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Bring it in Over the Internet Hack Away It's Automatic

In addition to performing standard updates, many independent service centers will perform unlocking services, or in the case of Motorola and select few other handsets, customize software and FLEX (firmware) versions. Cults have grown up around this, and love to debate software versions here on our own forums, as well as on Howard Forums and Esato. They have used this to add new software features to different phones (by flashing Motorola V600 software onto a V400, for example) or even to re-activate carrier limited features (like adding a number of features back to the V710). Service centers and even manufacturer employees are often just as fascinated with this as enthusiastic users and will discuss or even show off their own homebrews from time to time.

For smartphones and other handsets that users can flash themselves using a PC, a huge hacker underground has developed. Windows Mobile enthusiasts have spent a great deal of time picking apart customized installs and software updates to create software packages for users to add features or software to their devices no matter what they initially came with.

Others are exploiting these abilities taking the lazyweb approach. They are offering bounties for certain hacks. The best known recent examples have been the bounty to re-add the object exchange (OBEX) Bluetooth profile to crippled Motorola V710s, which resulted in additional Bluetooth support but not for the OBEX profile, and the efforts to add support for SDIO Wi-Fi cards to the PalmOne Treo 600, which was unsuccessful.

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