Development

... Can anyone please help me hack my Samsung SCH U740 and get rid of the Verizon firmware? Also - what can I replace it with? ...

Ah, but that's the problem. There is nothing to replace it with. The U740 is - so far - exclusive to Verizon Wireless, so the only version of the software I'm aware of is the Verizon version. If it won't come to other carriers, then it's likely that no "generic" version was ever - or will ever - be developed.

If it does come to other carriers with a generic software version, then in theory there might be some way to flash the software from that version to your Verizon-branded hardware, but there would be a huge amount of difficulty and risk in that, and even if it worked flawlessly, a lot of features - like Get It Now and possibly all Internet services - would simply never work.