.: What’s Bruin :.

So I bought Pourpa a Motorola RAZR on eBay from this clown.

At the top of his ad is the following in bold:

You are looking at a 2 week old Verizon Wireless V3c. I would return this device to the store but it is after the return period. The phone is too small for me so i am selling it. The phone is in perfect condition. Never dropped. No scratches on the screen. It was in the holster whenever charging or not in use. My loss is your gain. Please email me with any questions. Thank you.

I had three complaints about the transaction, though I must say the price was satisfactory given that the phone would have cost $400 retail since it was not time to upgrade.

1. He advertised $22 for USPS Priority Mail with insurance. I asked about getting it changed to Express Mail (overnight), but he never answered my emails regarding that topic. So basically I paid $22 for something that could have been shipped at the regular speed for under $10.
2. The phone had a “click” in the hinge when you opened that clamshell , despite the advertisement of being “in perfect condition. Never dropped.”
3. The so-called holster that he “threw in” (see “Question and Answer” quote below) as a bonus was burned. The plastic on one corner was all corroded from heat damage.

Q: So there are no scratches or nicks anywhere on the phone what so ever, and if it was in the holster does that come with it?
A: I will throw the holster in. i purchased it after i bought the phone but i will throw it in.

So Pourpa gets tired of the clicking and I suggest that he bring it into the Verizon store for an exchange. They looked up the info and gave him a new phone! Sweet deal. Apparently, they thought the phone was purchased from Verizon recently (less than a year so still under warranty).

P.S. I had to give that eBay bozo a positive rating… because I did not want a negative one in return as well as because it was advertised for the shipping, just not very accommodating to my wishes. I just love the other Q & A quote (note italics - my emphasis):

Q: would you consider a buy it now option and if so, how much? thanks a lot…
A: I am looking to get at least 200 for it. Everyone on ebay wants more. I just have no use for it since i got my treo 700. Im not here to scam people. I want someone else to get a good deal at a good price.

Tags: cell_phones, eBay, Motorola, Pourpa, Rants, RAZR, Verizon

Bluetooth = wireless file transfer

Bluetooth + Verizon + Motorola V3c RAZR (S/W .03) = crippled gear so you have to pay Verizon to get ringtones, pics, and videos

What’s the point of Bluetooth on the phone if you can’t transfer files from a computer to your phone? Exactly. There is no point. So I did some “research” on the Web and found a couple of forum threads that attempt to “explain” how to Flash my Verizon RAZR phone from a software version .03 (crappy crippled Bluetooth) to version .02 (full Bluetooth-enabled with OBEX). But if you’ve ever read technical support forums before you already know that the people writing the technical tips don’t explain things very well. Additionally, you have to read through pages and pages of useless information before you find a couple of useful tidbits.

So this post will summarize the steps you need to follow in order to downgrade your Verizon Motorola V3c RAZR phone software from .03 to .02.

Equipment and software needed:

• Verizon Motorola V3c RAZR phone with .03 software
• Mini USB cable (you’ll need to download and install the necessary USB drivers - sorry I’m not writing a tutorial on that)
• PC (sorry, this flash procedure does not work on a Mac)
• Motorola RSD Lite v. 1.9.1 (you’ll have to register)
• GATW_X_01.0F.02P (this is the flash file)

Procedure to follow:

1. Install Motorola RSD Lite v. 1.9.1.
2. Unzip the flash file; be sure to note its location on your PC (recommend the desktop).
3. Connect your phone to the PC via the mini-USB cable.
4. Start the Motorola RSD Lite v. 1.9.1 software (if it does not recognize your phone automatically, then you probably did not install the correct USB drivers.
5. Browse for the flash file in the RSD software window that opens after you start it.
6. Click Start.
7. It takes about 15 minutes to finish; DO NOT UNPLUG the cable from the phone or turn it off.
8. Power off your phone when instructed to do so. (It will tell you to manually power up the phone.)
9. Power phone back on.
10. Activate and reprogram your phone with *228 (Option 1).
11. Pair your phone with your Bluetooth-enabled computer; it should work fully now with PCs and Macs - sorry pairing is another tutorial that I am not interested in writing.

I also found this page to be very helpful. Hope that helps and saves you time!

Tags: Bluetooth, cell_phones, Computers, file-transfer, flash, gatw_x_01.0f.02p, geek_stuff, Motorola, OBEX, RAZR, RSD-Lite, Verizon

After buying one of those new pink Motorola V3c RAZRs for Josephine, I could not resist. I splurged and decided to go back to using two separate devices and listed my Palm Treo 650 on eBay. I am now the proud owner of a gray RAZR. Such a deal with Verizon. Josephine’s RAZR was $39 while mine was $99. I would have gotten another one free for Pourpa’s phone, but his number was not eligible (since I used it to get the Treo a few months ago). As for the PDA, I’m going with the Palm Tungsten T5, which I have purchased on eBay.

Tags: cell_phones, geek_stuff, Josephine_Bruin, Motorola, Palm, RAZR, Tungsten-T5, Verizon

I bought another Bluetooth hands-free headset for my Treo 650. This is my fourth one. It’s a Plantronics Explorer 320 for about $60. It looks cool and it was cheaper than the other three that I’ve tried with Motorola, which did not work very well. This one works great!

I got it in the Verizon store. It’s has a blue design on it so the model I own (pic to the left) looks better than the one in the photo from the Plantronics web site.

I gave Josephine my old wired hands-free set because hers died.

Tags: Bluetooth, cell_phones, hands-free, Josephine_Bruin, Plantronics

I never learn my lesson: BACKUP MY DATA. So I stumbled upon a Verizon Wireless specific Treo 650 update for my Palm smartphone. I thought I followed the instructions properly. The phone software upgraded to the latest version. But when I went to restore my data on the PDA, it was all gone.

I bumbled around my hard drive and my external hard drive, looking for some databases so I can restore my data. I found two dates, one in June and one in December. I think I’ve restored my data as recent as early December June, but I won’t know until it finishes this massively long Hot Sync. Thanks to Microsoft Entourage I had an archive of all my contacts through June. So now I’m missing only a few numbers. Thankfully, it’s much better than having zero contacts in the address book.

And this massively long Hot Sync is the reason why I switched off the automatic backups in the first place. So now I think I will have to at least turn the backups on the Hot Sync at least once a month for the next time that I don’t follow instructions during an upgrade.

Tags: cell_phones, geek_stuff, Palm, technology, Treo650

Did you know that I have the coolest phone ever? It’s the Treo 650. It replaces my Kyocera Slider phone, which I gave to Pourpa. And it replaces my PDA, the Sony Clie TJ-27, which I also gave to Pourpa. The only phone that kinda comes close is the Motorola Razr, but that’s just a phone. The Treo 650 is also a PDA, camera, and videocamera.

Coolness…Treo 650

Tags: cell_phones, Palm, Treo650, Verizon

I think I’m gonna get this phone when it comes out with Verizon: Treo 650. My friend John has the Treo 650. I saw it last week and it was soooo cool.

And since Pourpa’s PDA broke, I can just give him mine and use this new fangled phone/PDA thing instead. It has Bluetooth so it can hotsync with my Apple laptop without wires. That would be very nice. I also want to use iSync so that the Palm Desktop can synchronize with my Apple Address Book and iCal.

Tags: Apple, cell_phones, Palm, Treo650