but they require you to shop around, and they require you to sign contracts.

        My current deal?

        I just signed up with T-mobile for a Motorola V330. The phone was free, and they paid me a $100 sign-up bonus (Amazon.com). I'm on a $45.99 a month contract, with 1500 minutes included, nights/weekends free, and T-mobile to T-mobile free.

        What you mean to say is there's one single good deal and it is not open to everyone.

        Let's count the ways that the ab
        • 1. T-mobile regularly offers free phones. Go into the store, or call 'em up. You have to bargain a little bit sometimes, but you can usually get a midrange phone free. The Amazon deal is just gravy.

          P.S. I just got my father a V360 for free from Customer Service on his account. He had to resign his contract, for 2 more years, but his new phone is 100% free.

          2. See #1. Learn to bargain ;-)

          3. This deal is rotated in and out. They tend to offer it for 3 months every 18 months. They also offer a variety of other
          • I don't feel a 2-year contract is anywhere near as good of a deal as you can get in Europe or Japan, especially considering the fact that any phone you get from T-Mobile is 2 years old on the world market. A "mid-range" phone is even older.

            Now I readily admit that the model phone you get is a completely different argument, but this is still a worse deal than what I understand people go through in other parts of the world, and this point is always brought up by those that live outside the USA whenever a
    • (one of the cheapest) data price here (uk) is :

      £8 / $4.52 per month for up to to 5mb (£0.40p / $0.22 per MB)
      then £1 / $0.5645 per MB

      sliding to

      £40 / $22.58 per month for up to 512Mb (£0.77 / $0.43 per MB)
      then £0.75 / $0.42 per MB

      £75 /$ 42.62 per month for up 1024Mb expected usage (£0.07 / $0.04 per MB)
      then O2 reserves the right to apply extra charges or to withdraw the Data Max 1024 service from any individual at any time in the case of suspected overuse or abu

  • seems to be a firmware issue? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zegebbers ( 751020 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @08:44AM (#14421145) Homepage
    Is it possible to downgrade the firmware to pre v05 so that you can play mp3s still ?

    • Re:seems to be a firmware issue? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No, but I believe if you complain to them, they will give you a previous version of the phone... they don't advertise about that because it's in the deal with Microsoft.

      So go to their (Verison's) website and/or talk to a service rep or something about it. Tell them your phone is broken; it won't play mp3s anymore. They'll probly fix you right up, but who knows?
    • Is it possible to downgrade the firmware to pre v05 so that you can play mp3s still ?

      Many smartphones, like the PalmOS Treo, will play MP3s regardless of deals Microsoft and Verizon make. Bittorrent->SD_Card and you're done.

      Shit like "Vcast" is proprietary, excessively limited, overpriced, and thus, doomed to failure.

  • Conversion != Playback (Score:4, Insightful)

    by robbieduncan ( 87240 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @08:50AM (#14421155) Homepage
    Converting MP3 to WMA does not mean that these phones are capable of playing MP3s. This is just like Sony's portable audio devices only playing ATRAC (yes I know they've fixed this now).

    • Re:Conversion != Playback (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Please read the damn article. You might find that the phones USED to play MP3 fine with version V04 of the firmware, but with V05 and above it has been intentionally disabled.

  • Reverse engineers.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Travoltus ( 110240 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @08:54AM (#14421167) Journal
    start your engines!

    Preferably in another country, that is. We wouldn't want anyone being being sent to Guantanamo as a terrorist for the crime of enabling Americans to upload music to Vcast on their own terms...
    • Running Linux is like owning a Lightsaber. It's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized time."

      Linux is many things, but "elegant" is not one of them.

      • > > Running Linux is like owning a Lightsaber. It's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized time."
        >
        > Linux is many things, but "elegant" is not one of them.

        What do you know about it?
        • Well, a lightsaber is supposedly a simple and pure instrument that is powerful in the right hands. Linux fails just on the simplicity front. Any computer system or OS does. They are collaborative efforts and contain layers upon layers of historical complexity. This is rather unavoidable.

  • Conversion on Mac & Linux (Score:2, Insightful)

    by rvw ( 755107 )

    This conversion, however, is not available for phones on Mac or Linux, leaving these customers unable to play MP3s.

    Mac and Linux users can convert mp3's to WMA on their computer first before playing it on their phone, not? But I suppose Mac and Linux users will make other choices in general, and thus won't buy this phone.

    • I had thought that maybe FFmpeg [sourceforge.net] could encode WMA's (even an older version), but alas I was wrong. It seems we can only decode them. Oh well. If MS doesn't want everyone to be able to use their format then that's their concern. It does however reveal their motivation behind creating their own format and codecs...

  • Not a good idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Skrekkur ( 739061 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @09:13AM (#14421208)
    I would think that just converting mp3 into wma is a generally bad idea, since the sound is guaranteed only to get worse, as things most often do when converting from a lossy compression to another. make world

    • In fact, a really bad idea (Score:5, Informative)

      by murderlegendre ( 776042 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @09:43AM (#14421276)

      You're quite correct. The big problem is caused by the fact that MP3 uses more than just simple compression, it takes advantage of various psychoaccoustic phenomena to (in a sense) trick the brain into hearing soemthing that isn't quite what it seems to be. The conversion to WMA isn't a particularly intelligent process - in fact, I'll go out on a limb and conjecture that the MP3 is first decompressed to a PCM stream, then the PCM stream is re-encoded as WMA. Since WMA is not prepared for the trickery (it's all still there, just without the compression), it parses it all like basic musical signal - totally oblivious of any existing pre/de-emphasis, phase shift, etc.

      I've only experimented with convering a few MP3 to WMA, but the results always sounded odd and occasionally downright glitchy. To draw a comparison - I suspect that MP3->WMA to my ears would be very much like replicated sushi to my palate (USS Enterprise - Captain Kirk era, when transporters could still make evil twins).

      • To draw a comparison - I suspect that MP3->WMA to my ears would be very much like replicated sushi to my palate (USS Enterprise - Captain Kirk era)

        Welcome to Slashdot! Where molecularly reconstructed sushi on late 70's sci-fi is considered a baseline for comparisons.

    • I would think that just converting mp3 into wma is a generally bad idea, since the sound is guaranteed only to get worse, as things most often do when converting from a lossy compression to another.

      The next thing to happen is that some "independant analysts" will do a blind test and compare MP3 encoded files with WMA files on these devices. The result will prove that WMA encoding is superior.

  • VCast not required (Score:4, Informative)

    by Monad is Missing ( 905568 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @09:47AM (#14421280)
    It is still possible to just hook a USB cable and copy MP3s to the phone, and play them. At least it is for me and my Verizon LG-VX8100.
    • I just dont get it, I've been playing mp3's and transferring them between my computer and my phone via usb for 18 months....the answer is a Palm treo 600. have a nice day :) Dean

  • Netgear, Skype developing Wi-Fi phone (Score:3, Interesting)

    by luh3417 ( 778061 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @09:48AM (#14421284)
    This will soon make cell phones obsolete. Serves the greedy marketing-driven cell companies right. If only the Netgear-Skype wifi phone would play mp3's too. No greedy cell phone companies to stop them from adding that feature... http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/05/73605_HN netgearskypephone_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www .infoworld.com/article/06/01/05/73605_HNnetgearsky pephone_1.html [infoworld.com]

  • I realize this is a concept for cell providers... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @10:06AM (#14421342) Homepage
    ...but how about phones that make better phone calls? Instead of trying to add world + dog features to my phone that just junk it up.

    Some of the extra features are handy at times. Text messaging isn't fast but it's convenient here and there. Camera is a cute toy but I never use mine.

    I wonder how many consumers really want to use their phone as an mp3 player anyway? Or watching TV? Not me, but that's not necessarily reflective of the wider market.

    • Get a better phone.

      The varience in call reception quality between various cell phone manufacturers is amazing.

      In my experience, it has been something like this, but there will be additional varience based on the model:

      Nokia>Samsung>Motorola>Kyocera>Sony Ericisson

      Certain phones are better than others. The high-end Nokia phones (avaliable from places like myworldphone.com) like the business seires smart phones are particularly good phones. My Nokia 3650 experienced fairly few call drops, and only
      • I really liked my Nokia 3510i, I am getting that one again next time I need to get a new one. The one I have now is worthless (one button for menu and dial? SO ANNOYING).
      • I suggest trying Sony Ericsson again. They've improved greatly (although I use Nokia). The Nokia 3650 and Sony Ericsson T610 are both close to 3 years old now.

        I've used the Sony Ericsson Z520a and W600i, both recently released Sony Ericsson phones, and the audio quality and reception is much, much better than any Motorola I've used and the old Sony Ericssons. I haven't experienced any drops on the Cingular network (vastly superior to T-Mobile here) since I stopped using Motorola. In general, the UI is fast

  • Did you read teh EULA? (Score:3, Informative)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @10:30AM (#14421403) Homepage Journal
    They retain the right to change services and costs as they feel fit. When they feel fit to do it.

    Sounds like its time to choose another provider and vote with your pocketbook.
  • From TFA In short, the impact of the "VCast Music Dirty Little Secret" may or may not imapct Verizon legally, however, it will cause consumer confusion, and Microsoft and Verizon's primary answer is to purchase a Windows Media Player 10 PC and "migrate" to it so your phone will work with your music.

    Microsoft needs to force its media player upon Verizon customers because they would not select it if they had a choice.

  • False Advertising... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sr. Pato ( 900333 ) on Sunday January 08, 2006 @11:17AM (#14421529) Homepage
    Why call it an MP3 Phone, if it doesn't play MP3s?

    That's like KFC advertising Big Macs but giving you a piece of chicken...
    ... It's still food, just not the food you wanted.
  • They likely already have an MP3 player.

    Can the damn thing make a call and last 3 days in standby? if so then 98% of customers will be happy.

  • I don't yet own a (U.S.) cell phone, but I've been looking at some of the Linux smartphones as they come out. I was really hoping I could eventually get one that was like a phone attached to a general purpose computer (possibly with a small hard drive - or maybe flash will be good enough by then). In that case, I could install whatever mp3 player I want and get the phone to follow exactly the protocol I want when the call comes in (e.g., lower the volume, tell me who is calling before I pick up, ...). Is
  • And they wonder why Apple is kicking their ass. Hint: it's not the iTunes Music Store.
  • Would this include hte new Palm 700w or other Windows Mobile smartphones?? I could care less either way. My regular phone isn't for listening to music. My iPod is. My iPod is far superior to any MP3 playing phone. The only phone that may be better at playing MP3's is a smartphone and if the included software doesn't do it there are plenty of free programs that accomplish the same thing.

  • Makes me glad I hacked my E815. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TellarHK ( 159748 ) <tellarhk@NOSPam.hotmail.com> on Sunday January 08, 2006 @02:21PM (#14422324) Homepage Journal
    About two months ago I was deciding whether or not to get a RAZR or an E815 through Verizon, as I didn't have much of a choice in carriers. It took a short while, but I eventually decided to go with the E815, because it was more easily known to be a moddable phone. Unlocked using relatively easy instructions found online, I was able to get it working to play MP3's just fine as ringtones or whatever. Also enabled basic OBEX and DUN over Bluetooth, though none of the 'push' features. Once unlocked, the phone becomes a lot more useful to people with non-Windows systems, though you do need a USB cable and some special software (that isn't difficult to find) to hex-edit the phone in order to free things up.

    I figure this kind of modification is perfectly legitimate, as it doesn't take anything away from Verizon that they're obligated to. Any time I spend on the net with the phone uses minutes, and any feature I unlocked simply enables me to use the handset with -my- other electronics. I do wish Verizon would stop this crap and start offering services like the rest of the world can get them, but so long as they'll lock things down, we'll try and unlock them.

  • Email them (Score:2, Funny)

    by XB-70 ( 812342 )
    If you want something done, start contacting Verizon and make some noise.
    Here: Mark Marchand, Director, Media Relations, (518) 396-1080
    Email: mailto:mark.a.marchand@verizon.com [mailto]
    Also, contact your government representative and make some noise there too. This sort of thing is going on way, way too much - if we make ourselves annoying as hell to deal with, they will take notice.
  • When I was in London for a few months I used a Nokia 6630 for a while and it really showed me what a craptastic system we have here. That phone was great. Mini MMC chip with some sweet headphones that allowed me to listen to music on the Tube and a document reader so I could put books on the thing and read them while listening to my music (only put a chapter at a time in a file, though - large files tended to cause the thing to choke.) Bluetooth file transfer between phones allowed us all to swap files wit
  • from the article:
    "As far as we can analyze, Microsoft made an agreement to enginner VCast Music phones as WMA-only devices, in order to lock out iTunes and other competition from most interaction with the device that does not involve burning, ripping, and integrating into Windows Media Player. This type of monopolist tatic is something that iTunes has avoided, but Windows Media Player embraces."

    Apple has used every tactic avaliable to lock in their music monopolies. Their iPods don't support WMA, even thoug
    • What? nobody is forcing you to buy tracks from Apple - the iPod allows the free use of unencumbered formats like MP3 and WAV. Microsoft sees this as a threat, and wants you to stop using "free" formats so they can force WMA and DRM on people. Apple isn't doing any forcing - just offering an option. If you want to play WMA, you are free to buy one of the many other players on the market.

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