HELLOMOTO

March 14, 2005 4:06 PM

I just got a Motorola V600 to replace my old and quite-literally-busted cell phone. For any fellow V600 users on MeFi: do you have any tips and tricks, fun hacks, or other useful inforrmation for this phone?

I have a PowerBook with Bluetooth and have been using it to transfer contacts and whatnot, that's quite spiffy -- but I'm a gadget-head and also want to know the other lesser-known things I can do with this baby.

posted by symphonik to Technology (6 answers total)

Here's a hint: don't remove the battery when the phone is on, as that will perform a hard reset on the unit and change a lot of settings (such as erasing custom ringtones, etc.).

Also, look forward to OS X 10.4 Tiger in a few weeks. Tiger will finally give iSync SyncML support and allow OS X to sync with the V600 over Bluetooth. (using OnSync or whatever it's called is an acceptable, but slower, substitute.)

Anyway, I hope this isn't a jerk thing to write in a question requesting information, but I'm eagerly trying to find a reasonably-priced Treo 650 so I can finally get rid of my V600. It's been replaced by Cingular 4 times, and the Motorola phone book is still the definition of bad interface design. I love its solid feel and heft, though.

While I still have it, I'm hoping to find a way to use the v600 as a remote control via bluetooth as here, but no luck with that yet.
posted by socratic at 4:29 PM on March 14, 2005

Check out Motorola.HowardForums.com or the modding subforum. Pretty much anything you could imagine doing to your phone (reflashing, seem editing, loading Java games), you can learn how to do there. Unfortunately, a lot of the software is PC-only.
posted by boaz at 4:38 PM on March 14, 2005

To disable (in a hackish lame way) the side buttons that change ring styles when I put my phone in my pocket:
Settings > Security > Lock Application > Ring Styles
Just make sure that you know the unlock code, i believe that the factory default is 1234.

My V600 has great talk quality, and I completely hate everything else about it. I would return it for _any_ of the Nokia phones that I had in the late 90's.
posted by tumble at 5:51 PM on March 14, 2005

My V600 is nice, but has the dreaded white-screening problem, even after I flashed it to factory default (no more Catherine Zeta-Jones!). So I need to get off my duff and call T-Mobile support to get a replacement.
You'll know it if your phone has it; mine began manifesting the problems about a week after I first activated it.

Since there's no software reset button of any kind on cell phones (at least not ones I'm familiar with) you have to take out the battery for a couple seconds to reset it. Yes, while it's on; but that doesn't seem to reset too many things for me, despite socratic's statement.

And I had heard rumours about iSync getting better phone BT support; that's awesome, if true--I don't sync my phone very often and it's because I need to use the cable to do so. I will point out that it's highly likely that Tiger won't be commercially available until the end of April or later--the April 1 announcement is probably just that, an announcement, not a release. I for one would rather they release it in another couple months w/ less bugs than for it to come out April 1 and be buggy.

As for hacks, I don't know of much save for using it as a BT modem...i.e. use it with a laptop (PowerBook :D) to get online anywhere you can get cell service. I can't do this yet as I have no laptop, but it's a very tantalizing possibility. Also note that the Bluetooth keeps itself off unless told to activate for 60 seconds, which can be both annoying or a blessing, depending on your point of view (there ARE Bluetooth hackers out there).
posted by cyrusdogstar at 6:49 PM on March 14, 2005

cyrusdogstar - I was given instructions by Cingular to do a reset by removing the battery while the phone was on, with the caveat that I would lose many of my personal settings. I'd clarify my previous point by saying that it didn't do anything drastic like erase my data, but it did modify some personalized information (changes to ring styles and custom ringtones in particular).

I have heard rumors that there's an updated flex (or whatever) out there that adds "ring AND vibe" to V600s, but I can't find it. Howard Forums has gotted to crusted and slow for me to use with much success when I'm searching for something.

Also, if you're in the market for a Bluetooth headset, get one of the Motorola models, because they use the exact same charger as the V600. One less thing to plug in, or else you've got an office adapter and a home adapter (plus, you can charge the thing in the car, with the usual warning about car charging and battery life).
posted by socratic at 7:11 PM on March 14, 2005

Kill yourself. It's the only way to erase the memory of this phone from your now-tainted mind.

Failing that, the mp3 ringer feature is cool. Mine plays Bananaphone. Too bad it eats up almost all the CPU on the phone and I can barely answer it in time unless I remember to hit a side button to kill the ringer before opening it. Honestly, Motorola, you guys did such a great job on the 68000 cpu. What went wrong while I was ignoring you for the last 18 years?
posted by jewzilla at 10:44 PM on March 14, 2005