Boo, Motorola!
Posted by Cyn | Posted in Kvetching | Posted on 10-01-2008
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Maybe I’m just spoiled from years of Nokia phones, and being able to just download the Nokia Phone Suite free from their web site to sync my phone and PC, or put ringtones and photos on the phone. But honestly, I find it absolutely ridiculous that Motorola wants me to pay them $30 to $40 for the equivalent software to work with their phones!
It doesn’t, as far as I can see, do anything more than what the Nokia software does. They sell plenty of phones, and it cannot be that unusual for people to want to back up the data on them. So why are they gouging customers this way?
I can see charging some amount if the customer wants a CD with the software on it mailed out, but charging for the download is ridiculous.
And when I try to register for an account on their support site, I keep getting error messages saying that my email address is invalid. I tried a bunch of different addresses, even the ISP address that I never, ever use—no joy.
I can’t register the phone, either, because you have to pick your mobile provider, and mine isn’t listed, and there isn’t an “other” option.
Boo!
I ended up pirating that software for a friend’s phone, and it works fine. Want me to see if I can find you a copy?
What possessed you to move away from Nokia in the first place?!
Yours incredulously,
Ardent Nokia Proselyte (with good reason!)
If it’s a RAZR, you might try modmymoto and hacktherazr for advice. I figured out how to add mp3 ringtones to my Sprint RAZR V3m without their silly software kit, but I don’t remember exactly how. It involved getting Motorola’s firmware update software and a few other bits of software too.
There are sneaky ways to do it — which provider/phone are you using again?
My Nokia died, but we had it insured. The insurance company didn’t have any Nokias available — the policy didn’t actually provide for the same phone, just an equivalent one. “Equivalent” is pretty loose, obviously. The choice was between the Motorola W385 and some Samsung model that has terrible reviews, so we took the Motorola. The rest of our phones are Nokias (the ones we bought).
Thanks, Ben, I’ll look at those sites — I think I saw some verbiage on Motorola’s site claiming that the W385 was designed based on the Razr.
Art, our provider is MetroPCS.
It looks like Ben, who I sort-of-know from a different life, is pointing you in much the same direction I would (I hit refresh before posting, really!). I’ve actually done it myself before, and still have the relevant software for my RAZR at home.
As for MetroPCS: that is a good thing, since the place I was worried about was Verizon, who lock down their handsets so hard even Motorola’s official software has trouble.
Okay, I found one thing amid a whole bunch of fake-blogs. This thread seems comprehensive, if requiring a bit of reading to glean the appropriate bits. Partway through the comment is made that these things did work for at least one W385 person on MetroPCS.
Thanks, Art! You’re such a sweetie 🙂 Between you and Libbet I think I have it, now.
In my opinion nokia are much better than motorola but this is up to you.