Yeah - that's the part that's got me worried. Although I have ideas about what can be done, I don't really know what my options are.

I think the warranty is the biggest risk, and less so messing up the phone while it's being "operated on."

Is there such a thing as an unlocked VZW phone? With GSM, you just take any unlocked phone and put a SIM card in it. How does an "unlocked" CDMA phone get on the VZW network?

If someone could point me to some sites that cover this, maybe I could look at it and assess the risk on my own. Maybe just try one, then if that goes well, do the next one...

I'm not timid, but I don't know what's really out there.

As for unlocked CDMA phones, I think you can only register e911 VZW and alltel phones on the VZ network. There is a ESN list somewhere in a locked down storage area that lists all the acceptable ESN's we can add to the network. We probably could add some sprint phones, but software issues on the phone probably prevent that (plus VZ doesnt want people running around with VZ service on a sprint phone)

No obsession... My daughter has a VZW LG phone right now, and is counting the days until we replace it. She had a Motorola phone 2 years ago and really misses it.

Generally we tend to keep our stuff long and it has to work. (We just got rid of our Sprint StarTacs 2 years ago). I'm actually not really looking forward to getting the V3m with something that looks better only 3 months away.

Now that the insanity is starting to dwindle a little bit, maybe I'll just bag the whole thing and convert my last Verizon account to Cingular. The solution required to have the phones the way we want them is not that clear cut, and I just don't have the motivation to go through that degree of gymnastics to work around the VZW roadblocks.

I don't understand, what exactly can't you do on a verizon phone? there are easy ways to get video,pictures, songs, ringtones on and off the phone? Is it just the ui you don't like? Keep your phone for a long time(and you want a razr) no offense but I can guarantee those will not last more than 2 years max, you will at leaste have to replace the batteries. If you want something that is well built, has customizable ui and then check out the 8300. I personally hate my razr, i used to have the 8100 and regretted ever getting rid of it for a razr. My razr is now gone sold it on ebay. I am currently using an lg6000( about three years old) I actually enjoy it more than the razr phone wise. I am getting the chocolate tomorrow, crap on the razr. Whe...
(continues)

Thanks. Yeah - everybody can always give examples of this or that brand sucks and why, so I'm not too concerned about it.

My issue is simple. All I want to do it drag n drop (to each person's phones) our favorite wallpaper & ringtones, misc memos or whatever other items are on them that personalize them.

For me, I have about a dozen ringtones that I assign to various groups of callers or individuals. Clients, office, family, friends, etc. I have the rings memorized, and I have additional midis and mp3s I use specific alarms or as spares for when I feel like rotating one out.

I met a friend recently that used to play football for my alma mater. I have a specific athletic mark for my wall paper. He went nuts when he saw it. I e...
(continues)

makes sense, i have a folder on my pc for my phone, it has a ton of family guy, simpsons, and various other ringtones and pictures. I have used mms to send ringtones and wallpapers as of late because i have a pix package, but prior to that i went the cable route. Bitpim and lg works great, tranfered everything from full movies, ringtones, mp3, wallpaper. One cool thing about the lg is video walpaper, very cool. I had a two minute action scene of little matrix figueres having a battle as my walpaper( to each their own 😁 ) But onto the razr since that seems to be the one of interest for you. As far as a bluetooth hack i am not sure, I know you could transfer bluetooth on the 815 and the lg 8100 through certain programs but not sure on razr(di...
(continues)

So wait - am I just barking up the tree when the cat has left?

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I was under the impression that the native memory to the phone was not accessible for adding gif or midi/mp3, and that the add in memory can't run phone features like wall paper and ringtones.

I thought the internal memory was only for ringtones and wallpaper you have to get from VZW, and maybe your address book.

Not that I want to waste money on memory that I don't need otherwise, but at least it's a solution. (To put it in perspective, we each have about 5 MB of native memory, and it's mostly empty - ringtones and wallpaper don't take up that much space, and the cameras are not of much interest to us).

Aside from the ringtones/wallpaper, I r...
(continues)

if you have ringntones, downloaded or put on by yourself they go on phone memory. Phone has 30mb internal, like i said i had a ton so not a big deal. I had a v3c, so i didn't even have external memory and had no problem adding ringtones and walpaper through moto phone tools and cable. Now you cannot use the external memory for ringtones, you can do music, pictures and that crap but not ringtones, they must be put on internal memory. With moto phone tools you can get into phones internal memory doing your calender, phonebook, walpaper, ringtones, the only difference here is you must use data cable, not bt. So to some it up, you dn't need memory card, just get a data cable and there you go.

well technically there is only about 22mb of free space on the v3m, but that is still more than enough to fit what you are talking about.

hahah... well, I really feel stupid now. Kind of reminds me of Rosanne Rosanna-Dana (NEVERMIND!)

I was under the impression that you have to use VZWs service for ringtones, and that there is no way to use your own. So - If I use a cable and my motophone tools, I'm in?

I knew obex was disabled, and they did some funky stuff with the UI, but the fact that you can use whatever ringtone you want from wherever you got it is news to me. I presume wallpaper gif or photos can also be transferred to internal memory, then.

Hmmmm... this is not looking as bad as I thought. I may wait a little while, but at least my phone tools should work, and all I need is a cable. That's easily enough done.

Thanks!

(Btw... my loyalty to mot, asid...
(continues)

No prob, hopefully you get it all figuered out. If you haven't checked yet you can try the razr forum, there might even be a bluetooth hack! As far as Moto goes I just feel they have put more concentration into gsm technology and have dropped the ball on many cdma models that I refused to sell or cary because of the number of problems, just some models to through out that are notorious crappy phones.. Moto 720,730,v60s,mo265,mo343,mo276. Now their higher end equipment seems to be much better, such as the 815, razr, and the new 325 seems to be a solid performer. I lost faith in them back when the 720/730 was out years ago followed by subpar equipment, but as of late they seem to be getting their act slowly back together and regaining my trus...
(continues)

Thanks for clearing me up. I tend to agree with a lot of what you say.

Motorola seems to offer more quality and interesting models for GSM than CDMA (V625, SLVR, etc.). Maybe VZW has not been easy for them to deal with (so they don't put as much effort into CDMA)? When Sprint first started, Mot was the exclusive vendor (like at Nextel), but sometime around the middle of the StarTac era, Motorola was abandoned by Sprint. That's a big chunk of the CDMA market, because I think Europe is also mostly GSM, and Asia's CDMA is dwindling.

My dad and sister love thier e815's, and from your list of crappy phones, looks like I've been playing a game of frogger with mot handsets (dodged all the bad ones!).

My boss has a V3c and loves it... s...
(continues)