Hacking the v710

[DaVinci's Palm]

I know that a bunch of you have (or want) the v710.

This link (http://motov710.blogspot.com/) was on engadget this morning. The guy has collected a bunch of information on hacking the v710 with links to all the software that you'll need.

A little too hardcore for me though, no experience with a hex editor.

[kp*]

I've installed the hacked firmware from SuperDave, but I haven't done any hacking myself. Some people have had major problems with the hacked firmware, but mine was fine. I'm so much happier with it now because I can use the Palm dialer to dial from my Clie.

[DaVinci's Palm]

I've installed the hacked firmware from SuperDave, but I haven't done any hacking myself. Some people have had major problems with the hacked firmware, but mine was fine. I'm so much happier with it now because I can use the Palm dialer to dial from my Clie.

You are WAY braver than me. I need my phone every day, so I'm hesitant to go and mess around with things.

Have you managed to use any of the other clie apps with the phone? SMS through my UX would be way better than messing around with T9. I'd be very interested to see what opportunities this opens up on the clie side.

I assume that you are with Verizon. I know that carriers have a custom version of the ROM. I'm with Telus mobility in Canada, and was wondering if this is a verizon based ROM that is being modified. I'm not sure what the carriers modify or if a verizon ROM will work on my telus phone.

I'll have to spend some more time researching this. Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

DaVinci

[kp*]

The firmware that most are flashing with now, 1.02.SD, is based on a beta that some Verizon stores in Texas started giving to customers a few months ago, which has never been officially released. It disabled some stuff like the ability to transfer music over the TF card, which the hackers were able to put back in, so it's sort of a best-of collection from the original firmware, the VZ beta firmware, Alltel, as well as some other hidden settings that were discovered, and some new graphics created by the v710 community (the blue and silver themes have new front-screen graphics which are very plain gradients, not those crazy noisy designs.)

Yes, I'm on Verizon. I don't know if the guys doing the hacking have tried to make the latest version work on other carriers. I know one of the earlier, less useful hacks was based off an Alltel firmware, with all the carrier-specific stuff set back to Verizon, so obviously it can be made to work on other carriers.

If you're interested, check out Howard Forums, specifically the v710 forum here:
http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=254

As for your question about SMS, I don't use SMS so I don't know, but I think it might work. I'm trying with my TH55 and Agendus and it connects to the phone but hangs on the "sending SMS message" part. I have to get ready for work, but I will keep trying with other settings and using the Clie software and let you know how it goes.

[DaVinci's Palm]

Interesting that the ROM is transportable across networks. May need to order one of those USB cables after all...

Howard's forum is great but I get tired quickly of flaming and little kids yelling at each other. Folks around here seem to be a little more.... mellow. v710.org has a pile of good information as well. All and all the community looks active and helpful though. Looking forward to messing around with it.

Thanks for the offer of looking at the other clie apps. I too am an agendus user, yes even that damn mail app. It would be really neat to dial, sms, and email from one app. Haven't done the recent agendus mail update yet. Hope it fixes a few more bugs.

Thanks for the help.

[kp*]

If you do get a USB cable, make sure it's the Motorola pure USB one, not one of the USB-serial hybrids like FutureDial makes. The pure USB one is the only one recommended for flashing (the serial apparently is better with moving files using BitPim and the like, though). There is one that Moto makes which has a little side port on the plug that goes into the phone for you to attach the power cable, so that the phone receives power while using the cable. This is really nice to have because if your battery were to die in the middle of flashing it could permanently fry the phone. I got mine by buying some outdated data sync software that was laying around in an old electronics store. I only bought it because it came with the cable. Moto's website sells MobilePhone Tools which I believe comes with the cable, or you could check eBay.

I still haven't gotten around to playing with the SMS, but I'll hopefully have time tonight.

[kp*]

Just an update: I still haven't been able to get SMS to work, either with Agendus or the Clie SMS app. I wonder if it sends the message to the phone via OBEX.