...what we can do for free without their hardware (yeah, Verizon, I'm looking at YOU).
In some cases, we can do it for free WITH their hardware, too. I had a Motorola E815 a few years ago. Motorola designed it with a bunch of features (Bluetooth OBEX, microSD usage, Dialup tethering, music player off internal memory, etc.) that Verizon disabled so that you would have to pay and use their Get It Now service.
Fortunately, it was fairly easy so seem-edit the phone, and with the USB tether for the phone and a few questionably-legal programs you could re-enable all of the features. If you were really dedicated to the task, you could mash some of the alltel firmware in, and run Java (though I never did).
I would have replaced it with another of the same model (it was falling apart from wear and tear), but of course it had been replaced by the 'newest and greatest.'
Oh, and the best part of the phone? It DIDN'T run Verizon's OS.